My Muscle Car
Winton, and Hume Weir. The garage he worked at sponsored him, and you can still see the outline of the old stickers on the rear quarters of the car, saying BP North Dandenong.
“Since I’ve owned the Torana I’ve met many people who remember it racing.
“After many years the original owner put it in the shed and started to disassemble it with view to restoring it, but life got in the way and it sat there in pieces for close to a decade. When I purchased it I had every intention of doing a full resto, as that is what I do for a living. But the first thing I did out of curiosity was to run the buff over the roof to see if the paint had any life left in it. To my surprise the scaly oxidisation disappeared fairly quickly and a day later (and four tins of cutting compound!) I stood back and realised the car was too good to restore. Consequently the only paint the car has had is the black along the bottom as there were some rust issues that had to be fixed. Other than that the paint is all original.
“The interior was okay except for the front seats, which I had to re-trim as they were too far gone to be saved. The most difficult part was finding Juniper vinyl.
“I had to replace the carpet too, but the rest of the interior just needed some TLC.
“As for the mechanicals and the rest of the car, I only did the minimum required to make it safe and roadworthy. The car still retains the original drivetrain, including the JP block, although after 70,000 hard kilometres it’s getting a bit tired! That is next on the agenda.
“I am lucky as I also have the original number plates, dealer invoice, and all the service books that came with the car. I still see the original owner from time to time; in fact, at the Phillip Island Historics one year he came for a lap around the track with me, which was a buzz for both of us.” How does it go? “Having driven quite a number of other XU-1s, it has a bit more poke than, say, a standard XU-1. I’ve driven it to Adelaide, Bathurst and Queensland for various XU-1 events. Its good fun but it’s also a relief to get out of it at the end of the day!” Anything you’d like to add? “One of the nicest byproducts of owning this car is the wonderful people I’ve met whilst participating in the events I’ve been to. Most of the other cars at these events are prettier than mine but I am amazed at the interest it gets because it is unrestored. And I’ve decided it’s nice not having to worry about stone chips or getting dirty! I’ve had some pretty tempting offers to sell but this car’s not going anywhere.”