Gold Coast Motor Musuem's: 1974 BOLWELL NAGARI

DAVID AND LESLEY CALVER HAVE ENJOYED THE BOLWELL BRAND FOR HALF A CENTURY, BUT ALL GOOD THINGS MUST COME TO AN END AND THIS LAST ON THE LINE MK VIII NOW HAS A NEW HOME

- CHRIS BEATTIE

Firstly, I have to confess a tenuous connection with a bloke by the name of Campbell Bolwell. A few years back while I attended an event at my children’s high school in Frankston South, Melbourne, I happened to gaze at a plaque on a wall in the school hall. And there staring at me was a reference to the founder of Bolwell Cars, who, as it turned out, had also been a Frankston High student. In fact, he'd apparently given a couple of addresses to students over the years about the Campbell Bolwell recipe for success in life. I was ‘Bolwelled’ over, you could say.

By his own admission, Campbell was “a petrolhead who failed high school’, which was something else we had in common.

Regardless, I've always had a fascination for the Melbourne-built sportscars and the more I delved into the back story for this feature, the more intrigued — and impressed — I became. Especially when I spoke to the original owner of this particular 1974 Mk VIII Bolwell Nagari V8 convertible, which just happens to be the last one to leave the Melbourne factory. Gold Coast-based David Calver has owned it ever since, until it was purchased by the Gold Coast Motor Museum not long before this feature was written. By that time, David had enjoyed a half-century of ownership and though it has only completed 70,000 miles in 50 years, he and his wife Lesley made sure they enjoyed it to the full. In fact, Lesley was so enamoured of the car that she decided to own one too, the only difference being that her convertible was an automatic.