In our garage: Wayne's Holden HQ Monaro

The time, effort and money put into restoring an older vehicle has been worth it for Wayne Holzberger, who loves nothing more than cruising around in his classic car with admiring views from the public.

Wayne shares with us his story about his passion for older vehicles:

Q. Tell us about the features of your 1974 Holden HQ, four-door Monaro.

It's a V8, 308.

There have been a few alterations to the car over the period of time that we have owned it.

We've had it probably now for roughly about six or seven years and we have done a little bit of work to it, obviously to bring it up to the standard that it is at today.

Q. What condition was the car in when you first got it?

The condition was fairly reasonable.

It did have some rust in it, which we got professionally cut out and I did a bit myself.

Mechanically, we did a little bit of work to it with the brakes and things like that just to get it up to the roadworthy standard.

It's not an original HQ Monaro. There have been a few alterations done to it like mag wheels.

Man, hours wise... I'd be guessing. I couldn't really put a figure on it because you do little bits here then little bits there!

Q. Why did you purchase the Holden HQ Monaro?

I got this vehicle because my wife and I both love the HQ Monaro.

We looked around a fair bit for one, and this one came up in a magazine so we decided to go around and have a look at it.

We thought well, that's us, we will buy that car!

It was made in Sydney in 1974 and we have changed a few things in it but we still have the complete original parts, the engine and exhaust system.

We still have all the original stuff that we could always put back on a vehicle if we were required.

The beauty of having an older vehicle that does look nice is you can go somewhere and people wave to you, people acknowledge the vehicle.

You do get a big kick out of just driving it around.

It's so good to drive, you’ve got the power there... they’ve got a beautiful tune, beautiful note when you put the accelerator down.

Q. Why do you like restoring old vehicles?

It's a passion. You see the end product and other people enjoy it.

Showing the vehicle to the public, you get that feeling that the person looking at the car is appreciating something that you've done.

We take the car to a few car shows around the place and you do meet other people, and everybody's got that common interest.

It's a break away from normality at the end of the day. We can just sit around and talk about vehicles and basically have a good time.