News Service from House Harris

Qld: Owners weep for loss of classic cars

BRISBANE, June 7 AAP - The owners of two valuable classic cars stolen from the Wintersun festival on the Gold Coast fear their beloved vehicles will be chopped up up for parts.

The cars, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, are priceless to the shattered owners, who spent years bringing them up to near-mint condition.

The vehicles were stolen from the security carpark of an apartment complex at Kirra Beach, where the Brisbane owners were staying.

A Ford Mustang was pushed aside to gain access to an orange 1928 Ford Model A Tudor hot rod and a 1974 Holden GTS Monaro.

The owner of the Monaro, Graham Mounsey, of Inala, said the cars were hot-wired and police have security video footage of them being driven away.

The owners broke down and wept on Sunday as they spoke about the loss of their vehicles, saying no dollar value could be put on them in terms of the time and effort put into years of restoration.

Mr Mounsey said he fears the cars will be dismantled.

"My Monaro was probably worth up to $30,000 on paper, but it's taken me two years to get it on the road.

"I've just put a brand new engine in it and I was still working on it on Thursday replacing hoses to get it down here on Friday.

"I hadn't had the motor in it a week yet."

Mr Mounsey says this is the second year in a row classic cars taking part in the Coolangatta festival have been stolen.

"Last year another GTS Monaro, a GT Falcon and a two-door Falcon coupe were stolen," he said.

"Two of the owners have been on the phone to me today and they've never seen their cars again.

"The two-door Falcon was found stripped, cut into bits and burned but there's been no sign of the others."

He said the stolen hot rod was worth about $250,000. It had just won a Brisbane hot rod show.

"They pushed a $50,000 Mustang aside to get the hot rod out," Mr Mounsey said.

"I think they were targeting the rod and mine was there and they grabbed it as a bonus because we were running the same engines - they're both Chevy-powered, they've got the same wheels, same running gear and they've thought `beauty, we've got an extra one here'.

"But we're at a loss over the hot rod because everything's marked, everything's numbered - there's nothing they can do with that car."