Dave Carey: Brock Director, Personal plates, Robbing a service station to pay for racing and more! S4E2

[00:00:00] Welcome to My Dads Car, enjoy!

[00:00:12] Welcome to My Dads Car, a podcast discussing our personal relationship with automotive nostalgia.

[00:00:18] And you know what? It doesn't even have to be about your Dad's car.

[00:00:21] It can be your mum's, your grand's, your parents, guardians or even a labour's.

[00:00:26] If it made an impression, let's talk about it.

[00:00:33] Hello Jon. How are you doing all right?

[00:00:35] Yeah, not too bad. We've just got a technical, I think with Dave. He said,

[00:00:40] I can see you and I can hear me but you can't hear me.

[00:00:44] Which obviously is going to make it a little bit tricky for this podcasting.

[00:00:48] It's not the first time is it?

[00:00:49] No indeed. It's all right.

[00:00:51] It won't be the last either I'm sure.

[00:00:53] Get out of here.

[00:00:53] How's it going?

[00:00:54] Hi Dave.

[00:00:55] I'm good. I don't have a camera but I'm just looking for a phone as well.

[00:01:01] Yeah, if we can see you it just means then yeah we can make sure we've not offended you or

[00:01:05] something like that.

[00:01:06] Yeah.

[00:01:06] Oh you're definitely going to do that. That's so cool.

[00:01:09] As long as you're fully dressed you won't offend us.

[00:01:12] I'm like those newsreaders. The wind is really hot here in Australia.

[00:01:15] The newsreaders are just wear the suits from the wave stuff.

[00:01:19] So I was doing that.

[00:01:19] Right yeah yeah yeah.

[00:01:21] Yeah me and Andy never wear trousers do we?

[00:01:25] I've got for a little rah rah skirt today.

[00:01:27] Have you?

[00:01:30] Here we go.

[00:01:31] That is me looking a bit farther Christmasy at the moment.

[00:01:35] Nice.

[00:01:36] Yeah welcome along to my dad's car Dave.

[00:01:40] Thank you for having me Andy and John.

[00:01:41] How did we get on how did we get onto this?

[00:01:43] I think I harassed you via Instagram didn't I?

[00:01:45] Something along those lines whether you found us or we found you.

[00:01:48] Yeah I'm not sure exactly but yeah I'm Andy.

[00:01:50] This is John up here.

[00:01:52] Nice to meet you Dave.

[00:01:53] You too.

[00:01:53] And you're musically you're down there aren't you and you're in Australia.

[00:01:57] Where in Australia are you?

[00:01:58] I'm in a town called Adelaide.

[00:01:59] It's a city well we think it's a city.

[00:02:02] It's not real big but it was famous briefly for a while because we had the Adelaide Grand Prix here.

[00:02:06] Yeah yeah.

[00:02:07] From 1935 to 1995.

[00:02:09] Okay.

[00:02:10] And it was really cool but yeah we haven't done anything since then as a city.

[00:02:15] Yeah and you run your Instagram is it Garage Evasive or something along those lines?

[00:02:20] Yeah that's me.

[00:02:21] I remember some mates we were sitting around one day and we was like talking about all

[00:02:25] the cars that we wanted.

[00:02:26] We're those sort of guys that would you know with a million dollars would prefer to buy

[00:02:30] a million cars worth of dollar than buy something really you know worthy and um and so we were just

[00:02:35] like people we just need some kind of big garage of then one of us just said awesome

[00:02:41] and there's been conjecture as to who said it but I think it was a team effort but

[00:02:45] anyway I've got the name and um yeah just use it simple cars up because I really don't seem

[00:02:49] much in social media except for putting up pictures of cars or we're looking at pictures of cars.

[00:02:53] Fair enough.

[00:02:54] So yeah let's jump into it.

[00:02:55] What's your what's your earliest car memory?

[00:02:57] Yeah I was thinking about that um you know I reckon it might have been appropriately enough

[00:03:02] my dad's car.

[00:03:03] Yeah.

[00:03:04] Um getting towed away from our driveway when I was a kid and when I say kid just to like get

[00:03:10] this out early my dad died when I was five years and ten days.

[00:03:15] Oh wow.

[00:03:16] And this was not the last car he had this was the second to last so I must have been

[00:03:20] three I couldn't have been any I don't think he can remember anything earlier than three.

[00:03:24] But it was a green VC Commodore I reckon which is the second model of the Holden Commodores.

[00:03:29] Yeah.

[00:03:29] Looks a bit like a Vauxhall Royale or Vauxhall Carton maybe?

[00:03:32] Yeah.

[00:03:33] Yeah I know what was wrong with it but it got towed away and then um it was replaced by a

[00:03:38] brown Mitsubishi Sigma.

[00:03:40] Okay.

[00:03:40] Sorry I remember I remember yeah just remember that Commodore getting towed away and we've

[00:03:43] got I've got one picture of it somewhere going through all my my parents' photos and I

[00:03:47] found this picture my dad took of an officer he was thinking of renting

[00:03:51] and he's can't just have to be next to it.

[00:03:52] Oh cool.

[00:03:53] And uh yeah can see it's sort of off in the distance there that would probably be the

[00:03:57] first memory yeah and then and then when he got to the Sigma which these were these were

[00:04:00] company cars he was a salesman he sold um books I mean like sort of um legal books

[00:04:05] and medical books.

[00:04:06] Yeah.

[00:04:06] So it was just him in in South Australia he was the the national guy I mean the

[00:04:09] statewide guy for this and he had his you know back when everybody seemed to have

[00:04:13] business cars you know work cars and he had a brown Mitsubishi Sigma they were

[00:04:17] made here in Adelaide and his was automatic my mom had a Mazda 323 that was manual

[00:04:22] and I had this notion when I was a kid that all women drove manuals and all men drove

[00:04:26] automatic.

