Welcome to Townsville... where the desert meets the sea.

Trivia: Did you know humans actually LIVE here? No really... like thousands of them. God knows why.

Sweet mother earth approacheth with alarming rapidity. I learn later the pilot was in desperate need of bladder evacuation.

 

Vehicle collected, Townsville abandoned amidst much haste, the journey back north began immediately...

aaaand promptly stopped again 80k's north with the temp needle so far to the right it was fighting for space with the tacho.

Cause of problem established... Milkshake anyone?

The dreaded BHG... Every liquid on hand emptied into radiator, 80kph, 50 kilometer stints, main highway, no double lanes. Trucks were angry.

Strange wobbling from the rear, odd clunking noises....

Whoomp, screeeeeeeee

Wheel falls off. Corolla spears off road into ditch. Much cursing and gnashing of teeth. Jack car up... Girlfriend sent to retrieve wheel from nearby cow paddock. Smash brake drum back on with rock.

Reattach wheel... pilfer wheel nuts from other wheels. One stud snapped, opposite one mangled. Now running with 3 nuts on most wheels, 2 on the back left. Scared.

Managed to limp to parental unit's place, conveniently located halfway between Townsville and Cairns. Inspect damage.

Deep gouges in rim

Bits missing from centre hole

One stud snapped, one mangled and bent. Managed to get a nut onto it though. 3 studs is better than 2.

NEXT DAY

30 litres of water, 5 litres of oil, 300k's and 5 hours later... finally home.

 

THATS how hard it is to get a decent rolla up here.

Edited November 4, 200718 yr by 7shades

The epic journey of one man and his quest to find a decent corolla...

 

Sounded and looked like a very interesting car ride home. I hope that it was worth it :)

lul

Just think of the bulls*** you would've had to go through for half decent rolla.

Wow nice clean car I think it was worth it. I hope you got a Bargian !!!

That's awesome!!! What makes it WAY cooler is the pics....You are a legend dude :)

dude alll that for a corolla, what a mission. clean though i must say.

That doesn't sound worth it at all. I guess it's not as good as you thought... good luck with it :)

It was still worth it... if only for the fact that it is a clean, straight, rust free ke70... a rarity in the tropics. Also has chilly aircon... also very necessary up here.

As a bonus, it drives tighter than rolla__boy's mum and it pulls like a schoolboy. More torque than I've ever felt from a 4k...

Head gasket is already fixed (took me all of an hour this morning) just gotta smack some new studs in and some stock springs and its ready for rwc.

Hahahahahhaha

 

Wow, thats insane :)

You think that's insane... I drove around the entire continent in a ke70 wagon once. THAT was insane. No wheels fell off, but I did munch a gearbox, which I removed and replaced in a gutter just outside Darwin.