ADAM RICHARDS
1976 Toyota Landcruiser FJ40 - Short wheel base
EVERYONE LOVES THEIR FIRST
This was my very first car. I bought it when I was eighteen.
I wanted a little 4WD and I wanted a Toyota. And it took me a while to find the right one.
This one was in Bendigo and Dad and I drove up one night and brought it home. It had a hard top and was in the classic, original Toyota ‘sort-of-grey’ colour. I thought it was awesome.
RIDING TOPLESS
I took the roof off and the rear quarter windows and had it as an open-air car. Which was a lot of fun for a while. At that age that works well. It was my daily driver to and from the city and then it took me away on weekends camping.
Then a mate (Oliver Lansell) and I worked together on making some changes. He encouraged me to learn a bit more about the car and we literally stripped it down to boxes of parts. He set me up with a sand blaster and I took to the chassis with gusto. We sent it away to be hot-dipped galvanised and he had all the nuts and bolts on the car nickel plated. It took some time, but we slowly rebuilt it.
I then drove it around as a really pristine soft top. Trips around Tassie. Trips to South Australia. And up the East Coast. I loved the car and did lots of miles. All while I was in my early 20s.
STRIPPED THE BRIDE BARE
In the early stages of dating Alice we were driving in Tasmania and we went through a place called Hellyer (“Hell Yeah”) Gorge. Maybe a little too fast and I rolled the car. A full spin onto the roof and then back onto the wheels. Tins of baked beans, tents, chainsaws, axes… strewn all over the road but we were fine. The windscreen was smashed. We only had lap sashes on, but we just got out of the car and walked away.
That rollbar saved us.
TESTING THE RELATIONSHIP
TRADING FOR LOVE
Alice and I had been together road-tripping for quite some time, but things were getting serious and I was starting to feel that the car wasn’t really appropriate for the new, mature Adam. I decided to sell it so I could afford an engagement ring. It was time for a new chapter. Alice fortunately said yes. So, I was without a car I’d loved, but with a fiancé. And I was happy. What a trade.
Of course, there was instant regret about the sale. And for a long, long time I really missed that car.
The bling!
LOST LOVE, FOUND
Fast forward fifteen years. A happy marriage; kids and a couple of houses later, and I started scrolling on Carsales for another Land Cruiser. There’s usually up to 4,000 Toyota Landcruisers for sale and on the very last page of my massive search one night I recognised my old car!
It was in a sad, sad state down in South Gippsland. In a paddock and totally trashed but had some of my stickers on it from years before. It was really only the stickers that I recognised.
Straight away I knew I had to have it back.
I communicated with them on and off but they weren’t prepared to budge from the $7k they were asking. At all.
A few weeks later I rang again and said I’d come down and have a look. They still wouldn’t move on the price so I gave up. I drove out the driveway and 15 minutes up the road was thinking - “I really want that car back. I need to buy it. I’ll miss it too much if I don’t buy it.”
And then they rang and said come back you can have it. And I got it for $700.
BUILDING IT BACK TO FORMER GLORY
That was about 10 years ago and it was in terrible disrepair so I stripped it down in the basement. Paired it back to raw and it was not registered for a long time. It took forever and at times it really seemed like it was one of those decisions that was more heart than head. It just sat there for ages.
A LITTLE HELP GOES A LONG WAY
Some friends Rohan and Dominic Little who have a panel beating business that deals specifically in Porsches came to the rescue. It’s called Skunk Werks and they are incredibly talented blokes out the back of Colac. They took it on and said as long as you’re not in a hurry we’ll bring it back to life. Of course, I wasn’t in a hurry because a hurry would cost too much so I left it with them.
They had it for two years and when it came back it was just pristine. It’s as clean a car in that model as you could ever find anywhere in Australia.
COME TO WHERE THE FLAVOUR IS. COME TO MARLBORO COUNTRY.
My favourite driving in this car was re-visiting the place I spent a lot of time as a kid. It was a family property in the Barrington Tops, NSW.
It was actually the property where the Marlboro ads used to be filmed. Tony Adams was the Marlboro man and he was at Geelong College with my uncle Peter Carmichael. They would come up with their helicopters and cameras and we would skip school and crack whips to make the cattle move round and make the footage look good. Fond memories.
That was beautiful country and it was all private. So you could do anything. Go anywhere. Cross rivers and go up and down ravines.
Going back there with the car and 4WDing through tens of thousands of mountainous acres I really loved.
CORN HILL TO DARGO. FAR WILL MY CAR GO.
I’ve always loved the high country. I love the horse riding. The remoteness of it. Especially the Victorian Alpine region. Going in from Mt Buller and going down Corn Hill Rd through that country over the bluff into the Wonangatta. Coming out through Omeo or Dargo. It’s just beautiful. The sort of place you never want to be in a hurry. Take your time.
Some of it is pretty challenging. But if you’re not in a hurry, nothings a challenge.
LIVING ON. LONG AND STRONG.
I had so much joy from this car in my 20s; and then trading for the ring and buying the car back. There’s a lot of emotional connection to this car. I’ve got it for life and I guess it’s going to keep going long after I’m gone. It’s not tabled in my will but when I pass on, it’ll need to be loved by someone. It’s a part of the family and it needs to be driven. It needs to be used. I’ll have to start thinking about which of my kids will love it more than the others. Should it be the older son traditionally? Mmmm….that’s going to be difficult. Hope they don’t read this.
This chat has just reminded me how much fun it is to get in that car and enjoy the freedom of it. That’s what I love the most. I really need to load up the tent and go for another trip with my side-kick – Alice. Together we’ll get back to some of those early adventures. We’ll have the ring and the car. Circle complete. A full loop.
(Editor’s note: Now that really is ‘moto amoro’).
MOTO AMORO