[00:04:30] Yeah so um sadly you lost your father so I'm guessing there's not a huge amount of

[00:04:34] memories with regards to kind of traveling around in the car with him.

[00:04:37] No not so much I remember him driving us driving I remember him driving me to

[00:04:41] Queen Victoria Hospital when my sister was born.

[00:04:44] Yeah.

[00:04:44] Which was just adjacent to the Adelaide Grand Prix track actually if you were if

[00:04:48] you're a patient in that hospital when the Grand Prix was on you could pretty

[00:04:50] much watch it.

[00:04:51] I bet they got some amusing at A&E entries so that's yeah wouldn't you just oh yeah

[00:04:55] I've gotta come gotta come in with this.

[00:04:57] I've got this sore elbow I need to just go over there.

[00:04:59] Yeah but um I want a window.

[00:05:01] Yeah yeah exactly so it's funny actually that building now is the building

[00:05:05] still there but it got converted into lobby apartments and I just like to

[00:05:08] think that there's some yuppie with like really really designer furniture

[00:05:13] and a really nice kitchen and if you time shifted back like 45 years my naked

[00:05:18] bloody body would be like being born in that exact same space.

[00:05:22] You know just on the kitchen table but yeah my sister was born there too and I

[00:05:26] remember my dad driving me there.

[00:05:29] I just remember being in the back seat between the seats you see in the hospital

[00:05:31] because it's quite tall there's no other tall buildings around.

[00:05:34] Yeah and I reckon he took me to a car race once as well which would have

[00:05:38] been a Malala Raceway which is a for a long time the only

[00:05:41] only actual permanent racetrack we had in the area I mean it's 100km north.

[00:05:46] I wonder why it was this sort of weird coat hanger shape but it used to be an

[00:05:49] airfield in World War II and so yeah I remember taking me to a car event there

[00:05:54] like this old vintage and sort of you know classic vintage veteran stuff

[00:05:59] racing. I mean classic car racing didn't exist so much then because those

[00:06:03] cars were new then. Yeah yeah but yeah I remember being pretty thrilled about

[00:06:07] that and these all must have been pretty early on but I figured I could pad

[00:06:10] the rest of it out with my mum's cars or whatever so.

[00:06:12] Yeah yeah absolutely so yeah what came after the

[00:06:16] Sigma when you lost your father did your mum I know that was a business car wasn't it

[00:06:19] so your mum wouldn't have kept that vehicle as such.

[00:06:21] No no it was gone um actually you know it's interesting I was born in 1978

[00:06:25] and we got a Mazda 323 in 1978 one of the rear wheel drive models you've probably

[00:06:30] got them there they probably all rusted pretty quick yeah they rusted

[00:06:32] quickly here so if they rusted quickly here they rusted even quicker there.

[00:06:36] What are you saying Dave?

[00:06:38] Yeah they bought the 323 wagon and they wanted matching number plates and you

[00:06:43] know we can sort of get that easily here because my mum's name was Joy my dad's

[00:06:46] name was Jim and the only number they could think of that was the same that

[00:06:50] they could both have because their birth years were different and you know

[00:06:52] triple zero was taken or whatever was Jim 034 and Joy 034 and that was our

[00:06:57] number in our street that our house was yeah and uh yeah so we had these

[00:07:01] joy and Jim number plates in the driveway I've not for very long

[00:07:04] obviously because then we passed but I was about 20 or 21 and I was down at a

[00:07:09] seaside suburb called Glen Elg and uh there was a white VL Commodore park on

[00:07:15] Jetty Road it was a really busy area and then my plate was Jim 034

[00:07:18] okay and I'm like man that's my dad's plate and uh I wanted to harass them

[00:07:23] and just ask him you know who they were let's just just say where's the

[00:07:26] meaning for you on this plate because I could have been born in 1934 or

[00:07:30] whatever I just was interested to know but um I'm hung around for half an hour

[00:07:33] I had a bad smell but they never came back to their car in that time so I left

[00:07:36] what's the story with personal plates over there is that something when it

[00:07:39] goes with the car or can you choose to keep it to put it on every car you own

[00:07:42] or yeah a bit of both actually if you sort of don't feel enough

[00:07:45] depending on the plate and the state you're in as well because of different

[00:07:48] rules um the the plate can sometimes go with the car if you're not that

[00:07:52] interested in keeping it but you know you feel like a former get it

[00:07:55] transferred across you know um something like that

[00:07:58] Gmo 34 plate you sort of you own the the reissuing rights to it but you don't

[00:08:03] own the commercial rights so you can't sell it for a million bucks if somebody

[00:08:06] suddenly wants to pay for it yeah but um you know you can keep it and

[00:08:10] scrub it to other cars so I don't have a single number plate in my collection

[00:08:14] of cars that is the original number plate uh except for actually one car I

[00:08:18] think has it yeah um just uh it's just easy to remember if you know what

[00:08:21] it is if you made it up hmm did your mum keep the joyo number plate

[00:08:25] she did yeah and it's just funny like you know back in the old days we had

[00:08:29] the local shopping center was a you know they call the strip mall now I guess in

[00:08:32] America where the shops are all sort of lined up and and the car parks sort of

[00:08:36] off to one side so you know we go to the butcher and he can see that car and

[00:08:40] he'd go to the news agency and every every shop that always go get a joyo

[00:08:45] you're going I don't know what my mum wants how does everybody know your name

[00:08:49] you said sit on my car oh yeah and um in fact years years later uh I was working at a car event at

[00:08:57] um uh Lobethel uh the Lobethel Grand Carnival which was actually the side of

[00:09:01] what about Grons pre back in the 1930s and um you know back when they used to have

[00:09:06] ridiculous stupid Grons pre's that went for like 37 kilometers around the hill

