1971 125cc Benelli Sport Special

1969 was a year of contrasts. On the dark side of the ledger, the Vietnam War was in full swing, while, on a lighter note, humanity ‘spaced out’ at the Woodstock festival and then went out into space and landed men on the moon. When Neil Armstrong jumped onto the lunar surface pronouncing it a ‘small step’, planet earth watched in awe and begged to differ that it was anything but ‘small’.

1969 was also the year that David Delaforce’s Chevrolet C10 was built – a classic American pick-up that somehow found its way to these shores and, in 2010, to an auction house in Brisbane.

“I bought it from Pickles auctions,” says David. “Among other things, Pickles deal in damaged vehicles. We go every week and it just
happened to be there.
‘We’ is David and son Wayne, who works with David at the 8-acre Park Ridge Wreckers south of Brisbane, and who shares David’s passion for classic American muscle (he owns a 1968 Pontiac Firebird which we shall focus on in a future edition of MT).

The pair’s passion has seen a fair number of American classics pass through their hands over the years and sees them travel to the USA on a regular basis to purchase them.

In fact, when MT meets them, Wayne has just returned from a trip to the States to buy another batch.
It sounds like an expensive hobby but, according to David, it’s an affordable way to own classic vehicles – a reflection of the huge classic car business in the US, and their popularity here.

“We don’t have to import all the parts from the States,” he says. “A lot of stuff is available here. There are a lot of importers that are selling parts on a large scale for Chrysler, Chev, and Ford. It’s as simple as getting on the internet and dialling away and
ordering. There’s not much they don’t make for the popular old model cars now.

“There are even quite a few C10s around. The 1957 model is starting to become really popular. In fact, my son just purchased one on his trip to the States.”
Seeing the vehicle ‘in the flesh’, so to speak, also means you won’t end up buying a lemon.

“There is a ‘buyer beware’ element to it,” says David of purchasing the cars from abroad. “We did buy a vehicle once, an Impala, without going over to see it and that was a mistake. It was a real rust bucket.”

As for David’s C10, it too needed a little work.
“It wasn’t in the best shape when I got it,” he agrees.
“Old American cars are well known for rust. If you ever buy one, check it out properly. The old ‘metal bug’ does get to them.
“Fortunately there wasn’t too much rust on this one apart from the doors. They were like Swiss cheese!”
“Apart from repairing the doors, we painted it, re-trimmed it, did the suspension and bought the wheels from the US. Inside, we put in new door rubbers and trim, new carpet and we re-did the seat.”

Unusually perhaps for a classic car owner, David uses  the C10 for the purpose for which it was built – it is a working vehicle.
“It’s very good for that sort of thing,” he says of the C10’s practical abilities.

David can’t put his finger on why or how exactly he got into American muscle cars.

“One of my first jobs was working in a garage and I was always mucking about with cars,” he says. “But why American cars? I think it’s just the idea of them and the novelty of them. I also think you get more relaxation from driving older cars – you can go to swap meets and meet up with people with the same interests.”
“I’m not in a club, although that’s mainly because of the time needed to try and get away to events and so on. However, we have heaps of friends who drive old cars and we do meet up at different venues. There are nights when we go for a ‘run’ and we can get 200-300 cars joining us.”
“We have taken the C10 to a couple of car shows too, like the Shannons show at Willowbank and shows at Rochedale and Rocklea showgrounds.

“We also take half-a-dozen spots at the ‘Cooly Rocks On’ Show at Coolangatta each year,” he adds, referring to the huge nostalgia event held south of the Gold Coast each year to which he and Wayne take a number of cars from their collection.
That’s an indication of how deep the passion for these cars runs in both men. And, no doubt, they will continue to scour the internet and travel to the States in search of classic American vehicles. It’s a passion, a hobby and, once that bug bites, it’s hard to give up.