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There are those who know about engines, and then there is Dave Bennett.
Not only has he been a significant part of the Australian automotive industry for the best part of 50 years, he also started the world famous Yella Terra brand of engine components.
Dave's early 20s were spent 'hot rodding' his Riley special, and he took an interest in drag racing shortly thereafter. "We used to do a lot of street racing but at pretty slow speeds, mainly because our cars didn't go very fast," recalls Dave.
Working in a Holden dealership in various roles in the late 1950s, he struck up a friendship with a well-known racer by the name of Murray Carter. They worked together as a team on the now historic Carter Corvette, and had great success on tracks Australia-wide. Dave and Murray are still great friends, catching up on a regular basis.
In 1962, Dave opened Perfectune Automotive Services in Sandringham, Victoria where he tuned and serviced cars, specialising in modifying cylinder heads. The business grew and he wanted a chassis dynamometer (rolling road) for development purposes. He became involved with engineer Ross Schultz developing a compact and low cost dyno. With one becoming installed in his new premises in Moorabbin, they began successfully selling their dynos across the country. It was this involvement with dynos that high profile racer Norm Beechey started the nickname 'Dyno Dave'.
Dave bought one of the first 186S four-speed Holden HRs in July 1967, and modified the engine with a stage two cylinder head. It was quicker to 100mph than the new XR GT Falcon, and was covered in all the motoring magazines at the time. The hierarchy at Holden approached him about modifying 250 cylinder heads, however, they wanted them very quickly for a project they did not disclose.
Dave declined the offer, and Holden subsequently produced their own heads based on a sample they'd bought from Dave – these heads ended up being fitted to the LC Torana GTR XU-1.
In August 1968, Dave took delivery of a Warwick Yellow HK GTS 327 Bathurst Monaro. After "running its ring off" on the dyno, and then driving to Mt Gambier and back, Dave ran a 14.46 quarter mile on the stock Dunlop tyres... with the car just nine days old.
"It became the first Monaro on a drag strip, and possibly the first raced anywhere in Australia," according to Dave. A year later it ran consistent 12.7s down the drag strip.
In hindsight, Dave realised he'd missed a golden opportunity with the XU-1 job and set about developing an economically priced head; substituting expensive hand finishing with machining, while still achieving a substantial power gain.
The names 'Purple Power' and 'Red Devil' were discussed, though Perfectune's corporate colours were yellow and black. "We painted them in the Torana colour Yellow Dolly, and put thirteen of them on our front counter as a display," says Dave. One of the staff complained to Dave, asking him to get these 'yellow terrors' out of the way, and the name was born!
The Yella Terra brand became known for excellent quality and great power gain for Holden six-cylinder and V8 engines, and it wasn't long before Holden came back to visit Dave. This time – they successfully asked him to modify 250 heads for the 202cid Bathurst GTR XU-1, right when Dave was well and truly geared up for volume production. This lead to an opportunity in late 1973 for Perfectune to produce 500 heads for a V8 project – which ultimately turned out to be the new LH Torana L34.
Perfectune continued the relationship with Holden, producing tens of thousands of heads for the A9X and SLR/5000 Torana, HDT Brock Commodores built by HDT, and the VL Walkinshaw built by HSV.
In the 1980s Perfectune began developing truly innovative high strength, low friction roller rocker arms which lead to rapid growth in local and overseas markets, eventually catering for nearly 250 engine models. They continued to produce and develop performance heads and were Australia's leading manufacturer of aftermarket performance engine components.
The late 1980s saw Perfectune producing components specifically for racing, and were chosen to supply the roller rockers for all Auscars – a popular Australian racing category from 1986-1997 using V8 Commodores and Falcons that mirrored American NASCARS. This gave Perfectune the ability to prove their products under racing conditions, and over tens of thousands of kilometres there were no serious failures in their products; cementing their position as a global leader in roller rocker engineering.
In the 2000s, Perfectune produced thousands of sets of heads and rockers for Tickford, which were fitted to the 220kW and 250kW variants of the Ford Windsor V8. These engines found their way into the Series III XR8, Pursuit utes and T-Series range.
With 60 years in the automotive industry, Dave is now enjoying retirement with his wife Jan. He now spends his time between his home and holiday house, a bit of boating and golf, and overseas travel.
Source: Survivor Car Australia
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