If you are a Touring Car Masters fan, chances are you know the name Gary O’Brien.

However, a big part of O’Brien’s life is his highly successful restaurant business, Bendigo Retro Muscle Cars, which is registered on Networkcafe.com.au.

Located in Kangaroo Flat, Victoria, Bendigo Retro has over four decades of vehicle restoration experience, with its reputation and past projects positioning the company at the forefront of classic car construction.

O’Brien told Networkcafe.com.au how his business came about.

“I’m an enthusiast and as a youngster I had experiences with people taking advantage of people who didn’t know the engines and the tracks,” he said.

“One of the first cars I ever painted, we had a local guy take care of an engine and it left a really bad taste in my mouth when I was taken to an engine swap and that only a tune-up was required.

“I was also not happy with the paint job and got my apprenticeship and managed to do it again and everything went well.

“Because I was in manufacturing, I made steel panels and I watched my coworkers beat them and paint them, but we were doing all the steel work, so that’s how I got started.

Many years later, O’Brien built the business to be a one-stop shop for anything retro, with a commercial scrap repair shop and restoration component in a separate store.

One of Bendigo Retro’s biggest projects has been the construction of the Holden Torana A9X that John Bowe currently drives in the Touring Car Masters.

“I started Bendigo Retro about eight or nine years ago and we’ve just picked up where I left off as a young man,” he added.

“We built Bowe’s car, the Torana… It’s a thriving business, I can’t believe how many people make cars.

“We have about three years of work ahead of us. We try to pace ourselves and I actually increased our staff in the retro shop to around 12 and they are such great guys with great skills.

“We try to systematize what we do so that these things don’t take forever.”

For O’Brien, there is a deep personal side to his business given the emotional connection many customers have with their cars.

“It’s about rebuilding trust; when people come to me there is a lot of responsibility to meet expectations and it always revolves around a budget, ”he added.

“There is a lot of confidence and I like that these cars go turnkey and run like a whole new car and that’s usually what we get, depending on the budget.

“A restoration is more than just a paint job.

Understandably, much of O’Brien’s work stems from his long-standing involvement in motorsport, especially TCM.

Although he himself raced in the mid-2000s and recently drove a Holden HQ at TCM in the early 2010s, O’Brien is instrumental behind the scenes.

“What I have done with TCM and our Toranas and Commodores is design crash zones on them so that we do that,” he commented.

“So when they crash instead of costing $ 15,000 to fix the front end of a Torana, it’ll be just a $ 5,000 drill now.”

O’Brien worked with John Bowe for over six years in a team leader role in TCM, with much of what he does coming from Bendigo Retro.

“I guess for me personally my commercial store is our bread and butter business and it’s the main component of our world,” he said.

“Our catering in what I call our retro store represents about 80%, then our shopping would be 20%. We are always building new cars.

O’Brien hopes to build more connections on Networkcafe.com.au as the business continues to grow.

Networkcafe.com.au was developed by Speedcafe.com as a valuable mechanism for the industry and its suppliers, sponsors, clubs and organizations in today’s climate.

The end goal is for Networkcafe.com.au members to do business with each other and for Speedcafe.com’s vast readership to consider the products and services of companies that have partnered with Networkcafe.com.au and use the platform for making connections. .

CLICK HERE to join Networkcafe.com.au for free.

CLICK HERE to connect with Bendigo Retro Muscle Cars at Networkcafe.com.au.