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Bowden's Collection.
Most of us remember the intimate
details of one’s first love. To a lesser degree, the people reading
these pages will recall the details of the first hot rod they ever
saw. One of the first that I saw up close was Rod Foote’s channelled
’32 roadster. I was trudging home from Yeronga High School in 1963,
and glanced through the battens of a high set Queenslander style
house, and spied the low slung beauty, reposing in the dappled
sunlight. A couple of years later I discovered that Rod Foote was a member of the Roadstars Hot Rod Club; the first club in the State, the organisers of the first hot rod show, and a club whose many members were instrumental in the formation of other clubs and related organisations. What I didn’t know at the time was that on the north side of Brisbane there was another enthusiast with a channelled ’32, fitted with a supercharged flathead; the owner was a Ford mechanic named David Bowden. David was very fond of both the Rod Foote ‘32, and another pivotal deuce from the Roadstars, Gary Wright’s channelled roadster. |
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 Kyren & Sue O'Loan are the current custodians of this '26 Essex sedan which was owned by the Murray brothers; foundation members of the Roadstars Hot Rod Club. The Essex is recognised as a stalwart wherever it goes.
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The next time I saw the Rod Foote roadster was
when John Cowling owned it during the eighties. It had changed a
little, and was shown in a few contemporary magazines. It was
advertised for sale in the nineties, and then it disappeared again
for many years. In fact, the roadster had been sold to David Bowden, who was very excited about becoming the owner of this signature vehicle from his formative years. To put that excitement into perspective, David Bowden has amassed one of the most interesting collections of Australia’s motor racing history, and the ’32 is his favourite. The Bowden Collection is made all the more interesting by the fact that David had participated, in one degree or another, in the times and events that these fascinating muscle cars were involved in. Most of the cars in the collection were steeped in racing history, and either expertly restored, or completely original – right down to the scrutineer’s stickers on the windscreens of some of the cars. Back to the deuce - Rod provided details during the restoration, and the result is faithful to the original. The interior is about to be done, and then there is a the possibility of a trip to Pebble Beach. The collection is in Buderim, Queensland, and various links to the cars shown here go to Bowden's web site, where more details are available.
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