The car best known in Australia as the #46 Oldsmobile when driven by John Faulkner has had a long and interesting life in both America and in Australia.

The car was prepared for or was built for Ian Thomas by Doug Taylor who was kept busy in the early 1990s by his Australian clients, one of those clients was George Elliot who had taken his cars to championship success.

Since the car’s arrival in Australia in 1992, it has been one very active car, and it is still an Oldsmobile which is a rarity as a number of cars went conversions to a Pontiac Grand Prix or a Chevrolet Monte Carlo.

We’re going to take through as much of the car’s history as possible then we take you through the research phase, the rebuilding phase and when the time comes, its return to racing.

Car History 1992-2024

The car made its Ian Thomas debut as the #14 Oldsmobile in an ARCA race in Michigan and then it became the #23 when it reached Australia.

The car was then used for the 1992/93 season with immediate success, Ian won the first 50 lap race of the season and was going well in the second one which was the points race until contact with George Elliot forced a pit stop, that pit stop became more costly when Adam Pay spun out and brought out the caution.

The car was nicknamed Intrepid though this fact was forgotten by many of those people we asked, the name was thought to have been for one of the two original Oldsmobiles and its origin wasn’t proven until 2025.

The car was long believed to have been raced on the Gold Coast by Doug Taylor in 1993 but photos from that race weekend revealed that the car he used was one of the two ex-Morgan-McClure Oldsmobiles owned by the team as the Morgan-McClure brace was spotted in photos.

Tropic Coast Racing after the 1992/93 season moved on to Luminas and eventually Monte Carlos and so the majority of the Oldsmobile fleet of at least four was sold off with one car being retained for road course duties and the others getting buyers.

‘Intrepid’ was moved on to John Faulkner Racing for the 1993/94 season where it became the oval car for the team, the car was part of the winning Rookie of the Year effort in 1993/94.

The car’s stay at John Faulkner Racing lasted a couple of years until John purchased two Monte Carlos from the United States.

Former Sportsman champion and AUSCAR race winner Eddie Abelnica was moving from AUSCAR to go into NASCAR, and he had heard about John selling his cars, Eddie purchased John’s two Oldsmobiles and at least one Monte Carlo with the cars now being the #9.

Eddie’s NASCAR debut was made in the Oldsmobile, and he had used it up until the opening round of the 1999/00 season before swapping to the Monte Carlo, that first round of the season was the last Stock Car race at the Thunderdome.

Had the Bob Jane era lasted another season (2000/01), the Oldsmobile would have been taken out of competition as Oldsmobile had been out of NASCAR in America for several years.

The car made its way to Paul Stocker who used the car in the 2001 V8 Stock Cars season opener at Mallala, which is known for being the infamous CAMS (now Motorsport Australia) enforced exhibition round.

This car was not the first Oldsmobile with an Ian Thomas history that Paul Stocker had purchased, he had purchased one of Ian’s original two Oldsmobiles in 1994 and had used that car for a couple of seasons.

Doug Moss took over the ride for the rest of the season and Paul switched to the Monte Carlo in the few rounds that he had participated in.

Doug Moss finished the 2001 V8 Stock Cars season in eighth position with 1761 points despite missing the round at Winton.

The team and the car did not return for the 2002 V8 Stock Cars season, a season that had ended abruptly at Queensland Raceway.

The car then took a career turn as Donald Hudson turned it into a successful Salt Flats runner in the late 2000’s and early 2010’s, it set a record of 347kph on Lake Gairdner in South Australia.

Bob Bowman, Trevor Nielson, Elizabeth Mudd, Wayne Adnum and Craig Pinkney all gave the car a go at Lake Gairdner.

Donald Hudson moved the car on and then the car was put up for sale at the start of 2024, its appearance got people talking about it as people attempted to identify the car, but nobody had made any moves on buying it.

Eddie Ivermee purchased the car in November 2024 after seeing the advertisement of the car and he had picked the car up in December.

Uncovering the History 2024-2026

Eddie didn’t have any of the above information on the car, nobody did, it was just an Oldsmobile roller for sale with no clearly identifiable marks on it save for its battered AUSCAR VIN and CAMS rollover sticker.

Research on Eddie’s purchase was carried out from December 2024, one major development for Eddie in the pickup was that the windows were on the car when they weren’t in pictures taken for the ad, but the biggest surprise was in the interior, faded on the dash but still legible were the words ‘Melbourne’s Cheapest Cars’.