[00:09:11] and uh they'd actually blocked off the road and they had all this uh all these

[00:09:14] demonstrations going on and there was this uh this copper there is the

[00:09:17] placement he was about six foot four something and he had this big big

[00:09:21] mustache and I saw his name it said Jordan Lingworth and I was like I reckon he

[00:09:25] used to be my Cub Scout leader and I went up to him and said did you used to run a

[00:09:29] Cub Scout group in uh West Beach in uh the mid-80s and he goes yeah I did I went

[00:09:33] I'm about to make you feel real old and he goes you're a joy son so yeah the

[00:09:38] plate the plate had far-reaching connotations obviously or um or you were

[00:09:43] young when your dad passed um Dave yeah do you know if he was like into

[00:09:47] cars was he would you consider him like a petrol head from what you heard or do

[00:09:50] you not really know about that yeah I often wonder how my life would have turned

[00:09:53] out differently because he's quite a competitive character as well and he was

[00:09:56] into deep into his sports yeah and there are two things that I am deeply not

[00:10:00] into is competitiveness and sports um although I seem to be trying to win

[00:10:04] the race to see who can amass the most amount of old Azuzu cars that

[00:10:07] don't work but that's where my competitiveness goes um but he was

[00:10:12] a bit of a cargo he had an mgb that would have been Australian built one um but

[00:10:17] that was back more we know we relatively knew yeah and it's sort of a bit hard

[00:10:21] to differentiate you know is a young dude with a cool car is that petrol headed

[00:10:26] ness or young doodledness yeah um and you know he'd just be like having a mx5

[00:10:30] today or whatever but um he had a td before that as well apparently and

[00:10:34] my mum said that he was quite dapper in his tweed jacket and elbow

[00:10:39] pack just smoking a pipe with a flat hat and I was like thinking even when

[00:10:41] I was kid was like that's what old people wear but as it turned out it was what

[00:10:47] young people wore before they became old people I guess

[00:10:51] yeah the fashion just never changes does it you kind of get to a stage in your life

[00:10:55] you're like I'm just going to wear this forever haircuts the same jeans are the

[00:10:58] same yeah I reckon things Jerry Seinfeld said that men dress the same as their

[00:11:03] best use of their life so the best use of my life was a street machine t-shirt

[00:11:07] so here we are so um who are we going with that

[00:11:12] are you sure to ask do you whether your dad was a petrol head

[00:11:14] yeah so looking through the family photo album I remember seeing our house

[00:11:18] paid on the spare block next door which was long gone you know when I was growing

[00:11:21] up there was a house there but for a while there there was an empty block and he had

[00:11:24] a an FX Holden this was the first model Holden okay they called a 48215 there was

[00:11:30] the Holden that came out in 1948 the very first model and so we moved there in 77 just

[00:11:35] before I was born and then obviously he's only there for five years and then he was gone

[00:11:40] and I don't ever remember seeing that car next door and I'm just saying to my mom what's with

[00:11:44] this old Holden and she goes oh your father was going to do that up but he became unwell so we

[00:11:48] you know he sold it and I just look at the picture of it now and it's like you wouldn't

[00:11:52] do it up it would it's fine there's nothing wrong with it but you know when it was 30 years old

[00:11:57] it was probably you know you look at that it's wearing tear and you're like oh yeah it could

[00:12:00] probably do with a birthday they've got like um yanked down sort of style handles and one of

[00:12:05] them was a bit droopy and that sort of stuff you know um so he had grand aspirations but he was

[00:12:09] beginning to boats as well and I didn't ever want to go down that path you know because you can use

[00:12:13] a car whenever you want but you need to wait for either a flood or take your boat somewhere before

[00:12:17] you can use a boat yeah was he hands-on do you think like was he had those ideas of doing

[00:12:23] the car up was he a sort of a DIYer would he give give stuff a go um yeah probably yeah from

[00:12:28] what I think gathering was he was kind of handy because um uh after he passed my mom we would get

[00:12:33] his brother to come in and do handyman jobs yeah and the comparison was was not good um and uh

[00:12:40] she stopped asking Jeff to do any handyman stuff after a while but um but yeah so I reckon he would

[00:12:45] have got into it um I mean you know as a bit of a progression um in the mid 90s my mom was seeing a

[00:12:51] guy and I won't I will mention him because I don't class him as a dad at all in any way

[00:12:56] he's just seen this guy for like a year but he's got some intriguing stories and one of them was

[00:13:01] that he was he was mechanically minor he was a mechanic at some point and so he bought me a Holden

[00:13:06] 186 engine uh 186 cubic inch six cylinder engine that we were going to do up together okay um is a

[00:13:12] bit of a you know stepfather and son kind of project but um he literally didn't do a thing

[00:13:18] and like never said I don't mean I didn't take the initiative either because I worked out I

[00:13:21] didn't like hanging out with him anyway um uh with the local council put a skip down the

[00:13:26] street a couple years later and I hold it and chucked it in the skip so um that was the end of

[00:13:31] that but it's just um it's funny just like so that guy was sort of I guess the theory was there he was

[00:13:36] going to do it but in reality he was like yeah no I don't think so um I will just as another aside

[00:13:42] just mention that guy um he uh he did a bit of motor racing his name appears in the um in the

[00:13:48] results at Bathurst from like the 60s in the 500 mile race which is a big tin top you know

[00:13:52] classic okay and then uh my mom was talking to me one night and she just said have you ever been in

[00:13:58] jail she didn't have many suitors after my dad passed but she just always go through the motions

[00:14:02] of asking if they'd been in jail and the last guy she'd gone out we had said oh yeah I got locked

[00:14:06] up when I was in Vietnam for you know drunkard disorderly blah blah blah you know that's pretty

[00:14:10] normal young dude stuff whatever and then this guy goes yeah yeah I did six months for robbing a

