Turner’s Titan — a Mack and a lifelong friendship

Restored in Turner’s colours, Tony Champion’s Mack Titan celebrates a friendship with Brian Turner that stretches back more than four decades.

Words by Chris Smith. Photography by Chris Smith.

This story really begins in the 1970s when two blokes shared a similar call sign on their CBs. Those were the days without mobile phones where you used to have to wait your turn and listen to other people’s conversations.

It was back in 1972 when Tony Champion worked for a company called Lowe Earthmoving in Sydney and Brian Turner worked for civil contractors JK Williams in Penrith.

“What happened with our companies we had two-way radios and back then, two-way radio wasn’t a CB it was a proper one like the taxis have and we had proper protocol that we had to use,” Tony explains to ACT.

“You used to have to give a call sign. Brian’s call sign with JK Williams was 2MZ CAR 5 and mine was 2BOR CAR 5 and we were both on the same frequency so we would have to wait for each other if we had to make a call.

“I had never met Brian but I just knew that he was CAR 5,” he recalls.

Tony remembers vividly the day the two met. He was working on the new freeway driving a scrapper when he saw a JK William marked ute pull up.

“He pulled up, and pulled over to make a call on the radio. He said Car 5 to such and such and I thought to myself, hey that’s Brian,” explains Tony.

“I pulled over and stopped and walked across the road to where he was and I introduced myself. We listened to each other all day every day we picked the radio up and sure enough it was Brian Turner!”

After this initial introduction their paths crossed more frequently over the years.

Brian came up to Yeppoon, where Tony still lives, for a two-week holiday and ended up buying a farm in the area for a few years.

The relationship was solidified further as Tony’s brother Peter ended up working for Brian driving a grader for him for JK Williams.

With a relationship firmly entrenched the two became even closer, both starting their own businesses and sharing a common interest in machinery including a deep seeded affection for Mack trucks.

“When I went into business for myself and I had my own low-loaders Brian was a very avid Mack man himself so we really got close was when we went out for tea and talked Mack trucks,” explains Tony.

Today, the conversation has shifted to what Macks they have in their respective Mack museums.

Brian and Tony are cut from the same cloth. They are living embodiments of living the Australian dream. They share a similar story of working hard, investing wisely and creating their own luck.

Both created successful companies and invested in farms and other interests.

Brian and Tony are semi-retired but still haul the occasional load or two.

It’s this back story of mutual respect and admiration that has seen the restoration of the Turner’s Titan in its colours.

“I saw on PJs Facebook page a lot of people asking the question of why I would paint the truck up in someone else’s colours,” Tony says.

“You are missing the point fellas, this is Australian history and he is good friend and I want to keep the truck looking like it was when it was bought brand new!”

The Titan has many unique features… seriously it even has the kitchen sink! It was set up to travel and to carry heavy loads hauling mining equipment all over the country.

“We ran it from 1997 and we mainly did heavy haulage with it plus a bit of road-train work,” Brian explains.

Tony Turner, Brian’s son, now owns and runs the company. Brian takes an occasional load but he is extremely proud of what his son has achieved.

The family has been in transport for well over 40 years and in that time have been great supporters of the Mack brand.

“We have mainly always had Macks.

We’ve bought Flintstone Macks, we’ve bought V8 Macks, we have bought Super-Liners,” Brian recalls.

It was the collection of Mack’s that lead to this unique Titan. Mack was celebrating its 75th Anniversary in 1994 and the then Marketing Manager, Gary Richards, had organised a cavalcade of pre-1970s Mack trucks for a grand celebration back at the then Richland’s yard.

“We have always taken our trucks to different truck shows over the years. We took about seven or eight of our vintage trucks up to Brisbane on that occasion,” he says.

They were going to purchase a Mack Titan at the time and as a thank you for contributing to the cavalcade Mack offered to put on some special features on the new Titan.

“We were there for three or four days, we always bought new Macks off Gary and when the Titan came up we said we wanted one of those. We showed him what we wanted,” he recalls.

“We wanted a bigger cab and a whole list of extras, we even put a kitchen sink in the cab.

“We had extra driving lights and extra stainless tanks on the side to put our BBQs in, when we go away we also take our tucker with us and cook it on the side of the road. We also setup a special bigger water tank so we had plenty of water.”

One of the things that Brian asked for was if he could have the exhaust between the cabin and the sleeper.

Something that made the Mack different and look spectacular compared to its peers.

Mack complied to the request however it was a massive job and one Tony laughs that they probably wish they hadn’t agreed because they had to re-jig everything in it.

“That is why the Turners Titan has those features and the sleeper on it was appointed with a television and a sink and a big fridge freezer and quit a large sleeper compartment,” Tony explains.

“When that truck actually left Brisbane to be delivered to Turners it would have been just right up there with the most elite trucks on the highway in Australia at that time,” he says.

This is also the sentiment shared by Brian.

“It was king of the road in my eyes and how I look at it back in those days,” Brian remembers fondly.

Although it looks impressive, it wasn’t a show pony, it was completed in 1997 and was one of the last 610hp Mack V8 engines.

It travelled extensively as a road-train up to Darwin and hauled mining machinery all over the country.

It is almost 20 years old but for the last five years it hasn’t been working as hard.

Turners was still doing a bit of work with it out of the mines, and some of the areas it was travelling was pretty steep. The Titan was still pulling 80 to 90 tonne loads.

They realised that if the rare 610hp V8 Mack motor blew up then they wouldn’t be able to get any parts for it anymore.

“You can’t get the parts for them so if you blow a motor up, you can’t get the main parts you need,” Brian says.

He explains a lot of people were after it including Jon Kelly, former owner of Heavy Haulage Australia (HHA).

“Every time my son Tony would pass him (Jon) on the way up to Darwin he would say I will be down to pick that Titan up, but it was never going to be,” Brian says.

Although, the one person in the world that he would sell it to also asked.

Tony says his brother Peter was driving the Titan for a wedding in Orange at Brian’s vineyard, the home of the Mack museum, and he cheekily called him up with the V8 roaring in the background asking his brother to guess what he was driving.

He guessed what type of truck it was and asked Peter to ask Brian if he could buy it!

“I asked Peter to ask Brian if he wants to sell it, Brian said no I am not going to sell it but you will get first option if I do!”

“He passed the phone over and we had a good laugh about it, you wouldn’t believe it, it would have been about a month to six weeks after that discussion I get a phone call from Brian and he says do you really want that 610 Titan, I said I have been looking for one and yours would be perfect, because of the association I have with you, if you want to sell it to me I would be honoured.”

“He said you better come and get it. Because I have a 904 Kenworth in the shed that has 50,000 kms on it, I walk past it every day and climb in this Titan because I love it, but I know if I expire the engine I can’t buy bits for it, you wouldn’t want it then.”

For Brian, the feeling was mutual.

“There would only be one guy I would ever sell that truck to and that would be Tony Champion. Because I have known Tony 40 odd years and he is fanatically professional, and he has a beautiful collection of Mack trucks now,” Brian says.

One of the other main reasons to sell was that it was too high to fit into the museum in Orange.

Once the truck was picked up Tony was in a quandary. Brian had cleaned it up nicely. Almost to the point where he didn’t think it needed any restoration at all.

In the end Tony thought this is a special truck and a show stopper in the Turners colours.

That’s when he made the decision to send it to PJs in Brisbane.

“Brian told me when I bought it, it’s yours to do what you like with it. I said it will always be Turners Titan!”

The truck now sits proudly in Tony’s museum as a symbol of friendship of two old mates.

Rear Vision: where are they now?

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