Had there been photos taken of the glass and the right side of the dash, the car’s identity would have been long established without the need for research as they would have clearly indicated who it belonged to.

The Melbourne’s Cheapest Cars name was big news for Eddie; we knew that Eddie Abelnica got his cars from John Faulkner and it was a matter of determining which one.

There was a square hatch in left 3/4 window and only one of the two John Faulkner Racing Oldsmobiles had this.

The above promo shot was taken in 1995 when Cummins and Tec Oils replaced Nulon as sponsor, at the time John was looking to buy cars from what was then Roush Racing but settled on buying new Monte Carlos.

The Stocker/Moss era was confirmed by the CAMS rollover sticker as only the Stock Cars that participated in CAMS run events had one and the car was in V8 Stock Cars.

Now that the identity of the car was all wrapped up, Eddie could think of the possibilities of how his car would look like.

While that was happening, it was time to tally up everything that was needed to turn the car back into a lean, mean Oldsmobile machine.

Restoring the Car 2024-2026

The car was on display on Sunday January 19, 2025, at the Colac Motorfest Show n’ Shine and its appearance was reported in V8 Sleuth.

One major hurdle was already cleared as Eddie already had an engine sourced for the car, engines as readers know are expensive and can really slow down attempts to get cars into action but thanks to Eddie owning an engine from his Speedway days, this was avoided.

Eddie brought an Oldsmobile hood, 3/4 windows and wheels and tyres from Richard White Racing in February 2025.

A gearbox was acquired shortly afterwards, and a clutch and flywheel were ordered on February 18 and bell housing was shipped off to Eddie on the same day.

Eddie got in contact with Doug Taylor, and he reported on February 19, 2025, that Ian attempted to qualify for three ARCA races, making two, he confirmed an Oldsmobile was used at Michigan and gave Eddie the above photograph.

While two ARCA races were confirmed, the third wasn’t, it was later discovered that Ian was left off the list at Texas because it was a joint race series race, and the Winston West lists mostly did not count ARCA DNQ’s.

This now led to the question, where did the car at Michigan come from, here is where we got different recollections, one was that Doug Taylor built the car, and the other is that Doug Taylor reconditioned the car from wherever it came from.

Peter Sportelli in March 2025 said the car was built by Doug Taylor, Doug said that he had only built the two cars for George Elliot and had reconditioned the Oldsmobile though he later changed his opinion to that he had built it.

Brake pads were received on April 8, 2025, leaving just one more new piece and a replacement piece of the car to get before everything can be put together.

A replacement gear shifter arrived on April 10, 2025, the previous one that was purchased was junk and was not able to be used.

The front rotors arrived on April 23, 2025, the final big piece of the puzzle to allow the car to be put together.

Exhaust parts arrived on April 29, 2025, at this time a gearbox stud was awaited as the wrong one was given to Eddie.

The correct Gearbox Stud arrived on April 30, 2025, ending that small saga of the stud problem.

The mufflers for the car arrived on May 1, 2025.

On May 12, 2025, a further look at the car parts revealed the following ‘JR17 7 91’ and ‘Road Race’, this turned out to be a part of Mark Martin’s #6 Ford Thunderbird, JR stands for Jack Roush and JR17 actually sits in a museum.

Gear linkages were made on May 17, 2025.

A dummy block was put into position on May 31 and Eddie started to mock it up to make the engine mounts and the gearbox mounts.

The engine mounts and the gearbox mounts were both completed on June 9.

The differential was pulled out of the car on June 19 but unfortunately nothing was stamped on it to reveal who originally built the car.

The seat was mounted on July 20, 2025; it was a big moment as the car now has its gear shifter, seat and the steering wheel in their positions.

The radiator was mounted on July 22, 2025, after some time was taken into getting it into place.

It was a busy month of August for Eddie as exhaust work was completed that month and this allowed for the removal of the dummy engine block.

The driver side window was opened up a bit for easier access, the window net mounts were done that month allowing for the net to be put up.

Primer was put on where the body modifications had taken place.

The differential was rebuilt by September 4 and was awaiting installation, ‘L HR 5’ was found to be stamped into the differential.

The end of September and the start of October kept up the work on the car, the exhaust was painted black.

A 20kg lead weight was taken out of the car, this shows the measures that went in to making sure that the car was properly weighted down.

