Mustapha Kalfat and his passion for Holden
From chasing the latest and greatest Holdens on a suburban street in Dandenong to earning a pay cheque at Fisherman’s Bend.
A couple of Sundays ago, we glided through rain shower after rain shower along the Eastern Freeway en route to meet Mustapha “Steve” Kalfat in Melbourne’s outer east.
Having answered an impromptu phone call about the possibility of an interview that morning, Steve was kind enough to welcome us into the MKAL Automotive workshop on a small industrial block in the windy backstreets of Croydon.
As another rain shower swept across, we dived undercover to chat with Steve about his career in the car industry and where it’s taken him since.
Tripoli beginnings
Steve pulled up two seats on the workshop floor beside the latest Elizabeth-built addition to his fleet and gave us the lowdown on his early life as we set up the microphone.
He kindly fielded the same question about his upbringing once the red light came on.
“I was born in Lebanon in a city called Tripoli. There was a war happening at the time and my dad wanted to come to Australia for a better life. Back then, my dad and his family had a shipping yard, so it was a big decision to leave. Dad came over here in 1969, and I was born in 1970. The rest of us, including my older brother and sister, came to Australia when I was six months old.
“I grew up in Dandenong North. My dad was a boilermaker for Commonwealth Engineering which turned into ABB Transportation. My mum was a factory worker making Streets Ice Cream. It was a good upbringing.”
A Holden family
Like so many petrol-powered stories out of Melbourne’s East, much of Steve’s youth was spent in and around General Motors-Holden’s best-selling family cars.
“My dad has always had Holdens. That’s what attracted me to the Holden brand. I can remember the first car my dad had was an EK Holden wagon. It was blue with a white roof.
“It wasn’t just him though. One of our neighbours used to work for Holden in Dandenong and he would basically drive home with a new car every day. We used to sit outside and wait for him to drive past. Every time he bought home a new model, we’d run up and have a look.
“My uncle, who used to live next door, also worked for Holden in Dandenong on the assembly line. We’re a Holden family through and through, and I used to look through brochures and read books about everything Holden. I’ve always loved the brand. That meant getting a job at Holden was my dream growing up.”
Steve reflecting on the early years
The first step
With cars being a running theme throughout Steve’s youth, earning a wage working on them made plenty of sense.
“Ever since I was about nine years old, my brother and I would go to the dealership and collect brochures and all sorts of stuff. All my friends were car nuts, too. We used to always muck around with cars in someone’s garage and we picked up a lot from doing that.
“I got an apprenticeship as an auto electrician in Dandenong. I worked there for a while and then the recession came in and I got the arse. After that, I just went around to a few other shops and eventually got a job at HSV on a contract for about 12 months. Then, I went to work at another auto electrician.”
The opening
A piece of the puzzle of a perfect life fell into Steve’s hands while flicking through the newspaper.
“One day, I was reading the paper and saw a job advertisement from Holden. They were looking for auto electricians at Fisherman’s Bend. I handed in my resume, got the interview, went in and got the job. That was in 1995.”
As rain once again pelted the roof of the workshop, we asked Steve what he could remember from his first day at Fisherman’s Bend.
“It was like a dream. I got up so early to go to work because I was so excited to go and start my job. I noticed straight away that all of my work colleagues were great. I got to know a lot of people, and it was like a family. I loved it from the get-go.
“At the time, we were producing the VS Commodore. That meant the VT prototypes were well and truly underway. In the electrical engineering group, we were retrofitting the VT dash and electrical system into VS Commodores to do the testing. We’d basically wire them up as VTs with the body control modules, instrument clusters, air conditioning systems and all that sort of stuff.”
With a fleet of VT Commodores in the lead-up to the Sydney Olympics
Settling in
While career progression proved limited, there were plenty of opportunities to learn, and occasionally teach, once the new models hit the showroom.
“My career plateaued pretty quickly, but I didn’t mind too much because I enjoyed the work. Once the new models were released, we often got the opportunity to do some extra schooling. It was always nice to feel like you were advancing yourself.
“However, it was always funny when the teacher was telling us what to do, and I used to correct him a bit. He’d then invite me to come up, but I told him ‘I’m not paid to do that!’. We used to bounce stuff off each other all the time, and I think we both appreciated it.”
Across the pond
Steve was never going to pass up opportunity to help bring Australian engineering to the world on a work trip to Detroit.
“I used to work with one of the engineers from the electrical group when we built the first Monaro on what they called the AVO system. We got it done really quickly and because they wanted to introduce it to the US market as a Pontiac, I was asked to go over there to build them. That was because it mostly required electrical changes with very little done to the mechanicals.
