While you’d be forgiven for immediately thinking that AFL great Barry Hall’s biggest passion in life is footy or even boxing, the truth may surprise you. That’s because his true love, which began at a very young age, is cars.
A qualified motor mechanic like his dad (a trade he obtained while playing AFL), Barry has built a range of iconic muscle and vintage cars, and is planning on showing another of his projects at Summernats in January, in partnership with eBay.
His first car was a 1967 HR Holden and while he dabbled with a number of Holden Special Vehicles offerings early on in his playing career, wasting money along the way, reality kicked in, in his mid 20s. It was then he started to think about cars that would gain value.
A 1969 Chevrolet Camaro became his focus, and has been his major passion project for some time. That car will be on display at the eBay Garage at Canberra’s premiere automotive event.
There are others too, with a HG Premier in the hands of Tuff Streeters at the same event. He has a 1967 Ford XR Falcon (a GTHO mock-up) in the works, and a Monaro as well. Amusingly, he has a unique plan to justify all these toys.
With approval from his partner, four cars will be built for each of his children (presently aged 7, 5, 3 and four months), with the vehicles going to them when they turn 18 – to do with them what they see fit. That’s plenty of time for Barry to modify them.
The AFL legend is a prominent figure in the muscle car scene and as someone who works on his own cars, can attest to the importance of using the right parts. He credits eBay for some of that – part of the reason he was happy to hand over the keys to the Camaro.
“It’s just really easy to search for very specific parts from within Australia and all over the world, and to get it for the best price.”
Asked during his interview with Exhaust Notes Australia about what car he’d own if he could have anything, he noted that the 2025 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 was certainly on his wish list. He also has a soft spot for a C6 Z06.
Summernats 37 will be held from from 2-5 January 2025 at Exhibition Park in Canberra.
