Motorclassica
Revived Japanese classics aplenty Down Under, but Aston steals the Motorclassica show
Top honours go to an Aston Martin at Australia’s premier classic show
Australia’s Motorclassica, which provides a showcase for the country’s restorers to display the results of their latest projects, proved that increasing numbers of Japanese classics are being treated to cost-no-object restorations. While this clearly demonstrates a changing market, Best in Show honours went elsewhere – to a 1959 Aston Martin.
Bentley HJM
This 1938 Derby Bentley, one of just six built, has just emerged from restoration.
‘The famous Australian car collector Eric Rainsford bought the car in 1969 in London, whereupon he exported it to South Australia and campaigned it extensively over the next 50 years,’ said owner Gary Mcmillian.
‘The rarity of it being just one of six HJ Mulliner cars with a disappearing hood really attracted me to this car. I bought it in 2013 and have spent the past four years restoring it.
‘The engine was in a pretty bad way. South Australia’s very hard water had badly corroded the cylinder head and block to the point that they were unrecoverable; fortunately, new castings are available. We also rebuilt the rest of the mechanicals, re-timbered the body and re-trimmed the interior. We were able to save the paint, which had been put on it 12 years prior. Luckily it had been laid on very thick, which meant that we were able to cut and polish it back to life.’
Aston Martin DB2/4 MKIII
This Aston Martin scored Motorclassica’s Best in Show award – an impressive feat given what restorer Tori Barnes was up against.
‘The car arrived at our workshop disassembled with all of its parts in boxes,’ he explained. ‘The restoration had started at another shop and
unfortunately that business closed. The owner wanted someone local to take on the project at short notice and we were lucky enough to be contacted. It has taken four years since then to get the car to the condition it is in today.
‘The biggest struggle we had was lack of information – there aren’t a lot of these Aston Martins that are left unrestored to reference. We spent thousands of hours researching with overseas owners, looking at catalogues, reading books and looking at online photos trying to work out what was original.
‘This was all made harder by the fact that we didn’t strip the car down and that it had been restored in the Seventies; in an ideal world you don’t want a car that’s been restored before because you have to go over things that were done last time and that were maybe changed or not restored back to original.
‘The tools and capabilities that British craftsmen had back in 1959 were far less advanced than what we have today and trying to dance that line of not over-restoring was tricky. But we are very happy with how it turned out.
‘We went to Motorclassica very happy with the car, but in no way, shape or form did we expect to win Best in Show, which was the end result!’
Buckle Mini Monaco
Marking 60 years of the Mini, this uniquely Australian take on the Cooper added an oftenuntold part of the small car’s story as part of a themed display.
Owner Meaghan Lucas said, ‘My dad showed me this 1965 Buckle Mini Monaco in Unique Cars magazine in early 1997. We both liked it so we went for a look, and ended up coming home with it. My family has always been into Minis; Dad even bought Mum a Mini as a wedding present in 1970.
‘The Monaco was in good condition, but the paint was fairly dull. We took it to a couple of local shows before I moved to the UK and Dad moved to Tarree in New South Wales in late 1997. He completely stripped the car to restore it, and then got sidetracked restoring a 997 Cooper.
‘Dad passed away unexpectedly in 2017, which left the car partly restored and with six months for it to be moved from the workshop it was in. We used those six months to finish the restoration and get it back on the road, 12 years after it had first been pulled apart.
‘The Buckle Mini Monaco came about when Bill Buckle saw a Broadspeed Mini and thought, “I can do better than that”. The car is built from a standard Australian Mini with a glassfibre roof that reduces the overall height by three and a half inches, and significantly lightens the car. Between 20 and 30 were built and we’ve reunited Bill Buckle with the car since completion.’
Toyota Celica GT
This early 1971 pre-production Celica was one of several Seventies Japanese cars at Motorclassica enjoying serious restoration attention after years on the fringes of the classic world.
Restorer Peter Vandersluys said, ‘This Celica was originally brought into Australia as an evaluation vehicle and couldn’t be registered because it was lacking a compliance plate. It was initially destined to be crushed.
‘After sitting in a shed for 10 years it was released to a Toyota dealer in New South Wales and registered for the first time.
‘The current owner found it in Tasmania and had to have a meeting with the previous owners to detail his plans for the car and assure them that it would be restored properly to original before he was allowed to buy it. The owner was very heavily involved in the restoration and did an amazing amount of research.
‘It came to us in pretty original condition. It had areas of rust that we addressed by making new panels or replacing panels with new oldstock items supplied by the owner. We did the bodywork, paint and fit-ups. From there the owner took it home to his garage where he restored and assembled the rest of the car. The engine bay work is all his, and it is to an amazing standard.
‘The original interior is still in the car and in surprisingly good condition, based on its age. We were lucky enough to have three of the four owners of the car join us at Motorclassica, which was pretty special. Overall it is a marvellous outcome, the owner is very happy, and he is about to start driving it now that Motorclassica is over.’