Innehållsförteckning för Volume 5 från RETROMOTIVE

Greetings! When I first started working as a photographer for car magazines, there were moments when I’d pause and have a look at what I was doing, where I was or what I was photographing and have a little chuckle and think: ‘I can’t believe someone is paying me to do this.’ The days are often long and sometimes things don’t go to plan… or there was never a plan to begin with. For a very long time now, I haven’t been able to imagine doing anything else and I didn’t really know what to do when I fell out of love with photography. For a commercial shoot, it’s not unusual to lug a tonne of gear around – about the same amount as a three-piece band on occasion. Lighting,…

TOPPLED by a giraffe. Totalled by a train. Buried in a snowdrift. Lofty Drews is old-school rally. Used recce notes – FBR for F*#@* and a hand winch to tie a car’s loose rear axle in place. Welded up suspension with a wheelbarrow-borne gen-set. Spoke the local lingo. In days when sponsors were few and stage service was scanty, Lofty was a do-it-yourselfer, from the co-driver’s or driver’s seat. And he won plaudits and prizes, perhaps most notably sharing a battered Datsun 240Z with fellow African Shekhar Mehta to take out the 1973 East African Safari. So Lofty became sought after by rally teams whenever the contest turned to the challenges and adventures of the Safari. Lofty – born Harald Drews in Tanzania in 1940 – has had 45 serious…

It’s been Renault since day dot for Jeff Bee. ‘A Renault 16 was my first car – back in those days, Renault still had a presence in Australia. Bob Watson won a couple of Australian Rally championships in a Renault 8 Gordini. There was a group of us that used to rally Renault 10s. So, if you were a Renault person you were a bit of a rally person by default.’ Alpine was the brainchild of Jean Rédélé, originally a Dieppe garage owner and also the youngest Renault dealer in France. He began his career in motorsport by racing and modifying Renault 4CVs. THE SHORT RIDE IN COLIN’S A110 CONFIRMED THE YOUNG MAN’S FANTASIES. He had some success and soon there was a demand for the types of cars he…

1964: John F. Kennedy had just been assassinated. Robert Menzies was still the Prime Minister of Australia. TV was black and white and men dreamed of going to the moon. Two years earlier, 26-year-old Garrie Cooper of Elfin race car manufacturers in Adelaide, was inspired by aircraft technology to pen a new design on butchers paper. His blueprint was unique. Cooper was proposing to construct a race car with a light steel skeleton to which alloy sheet was bonded and riveted with 2000 rivets, forming an extremely light, stiff, fully-stressed monocoque chassis. At the time, Ferrari and Porsche were the most highly funded F1 manufacturers and formula cars of the day were assembled with steel tube superleggera (super-light) frames. Enzo was still putting the horse before the cart. THE FINISH…

The year of ’63 was big for the Beatles, surf music and Craig Breedlove topping 655 km/h in his jet-engined Spirit of America on the salt flats of Utah. Here the EH Holden was launched to great acclaim, and sales success, while motorists were left puzzled, and unimpressed, by the odd-looking Lightburn Zetas out of Adelaide. It was a big year too for the second generation of America’s homegrown sports car, the Chevrolet Corvette. Two all-new, razzle-dazzle models – including the first Corvette Stingray coupe with unique split rear window and a convertible –appeared in showrooms, priced from $US4037. The new Vettes were striking and very sporting machines for the day. And in January, 1963 a special deal was going down at the Aloha Chevrolet dealership in Honolulu where a…

MATT Hoffman has always loved the idea of owning an old truck. ‘I think it goes hand in hand with surfing’s culture and I’ve been a surfer my whole life.’ For many of us a car represents a sense of freedom. With a tank of gas and a little bit of motivation you can go just about anywhere. The 4x4 naturally embodies that spirit and takes it further. No longer confined to the highway or the bitumen, you get the sense you can go anywhere and do anything – even if it just ends up being driving to and from work most days. This dream of adventure or being able to get it away from it all might be the reason the vintage 4x4 market is having a bit of…

You’ll find it hard not to be impressed if you ever walk through the doors at Renner Auto. The workshop is clean – laboratory clean. The Renner Auto neon sign glows in the workshop, and silhouettes the machinery visible through what looks like a store front window. To my right, a 356 Speedster shell, past that a Jaguar XJ13 showing off that glorious V12 engine. Parked behind that, sitting pretty in period Gulf Livery, is the Renner Auto GT40. Jason Ferraro gets up from his Mac – which has a terribly technical looking schematic on the screen – to greet me. ‘Find the place okay?’ Jason is a mechanical engineer who has always ‘had a car on the go’. His first was a ’64 Beetle that he ‘ripped to a…