Another examination of the dash revealed another piece of history, the outline of the I in Intrepid was still visible and it is believed that other letters were more faintly visible too.

Norm Chong provided photos of the car during October 2025 and one photo revealed an interesting detail, Eddie spotted in a photo of the car a sticker with the word ‘Intrepid’ and while the image was distorted with pixels and darkness, the sticker was exactly the same size, shape and location of the one on the car when John Faulkner owned the car afterwards proving that the name came from Tropic Coast Racing.

On October 23, 2025, the car was loaded up for transport in order for final welds to be done on the car.

Painting of the interior started on October 28, 2025, new braided brake lines were picked up on October 29 and plans for the battery were put into place.

The engine bay was down to bare bones on October 30 with ball joints required, the plan was then to clean and then paint everything before reassembling the engine bay.

Painting of the engine bay started on October 31, 2025.

Eddie in early November went through all the ball joints, wheel bearings and steering components and had greased them in the right places and had replaced whatever was necessary.

The parts were also freshly painted, giving them a rejuvenated look.

By November 11, the parts were back on the car, and the brakes were the next item on the list.

The front and rear brakes were bolted during November 18, there were a few hiccups as is standard in these car restoration jobs, but they fitted perfectly in the end.

The Master cylinder and front brakes were plumbed up, the stop light switch got sorted and the battery cables were made all on November 20.

Another piece of Tropic Coast Racing history was found on November 22, 2025, at first the switch plate of the car read ‘Laughlin Racing Products’ but when Eddie flipped it over, it was marked for a team, and it was Tropic Coast Racing, and it had the car’s name ‘Intrepid’.

Engine work continued through late November, and early December, though work was naturally slowed down a bit by the festive season.

Brakes were all plumbed up and declared to be in working order by December 3.

The engine and the gearbox (transmission) were fitted into the car on December 29, 2025.

The radiator was fitted in; the clutch slave cylinder was mounted and working power steering plumbed up by January 7, 2026.

The engine was fired up in the car for the first time on January 10, 2026, it was successful.

The bonnet was worked on during the week of January 11, 2026, with Tuesday January 13 being a very productive day of work.

Painting of the car began on January 17, 2026, the number 23 was also declared to be locked in, TR Designs was given the job of making the decals for the car.

Work continued on January 22, 2026, when Eddie reported that ‘Just made the little duck tail on the boot, it was pretty tricky I made it similar to how it was with the option of bolting a higher blade onto it later‘.

It was discovered on January 23, 2026, that despite the car having four different paint jobs since the Ian Thomas era, some hidden parts of the car still retained the colours of the #23.

The hidden area of paint is just like the Brad Burgess owned Toyota, while the body was blue and white, there were areas of the Toyota that were yellow which was from a different livery.

We got our first look at the painted-up car on January 24, 2026, the next plan was for the measuring up of decals of where to put everything.

An orange stripe was purchased for the car, but it was not sticking to the car as hoped, fortunately there was a Plan B for such occasions and that is the signwriter getting the nod to do it.

The brake lights were installed and were then wired up on January 29, the lights were installed on the rear window.

A fan shroud was made by February 5, the process as you see above was detailed by Eddie, it provides great insight into the lengths that a car builder has to go to in order to get things done.

The rims were painted and the tyres were fitted to the car by February 10, used tyres were put on as it makes much more sense to practice on tyres that have had use than use fresh and expensive tyres when qualifying and/or Races would be more suitable.

The car was moved out into the yard on March 7, 2026, for photos to be taken for the car’s logbook.

The stickers for the car started arriving on Saturday March 21, included in the stickers were the numbers, Eddie’s name which was put on the driver’s side and a large version of the ASCN logo.

Motorsport Australia Scrutineering was completed; it was a nervous time not because of getting car compliance but the chance that somebody might photograph the car and spill the secret of the number and livery of the car before it was time.

Eddie also got his AASA Passport done as well.

On Friday March 27, 2026, the Tropic Coast Developments Stickers arrived ready to be put on the car.

At 1pm QLD time on March 28, 2026, the car was presented to ASCN to put into this report.

There are a few more items to take care of, one is to have Stock Cars Australia across the top of the windscreen just like the rest of the field and some contingency stickers.

That’s the story of the #23 Oldsmobile as of March 28, 2026, this report will be updated as events such as the SCA banner, test runs and races are completed.