[00:14:15] service station and she's like you robbed a servo and he's like yeah and she goes what went wrong

[00:14:21] with your life that you had to rob a service station he said well I was doing the Ford laser

[00:14:25] one make racing series and I ran out of money wow yeah you know yeah there's like Lotus Elise

[00:14:30] one make series or whatever yeah but it was like the the Ford laser one you know and Mark Scaife who

[00:14:35] became quite an important touring car racer here in Australia but that was very good he

[00:14:39] starred I was thinking I can't imagine this dude racing his Mark Scaife he would eat him for

[00:14:43] breakfast but anyway but yeah just go back to the you know so my dad didn't have a lot of

[00:14:46] chance to impart a lot on to me but I think I might have had just some kind of as burgers

[00:14:49] or something anyway because my mum always said I don't know where you got this from because

[00:14:53] I mean your dad was into it but not like this and you know very Christmas or whatever it'd be books and

[00:14:57] you know I bought every wheels magazine since 1989 and I've now got back issues

[00:15:02] so are you involved in cars in your day job Dave yeah yeah um right for a couple of car

[00:15:07] magazines from a freelancer okay I worked in classic car insurance for a long time um 17 years

[00:15:14] I got this job at Shannon's Insurance which is one of the big ones in Australia for doing

[00:15:19] classic and enthusiast cars yeah and um and I joined that place just over 17 years ago as an

[00:15:26] underwriter and I was pretty good at that I like to think it was where I was uh already sure on you

[00:15:31] because I used to read every unique cars magazine or whatever you keep an eye on the auctions and

[00:15:36] you know you some dude rings up and he's like oh I want to ensure this car for you know

[00:15:40] $55,000 and you're like sounds reasonable you know I'll just do that um whereas you get

[00:15:45] the other stuff and we're sort of flapping around and relax it's cool it's that's what it's worth you

[00:15:49] know um but of course in your in your position like that and you're young you know I sort of

[00:15:52] progressed and I got a team leader job in that yeah I was a lot better underwriter than I was a

[00:15:56] team leader I tell you that much um and then uh because the team leader role where usually

[00:16:01] was like a technical thing you know you sort of had that next step up and maybe this girl

[00:16:04] at work came up to me and she goes I've got this guy on the phone with a Porsche 356

[00:16:08] Speedster and I went what does he want to do ensure it for like 250 grand she goes yeah

[00:16:13] okay is it worth for like 60 or 70 now she goes yeah were you listening to my call I went no that's

[00:16:18] just what they're worth two years ago and what they're worth now like he's just really got to put

[00:16:21] it out and she's like that's amazing I'm like that's why I'm the boss um but uh but this is

[00:16:27] instead of change and it was more about the airy fairy feelings and we do lots of the stuff

[00:16:32] and I was like oh yeah cool then um I ended up changing positions into a project position

[00:16:36] where I was sort of helping run back end stuff so I sort of got further and further away

[00:16:39] from the the cast stuff in that regard and then okay I'm sort of not full circle because I didn't

[00:16:44] go back into underwriting but I took about eight months off because um just this when I speak to

[00:16:49] people like the entire podcast isn't about who I know who is dead but my wife don't know it as well

[00:16:55] so I like I only get about eight months off um instead of said when you come back you know

[00:16:59] what do you want to do um we'll try and make it adaptable for you something part time because

[00:17:04] you've got the kids and everything and uh I went yeah yeah it'd be good because the team I'd been

[00:17:08] in as well got restructured while I was gone and Shannon's is owned by a bigger entity and that to the

[00:17:12] team got absorbed so you could still be doing that work but you'd also be doing work for other

[00:17:16] brands and I was not interested in that um and so they maybe this role for uh creating some of

[00:17:22] their social media and their website stuff they didn't have enough people to do the content

[00:17:25] they just had the people to do the grunt work you know and so that was that was kind of fun

[00:17:29] but I I was supposed to be this conduit between the business development managers and um and

[00:17:33] the marketing team and I couldn't always get my extension cord wasn't always that long

[00:17:37] between what one wanted and what one expected and vice versa um but anyway I let I've finished

[00:17:43] up there late last year so now I'm just doing a bit of freelancing now and so you'd like to

[00:17:47] set it right for unique cars magazine straight machine magazine and a couple other small sort

[00:17:52] of entities on the net and so forth so yeah cool I guess yeah if we take you sort of into your

[00:17:58] yeah maybe what's Dave doing at kind of age 10 what's your mum driving around in do you say

[00:18:03] you've got a sister as well who might be in the car yeah yeah where are you going what

[00:18:06] you're listening to well we only had the am radio mum didn't invest deeply in her audio um

[00:18:13] we still had that same dribble drive 323 yeah um what color was it it's a bit like john's

[00:18:18] jumper it's like okay so terakotterie rusty rusty it was it was or it was you know what it was

[00:18:25] it was when I inherited that as my first car it was too orange to be called red and therefore

[00:18:32] it was orange you know just to get paid out and I found a holding color pretty similar which was

[00:18:36] mandarin red my mates like mandarins are orange this is the lies but um but yeah we could have

[00:18:42] done a 323 now because it was always three of us just were fairly gone and you know he wasn't

[00:18:46] ever gonna be in the car um there was always negotiation about who got the front seat and

[00:18:51] it was a lot of the time um it was you had to take it in turns but then you forgot who's

[00:18:55] turned it was and that's not fair because that's a longer trip than the last trip we did and all

[00:18:59] that sort of stuff um and then um I remember trading the front seat for six months I wanted

[00:19:06] a matchbox connectable I don't even remember them they're like the size of matchbox cars but they're

[00:19:10] splitting half yeah yeah what I really wanted was the stretch limo which was coming three pieces so

