General News
9 July, 2026
Valiant effort by award-winning motoring enthusiast
THE stakes were high for Cooya Beach local and car enthusiasts Brandt Teale when around 100 classics from across North Queensland descended on the ‘Coastal Show and Shine Car Show’ during the Port Douglas Carnivale weekend.
“I was hoping a Douglas Shire entrant, of which there were several, would take glory against an impressive line-up from out of town, so I was thrilled when my 1962 Valiant scooped the title in the inaugural Coastal Show and Shine,” Mr Teale said.
“Not a bad effort for a car that's as old as me but in much better condition,” he said.
“I've worked in motor trades throughout my life, starting as a panelbeater fresh out of school in Brisbane, going on to selling new Mitsubishis in Sydney when Magnas first came out, then selling Holdens in Hobart at the peak of Commodore sales in the 1980s.”
The progression was probably inevitable given Mr Teale grew up in a family of car enthusiasts and keen racegoers.
“As a kid I ’d tinker with lawn mowers, motorbikes and the family cars, which were mostly Valiants.”
After 27 years in Tasmania, family ties brought Mr Teale to Far North Queensland after a stint on the Sunshine Coast as a newspaper editor, youth support worker and a farm hand.
“The move north became permanent about 10 years ago and Cooya Beach was the perfect place to retire, in an old Queenslander I relocated from Gordonvale,” Mr Teale said.
The car lover was just seven when he saw his first 1962 RV1 Valiant, commonly known as the R-series with its spaceship looks and an engine with almost twice the power of Fords and Holdens at the time.
“I was hooked, but it was more than 50 years before I got one, which became the trophy winner during Carnivale” he said.
The vehicle enthusiast has owned nine Valiants from the age of 17, starting with a 1970 Pacer and later a custom ute. The 1962 RV1 is still his favourite.
“I call her Val, obviously and, yes, it's a ‘she’, after all I reckon she’s gorgeous, even non-car enthusiasts often think so.”
Val was highly modified in the early '80s by a Townsville hot rod builder specialising in Valiants, replacing the auto transmission and six-cylinder engine with a four-speed manual and a race-spec V8.
