Knape's Nostalgia

GeoffKnape helped launch Australia’s favourite hot rod magazine, then he built these three beauties...

- AL O'TOOLE

Like most guys who grew up in Melbourne’s Western Suburbs, Geoff Knape started out driving early Holdens, but he soon got sick of them and when he saw a ’34 Ford coupe body advertised in 1970, he went and bought it, along with a Holden V8 engine, and built his first hot rod.

“I drove that car for ten years, travelling across the countryside towing a trailer and pickin’ up old cars. I met the Castlemaine guys at the second Street Rod Nationals in 1975, came here for a visit and never went home.”

Geoff worked at Fisherman’s Bend for 18 months when he started his electrical apprenticeship and moved on to bigger construction jobs before moving to Castlemaine. He couldn’t get a job to begin with so he started working for himself and has been doing so ever since.

When Geoff first moved to Castlemaine he boarded with Larry and Mary O’Toole for a short time. While sitting around the kitchen table with some mates, the idea of publishing a hot rod magazine was suggested. Forty-four years later a kid who grew up at that kitchen table took these photos and wrote this story for that magazine. After about four editions, the constant battle of balancing magazine work with trying to run his own electrical contracting business saw Geoff leave the magazine to prevent his own business from going backwards. He’s got no regrets about it, life has worked out all ’round, in fact, Larry and Geoff are still good mates and exercise together, walking at least twice a week, and enjoy breakfast with other local hot rodders every Saturday morning in downtown Castlemaine, or at least they did prior to Covid-19 restrictions.