Articles by Iain Kelly

Iain Kelly
Contributing Journalist

A love of classic American and European cars drove Iain Kelly to motoring journalism straight out of high school, via the ownership of a tired 1975 HJ Holden Monaro. 

For nearly 20 years he has worked on magazines and websites catering to modified late model high-performance Japanese and European tuner cars, as well as traditional hot rods, muscle cars and street machines. Some of these titles include Auto Salon, LSX Tuner, MOTOR, Forged, Freestyle Rides, Roadkill, SPEED, and Street Machine. He counts his trip to the USA to help build Mighty Car Mods’ “Subarute” along with co-authoring their recent book, The Cars of Mighty Car Mods, among his career highlights. 

Iain lends his expertise to CarsGuide for a variety of advice projects, along with legitimising his automotive obsession with regular OverSteer contributions.

Although his practical skills working on cars is nearly all self-taught, he still loves nothing more than spending quality time in the shed working on his project car, a 1964 Pontiac. He also admits to also having an addiction to E30 BMWs and Subaru Liberty RS Turbos, both of which he has had multiple examples of. With car choices like that, at least his mum thinks he is cool.

This GT-R Nür fetched over $350,000 at auction
By Iain Kelly · 15 Jan 2018
How much is this JDM unicorn worth to you?
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Vale; Dan Gurney
By Iain Kelly · 15 Jan 2018
Dan Gurney, one of the most successful and legendary American race car drivers, has passed away at 86.
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When China ripped off the VN Commodore
By Iain Kelly · 22 Dec 2017
Did you know that China had their own version of the VN Commodore?
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How to drive a manual car
By Iain Kelly · 21 Dec 2017
Learning to drive a car with a manual transmission (also known as a stick-shift) was once a rite of passage in Australia but, isn't as common these days.
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Epic Top Secret twin-turbo V12 Supra for sale
By Iain Kelly · 18 Dec 2017
The "1990s Japanese Turbo Era" gave us some truly spectacular tuner culture and few were wilder than "Smokey" Nagata's shop Top Secret.
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Pro Porsche racer shows you how to sit behind the wheel
By Iain Kelly · 18 Dec 2017
How you sit behind the steering wheel of your car has a huge impact on your comfort on long trips, how easy the car is to drive, and even affect the amount of control you have over your vehicle in an emergency situation.
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Physics modeller becomes the most brutal car crash computer sim
By Iain Kelly · 15 Dec 2017
Plenty of people play computer games to crash cars, partly because there is no risk of injury but also because it can be fun to watch a million-buckaroo Koenigsegg fly off the side of a mountain at 400km/h (knowing nobody is going to be hurt).
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Lost film from 1959 shows drag racing's golden era
By Iain Kelly · 15 Dec 2017
There is so much history of all types of racing just floating in the wind, so the discovery of amazing 27 minute 'Hot Rod' magazine film from 1959 is awesome.
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Classic car industry in crisis from asbestos ban
By Iain Kelly · 15 Dec 2017
People importing classic cars and parts into Australia have been stopped in their tracks thanks to the Australian Government and Customs demanding lengthy, invasive, and epensive checks for asbestos.
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Ride on-board with Craig Lowndes in super-rare Ferrari Enzo FXX Evo!
By Iain Kelly · 15 Dec 2017
While Craig Lowndes normally drives a beastly 300km/h V8 Supercar he was let loose behind an even rarer, more exotic and faster machine last weekend at the Adelaide Motorsport Festival.
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