“They shipped a couple of cars over there and we went over to Detroit and built them. They gave me two weeks to build two cars, and we ended up building two cars in a week. We got to see the proving ground and that sort of stuff, which was a big eye opener. The proving ground was like a suburb. The whole place was unbelievable.”
Steve and a Monaro in Detroit
Moving on
From the moment he joined, Steve planned on staying at Holden until retirement. However, a deep longing for a new challenge led him in a different direction after clocking up a decade of service.
“They had a couple of positions going upstairs in electrical engineering as a technical officer. I was very keen to advance myself and move up to one of those roles, but every time I went for them, I didn’t get them. It started to leave a bad taste in my mouth after the fourth or fifth time I applied.
“It got to the point where I realised I wasn’t going to move up, and I decided I wasn’t going to stay. It was never about the money. It was about job satisfaction. I loved what I did, but I wanted to learn more.”
Taking the plunge
After leaving Holden in the lead-up to the release of the VE Commodore, Steve’s new life started in a small workshop across the creek from where his business is based today.
“As soon as I left Holden, I started my business. It wasn’t as risky as that probably sounds, as I had a fair bit of clientele already and did some work outside of hours for some other shops, as well as a fair bit of work at home in the garage. Fortunately, we hit the ground running and I haven’t looked back since. We’ve even employed a couple of ex-Holden workers!
“The way business the business has gone, we mainly specialise in LS conversions. I put these motors into anything GM and non-GM cars. I’m just about to put one in a Nissan 200SX for a customer, plus a lot of other American cars and, of course, Australian cars.”
Tinkering with some American muscle
Reflections on manufacturing
Having followed Holden since the seventies, we invited Steve to share his thoughts on the demise of local car manufacturing.
“I think the government could have done something to stop this. Look at any other country with car manufacturing and you’ll see that they subsidise their car industries. Why should it be any different here? The manufacturers deserve a little bit of the blame, but ultimately, it was the government that sold us out. It’s left a sour taste in my mouth.
“People don’t realise the effect it’s had on the industry and how many small manufacturing component suppliers have had to shut. They’re all gone. Outside of the small boutique stuff, there is no future in design or manufacturing.
“From a Holden perspective, there was a lot of knowledge in that place. You can’t buy that. No matter what you do, it can never be replaced. I learned so much from the people there which helped to start of my business. When I started, people were still working there for the FC and FE days. They would tell me stories about how they used to do things.
“For a lot of people, Holden was their life.”
The favourite
Steve recalled his favourite model from his stint for Australia’s best-known automotive brand.
“It would have to be the WK Caprice. That was because Peter Hanenberger had one. He was the Managing Director of Holden at the time. I used to do a fair bit of work on it for him and I just loved it. We put different wheels and brakes on it and made some other improvements that he wanted. It was an awesome car. I ended up buying a second-hand one.”
The fleet
One glance at the workshop floor reveals his passion for General Motors machinery has never waned.
“Right now, I have a VF SS Redline. I always wanted the last of the Holden Commodore VFs. I had a white one, but I had a customer who had always wanted to buy it, and I eventually offloaded it and bought the Series II in ‘Son of a Gun grey’. I absolutely love it. It’s easily one of the best cars Holden ever built.
“I also have a 1953 Chevrolet, a Holden VY ute and just bought a 2004 VY Calais that we’re sitting next to. I just couldn’t pass it up. It was a one-owner car with only 79,000 kilometres. And my wife has an Acadia, so we actually have four Holdens.”
The newest addition to the Kalfat fleet, a VY Calais
Curiosity led us to ask Steve about the early stages of his car ownership journey.
“My first car was an EH Holden. Your first car is never the best, but it went pretty good. You walk before you run in a sense and work your way up from there.
“I’ve had a few non-Holden cars. I bought a Datsun 240K and then ended up buying an EK Holden after that. I found the listing in the Trading Post. I bought it from an old lady in Koo Wee Rup, and it only had 37,000 miles on it. The car was absolutely pristine. It had sat in the shed for something like 15 years
“I ended up selling that to buy a Mitsubishi Scorpion, had a play with that and then bought a VH ex-cop car. I then bought a HQ, owned a VL SV88 for a little bit, then bought another HQ. After that, I bought a VK Brock Director, sold that and then my father-in-law sold me a HK Bathurst Monaro which I ended up selling. Stupid me!”
The Monaro might be worth a pretty penny now, but we get the sense that life is pretty good at MKAL Automotive and at home, where Steve is happily married to Vicki with three sons.
Inside the MKAL Automotive workshop