[00:19:15] I had like a middle bit yeah and I wanted a Volkswagen Beetle which was a separate one so I

[00:19:19] come back and stretch Volkswagen Beetle which I did and I was stoked um and in order to do that I

[00:19:24] had to my sister had got she still had some birthday or christmas money and I'm like if you

[00:19:28] buy me those connectables I'll let you sit in the front without arguing for six months

[00:19:32] and uh and I did I think she relented once I just said once hey can I just have a go just once

[00:19:37] since you went yeah I didn't harass her all the time though I'm just sitting up basking the glory of

[00:19:41] the you know windows um they uh they all three two three um that did some hard yards and uh it

[00:19:47] was out it was our car for a long time um I think we only sold that was a 78 we sold it in 2000

[00:19:53] I reckon it was oh wow good thing yeah yeah yeah um and they're um they are renowned for their rust

[00:19:59] like I remember my parents when had the anti rust sticker on it so that was a good investment on

[00:20:03] their on their part they'd only had a tiny little bit um in the tailgate or when we sold it maybe

[00:20:07] got $700 for amazing how those stickers work yeah here's amazing yeah you know I remember um

[00:20:14] I've got a particularly seminal kind of like memory with that car mum wasn't a real confident

[00:20:18] driver but she took us over to Port Vincent once um in the school holidays now if you ever look at

[00:20:23] her map it's South Australia we've got Adelaide in one spot and then there's this like leg there's

[00:20:27] this bit of land that sticks out down the middle of a big gulf where it looks like a foot a bit of

[00:20:31] like an idly but without the pasta and um we know Adelaide's on one side of that and

[00:20:37] where we were going is about 50 k's directly west but you've got to go all the way up

[00:20:41] and all the way back down to get there yeah there's about 300 or 400 k's and um we'd go on

[00:20:45] there I remember on the way there was sparrow like flew in front of us and you know me and my sister

[00:20:50] were like no and then um we got to Port Vincent my mates uh was there and and his parents and my

[00:20:56] parents were friends with them and stuff so and it's real meeting and uh uh big mic uh the the

[00:21:00] father comes around the front of the car and pulls out this dead sparrow out of the grill which

[00:21:03] was nice of him uh so that was devastating um I don't know what that sparrow hurt in it but

[00:21:08] the cast started to overheat on the way home and uh then it boiled and then we would just

[00:21:14] stop you know like that proper stopped in the middle of the desert with nobody around

[00:21:18] with this broken car it was a real sort of uh it could have been a bit of a wolf freak scenario

[00:21:24] but that hadn't been invented yet so uh its random car came past and offered to drop us at

[00:21:30] the next town which was Port Wakefield which is at the top of the pointy bit and was going to

[00:21:34] drop us at this particular guy's house who was the local tow truck guy so we got there and then

[00:21:38] um he had a son a couple years older than me so we were hanging out and then um they went back

[00:21:43] in with the tow truck and rescued the car and brought it back to Port Wakefield and my mum had

[00:21:47] been called by grandfather my father's father um to come pick us up so I remember her just spewing

[00:21:53] because Ted did not drive fast you know at all ever um and uh you know if you think my mum wasn't

[00:21:58] a confident driver Ted was confident he was just slow anyway um but this guy's house he had

[00:22:04] these models in his in his cabinet you know 143 scale models okay and they're of Australian

[00:22:09] cars right they're like tracks it was the brand tracks model they're still around now and I blew

[00:22:14] my mind because you know you go up with matchbox cars when I was in that era where the matchbox

[00:22:18] cars do had the metal metal bases and they were made in England yeah and um it was they had one

[00:22:23] holding do you guys have matchbox cars obviously you would have them yeah but are you the same

[00:22:27] age as me you're a bit younger are you yeah slightly yeah do you remember that I don't know

[00:22:30] if you would have seen it but they had a holding pickup they called a holding pickup it was a

[00:22:35] holding ute with a poorly written wrongly worded name on the bottom but um yeah I was obsessed with

[00:22:40] that because it was the only actual Aussie car that was in the matchbox at a range and there's

[00:22:45] this guy with these models and they're all Australian cars um and it blew me away anyway um

[00:22:51] so that I don't know I mean I probably would have ended up buying models anyway but I now

[00:22:54] got like 143 scale models not just of Aussie cars but that's my scale because of this dude

[00:22:59] whose house I hung out with because my mum blew a head gas it's amazing how such a sort of well an

[00:23:05] indirect link to someone can just rub off on you isn't it like that yeah absolutely we said before

[00:23:12] like it's ridiculous how a friend of a friend or a contact through a contact and just lead you

[00:23:17] into something that you probably didn't even know about really but then when you look back you think

[00:23:21] oh that's probably why I'm into that strange yeah yeah it's a bit of a bit of a bit of a

[00:23:26] went with poultry sliding doors the section there I think sometimes yeah so you didn't have much on

[00:23:31] the radio because there wasn't much going on um was your mum a smoker you have a bit of a smoky

[00:23:35] atmosphere in the car or no yeah she was but not in the car thankfully I reckon she ever smoked in

[00:23:41] the car I mean they made that illegal in Australia I mean you know not that long ago as in after

[00:23:45] I was a kid yeah but yeah no she didn't didn't smoke in the car uh not even when we're not

[00:23:49] even when we weren't in there like it didn't smell yeah she smoked inside the house but it didn't

[00:23:53] it was we had a pretty eerie house so um wasn't sort of dingy um that um that's good that it's a

[00:23:59] lore over there because over here I'm not aware of any law saying you can't smoke in your car still

[00:24:05] I think it is a law thing now oh is it oh fair enough I think if you've got kids in the car

[00:24:08] you can't smoke yeah well I better stop then well um my late wife's brother my late wife's brother

[00:24:14] is a cop and he has been for a long time and he just sort of became a cop when they brought

