HORSEPOWER HERO

THINKING OF BUYING OVERSEAS? CRAIG ROWLAND DID AND RECKONS IT WAS A GREAT EXPERIENCE

- CRAIG ROWLAND WITH GUY ALLEN

This was a retirement present to myself, after 27 years in the defence force. Instead of watching an investment that’s doing not much, I’ll get an investment that I actually enjoy. I haven’t looked back. It’s a 1970 model year Torino Cobra sports roof, built October 1969, with a 429 J-code CobraJet engine, C6 auto with nine-inch diff., disc brake front and drum rear.

The next step up from this was a Super CobraJet, which was a drag-pack car.

It was restored in 2015-16, on a rotisserie, when they rebuilt the motor, the transmission – everything.

I was on usedcars.com, which has every shape and size of American cars and saw this. I showed it and several other cars to my wife Karen. The appeal was that there aren’t many in Australia and I like the similarities to an XA Falcon coupe.

We looked at the Torino and thought we can land this, even with luxury car tax (don’t get me started on that!), GST and all that for $100,000 Australian. That only buys you a rusted-out project in XA coupes.

I bought it out of Canada and it arrived in Australia about September last year. Obviously there’s that stressful period when you’re sending a lot of money overseas.