I remember a whole heap of hot cars getting around town when I was a kid rocking around with grampa and Brett and bec, they had a purple n red lj torana. Zaloof in his yellow mitsabishi evo and 7 sinns rx7 the blue falcon xd to xf turboed I think hawkins owned it. Traxx1 the night it went up the gutter on Wallsend link Rd and 7 sins up the round about the same night from memory. You gotta remember I was 9 or 10 years old. Gramps had a tiger orange sigma and the shit hot black gsr neither were quick though it got us out to watch you lot go racing. No mention of lennigans drive freeman waterhole either. Effeys datto 180b has been around for over 30 years. Every night we would be in that way.

Good on you Ray

12.42 is me trying to see what's going on outside as the band and roadies and I were trapped inside. We couldn't leave with all the gear until it was over. I am glad to have been invited by my friend and he kept me safe. If the police had not come in and told them to stop, then start pushing people out none of this would have happened.

Pretty tame.

Back in the day some seriose qiuck cars hit that spot

Used to do regular rat drags out at Koorangang, either that or high speed races from the Toole Street Bridge to the other side of the Stocko bridge. Some ridiculous speeds attained on that run by all. Late 80's - early 90's.

I spent lots of Fri & Sat nights at Kooragang in 1996-2000ish in my white & black LX torana sedan or VK commodore. Loved sitting on the trains & saw 1 crash where a brown ford LTD did a U turn in front of another car & 1 night a blue RX4 with white star mags was giving joyrides doing doughnuts till his eccentric shaft exploded. Spent sooo much time in the foreshore & feel sorry for the youngsters now it's all closed.

Wow nearly enough to make me come back to newey for a visit but na kooragang and hunter street can remain in my youth

There's no skill in hooning Just the same old issues over *The Middle-aged school teacher with the Freaky neck* 👩🏻‍🏫 ⬇️ *The 90 year old granny with dementia* 👵🏻 ⬇️ *The Jolly old man with the* 👓👞👞 ⬇️ *The* 👬🏻👨‍👨‍👦‍👦🏳️‍🌈🩲 ⬇️ *The Shelia lifeguard at swimming lessons* 🩱 ⬇️ *The Multicultural Moral understandings over every continent around the world* 🌍🌎🌏 ⬇️ *The certain popularity over the Aussie 🧼 Operas* ⬇️ *That emulates The Harry Potter series* 🪄 ⬇️ *And Emulates the Lord of the Rings trilogy* 🧝‍♂️🧙🏻‍♂️💍 ⬇️ *The Blood, Sweat and Tears that gets them into the legal world they CRAVE* 🛹🏂🏄🏀🏎️🏍️🏁 They NEVER learn how to mix in the Social Skill Codes with those certain issues to feel much more comfortable with

Don't worry officers They don't know anything about the moral understandings of motor sports And They only hoon cause they think it's gonna give them extra credit 💳 to the World that Tony Hawk represents 🛹 along with sled racing and surfing When they don't even know what moral blood, sweat and tears that goes into earning such a title They ALWAYS *MAKE & CONVINCE & TELL* themselves they're doing nothing Wrong just to sleep better at night And the ONLY reason they don't get a single scratch by being such a drag is cause *Bad is ALWAYS Easy* They just *MAKE* themselves believe it's skill when they don't even know the blood, sweat and tears for that

I used to street race at Kooragang Island in the 80's and my dad a couple of times back k in the day and I know Tony Webster and I new my dad as well, I live in the American, I have been drag racing over jhere and I ran a super drive late model for 10 years, I do miss Newcastle and Kooragaing Island

Brings back some memories, I was a regular on the island had a ZK Fairlane (2 tone blue shaker hanging out the bonnet) with a worked BOSS engine (which never should have been in it), funny story I got done for speeding home one night after being on the island, copper never said a word to me about the engine, took my licence though.. LOL, how the times have changed..

Brings back so many memories!! But have to admit I’m still a hoon👍

Great video production and story look forward to more films like this one.

That was brilliant

The thing is it’s not the police or the government that are stopping places from becoming a place for events were you can hold different car events. Health and safety are the ones that are and will continue to stop these places from being created because they are basically the killing groups of stopping different cultures having a facility where they can build something to accommodate their love or interests that truly brings joy to their lives. I can’t believe this is aloud to happen were there’s a solution for something that people complain about and there’s never a complex aloud to be built to have a controlled environment. Junkies get a place to go and shoot up criminals get gaols built for them to be rehabilitated apparently this is what the government and police think when it is just cruelty caging humans up not allowed to do it to animals but humans that’s okay.

There’s still some street scene around. Some of the footage was newer and I recognise a few of the cars. There’s more locations people street race around Newcastle, but ‘The Gang’ as my friends have named it still runs on the weekends whenever word goes around, and we all flee as soon as there is a tip off about police 🤣

MG car club has been trying to build a track for decades. Councils knocked them back every time for some stupid reason each time.

you left out the bike racing on the beach at morna point and the dune buggy racing at lavis lane, supercross,mud bogs, burnouts, monster trucks dune buggies and stadium trucks at the motordrome. a lot of pioneers in freestyle motorcross tricks kicked off on stockton beach. short circuit racing at sugarloaf, motorcross at barleigh ranch and frasers

Great little Doco, thanks. As a young Newcastle bloke growing up in the late seventies/eighties, the Motordrome, Mattara and of course the Island, were the place to be, if you didn't surf. Never had a fast car but may have done the odd burnout up skyline (drive in) hill. Mate took a photo one night, while two other mates stood beside my ute. Mad mate wanted to take a second pic but it was one of those old? 😄cameras you had to wait for the flash to reload or power back up or something, so by the time he was ready, you could hardly see me or my mates! All I could think of was the hard earned dollars going up in smoke as my little Jap ute fried my new Bridgestone Steel belted 60's! As for a race track or Motorsport park? Keep pushing while the Supercars are here, not to mention an upcoming state election. C'mon Newcastle, you know the score. "Never let a chance go by!"