[00:24:17] those rules in and he lives in an area that's got a bit of a socio-economic stigma so he's

[00:24:23] got plenty of people to pull over then he pulled over one lady because she was smoking in the car

[00:24:27] with her daughter and her daughter's like don't have to pull her over I smoke too yeah so no and um

[00:24:34] you know we just we just had that 3v3 forever so that's not actually very exciting at all

[00:24:38] I was going to ask you Dave obviously you're saying about your mum taking you on a long journey

[00:24:42] were there any sort of serious vehicle checks done before you set off because like you said

[00:24:46] there was no mobile phones or anything then so if you break it down you know you just have

[00:24:51] to I guess just sit tight and wait do you yeah yeah um actually I mean I remember I rescued

[00:24:57] some British lads sort of before mobile phones were prevalent um me and my wife would bought this

[00:25:02] v1 model Holden SS Ute with this canopy that makes it look like a panel round it's pretty

[00:25:07] sort of rare option this big purple thing at a six speed manual it's a 5.7 litre so it gets up

[00:25:11] and moves all right and um there's these poor British backpackers that are holding Jackaroo

[00:25:16] which I think was sold in as a trooper maybe over your way yeah um so you know it was parked

[00:25:21] on the side of the road and they didn't another matter phone we said we'll take two of you just

[00:25:26] so then you know sort of they can't over overrun us if they decide to kill us um and uh we chucked

[00:25:32] them in the back there's no air in the back of this thing it was a warm day and uh flogged past

[00:25:36] a few people and I got out of the next town they covered in sweat and they're like well shifts

[00:25:40] isn't it you know like yeah um but uh nobody nobody was harmed in the making of that loose segue but

[00:25:48] yeah I don't you know my mum would have taken it to the local garage you know back then your

[00:25:53] service stations were your um your garages yeah these days they're more like micro expensive

[00:25:58] supermarkets but um yeah and uh yeah and so she would have got the guys there to check it

[00:26:03] okay I've committed they were to giving it a once over I don't know just sometimes you'd wonder

[00:26:08] they just wave a wheelie wagon and go yeah she's good thanks um I guess it's a weird concept for us

[00:26:13] but obviously if we take a long journey you can pretty much travel and you're going to see

[00:26:17] someone or something along the way aren't you Andy rather than your terrain is just talking

[00:26:22] cheese to us yeah I think unless you're probably going top of Wales or Scotland or um

[00:26:28] kind of yeah X more or something but then yeah you are gonna you're going to see someone

[00:26:32] fairly soon yeah I always find it funny with the old petrol service stations that

[00:26:36] one of the staples of the petrol service station is everything you need to make a fire

[00:26:42] all right yeah even got wood and stuff yeah wood, coal, fire lighters like next to probably

[00:26:47] most flammable thing in the world it's like yeah just in case with your flammable fuel you want

[00:26:54] some more stuff to keep it going we've got it yeah absolutely um the servo around the corner

[00:27:00] for me growing up it was a brand called Golden Fleece um which I don't know if I think they're

[00:27:05] an Australian brand I mean they're probably owned by Texaco or something yeah we haven't got it

[00:27:08] sounds like rolling tobacco yeah it does yeah it doesn't be done at or dodgy used car dealer or

[00:27:13] something golden fleet yeah and a really cool you know logo I thought was cool just because

[00:27:17] we're at the end of my street you know and um it's not even there now you know your service

[00:27:21] stations don't often I know that your zoning rules is over there but usually they've got tanks

[00:27:25] underground and they can leech uh or leak um you know gradually they sort of be a bit tainted

[00:27:29] so it's hard to get that land to not be a service station anymore but it has been

[00:27:33] converted to other shops but um yeah this uh golden fleece and they had this car outside um

[00:27:39] that was their their shop car I reckon it was there for years and I never really go at a second

[00:27:45] thought until one day I realized I'd never ever ever seen another one okay and what it was was a

[00:27:52] mark 2 Ford Cortina panel band oh wow so you know it's your mark 2 Cortina short doors like a

[00:27:58] like a four door but just at the front doors and then there's box just this big square box on

[00:28:02] the back um sort of ran at the top and I think it was um red and white which means it was probably

[00:28:09] yellow and white I think it was owned by tip-top bakeries you know like this bakery

[00:28:14] big you know commercial bakery here would have ordered like 10 of them or 20 of them from

[00:28:18] Ford Australia and Ford Australia probably have gone we don't make them but we'll make 10 of them

[00:28:23] you know like it's worth our while yeah and um it was only recently on on uh Facebook or something

[00:28:29] another picture of one came up um I've even got this Ford Australia you know commemorative book

[00:28:35] and there's a mark 1 Cortina with the same kind of body on the back which again I've never seen

[00:28:39] another one of them so it's conceptually the same but um yeah this mark 2 Cortina bread van was there

[00:28:46] was their shop crack and yeah there'd be 0.0 of them left I reckon yeah I've just certainly never

[00:28:52] seen one over here no no I remember they used to do like a I know it's definitely a Sierra

[00:28:57] but I think they did a Cortina like a pickup version obviously a U for U Dave yeah P100 I think

[00:29:02] they called them so I remember I used to live near the sea front in a village and uh there's

[00:29:06] a couple of fishermen guys that used to use them um yeah a bit of a rarity now yeah yeah they were

[00:29:11] fairly common over here I think they're built in South Africa I don't think you guys built

[00:29:14] them there I think actually built by Ford South Africa I'm pretty sure okay or they're very like

[00:29:18] said we're credit kits from because one up in the Northern Territory um I went to this event

[00:29:23] called Red Centenats and um it's like a big car meet in the middle of the desert and yeah this guy had

[00:29:29] a normal Australian maid Cortina and this South African built P100 and he had a park next to each