According to some people, the car I’m strapped into doesn’t exist. And if I don’t find the right balance between clutch and accelerator crossing this blind crest – they may very well be right. Many have told Alan Henry that he couldn’t possibly own a factory right-hand-drive Lancia Fulvia works car. They just didn’t make them. ‘Had the car for 49 years now.’ Alan had a car dealership in Canberra in the ’60s selling NSUs, Porsches and Lancias. He came across the works car when he was at Lambdas (agent for Lancia at the time) to collect a new car for a customer. ‘It was originally sold to Dennis Pritchard who played football for the Rabbitohs. I told them, “when you want to sell it, give me a call”. Not…

Andy Bogossian loves his bright yellow Porsche. Loves it, loves it, loves it. Loved it from the moment he saw it on a secondhand car lot in Los Angeles. Loved it as a show-’n-’shine concours-winning car. Loved it as a track car. Knows every nut, bolt and mid-engined nuance of this low-slung 914-6. And loved it enough to leave it in storage for years when he headed to Australia and then write letter after letter before bureaucratic wheels turned and allowed him to import, and drive, his prized lefthand drive car over here. ‘I couldn’t wait to get a little piece of me here’, smiles the engineer. ‘BUT I DIDN’T TELL MY MOM OR DAD, I WAS TERRIFIED. THEY WEREN’T CAR PEOPLE. I WAITED A YEAR TO TELL THEM.’ ANDY…

Most of us who grew up with a Lamborghini poster on the wall dreamt of swinging open those scissor doors and firing up that sweet, sweet V12 engine. The big kid in us still gets a shot of excitement when we see one on the road; ownership has remained a pipe dream for most of us. ‘Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would own something like this. I’m living a boy’s childhood dream’, says James. ‘I still pinch myself, even after owning it for two years now.’ James concedes that he grew up a ‘bit of a bogan’ and still considers himself mostly bogan. Nevertheless, a Diablo is a far stretch from a clapped out VN with a ‘sik’ exhaust and a set of ‘sweet’ third-hand rims…

MOST automotive enthusiasts would associate the word ‘Carrera’ with Porsche cars. A Spanish word that stands for ‘race’ and ‘career’, Porsche started using the Carrera name for its base 911 models to boost sales in 1984, commemorating the company’s success in the Carrera Panamericana road race held in Mexico between 1950 and 1954. A couple of decades prior, however, the sexy sounding word had already resonated with Swiss watchmaking legend Jack Heuer – the man famously known for bringing together the world of motorsport and chronographs in the 1960s to create a lasting heritage for the brand - Heuer Watchmaking Inc (now known as TAG Heuer). In 1962, he learnt of the infamous Mexican road race named after the Spanish word and registered the name ‘Heuer Carrera’ in Switzerland, and…

The throaty siren song emanating from the triple sidedraught Webers feeding a 2.0-litre straight six cast a spell that would last a life time for Barry Jarred. The noise reverberating off the buildings in the Adelaide CBD stirred something in the young man that stuck with him for many years to come. ‘I heard the Prince Skyline GT-B before I saw it. It took off from a set of lights, and I’ll never forget that noise. But at the time, I couldn’t afford a spare wheel for them let alone the whole car.’ The price of $3450 wasn’t particularly cheap for a new car at the time, and it was certainly out of reach for 18-year-old Barry. A standard four-cylinder Skyline was a lot cheaper, but less desirable – and…

The Lamborghini and Monteverdi marques were both born out of a disagreement with the notoriously difficult Enzo Ferrari. Like Ferruccio Lamborghini, Peter Monteverdi had humble beginnings, getting his hands dirty with tractors but eventually rising to take on the most prestigious sports car manufacturer of the time. Peter Monteverdi was born in Binningen, Switzerland in 1934 and started his automotive career as an apprentice mechanic with tractor manufacturer Vevey. He then went on to finish his training at the Swiss commercial vehicle manufacturer Saurer in Arbon. His father owned an automotive repair garage and after his death in 1956, Monteverdi, then 22, took over the business with the intention of transforming it into a luxury car dealership. He was the Swiss agent for BMW, Lancia and Rolls-Royce. AT ITS PEAK,…

Aden Jacobi rummages through drawer after drawer brimming with artwork that should be framed and mounted on the walls. ‘I’ve got a unique filing system, really should sort this out one day.’ He flicks through stacks of conceptual drawings, house designs, posters, magazine covers, nightclub plans, logos, flyers and cars, lots of really cool cars. A few things catch my eye as he rummages – ‘Oh yeah, I did the graphic design for the John Goss special Falcon.’ He flicks past a storyboard featuring a yellow Torana. ‘Ha, this bloke lead police on a chase back in the ’80s in an SL/R Torana. He wanted to depict the story as a series mounted on his wall.’ On the walls hang sentimental treasures: a signed pack of Winfield Blue cigarettes, a…