The 1933 MG that brings folk together
If there was ever an enthusiastic vintage vehicle owner, Jim Murphy was he.
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Mr Murphy spent more than an hour barely coming up for breath as he spoke passionately about the love of his motoring life — a 1933 MG J2 3003, affectionately named Min — one crisp July day this year.
Mr Murphy, a UK import himself, had purchased the MG around three years earlier, recalling it was every Irish boy’s dream in the 1950s and ’60s to own one.
“There weren’t a lot in Ireland, and I just fell in love,” he said.
Poetically, the tiny MG also led him to another love: his now wife, who owned a more modern MG, and struck up a conversation with Mr Murphy about the vehicles.
The rest, as they say, is history.
This Qualls for questioning
We cover many juice-guzzling jalopies in the pages of Dude, here’s my car, but sometimes the car’s backstory is the juiciest bit about it.
We loved the mysterious story of inspiration behind the 2023 Dodge Challenger Black Ghost tribute model that was on display at MOVE in September.
It was modelled on the street racing vehicle owned by army veteran and Detroit police officer Godfrey Qualls, who used to show up unidentifiably at street races behind the wheel of a 426 Hemi-powered 1970 Challenger RT/SE.
His was one of only 23 produced in 1970 with a four-speed manual transmission.
In it, he dominated the scene, but would disappear into thin air as soon as his race was over to avoid being exposed.
The 2023 Black Ghost tribute at MOVE had a 6.2-litre supercharged V8 with 807 horsepower and 707 lb/ft of torque, and less than 400km on the clock.
Rare piece of automotive history travels to town for limited time
While we’re on the topic of rare cars on display at MOVE, we must make mention of the Tucker Torpedo that arrived at the museum in winter.
There were only 51 built, only 47 of them remain, and only one of those is in Australia.
The innovative icon of automotive history was built in the 1940s by inventor, designer and entrepreneur Preston Tucker, who was years ahead of his time with the vehicle’s design.
Besides its many and varied futuristic features, another point of interest was that it was powered by a motor originally made for a Bell 47 helicopter.
Its release inspired a film — Tucker: The Man and His Dream— which documented the story of Tucker’s vision and struggle against existing industry giants.
Its interesting history goes far deeper than the car’s aesthetics and functionality.
It’s worth reading about!
Twin hot rods are dream machines
Georgie Peacock kindly shared her immaculate motoring masterpieces with The News for Dude, here’s my car in October.
The two ’32 Fords — one a Roadster, the other a three-window Coupe — were immaculately restored by her late husband, Ray Aumann, who Georgie said, “just really loved working on cars”.
He bought both the Fords as just grey fibreglass bodies from Deuce Customs in Melbourne before bringing them back to the Goulburn Valley to create dream cars for him and his wife.
He fitted them with Cleveland engines, rare wheels and painted the Coupe himself. He had become too sick to paint the Roadster black, but oversaw its picture-perfect completion.
Georgie said she would hold on to the pair of hot rods for ever.
Doc’s time machine of both movie and MOVE-y fame
We went Back to the Future at MOVE in August when we got a look at a time machine of sorts.
Made famous by the 1985 film and its characters Marty McFly and Dr Emmett ‘Doc’ Brown, the DeLorean would be a head-turner anyway with its distinctive gull-wing doors, rear engine and trademark brushed stainless panels.
“It doesn’t matter who you are — a little kid, grandparent, into cars, or know nothing about cars,” MOVE’s Andrew Church said.
“It resonates with everybody. Everyone recognises it.”
Even though the vehicle looked the part, it reportedly performed disappointingly.
Nonetheless, the DeLorean’s popularity still reaches far and wide, thanks to the cult classic film cementing its iconic image.
‘We’re not going to hide it’
Whether it’s the “lumpy” sound of the engine or the boom from the sub-woofers, you’re going to hear Graham Sylvester’s 1971 HQ Holden coming.
A project car that got its long-awaited royal treatment during COVID-19 lockdowns, it’s more about looks and performance than efficiency.
With the car restored as a gift for his 13-year-old son when he turns 21, Graham is not going to keep it under wraps until then, taking it out once or twice each week to keep it running smoothly.
“If we’ve spent so much money on it, we’re not going to hide it; we’re going to drive it,” Mr Sylvester said.
Next on Graham’s project list is a Holden HZ for his younger son (11) for when he turns 21.
Brock’s legendary Torana takes pole position
Race cars don’t like to go slow, but Brocky’s 1974 Australian Touring Car Championship-winning Torana came to a stop at MOVE this year.
The Holden Torana XU-1 is best known for Doug Chivas pushing it into the pit lane in the 1973 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 at Bathurst after it ran out of fuel.
It was first prepared for the 1973 racing season and finished runner-up in the 1973 ‘Great Race’, the first-ever 1000km race, after that now infamous delay, but also helped Aussie racing royalty Peter Brock take his first of three Australian Touring Car Championships the year after.
There are some iconic images of this car in existence, not least the ones of Chivas pushing it uphill into the pits that day back in the ’70s.
The News managed to get its own photos of the legendary beast on MOVE’s showroom floor for Dude, here’s my car.
Esmeralda: the vintage car turning heads and winning hearts
Jeff Falcone owned a speedy GT Falcon for 35 years, but he says his much slower 1925 Dodge Tourer — named Esmeralda — is more fun.
He bought the beast from a seller in Queensland a couple of years ago after a search that had lasted years.
He had initially wanted to buy a later model one (vintage circa 1928) that was fitted with hydraulic brakes, but fell in love with Esmeralda the moment he saw her, cable brakes and all.
With all her lovely timber features, she’s a heavy beauty who sits comfortably around 35 to 40 miles per hour (55 to 65km/h) — with a top speed of around 50m/h (80km/h) — on the road.
Jeff said she was a real talking point when he and his wife, Viv, were out and about with her during the milder months.
It’s no myth, this Elfin is the real deal
Former Shepparton race-car driver Bryan Thomson’s Elfin might be elfish in size, but the shining little red vehicle packs a powerful punch.
The MS8 was the first MS8 ordered and delivered and the third Elfin in his impressive automotive collection.
Mr Thomson said it was special to him because he worked alongside the car-maker’s founder Garrie Cooper, who died in 1982, to complete his first Elfin; a pretty ‘Mallala’, which ran second on debut in the South Australian Sports Car Championships in December, 1963.
When the Elfin MS8 series was displayed at the 2004 Melbourne Motor Show, Mr Thomson ordered one on the spot.
“I thought, ‘This is what Garrie Cooper always wanted to do’,” Mr Thomson said.
It is currently on display at MOVE.
Legendary race cars have more than one local connection
While we’re on the subject of local legend Bryan Thomson, we are throwing back to September when we featured two more of the beauties he drove.
One, an original, was the Mercedes-Benz in which he won the Australian Sports Sedan GT championship.
The second was a replica of a Chevy V8-powered Volkswagen that impressively raced at 29 meets over two years.
Thomson and racecar engineer Peter Fowler created the Volksrolet in the early ’70s, which collected 23 firsts, 14 seconds, six thirds, two lap records and 43 major placings in its 56 starts.
It was scrapped after retirement, but this replica was brought to life later from photos, notes and memories.
In 1980, Fowler built the ‘Shepparton Mercedes Chev sports sedan’, first using the quad valve engine he and Thomson built for the VW.
Thomson drove it to his first national title after more than two decades of racing at an elite level, winning the 1985 GT Australian Championship.
In 2020, the Mercedes became a part of the Simon Pfitzner Historic Sports Sedan Collection.
Senior journalist