[00:29:35] other and you can just sort of look at all the little differences but one difference you couldn't

[00:29:38] see they told me that was the windows one opposite directions so you know this way he's down

[00:29:43] and this way he's up but it's the opposite than the other car so I thought we sort of

[00:29:46] fascinating they would have not only a different mechanism but it worked we work opposite

[00:29:49] that's just ridiculous yeah assembled on a Friday afternoon yeah someone wired it up wrong yeah

[00:29:56] no I think it's just how they work because they just had different internals for the

[00:29:59] Aussie versus the South African one there's different suppliers and so forth crazy um

[00:30:03] if I get fascinated about all that kind of weird stuff so yeah any interesting cars owned by

[00:30:07] your friends at school any kind of envious vehicles dropping kids off outside the school

[00:30:12] you know yeah you know um oh there was a kid um whose uh parents had um a Brock director

[00:30:20] now probably now this is just probably just words but um you guys might not have heard of

[00:30:24] Peter Brock but he was a pretty big uh motor racing entity here in Australia um touring cars

[00:30:29] okay and um yeah he was it was Peter perfect he was he was you know sort of holding

[00:30:33] legend and all this sort of stuff and then um he did this thing where he'd become quite

[00:30:37] unhealthy um he was smoking too much he drank something like 40 cups of tea a day I don't know

[00:30:42] he must have had a lady just who made tea because if you drank 40 cups of tea you would only ever be

[00:30:47] making tea or weighing yeah you know like there's no in between but he was running this business and

[00:30:53] Holden uh dealer team HDT business was in the business of modifying Holden's uh pre-delivery

[00:31:00] but with factory endorsement so if you got the GSI version it was HDT that built it you know

[00:31:04] that different cams and all this sort of stuff and um Peter Brock instead of it become

[00:31:09] quite unhealthy he was drinking all his tea right now um and I don't think that the factory was all that

[00:31:13] you know back then there was fiberglass going everywhere a list of stuff and he um he became so

[00:31:19] unwell people thought he was sick that he'd cancer or something he knew he had to make a

[00:31:22] change in his life and he met this chiropractor but sometimes sometimes we call him a chiropractor

[00:31:27] I don't know what his deal was but um he introduced Peter Brock or Brocky as he was to all the

[00:31:33] all the fans um to uh being a vegan and uh Reiki crystals and all this sort of stuff and um

[00:31:40] he's like the ozziest guy ever and people are like Brocky's my hero but they always forget

[00:31:44] there was that bit where he was a hippie and he invented this box called the energy polarizer

[00:31:50] and it was uh I was trying to explain it was a box filled with resin and crystals

[00:31:55] that you just put on your firewall of your car and then you had this aerial somehow that

[00:31:59] went through the car and it would align the molecules of your car while you drove crazy and he

[00:32:05] was fully committed that that was the thing and Holden were like you can't fit them to our cars

[00:32:09] because that's a bit hard to do a warranty if somebody says the molecules aren't aligning

[00:32:12] correctly and he was pretty adamant and in fact because his signature would go onto the cars

[00:32:19] as a sticker he refused to put his signature on the cars that didn't have the energy

[00:32:23] polarizer and then he was getting bigger and bigger and he wanted to build this this

[00:32:27] world-class car based on the vo Commodore which is you know that old um voxel royal kind of shape

[00:32:32] but then we'll update the front and back and then um the director was going to be his piece de resistance

[00:32:38] and he was offering 5.6 liter strokers which Holden didn't really agree to um and he was

[00:32:43] offering to put the independent rear end out of the opal monza uh the opal senators

[00:32:48] okay and he's putting them in and Holden were like we haven't done any tests with this

[00:32:51] like you know like there's gonna fly out of the car if you haven't crashed just at it

[00:32:54] you know we can't the durability concerns and lots of the stuff and they said to him

[00:32:58] if you launch this car we will break up with you and Holden dealer team will no longer be part of

[00:33:04] Holden and um so he went right ahead and he launched that car and Holden dropped him that day or

[00:33:10] maybe that next day as a sponsor and uh David Beaumont from my high school his parents had

[00:33:15] one of those cars um and he made 12 I think oh wow they're like $18,000 when like a house was

[00:33:22] $89,000 yeah and um they have quite possibly the most ridiculous body kit on them you've ever seen in

[00:33:30] your entire life there's spoilers and lumps and things and bumps going in every direction but

[00:33:35] they're all different a bit and they're everyone of us fast that is look at because

[00:33:39] you just think like of the history behind it like what the hell were you thinking dude like

[00:33:42] you had it you had it all and um within 12 months he was um converting larders for road

[00:33:49] use like doing pre-delivery fixes and checkups on on Soviet era larders that's literally what he

[00:33:56] was doing to get by so uh he should say to David Beaumont I'd see him in the corridor and I say

[00:34:00] how's the how's the Commodore director going and he's a little guy and he'd go yeah it's a Brock

[00:34:05] director and I go whoa is it though I mean looks like a Commodore to me man but now I look at

[00:34:11] the history of it it was actually not Brandon Holden anywhere it was a Brock it was right

[00:34:16] me one day he goes oh no I got stolen written off I know and um I went oh that's sad but it was

[00:34:21] only like 20 years later when I realized I'd made so few of them that I realized they have

[00:34:24] passed out that actually was yeah yeah um so that was definitely the one that stuck at what

[00:34:28] were David Beaumont's parents there I wonder oh they were they were holding up service stations

[00:34:34] no they were Beaumont tiles they were a tile warehouse for uh your flooring tiles all right

[00:34:38] uh still around now I reckon but uh yeah that was that was a cool one I mean that was uh

[00:34:43] that was when we were beating too young to drive um my mate Biles had a triumph 2500 sedan

