DEBUT TOUR

WITH A SCREAMING HOLDEN SIX, DEAN TROUNSON'S HOME-COOKED HR STEERS WITH THE BEST OF 'EM

- JACK HOULIHAN

DEAN Trounson spent his teenage years submitting art. for Expression Session pages, which goes some way to explaining why his first-car tastes were a bit different to the average P-plater back in 2010. "I really wanted an FB station wagon - which I still want to get - but they were just out of our price range," he says. "I then spotted an HR on eBay that seemed pretty honest looking. My dad and brother went to have a look, and the deal was done."

The bogged-up, two-tone green body wasn't to Dean's taste, so he soon bought an HJ sedan as an interim daily driver and pulled the HR apart. "I always lusted after the white with red interior colour combo, and I wanted to integrate aspects from the HK GTS with a black-accented grille and quad tailpipes, so that became my new goal," he says. As his awareness of the growing pro touring scene developed, it set the direction for a 13-year garage build.

"The paint is the second job since I've owned it," Dean says. "The first one was done so poorly that after one month the paint was lifting; you could pull the clearcoat off like a tablecloth! I later found out they never took it back to bare metal." Dean got Dave's Classics on the case, whose contract panel beater Lou whipped the panels back into shape for another coat of Toyota Pearl White.