Yep. Lived here all my life. Mechanic of 30yrs. Had a 12sec car... raced kooragang. Still have a fast LJ torana. It don't leave the shed. Just nowhere to go local. Sad for Australia's home of the hoon.

Fond memories of Sunday nights at Kooragang, (we used to call it Ash island), it was the late 60's, the "Stocko" bridge wasn't fully built yet. There was really only one main way onto the island from Newcastle/Mayfield West that was the old Tourle St bridge. The Highway Patrol cops were bigger "Hoons" than we were, they had the old grey Rambler Rebel, Constable Morante was the chap, wouldn't book you if you promised to go straight home, yeh really! Had been stopped a few times at a police roadblock at the bridge trying to escape. Great memories, thanks.

What a sensational Timecapsule of cars and what they meant to Newcastle

I killed 2 Michal Schumacher rim's on my VN out the island

Newy Represent ❤

What a great production and so many memories. I remember Phil in his heavily worked VH Group 3 that was insane.

Exactly, Newcastle does need a full-time track like Eastern Creek. We also need to bring back Speedway to Newy. Motordrome was my outlet every fortnight. Come on Newy Council, really put Newcastle on the map.

I loved the memory of sneaking onto the hillclimb track the night before (totally used to do that with my dad), was also so sad driving past after the rock. I can remember the NBN ads for the motor drome till this day. Awesome work chit chat!

Holy shit that was an amazing watch. Beautifully shot, harnessed the passion of the humans involved. Captured the whole "reason". Cheers.

This is the best guys brings back some awsome memories of kooragang,hunter st & the foreshore cutn laps,i used to own a bronze vj chager with a pretty healthy DOCTOR MAC built 360 s/b me & a few mates would pile in on a fri sat or sundy nite head strate to kooragang from the bay hav a few runs then head in town & luvd cruisen up hunter street setn car alarms off,WE NEED A DRAG STRIP/BURNOUT PAD,shoulda got some motordrome burnouts on there to mate,awsome doco mate LEGENDS

Puggs king of the island when I was a kid good times

Amazing work, absolutely awesome. Bought back a lot of memories growing up here, the smell and sounds of the drome, and uh, especially memories of *ahem* Kooragang. Great to see some familiar faces to put to the cars too. And everyone is right, we really need some more facilities around here! Top production guys!

Bought back heaps of memories of the island . Great to see the old footage . Pity no story told of a car that was to be impounded that got the heads up . Story I was told the fast motor was swapped out before it got towed and impounded

👎

If Council was upfront about the costs we have probably thrown enough money down the toilet on Supercars to have made a start on a track. Maybe we should change our name to Sydney 2.

Absolute top video. Definitely miss the good old days. Big v8s drag racing over the island. Only got into cars because of pugs.

This was a top notch doco!!!

Awesome

Another doco most people watching this would probably like if you haven't heard of it is called WIDE OPEN ROAD ,it was a 3 part doco on Aussie car culture, it has a bit on newcastle, it also mentions Swansea bends which used to be awesome to race if it can't be found online, comment here and I will try to put it here on KZfaq

Fantastic doco, Good to have the police view as well.. I turned up in Newcastle in 97. Went looking for work and was told by a few "spray shops" to move on, nothing in Newcastle. Cars Van's Hot Rods, and bikes I airbrushed won Rickshaws, Auto Saloon and Summer Nats for 5 years. There was also a Fast 4's show near Kotara ( It's a shame about the Wool Store, it was a good venue ) Painted the Great Northern, the old Tatts next door. Surf boards to many to remember. Rebel and Nomad Bikes.... And Christmas boards. There was always talk of having the V8's, had been since the 80's, shame it took so long for it to happen but now it's golden..

Brings back so many memories of a Sunday cruise in the foreshore. Some of the best times of my life definitely was better than sitting home watching TV out, make a new friends ❤❤❤

As a Gold Coaster where hooning is deeply frowned upon, it’s nice to see a town proud of their local car culture.

The last hillclimb I went to I was sitting on a park bench right near where they whip it round to start the winding climb up the hill. Sat there all day then decided I go and get a drink bout 2 mins later a guy in an evo lancer came smashing thru the barriers and landed right in the park bench id been sitting on haha

What a great production capturing the essence of what the car culture in all its forms meant to Newcastle. Well done!

And why not ...

Puggs ya effwit!!!

Ahhh the memories. But no Dino Martinelli

Kooragang island was awesome. I was there the night the police killed it for good.

I was going over to the Island in the 60's and it had been going for a good while then we had to watch out for the Police and all of the races were next to very large Naptha storage tanks. Also as an Apprentice we you used go up to Mattara track and we would do the track at lunch time in our old cars great times

Supercars was the point where you lost me. Great to have a race but not there. We lose too many other facilities plus we don't know what it really costs us. I hate to think what it must be like for the residents.