[00:34:51] and that was nice that was kind of cool because yeah nobody else had that sort of stuff we had a

[00:34:55] couple of rich kids at the school like we had a few Asian students who were sent from Malaysia

[00:34:59] or wherever to our school um and they would either lived on the campus or they lived close

[00:35:03] by and you know one of them had a brand new in patrol it was like 45 000 dollars wow I just

[00:35:08] went thinking oh my god the stuff I would buy for 45 grand that wasn't a patrol you know

[00:35:15] they weren't car people they were just that was just their thing yeah I remember bozzled with these

[00:35:19] triumphs though it had you know had the old wheel covers on it they're like you know you probably

[00:35:22] know the ones instead of black and ribbed and um they're a bit beaten up and then one day I come

[00:35:27] into school and he's got like these wheel covers he's bought from a local um auto shop and I'm like

[00:35:32] dude they they just suck they just look terrible you know they're better than the original

[00:35:37] no they're not they're really not you know you just put the dentin original ones back on it'll be

[00:35:41] way cooler it's funny how when you're uh young and naive you do that don't you you sort of

[00:35:46] bit off the original stuff for awful looking sort of third party things at the time you think it

[00:35:53] looked great but in reality yeah it's horrendous there are a lot of people that don't really grow

[00:35:58] out of that phase as well very true um as I've gotten older I've sort of leant more towards

[00:36:04] the original stuff because I think it's like it's it's where everything is supposed to be if you

[00:36:08] don't know what I mean yeah you often see a car that I don't know if it's had a crash repair uh or

[00:36:13] the owner's just gotten enthusiastic but they've you see the tailgate badge in the wrong spot

[00:36:18] and you're like no no that's not that's supposed to be that way that's supposed to be over there

[00:36:22] and that's where it should be at the end of the day that just comes down to some

[00:36:25] stylist decision on the date of to put it there and you know it's a place that looks best

[00:36:30] and of course if they'd put it at the other end of the bootlead that would be what's really to us

[00:36:34] but what triggers me is when somebody's got like two badges the same on the back like you don't need

[00:36:39] two holding badges on the back of the Commodore and then when I saw a BMW M1 for the first time

[00:36:44] I saw two BMW badges on the back I'm like what and then I check my matchbox car and it does have

[00:36:49] two BMW badges and I just think well I don't know what I was thinking with that it's quite

[00:36:53] unique in that sense probably isn't it the M1 now you say that never really thought about that

[00:36:56] before no it's just needs the one might just be considerate for thieves who have on the on the

[00:37:01] nick for uh brand badges and stuff just leave one you can take the other yeah well you're

[00:37:08] always gonna back up so then you know people know you've still got a BMW yeah yeah well um

[00:37:13] thank you very much Dave I'll go to wrap it up you're not fair enough fair enough yeah thanks

[00:37:17] for joining us Dave be no good fun you know it's a pleasure because I wanted to it's good to

[00:37:21] have a think back and you don't often think back to those early memories unless somebody

[00:37:24] said the props it yeah and be honest with you this is sorry I get very confused because my kids

[00:37:29] are only talking about Godzilla or Barbie so they're not gonna ask me about you know the history of the

[00:37:34] world as it stands so I thought as long as you guys poke me at my brain I won't get out so much for

[00:37:37] another week yet hello yeah thank you very much for joining us yeah thanks for showing an interest

[00:37:43] in what we're doing from um the other side of the world which is really cool yeah thanks Dave

[00:37:47] no appreciate it's really good to listen to and I'll look forward to the next one thank you

[00:37:50] very much mate look after yourself you do there we go trip down under memory lane yeah that was a

[00:37:56] quite a unique what shall we say recording I suppose wasn't it hearing about cars that were

[00:38:01] we've never heard about before yeah yeah it was a it's a character isn't it Dave yeah interesting

[00:38:05] chat with um yeah some good stories and I think my fear has been with chatting to people from I guess

[00:38:12] outside of the UK is whether or not those stories will sort of cross over if we don't necessarily

[00:38:16] know the cars but I think they do sort of stand up for themselves don't they still yeah obviously

[00:38:20] there was the racing driver who robbed the service station there was the guy having 40 cups of tea a day

[00:38:26] yeah 40 cups of tea a day the anti rust stickers um yeah the crazy car with like cosmic rear lining

[00:38:33] voodoo box or whatever was in it um so yeah I think yeah we'll have to do a bit of extra

[00:38:39] research when it comes to putting it out on social media yeah to find the right imagery

[00:38:43] etc was he given his day job as a freelance motorist I'm sure we'll be able to assist with that

[00:38:49] yeah but um okay it's the show isn't it that obviously his dad departed when he was really young

[00:38:55] when Dave was really young so yeah yeah even being at a young age he still left some sort of

[00:39:01] motoring imprint on him hasn't he that he's continued to this day yeah absolutely it does

[00:39:05] make you think back on those things that um always spoken about it before kind of what your

[00:39:10] earliest memory is and whether at that time whether you've got any recollection that that's going to be

[00:39:15] kind of the one for you if you're like if someone asked you in 30 years time what's that memory

[00:39:19] yeah you've got absolutely no idea of you at that time that's going to be the thing that's

[00:39:23] set in your mind yeah but um turns out yeah my youngest um version two she's now at that age

[00:39:31] where it probably is first memory time I'd imagine so yeah yeah it definitely makes you

[00:39:36] think you're right about that got to be on your best behaviour yeah yeah her first memory is

[00:39:41] going to go back to the beginning of this podcast I walked in on daddy and he was not wearing any trousers

[00:39:46] on a podcast what's that what's that that's perfectly normal yeah every friday we do it

[00:39:58] so yeah that was Dave from Adelaide so yeah very nice of him to join us

[00:40:02] indeed another enjoyable one good stuff see you later thank you very much John roll the credits