MARK ALLEN

> MOORABBIN, VICTORIA

YOU’LL find Mark Allen cruising the streets of Moorabbin in his rare Chrysler 300, but he has another cool thing to his name – a copy of every Street Machine issue ever released, right back to the Van Wheels era! He’s brimming with enthusiasm for our mag’s history and what it represents, so we got in touch for a chat.

How did you end up with every issue of

Street Machine?

My grandmother used to take my sister and me to the Great Barrier Reef for holidays, and I bought the April/may 1984 issue up there when I was 13. I was into cars already, but that got me hooked on the magazine! I bought every issue from then on. I moved house a couple of times over the years, and I was a bit over carting my collection around, so roughly 16 years ago I donated my whole collection to an op shop. Three months after that, I realised how stupid I was! So I went back and tracked down all the ones I’d had, and then found all the earlier ones right back to the first Van Wheels. What’s your favourite era?

In the early 2000s I was in my 30s and heavily into the car scene. That’s probably my favourite era, because there were cars you could imagine building yourself. You’d often see them out and about and could get to know the owners and builders. At the risk of tooting our own horn, why

have you stuck with Street Machine? Because they’re cars you can relate to. Some

magazines had models draped over the cars, but Street Machine has always been about the cars and the people. It’s something you can open, read from front to back, and then back to front again. We’d better get to this 300 of yours.

It’s a 1966 hardtop running the original 440cube big-block and 727 auto. I’ve owned it for three years and it was imported from California a couple of years before that. It’s up on stands right now, as I’m fitting up a set of disc brakes custom-made by Hoppers Stoppers. How many of these cars are getting around?

There’s only one other I know of in Australia – same make and model, and it’s in Melbourne, too. They only made this style for about six

STREET MACHINE IS SOMETHING YOU CAN OPEN, READ FROM FRONT TO BACK, AND THEN BACK TO FRONT AGAIN

months, so parts are like rocking horse shit; they’re damn-near impossible to find! What kind of duties does it see?

I get out with Melbourne Old School Cruisers, but it’s great to just drive; you don’t have to be going anywhere in particular. There’s nothing I love more than just coming out to the garage and looking at it. It just makes me immensely happy. It gets up and goes when I want it to, but just cruising at the speed limit puts a big smile on my face. How do you go parking it?

Finding a space long enough is a challenge! Being left-hand drive, parking isn’t too bad because I can get within a few millimetres of a gutter. But because it’s so low, sometimes

the gutter will stop the driver’s door from opening. I’ve had to climb out the passenger side a few times. Have you owned any other cool toys?

My very first car was an HT Kingswood. Later on I had a ZC Fairlane with a stroked 351, when fuel prices weren’t ridiculous. There’s also been Jap stuff like some 60s Coronas and a Datsun 720, but most recently I had a VC Commodore on ’bags, which I drove pretty much everywhere. What do you do for a living?

I’m a police officer, of all things! People say, “Really? With that car?” But I’m not trafficoriented; I don’t go around pulling people over. In fact, you may be surprised by how many coppers are in the car scene.

Mark is well-connected to Street Machine alumni. “I’ve been kicking around with Shannon Heraud [SM, Aug ’18] and Heath Van Der Waerden [SM, Mar ’21] for a few years. They’re way above my skill level with fabricating and building, but having a small feature in the mag is a bucket-list item for me”

Mark says the Best of Van Wheels magazines were hardest to track down, but they eventually cropped up on ebay. Most other back issues came from swap meets in the early 2000s Although it no longer sports the factory-issued vinyl roof, the 300 still proudly wears its original paint. “As much as I don’t want to use the term, it’s got patina,” Mark laughs

“With cars, I like pretty much everything,” says Mark. “No matter what make, country of origin, whatever – I’ve made a point of buying stuff that you just don’t see often”