Colin Kiel’s collection of classic cars at Mirboo North is a cracker

SOUTH Gippsland businessman and car enthusiast Colin Kiel is a lucky man.

Shining example: Colin with his 1934 Jaguar at the recent Motorclassica in Melbourne. The Jag will join 15 other classic cars from Colin’s collection at his new Mirboo North museum. Picture: Supplied

ENTHUSIAST Colin Kiel is a lucky man. The South Gippsland businessman has achieved such success with his plastic moulding manufacturing company, Kiel Industries, he has been able to devote the past 10 years to indulging one of the great loves of his life: classic motor cars.

“Like many, many other people, early motor cars have always been a passion of mine,” says Colin, 63, who has 16 cars in his collection.

“But it has only been in the past decade that I have been able to pursue that passion.”

Colin has been dedicated to putting food on the table and children through school and university, rarely having time to tinker with cars, let alone amass money to pay for them.

Kiel Industries was hit hard by the recession in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and Colin and wife Maxine decided to move the fledgling business from Melbourne to Mirboo North,

“The local council was great and they gave us a good deal on the 10 acres (four hectares) where we set up our business and we were able to live on site,” he says.

Years of hard work followed, and by 2008 the company had outgrown the site and was relocated to a larger plot of land in nearby Morwell.

Colin has never forgot the community’s generosity and plans to “give back” to the town with the opening of his 4Cs Motor Museum, also known as Colin’s Classic Car Collection, on the site of the factory in Mirboo North.

“What we have got that other museums don’t is a full history of motoring, so you walk in at the beginning and come out in 2000,” Col says.

The earliest car is a 1912 Star of Wolverhampton, and the most recent is an elegant 1985 XJS Jaguar. The museum, which will be “softly launched” for a few car clubs at the end of the year, is likely to be up and running by spring next year.

There are 20 cars in the museum — with a few thrown in by collectors keen to make some room in their sheds — and Colin hopes to increase that number to 40 by spring.

4Cs Motor Museum, 10 Barfoot Rd, Mirboo North, is open by appointment only. Ph: [phone].