SNAP SHOTS
BRISBANE, QUEENSLAND
JEREMY Schoch’s AP6 Valiant addiction started 20 years ago when the Brisbanite was 19. In a scene straight out of He Died With a Felafel in His Hand , there was a magazine nestled on the bachelor-pad coffee table amongst the 45 empties and stack of 50 pizza boxes that had an AP6 on the cover. “I just loved the shape and had to have one,” Jeremy says. “Most of the other young enthusiasts at the time were doing up Commodores and Falcons, but I like to stand out from the crowd.” He’s now owned over 20 AP6S, and it’s even rubbed off on his brother Adrian, who can lay claim to a sedan and ‘Canadian’ wagon of his own.
01: THE AP6 that started it all. Bruce Clavell’s beautiful blue AP6 sedan was the cover car for Best Valiants in the late 90s and a superb build for the time. Clad in Auto Drags and running a stout small-block, Bruce’s AP left a lasting impression on a teenage Jeremy, and was the catalyst for his obsession to date. Bruce still owns the car nowadays, but has upped the ante with a tough blown small-block combo! 02: “I BOUGHT my first AP6 in 1997,” says Jeremy. “It was a 1965 Regal that came complete with hail damage and a rat infestation, and the slant engine had dropped a piston. So yeah, it was a real mess. I busted my arse as an apprentice chef to fund a full rebuild, which included new paint in gunmetal grey, and a fresh slant-six running a street cam and 350 Holley.” Jeremy’s Regal even scored a Readers’ Rockets spot ( SM, Mar ’02).
03: AFTER more than a decade as Jeremy’s daily driver and dirt-track ride, the grey AP6 Regal was succumbing to the elements, which took their toll on the body, paint and trusty slant-six. “I was keen to build another V8, but as I already had my factory AP6 V8 sedan I decided to go the anti-purist route and swap out the slant for an LS.” With help from fellow Ls-into-ap6 aficionado and good mate Scott Gardner, Jeremy got busy dropping in a 5.3-litre LS backed by a 4L60E and disc-braked, LSDequipped Borgwarner diff. The gunmetal-grey hue made way for a lick of medium turquoise with a white roof, and widened 15-inch Dodge
Phoenix rims running later Valiant V8 hubcaps. “That’s my youngest daughter, Skylah, nestled on the intake, pictured at just two weeks old. You have to start them young you know,” Jeremy laughs.
04: JEREMY’S 1966 AP6 factory V8 sedan is believed to be veteran drag racer Jim Reed’s old personal drive and push car for his Reed’s Trucking altered back in the day. Now it’s running a 318 and 904 combo plucked from a ’68 Dodge Charger, and Jeremy would love to find a 340 small-block matched to a 727 to make it a real old-timey build. “I bought this after making a drunken phone call one night. No regrets!” he laughs.
05: “MY 1965 AP6 ute was floating around in the Brisbane floods of 2011 not long after I picked it up,” says Jeremy. “It had mini-tubs, plenty of patina and a modified tailgate, and the plan was to build it as a nostalgia gasser with an I-beam front, hot slant-six and a 904 auto. I got sidetracked with life and other projects, so sold it on in 2016. It lived at
Archer Falls for a while, the best place to have fun in the mud.”
06: AS ONE of only four ever made, this 1966 AP6 ambulance is a rare bit of gear, and featured in the 1996 Colin Friels movie, Mr Reliable. “A good mate told me about the ex-gympie ambulance parked up in a lean-to. It wasn’t for sale, but thankfully I was able to take a look and grab the owner’s contact number. I basically kept harassing him every six months for the next few years before I’d finally had enough and laid some decent cash on the table.” Jeremy returned the ambulance to street use with a fresh slant-six for power and drove the living shit out of it at Willowbank, the Warwick eighth, Queensland Raceway and the Asphalt Demons dirt drags. “With a growing family, I began to cull the fleet in 2019 and sold the ambulance to a Mopar fanatic in the States. He just loves our AP6S and made it a must-have for his collection.”
07: “I WAS wanting to complete the set by having one of every body style in the AP6 range,” Jeremy says. “I bought a mint wagon that had unfortunately copped a rear hit, but it was going to cost too much to repair so I stripped it out and kept all of the bits. I hit up a mate, Joel, about his own wagon project that had stalled, and thankfully he let her go. I chucked in a hot slant running a four-barrel, along with plenty of parts from the wrecked wagon, and got her back on the road. One day, someone posted a wanted ad seeking a beige AP6 wagon to use in a movie. I was sceptical at first, thinking it was a scam, but no – it made an appearance in Swinging Safari, starring Kylie Minogue and Guy Pearce. It ran the eighthmile drags at Warwick, cut some laps around Queensland Raceway and made it down to Chryslers On The Murray at Albury-wodonga for their ‘Spotlight on AP6’ year. Unfortunately, it snapped the crankshaft an hour into the drive home, so I sold it. It’s now back on the road and cutting hot laps of the Sunshine Coast.”
08: RENOWNED artist Aden Jacobi is no stranger to readers of SM and Smhotrod, and Jeremy has been lucky enough to have his cars immortalised in two pieces of Aden’s work. “I look after catering at the Archer Falls Airfield, which was home to the Asphalt Demons Invitational and other dirt-based events,” Jeremy says. “I have a great working relationship with the property owner, Ron Field, and also Aden, who I’ve known for many years.”
09: AT THE height of Jeremy’s AP6 obsession, he had every body style accounted for – factory offerings and the custom-build ambulance, of course – but other priorities in life, plus the desire to simplify the maintenance regime, has seen him pare back the collection to just two: a white AP6 V8 sedan, and his first Regal, now running LS power. “I’m keeping a half-keen eye out for a factory V8 Safari wagon, but they’re that rare that I should be commitment-proof for a while yet,” he says. In the meantime, Jeremy is happy to keep wheeling and dealing in AP6 bits, and runs the ‘AP6 Valiants Only’ Facebook page. “I am just lucky I have a very supportive and understanding wife, Kat, and two great mates in Mark Knowles and Scott Gardner, who I can’t thank enough for all of their help.”