DAVID DANN
MELBOURNE, VICTORIA
FOR our third and final Snap Shots instalment on Victorian David Dann, we’ve focused on photos that tug at David’s heartstrings, full of memories of great mates, great times and the poignancy of change. “I’ve had a terrific life,” he says. “I’ve met some amazing people, had so many great times and tried to make the most of every opportunity. Melbourne and I are on very good terms, with so many of my life experiences and fond recollections firmly rooted in my hometown.” And whether it be cars or bikes, these pics prove that David has always stuck to his own guns: “I’ve always liked what I like and never given a second thought to the complications of any of it.” Amen to that!
01: DAVID reckons he and his mates were incapable of taking a serious photo as young blokes. “I swear there was always a random helmet, hand gesture or facial expression involved, which is why pics like this make me still giggle like an idiot four decades later,” he laughs. “That’s my mate Andrew Holdsworth sporting the doubleblues attire and me all dressed up with nowhere to race. I’d destroyed the 454-cube big-block motor in my red Tempest, so I had it out for a freshen-up, no doubt champing at the bit to get it done and back to Calder.”
02: REMEMBER the perfect, one-owner ’57 Chev with 20,000 miles on the clock that David bought from a Bacchus Marsh farmer (Snap Shots, SM, Jan ’23)? David has some regrets about what he did to that mint-condition ride: “I vacuumed the soul out of that car with the mods and changes I made to it.” Still, the Aussie-assembled, Blue Flame six-cylinder ’57 served as a transition from David’s hot FJ Holden to his first V8 car, a red 1968 Pontiac GTO (right of photo). “I only cared about US stuff by this stage and bought the GTO from well-known local drag racer Rob Cocks, who ran a tough, black ’57 Chev in C/gas,” David says. “I sold the GTO a couple of years later to help fund my Tempest build.”
03: MELBOURNE’S Calder Park Raceway was a second home for David and his mates in the 1970s and early 80s, and here he is in his red Tempest lined up for a run against Zephyr king and burnout legend John Peterson. “John and I were quite good friends, and I remember he blew my doors off in this race,” David recalls. “He was a heavy hitter and pretty serious guy back in the day, but he was a really nice bloke to boot. These were the glory days for us; you’d come home smelling of burnt rubber and tortured clutches. Drag racing was everything to me and every other young bloke with a bit of disposable income. It was nothing to have crowds of 30-50,000 people at Calder on the big nights like Top Fuel; it was like being at an AFL grand final.”
04: HERE’S some of the big guns of Victoria’s hot-car scene loitering with intent at the Bulleen Drive-in in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. On the far left is Dennis Nosworthy’s red ’32 five-window coupe, flanked by an early incarnation of Andrew Holdsworth’s XR Falcon sedan (Legend, SM, Feb ’20), David’s Tempest and – just in shot – his
mate Colin’s ’32 roadster. “Colin’s roadster was a pretty quick, serious car for a street-driven hot rod, running a 4V-headed 351 backed by a Top Loader,” David says. “We were all like-minded, fairdinkum heavy hitters who just lived and breathed our cars, with no pussying around.”
05: IT MIGHT just look like two mates having a laugh, but there’s more to this photo than that. “That’s me on my 1982 Suzuki GSX1100E, and the guy on the kids’ trike is my mate, Barry, who I met by pure fluke. I seriously have split my life into two parts: ‘Before Barry’ and ‘After Barry’,” David laughs. “I was working for a bloke who designed and installed neon signs in Brunswick in mid-to-late 1983, and I was sent to a secondhand 50s clothing store in Fitzroy to do a quote. The shop’s owner, who turned out to be Barry, came out and climbed into a beautiful white ’57 Cadillac Eldorado. I was smitten with that car and, soon enough, the whole ‘bohemian’ lifestyle it represented and the Fitzroy scene in general. Barry and I became great friends, and it wasn’t long before I was immersed in the local jazz and art worlds. I went from being a bit of a hero in the hot-car scene to being an absolute nobody in this environment; it was just the shift my life needed at that time. Everyone was funny, too; a great sense of humour was a must, and it was one of the best periods of my life. I feel privileged to have been a part of it.”
06: HERE’S an edgy David sitting proudly atop his 1952 Triumph Tiger 100 motorcycle. “It had a 500cc donk with rigid rear suspension, and I bought it as a clunker from a bike shop around 1984,” he recalls. “They weren’t worth much back in those days, but I wish I still had it now – it was cool-as. I sold it to purchase a windowless 1965 Mini panel van, which I loved desperately and is another vehicle I’d have back in a heartbeat. This photo was taken out the front of Barry’s clothing shop; the black Valiant S-series was owned by a customer of the Black Cat Café, which was situated next door – it seemed like the perfect photo opportunity. I never lost my interest in old motorcycles, and although my desire for tough cars had waned a little by this point, life has a funny way of going full circle, and I eventually found my way back to four-wheeled projects.”
07: IN THE mid-1990s, David worked as a researcher for Working Dog Productions and supplied his 1972 Harley-davidson as a setdressing prop for the company’s legendary current affairs satire, Frontline. “Steve Bisley played executive producer Graham ‘Prowsey’ Prowse for the third season, and his character was touted as being aggressive, bad-tempered and unashamedly sexist,” David explains. “The Working Dog team always exercised amazing attention to detail, and a pic of Prowsey and a bikini-clad girl on a Harley was framed and used as a desk prop for his office scenes to further entrench the character’s brashness. I couldn’t let the opportunity pass, so I asked both Steve and the model if they’d mind if I joined them for a photo; it now sits framed on my desk at home to further entrench my own brashness!”