Scott goes back to the 1960s to savour the purest form of driving

When Scott Walker looks out at his garage, he sees more than a collection of five cool, classic “survivor” cars. He also sees a deposit on a first home for himself, wife Kerryn and their two daughters.

Walker, 34, a catering company owner from NSW’s Central Coast, concedes his current landlords might not see quite the same thing.

“My in-laws probably aren’t super-stoked about having five cars here,” Walker says. “But they’re pretty tolerant — they’ve given me a garage at the bottom of the yard.”

The focus of Walker’s classic collection is the BMW “02” series, or E10, built from 1966 to 1977. Walker has three of them, two of which are rarer, early versions with circular tail-lights.

“I started off liking the E30 (a later 3 Series, from 1982-94) when I was a kid but everyone had them. You want to have something that not everybody has,” he says.

“The E10s are just the most pure form of driving. They’re so straightforward, with front engine and rear-wheel drive, single overhead cam engine, four-speed manual and four-wheel disc brakes.

“You’re 100 per cent connected to the road.” Walker also has a 1974 Datsun 260Z and a 1967 split-window VW Kombi — which, he says, “my daughters and I take to the beach and sell coffees out of, for a laugh”.

They await cosmetic niceties or, in the case of two of the BMWs, bigger restoration plans.

“My cars are in ‘survivor’ condition. They’ve got their bruises,” he says. “I’d much rather look after the mechanicals than the paint.”

His regular classic drive is the white 1966 BMW 1600.

“I paid $8000 for it, eight years ago. I could have kept it on the road for virtually nothing, but I’ve bought a genuine Nardi steering wheel, an original radio, new Bilstein suspension … Allup, it probably owes me $13,000-$14,000.”

Helped by Kerryn, Walker replaced the original 1.6-litre engine with a later 2.0-litre.

“BMW evolved this four-cylinder ‘M10’ engine over many years, so my 1966 car has a 1987 engine in it,” he says.

“I paid $500 for it, and the original rocker cover and external parts bolt straight back on, so when you open the bonnet you can’t really tell.”

His other BMWs will become replicas of the period-hero 2002 Alpina and 2002 Turbo performance models.

“The Alpina replica will be my dream build,” he says. “Ideally, I’d love to keep that and the Turbo replica, too.

“The E10s are just such a happy little car, not angry-looking, like all new cars are. It’s bright-eyed, it has a big, smiley face.

“The 1600 is looking at me now, going, ‘Mate, are we going for a drive, or what?’ ”

The five classics are in addition to a VW Caddy work van and a new Mercedes-Benz C200 for family duties.

Much as he enjoys his classic cars, Walker acknowledges they are a saleable asset for a home deposit.

“My catering business has started to turn over consistent money and these cars are actually a good place for me to park it,” he says.

“If I had to sell the BMWs, the Datsun and the Kombi tomorrow, there’s about $95,000 sitting there. I’ve tested the waters and there’s plenty of people ready to buy them. They’re a pretty liquid asset.”