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When Australian actress Virginia Gay was cast in All Saints at the age of 24, she knew she had to finally get her driver’s licence and buy a car to get her to work and back.
Enter the Honda Concerto. It was purchased just before the global financial crisis in 2006 from a second-hand dealer in the inner west of Sydney, accompanied by her parents – dad Rob and mother Pen.
“I had just graduated from WAAPA [The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts], and back then we walked everywhere because as students we had no money. There was no real need for a car, but doing All Saints for more than three years and being back in Sydney, well I definitely needed a car for that,” recalls Gay.
“There was only one person in our year at WAAPA who actually owned a car! But soon enough I realised I had to learn how to drive myself. I crammed all of my hours into learning how to drive in three months, and was ready to buy a second-hand car and hit the road."
She’ll never forget being at the car dealer with her parents, ready to splurge $5000 on a white 1995 Honda Concerto.
“My father is a big believer in signs. He is so into music, and when he saw the car was called a Concerto, he thought I’d never have problems with a car named after a musical phrase. He liked the sound of it,” she says.
Honda Concertos were manufactured in Japan between 1988 and 1992, and then the UK overlapped with production until the model’s end in 1995.
“The reason nobody has ever heard of a Honda Concerto is because it eventually stopped being made. It was expensive to maintain and I had it for a year-and-a-half, but it never made sense to get it fixed as the parts were so expensive,” she says.
According to Gay, the head gasket blew and became a costly thing to fix – likening it to those who try to buy a part for an old European car.
“The car eventually priced itself out of the repair market,” she adds.
According to Gay, a defining feature was a ceiling roof with a seal that became loose with fabric flapping above her head as she drove it. “It created this billowing effect, resting on top of your head as you drove,” she says ironically. “It was quite a sensory experience.”
Gay says her parents didn’t bargain for a better price when signing on the dotted line at the dealership.
“I instantly felt grown up,” she says.
“The car didn’t last long, it eventually died. It became a hunk of metal that hissed water from its radiator and didn’t get me anywhere. It stayed in the driveway for a while at my parents' house. That’s when I realised part of being an adult isn’t just freedom, it’s paying bills to maintain the car,” she says.
After finishing three-and-a-half years on All Saints, Gay went on to join Winners & Losers.
Parting ways with the Concerto saw her buy a friend’s second-hand Mazda in baby blue for $1500. Her friend Gemma Peanut, podcaster of We Don’t Have Time for This, sold it to her.
“That car also died on me on the side of the road one day. I have lived with a series of shit boxes that got me around to be honest; it was my version of being sustainable and using these cars to the very end,” she says.
Gay will premiere her new show Mama Does Derby at the Sydney Festival in January. She’s written and produced the new show with Clare Watson.
“It's a beautiful, funny comedy/horror designed for teenagers – when you get to that moment in life where your parents stop being your heroes and start becoming your trigger,” she says.
“It’s set at a roller derby track with actual roller derby players at the Sydney Town Hall."
Gay isn’t on the stage this time, having just finished Calamity Jane at the Sydney Opera House. “Mama Does Derby is a chance to create worlds where other people can flourish and it’s a joy to see that happen.”
Jane Rocca is a Melbourne journalist and author who writes for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald’s Sunday Life Magazine, columnist The Dish at Good Food, Harper’s Bazaar Australia, ABC Arts. She has written four books and hosted a podcast series Some of My Best Work with Mushroom.
