Brian’s looking to trade up to a new dream
“I saw it when I was about 14, in Cameron's window,” says Brian Wood, recalling the first time he saw the car he would spend the next few decades dreaming about.
The car in question was a modified FJ Holden, built by local panel beater Brian Keegan and placed on display in the window of Cameon’s Holden dealership in Summer Street, where Brian Wood’s father worked as a mechanic.
“Keegan, he was a panel beater and he used to do these in the ‘60s,” Brian says. “He was a very well-known person in the drag scene… He was the guy. He had the fastest FJ in NSW or even Australia and he used to go down to Castlereagh when there was the Castlereagh drag strip… he was the first one in Orange, to my knowledge, who was into all this stuff.”
Having spent a long time thinking about the car in Cameron’s window, about 18 years ago, Brian set about building one of his own.
“I was only about 14 when I saw it, but I’d said to myself, I'm going to get one of those one day… and so I did!” Brian says, proudly showing off the end result in his garage.
“I got a good body from a bloke, but there is a lot of work in it… the guard and the bonnet has all been reshaped,” he continues, pointing out features of his dream car.
“Ronny Zelukovic did the back, he was very good with metal… and a guy who used to work for Turnbull and Townsen, he did the rest of the car and he was magic with materials!
“The engine’s a 202 Holden, it's got a bigger head and a cam in it…all windows very lightly tinted, VR Commodore interior and French tail lights… 9-inch forward diff, side blast exhaust… It has an early nitrous set-up that’s all connected, but I've never ever run it.
“To get it registered there wouldn't be any problems, but you would have to get it engineered and I never wanted to put it on the street. When I built it, it was just for me.”
The whole build took about five years and cost roughly $50,000, says Brian.
“There is a lot of work in it! The interior was nearly $10,000 and there's chrome underneath… and you had to get craftsmen to do it. It was just one of those things that the ‘best of the best’ had to do it,” he explains.
But now it is time for someone else to enjoy the car he’s built, says Brian, who’s decided to sell his much-loved FJ. Partly, to make room in his overcrowded garage, but also because he’s looking to fund a new dream.
“I’m going to buy a Winnebago and do some travelling,” he says. “It will be sad to see it go, but as you can see, I've got too many cars and if something happens to me tomorrow… I guess that’s what I’m thinking about.
“As far as I know there would not be another one like this around.”