My 1969 Daihatsu Compagno Spider.

The 57-year-old Brisbane car salesman has sold Hyundai, Daihatsu, Daewoo and Toyota for most of his adult life, so it makes sense that he's a fan of Japanese cars. He now has three in various stages of restoration, including a rare 1969 Diahatsu Compagno Spider which is one of only three in Australia.

He bought his first car, a 1966 Honda S600 convertible, when he was 18 years old while living in Essendon, Melbourne.

“It had four carburetors and a twin-cam engine,” he says enthusiastically. “It was like a racing engine. What a great little car. “When you put it in fourth gear at 60 mph (96.5 km/h), it does 6000 rpm, and at 70 mph (112.5 km/h) it does 7000 rpm. So the sensors were the same. Once on the freeway, I hit 10,500 rpm, which was of course wrong. But he did scream before.”

Wallis and his brother Jeff owned a Honda S600.

“We have always loved Japanese sports cars because they were so much better,” he says. “At the time, people were moving into HR Holden, which was so agricultural by comparison. They had pushrod engines, not overhead cams like Honda's. For a small car, they went pretty well and were way ahead of their time. The Japanese simply copied and improved all the British cars of the time.”

In 1974, Wallis moved to Queensland and sold his Honda to buy a Toyota Celica.

“I couldn't buy a new one because I had to wait six months,” he says. “They were $3800 new and I bought a 12 month old for $3300. I had it for five years, but when my second child was born, I needed a bigger car, so I bought a Toyota Crown.”

You can see how the pattern develops. Fast forward through the myriad of Japanese cars to 2000, when Wallis was selling Daihatsu and Daewoo.

“I saw an advertisement for the sale of the Daihatsu Compagno Spider in the newspaper and asked the guys at work what it was,” he says. "No one knew. Then I saw Charade's brochure, and there was a picture of her on the back cover. They were brought in by a Daihatsu dealer and only had three in Australia; one in Tasmania, one in Victoria and here. I like it because it's unique."

Wallis admits that while he admires Japanese engine technology, it was the Spider's low-tech appeal that caught his eye.

“The problem with the Honda was that because they were so high-tech, after 75,000 miles (120,700 km) they had to be rebuilt,” he says. “What I liked about Daihatsu was that it looked like a Datsun 1200 engine under the hood. I like high-tech, but I don't like the high cost."

The Spider is powered by a pushrod one liter four-cylinder engine and a single two-throat carburetor mated to a four-speed gearbox.

“For his age, he drives very well,” he says. “I did all the mechanical work, bled the leaf springs, put in new dampers, brakes, rebuilt the whole body, etc. But the paint looks a little sad. The guy I bought it from painted it metallic blue. There were no metallics in the 60s. I want to paint it back someday. I see people who make these projects, who break them apart and never put them back together. I do not want to do this; I want to enjoy my car."

His Spider is in full swing and he rides it on Sundays. He also recently bought a 1970 Honda 1300 coupe with a dry-sump air-cooled four-cylinder engine. He paid $2500 for it and plans to launch it in a few weeks. He also bought another 1966 Honda S600 convertible like his first car.

“This is my long-term retirement project when I'm 65,” he says. He has joined the Japanese Classic Car Club, formed over the past few months by like-minded Japanese car fans. “We are only 20 people, but there are more and more of us,” he says. "If I joined the Daihatsu Compagno Spider club, there would only be three of us in the club."