My collection of classics
“I like to say that I sell my favorite cars, not used ones. Unfortunately, I love too many of them,” says the 44-year-old Southport dealer director. “It's a problem with being a top dealer; you're in a store with all these lollipops coming in through the front door. You say, "Will I buy this to keep or sell?" What are you doing? It's hard when you love cars. As a result, you will have a collection.
Dean's collection mostly consists of cars that have rolled off the walls of his youth bedroom and into his garage. Among them: 1966 Austin Healey Sprite, "black, understated and handsome" 1970 Fiat 124 BC Sport, 1982 Lancia Beta Coupe, which "unsurprisingly, rust is not present in all the wrong places", Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III, Honda 1970. Civic with just 20,000 miles on it, a single owner 1972 VW Beetle, a 1968 Meyers Manx beach buggy, a 1990s "my wife calls Daisy" Nissan S-cargo minivan, a 1988 mountain climbing Corolla, and a rare Lancia Delta Integrale 1988 years old. HF 4WD eight-valve.
“I just bought another Integrale from Japan that has virtually no rust,” he says. "But I will have to give up some of my other toys like Beta, Veedub and Civic."
He plans to take the second Integrale apart and turn it into a replica white Martini rally car, similar to those driven in six World Rally Championships in the 1980s and 90s by drivers like Juha Kankkunen and Miki Biasion. It has a 16-valve two-liter turbo, but despite having less turbo than my eight-valve, it doesn't have much lag. "You can get about 700 horsepower (522 kW) out of them, which I think can be pretty intimidating."
He plans to drive Lancia in historic sprint races such as Tweed on Speed, Leyburn Sprints and the recent Cootha Classic. Meanwhile, he is pushing his Corolla seriously in the Queensland Hill Climb Championship, which he won a few weeks ago.
“I got into this about three years ago through a friend of mine with a little Alpha who was stalking and stalking me all the time,” he says. “I put it off because you have to be committed, but one day I did it on Mount Cotton and I was hooked. They are a great group of guys. It's not really a blood sport.
His Corolla is powered by a race-enhanced Toyota 4AGE 20-valve four-cylinder naturally aspirated engine delivering 89kW of power to the wheels.
“But it has a lot more torque, which is great for climbing hills,” he says. He bought it for $1500 and turned it into a $28,000 racing project. It's just a car that was supposed to hold me until I got into the monster Evo," he says. “But you just can’t jump in and hit the track with something that has 350kW on wheels. It's a little dangerous. I bought a Corolla to upgrade to an Evo but I fell in love with it and the Evo is still sitting there. In the meantime, I stumbled upon Integrale and am now buying another one. It's a disease".
He bought a 134kW Delta in Western Australia for $15,000 after "chasing one" for several years. “It has coil springs, it was chipped, I replaced the manifold and exhaust, and it was cared for tenderly and lovingly… and it was about $5000 spent on it. I only use it for special show events, not serious competition. I'm a little worried. I don't want to stick it in the wall."
