Fitzpatrick Speed Works

If you’ve been around the modified car scene, then you’ll definitely know the name Fitzpatrick. The name has been synonymous with beautiful cars for the last two decades, constantly leading the modified car scene with the incarnations of Peter and wife Michelle’s FC Holden.

With Peter having another successful Summernats and the FC completing a major show tour in its new TRILOGY guise, the team at Performance Garage decided it was time to pay the boys a visit. Between them Peter and son Aaron have two of the best elite show cars you will see in Australia, if not the world. Don’t let the looks fool you into thinking these are babied show ponies, unusually for such high class show cars, both Aaron’s Datsun 1600 and Peter’s FC actually start and move under their own power.

We are reliably informed that in third gear, with the handbrake on, the Datsun can easily create a huge cloud of tyre smoke in which to hide itself. The rubber stuck under the rear wheel arches and along the exhaust is testament to this cars tyre shredding ability.

However, the day wasn’t just about banter. While the cars are awesome, we also took the time to have a chat to Peter about the history of TRILOGY and todays ‘Hoon Menace’ as portrayed by the media. Peter, like the rest of us, doesn’t believe that those in the modified car scene are all Hoons. In fact, we agree when he states that really the Hoons out there are the (insert your own adjective here) drivers who own, borrow or steal a standard car they don’t really care for and put it into the scrub.

If you’re being an idiot on the road, you deserve to get whatever you get. If you want to get out there and do burnouts and drag race on the street, and you get caught. You take it on the chin, ‘cause you got caught doing something wrong.” Peter explains, echoing our thoughts. Yet, as he goes on to explain, just because some people make mistakes it doesn’t mean the rest of us should be targeted. “If you go to the real enthusiasts shows they all have a good time in their cars, they’re not the ones out there doing the wrong thing.

This is something that the governments really need to remember before they start labelling everyone who owns a modified car a hoon.

Just to show how a modified car owner isn’t always a hoon we also discussed the FC Holden, now known as TRILOGY, and got to know its history a little better. “Michelle’s dad bought it for her, very early, before she had her licence. We’ve still got the invoice; I think Michelle’s dad paid 160 bucks for her” Peter explains.

In a long life, the FC has gone through the duties of being a daily driver (including being the car in which boys Daniel and Aaron were brought home from hospital in) to becoming the pinnacle of the Street Elite scene. Now after all this time, Peter is adamant that the FC will stay as TRILOGY forever more. Fans don’t need to despair though, as he already has a new project in the works, one which he tells us a little about in the video below.

To see more from our day with the Fitzpatrick’s, and hear more of our discussion with Peter, then hit the link below and check out the video. Also keep an eye out for a full feature in the first issue of Performance Garage Magazine.

Original article by  Daniel Beckinsale - Performance Garage.