by Tony O’Donnell
What prompted me to buy an F90 BMW M5 Competition? This question started me thinking about a common theme that might link my motoring choices. I grew up around cars; my father was a panelbeater and he often had small jobs around home. I often “helped” when I was still in early primary school.
I devoured car magazines from an early age, all the Australian ones, most of the American, but not too many from England. I found the magazines far more interesting than whatever was on offer in the school curriculum. While I liked reading about sports cars and European cars, the family influence, the need to carry mates and occasional towing duties, steered my tastes to the bigger stuff. But reading about things like Lotus Elans and Europas and a certain road test of a Lancia Fulvia HF always stuck with me.
My father always liked big American cars and, at about the same time I received a learner’s permit, traded a 1964 Pontiac Parisienne on a 1971 Dodge Phoenix Hardtop, his first new car.
While still at school, I bought my first car, a manual AP5 Valiant: relatively big, powerful and comfortable compared to my mates’ grey motor Holdens, Morris Minors and other forgettable jiggers. That made the Valiant the transport of choice to carry a load of people, plus surfboards, up and down the coast. The AP5 made way for my first V8, a VF Valiant Regal 770 Hardtop. It also had its time carrying mates and surfboards. I lowered the Regal, stuck on some seven inch Aunger wheels and a K-Mac rear sway bar. To me that transformed the handling… but see above for my reference points.
Things got more serious when, having just missed a 1969 Dodge Charger R/T, my attention turned to Falcon GTs. At 19, I spotted a yellow XA manual sedan. I liked the XA because it had a better interior than the earlier models and felt pretty planted on the road. With its high backed vinyl seats, good heater and decent AM radio, later supplemented by a not-so-decent cassette player, it seemed the height of performance and luxury, big, fast and comfortable. Over the course of nine years, the Falcon served as a daily driver, road tripper and tow car for the Elfin 600 Formula Ford. It was great fun and there was no thought back then of these local car-things ever being precious collectables.
The next muscle car purchase, while I still had the Falcon, was a 1969 Mustang Mach 1 428 Cobra Jet. Big, certainly fast, and not necessarily comfortable. I looked underneath and, yes, it really did have suspension. Except, I couldn’t feel any evidence of suspension on the road. Combined with hard, flat seats (with non-adjustable backrests) the ride certainly was uncomfortable, yet the car was enormous fun. It went round corners fairly well, at least on properly smooth roads; though I discovered very few such roads existed. I’d still like another Mustang, but perhaps a bit better sorted than my one (I suspect a previous owner assumed that stiffer shocks meant better handling). I’ve driven some good, properly sorted, Mustangs since.
Over the years all those car magazines had influence. I’ve owned a few Italian cars as well, a small bunch of Fiats (I still own an X1/9), some Lancias and an Alfasud Ti. There’s also an Elfin 600 in the shed from that time when I fancied myself as a racing driver. At auction I bought a BMW 3.0S automatic, another big comfortable sedan, a great long-distance hauler. It served as a terrific daily driver and took four of us on a memorable overnight dash to Adelaide for the first Grand Prix. A while later this BMW carried my daughter home from hospital.
Much of the next few years was spent driving rather dull company cars. I wasn’t going to name them because I didn’t want to offend Commodore owners. We were only issued poverty pack cars which seemed to slip in quality and equipment with every successive model. Also in the mix were a Ford Courier and a Chrysler PT Cruiser. The best thing I can say about any of them is that someone else was paying.
But I always kept something Italian around. Later on, I found another BMW, an E12 528i. There have been a couple of Mercedes-Benz in the mix too. Later still I owned an F82 BMW M4 for a few years, loved it but realised I needed four doors.
At the urging of my daughter, a proper BMW tragic herself with an M140i (one of my favourite cars and a Finale Edition of the rear wheel drive 1 series), I bought a fully caged 335i track car, as a belated retirement present. Who’s influencing who here? The M5 Competition is the first new car I’ve ever owned. It was a novelty to be able to walk into a dealership and choose a colour, heavily influenced by my daughter again. This one reminds me of that Falcon GT so many years ago; big, fast and comfortable with a bit of muscle car edge. It’s interesting, though, that this one is seriously fast, faster I suppose than I’ll ever need. It can get to 100 km/h in less than half the time (3.4secs versus 8.1seconds) of that Falcon and seems to use less than half the fuel. I sit in great seats, cruising with my chosen temperature set and my favourite music, the stuff not appreciated at home, playing on Spotify. I think this one’s a keeper. I also have an F20 125i, another livelier performer than the old GT, for run around and shopping centre carpark duties.
I’ve dabbled in motorsport; having watched speedway as a kid my first thought was to try that. My first brief drive of any racing car was in an Offy powered midget around Liverpool Speedway. A distinct lack of family enthusiasm and a new girlfriend put that plan to bed. Eventually I bought an Elfin 600 Formula Ford in which I had enormous fun on different circuits without troubling the front runners. Not entirely coincidentally, my racing career was put on hold not long after I was married. In more recent times I’ve driven a couple of Valiants in some grassroots drag racing. The Elfin is waiting its turn for restoration.
Meanwhile a group of us are participating in a low-budget endurance series with a Peugeot 306. The driver lineup now consists of my daughter, her partner (also the engineer, mechanic and team manager) and me. For a number of years I worked for Shannon’s Insurance, a good excuse to talk cars and to car people all day. I enjoyed my time there and met people who remain friends 10 years after I left. I’ve been a member of a number of car clubs and councils and I’m a committee member on the Lancia Motor Club, Council of Motor Clubs and the board of Sydney Dragway, along with a couple of others. I founded the Australian Confederation of Motor Clubs to give various branches of our enthusiast community a combined voice when talking to governments. That, and the collaboration that has happened since, is probably the thing that gives me the most satisfaction; I received the largest trophy I’ve ever received – The Rare Spares Legend Award – for services to street machining, presented at Summernats. I still feel there’s a Lancia Fulvia Coupe somewhere in the not-too-distant future.
As a parting thought: I always hear concern about where the next generation of enthusiasts will come from. Look close to home and include the family in what you’re doing.
