“Let me go warm her up and we will go and get some pictures,” says an enthusiastic David Pyatt, custodian of this amazing Prem that even the most-dyed-in-the-wool Ford guys would have to admit … looks pretty darn good.
Entering David’s neatly appointed shed the EH hits you in the face (in a good way!) basking in all its glory, Fowlers Ivory paint applied many years ago still looks as good as new and the Waldorf red trim still smells like 1964.
David slides in the key, and without barely leaning on it the 179 erupts in to that all too familiar rambunctious idle.
He nonchalantly says something along the lines of “you just set the points properly and they go forever” playing down his obvious mechanical prowess.
The desirable red motor effortlessly plays a merry tune whilst the engine temp trends north and before long … its go time!
As we all clamber in, David puts it in D for drive and that warm fuzzy nostalgic feeling rushes over me … but we better pump those drum brakes and rewind the tape a bit as the origins of this story started nearly one hundred years ago!
Donald (Don) Pyatt was a bit of a larrikin in his youth, racing his motorcycle up and down Adelaide’s suburban footpaths and finding numerous ways to get into trouble.
In the mid 1930s he caught the eye of his future wife Marjorie and despite his two-wheeled antics getting him on the wrong side of his soon-to-be father-in-law the pair married in 1937.
The couple would soon welcome Sandra, David and Helen (not triplets, just the order they were born in) into the world and with family trumping everything Don would leave his misspent youth behind and concentrate on raising the kids and earning a living.
With his strong determination and being extremely business minded, he would eventually go on to start his own tyre business ‘G&P Re-treads’ in Norwood.
Vehicles in the Pyatt household would change regularly with Don upgrading his daily driver almost as often as the seasons changed. So when the EH superseded the EJ with a host of upgrades, namely that now legendary 179 Don just had to have one and he thought Marjorie’s Dodge was a perfect trade-in.
As son David remembers. “I think dad had been eyeing the EH off for a while. One morning he just told mum that he needed to take her car for the day to fix a few things and thinking nothing of it she gave him the keys and that was it.”
It was only that afternoon when a car pulled in the drive just before dinner time, but when it didn’t sound like the Dodge, Marjorie went out to inspect just in time to see Don getting out of (her) new car!
“Mum was cool about the whole thing; she knew what dad was like and I guess she loved the car and she just got on with it”
Growing up around the family business it is no surprise that David would show an interest. He carried out his Mechanical Apprenticeship and went on to be a very talented mechanic eventually working for his father.
When Friday night would roll around David felt like his Austin A40 wasn’t as cool as the Prem so he would often tell his dear mother he was “taking it for a drive to blow out the cobwebs” and he would take it for a strap throughout the tight corners of the Adelaide Hills and just like his dad he would get up to a bit of mischief.
As a young man barely out of his teens David would pick up his then-girlfriend-now wife, Lorel and get up to all sorts … you might have to use your imagination on this one a bit, but here’s a clue, the back seat hasn’t been sat in much, but it has been well used!!
As mentioned, the EH must have been a shock to Marjorie but it would see her to the end of her driving.
Almost as cliched as the old ‘driven to church on Sunday’s’ Marjorie would use the car to do the shopping, get to her hair appointments and to attend her ‘Inner wheel’ group meetings.
The car has in fact remained very close to the Elizabeth (South Australia) Factory it came out of with the longest drive being to see daughter Sandra in Bordertown, SA, meaning the car has never travelled further than 300km from where it was built.
Unfortunately, Don passed away unexpectedly in 1990 and Marjorie was left to tackle life by herself. As the years went on after losing her beloved husband, Marjorie would still pilot the Prem around town but it eventually became too much.
As David recalls, “Mum rang me one afternoon a bit hysterical saying that she couldn’t back out of the yard and that the diff must be blown!
“I got there to find one rear wheel on the concrete and the other spinning on the wet lawn!”
With incidents like this as well as being constantly hassled by strangers to sell it, the car was driven less and less until Marjorie passed in 2010.
The Premier was left to David, who, as stated earlier, has done a superb job maintaining it for many years.
Keen eyes would have already noticed the original plates that adorn the car. When David went to transfer the rego and plates to his name, he ran in to huge dramas trying to simply have the plates left on the car.
After jumping through more hoops than a dolphin at Sea World common sense eventually prevailed and saw the plates residing where they had done for so many years.
With the attitude of “they’re made to be driven” David and Lorel get the car out as often as possible, whether it is a cruise to the coast or heading to a car show like ‘Holdens Back Home’ where the Prem has taken out Top Original in the open category.
If you gathered that the car would stay within the family, then you would be correct as son Damien is next in line to be custodian and with his own kids growing up fast, you can bet the car will be in the Pyatt family for a very long time.
ED’s note: We would like to thank the Pyatt Family and Barnaby McLean, for their assistance in preparing this feature.