Landsborough, Father’s Day 2026. The car park area designated for cars and coffee was filling fast when I arrived around 7.30am. Polished chrome caught the morning sun, bonnet lids were raised.
A congregation of mostly men, and some women, had gathered to admire and pass judgement on each other’s cars.
While waiting for my cappuccino, John Bridge, 62, struck up a conversation with me about his friend Bryan Smith’s 1975 VJ Valiant, resplendent in its Plum Crazy paintwork.
When I learned this striking car was possibly the only one of its kind remaining in Australia, my interest was piqued.
But what began as a conversation about a rare car soon became a story about a friendship based on a shared passion for old school cars that has lasted more than 40 years. According to John, ‘old school’ is defined as any car without a computer.
As teenagers, John lived at Burnside and Bryan at Nambour Heights. Money was scarce, so to keep their cars on the road, they had to help each other out when the vehicles needed a little love.
“We’d break them on Friday night then work on them Saturday so you could go out again Saturday night,” John says.
Bryan, now 58, bought his Valiant 15 years ago. It’s an unusual car, partly because of the circumstances surrounding its drivetrain.
As John explains, industrial disputes and supply problems in the 1970s meant the car ended up with an American TorqueFlite (instead of an Australian Borg-Warner), something rarely seen in a six-cylinder Valiant.
But what makes this car really interesting is it has called the Sunshine Coast home its entire life. It was purchased new in 1975 from Wyn Motors in Nambour. Bryan bought it 36 years later from a Mopar dealer, also in Nambour.
Over time, John has helped modify the car in ways to make it suitable for cruising. John claims the car scene on the Coast is booming.
When asked why, he responds: “I think people want to hold onto a little bit of history and relive their youth”.
His current project is a Ford Falcon XC and he has something to prove: that restoring an old car doesn’t have to be a rich person’s game.
“I’m trying to prove you can build a car without having to get a mortgage, so I’m doing everything myself,” he says.
He estimates the project will cost less than $10,000.
“I can prove to people that it can be done for that much. It might even be less. It’s not going to be a show car.
“It’s just going to be something to drive. You want to hop in, turn the key and just drive.”
John’s philosophy comes from decades as a truck mechanic and from learning the “old-fashioned way”.
“I was taught, like the movie Running on Empty, it’s all in the fingers, it’s all in the feel,” he explains. “You use a screwdriver to listen to things, you put your hand on it, you become one with it, that’s how I was taught.
“I learnt from my uncle, who’s now passed, how to tune cars without a timing light and no gear, just my eyes – and that’s how you do it.”
For John, cars are about more than driving pleasure. They’re also about community. He’s been with the Just 8s club for 12 years.
The club has more than 200 members and has raised money for charities across the Sunshine Coast, with men’s and women’s health among its major causes.
John introduces me to another car enthusiast, 79-year-old Sandy Fleming, and I find myself sitting in the passenger seat of her magenta 1972 VH Charger.
As Sandy talks me through the specs – a 265 hemi, triple Webers, four-speed manual gearbox and upgraded Commodore front brakes – it’s evident that her passion is palpable.
“I just love it. It’s my space, my freedom, my escape and I play music so loud I never ask anyone to come with me because they couldn’t stand it,” she laughs.
The soundtrack varies from Vangelis (atmospheric electronic beats) to pop rock, psy-trance, dance and dark country.
Sandy’s husband, Lyle Lawrence, restored the Charger for her when the couple purchased it 20 years ago.
“When it was first done, I did go to local shows and it won about 14 trophies,” Sandy says.
“It wouldn’t win anything at a big hot rod show, it’s not good enough.
“It wasn’t built as a show car because I want to drive it. I don’t want to have a car that I just sit and look at it in the garage.”
Sandy came of age during the 1960s and 1970s muscle car era but confesses she “wasn’t into cars” back then.
But it was love at first sight when she first laid eyes on a 1957 Customline. Her passion for cars grew from there – and ultimately led her to Lyle.
The pair met through their shared love of cars 30 years ago and have now been married for 20. Lyle had a Charger back then too and the duo was in the same car club.
These days Lyle drives a Chrysler 300C and the couple’s everyday car is a Commodore ute. But driving her Charger is what gets Sandy’s internal motor racing.
“I know it’s just a hunk of metal, and I don’t worship it, although I do love it. It’s a car,” she laughs.
As we continue to chat, Neville Humpherys, 53, saunters past and greets Sandy with this comment: “I know your Charger, I chased you down Glenview Road the other day”.
Many of the people here seem to know each other by their cars, and are not necessarily acquainted on a first-name basis.
Neville’s passion is the Leyland P76, the Australian-designed and Australian-built car manufactured in Sydney and released in 1973.
Neville tells me production lasted only a short time, with roughly 16,000 to 18,000 built. It was deemed a “lemon” not long after release amid quality problems, while the 1973 oil crisis, production difficulties and the financial collapse of British Leyland contributed to its short-lived success.
Today, its scarcity has made it a sought-after piece of Australian motoring history. For Neville, though, the appeal is personal. His parents and grandparents owned P76s. In 1979, Neville’s grandparents used theirs to tow a caravan around Australia.
Neville bought his first P76 in 1990 and now owns two fairly rare Targa Florios, in Omega Navy and Nutmeg, both kept in original condition. He is also the technical adviser for the Queensland P76 club, which has about 40 members.
Like John, his car knowledge was earned through necessity. “I just tinkered around. Did it myself and figured it out.”
That same instinct has passed to his sons, Travis, 22, and Marcus, 20. Travis is a diesel mechanic, while Marcus is studying engineering at UQ.
Together with Neville, Marcus has spent two years transforming a neglected 1995 E36 BMW into a race car.
The BMW was originally intended to be Travis’ first car, but when Travis became a four-wheel-drive “nut”, Marcus saw another possibility.
“We were going to keep it as is, but when we went to try to start it, the motor seized, so Nev came up with the bright idea of putting a P76 motor into it because we just had them lying around, and it would make decent power for fairly cheap,” Marcus explains.
The project is almost finished, and Nev and Marcus plan to race the car.
For Marcus, the attraction is less about owning a fast car than understanding how to make one work. “I think the whole set-up of cars is the most interesting thing about them,” he says. “Having gone through uni, you see all the theory about how it all works and so actually applying it to a car is what’s interesting.”
To find out more about the Just 8s Car Club Sunshine Coast, visit its Facebook page. For another dose of retro motoring, Rick’s Garage in Palmwoods is a popular haunt for classic-car enthusiasts and regularly attracts an impressive line-up of vintage and custom cars.
