If you were into cars and growing up in Auckland in the ‘90s, there’s a good chance you would have spent some time down at Eastern Beach. The area was a well-known cruise destination for cars of all types, be they tubbed and blown V8s, ported rotaries, turbo fours, or anything in between. Some of the big names of the drag racing scene spent their early years down there, and that’s where Roger Talbot first became obsessed. At the time he was driving imports such as the now collectable Mazda DOHC turbos, but the exposure to the V8s that he saw down on The Parade soon had him yearning for a Holden.
Having grown up in a Holden family, he knew what he wanted, and ended up with a VH wearing VK front sheet metal and packing a decent 308 under the hood. Being young and carefree, he spent all he had on the car over the next few years sorting out the engine as well as looking after the body work. When the car was later stolen and found burnt out, he didn’t replace it, but the desire to own something else never left.
He tells us, “Years later after having supported a family member through
