Meeting an Aussie petrolhead

A few months ago Curtis Grima messaged us on Instagram from his Instagram page Nine4 Garage that he was about to visit Malta with his partner in July and he enquired if any automotive events were happening during his stay. 

At the time I just told him to message us again closer to date as there was nothing planned yet especially with something related to classic American cars which he was well into.

Fast forward a few months and he messaged us again a week before his stay here but unfortunately their short holiday in Malta was planned between Monday and Thursday as they would leave on a Friday morning so there wasn’t anything going on.

We still wanted to help out though as it’s always lovely to meet up with foreigners who share the same passion, so the idea of an actual private garage tour came to mind as it would be a cool alternative meeting other locals with the same passion for American Classic Cars.

Considering the short notice, 2 out of 3 people we had in mind to visit was able to meet us so I just told Curtis to be at St Paul’s Bay at 5pm on a Thursday and leave the evening free so I can take him around. 

We started off visiting Charlie and his son Carl in Manikata and during our drive there I realised he has a Maltese surname, before this time we always communicated through his business page so I didn’t realise this so I had to ask about this. 

Curtis’s grandparents had emigrated to Australia in the 40s but were originally from Mellieha. I even asked about the family nickname but he didn’t know it. As I was writing this blog though he checked with his family and it’s ‘Balula’. They even took a photo with their house which surprisingly it’s still not turned into a block of apartments!

As I was saying we started off with Charlie and Carl Bonanno in Manikata, a father and son fabricators which were always into American classic vehicles in fact every time I visited them there was always something new to look at. This time it was the International Truck which I had seen for the first time. We started off by checking out the classic Mack truck at the back. 

See Instagram Reel here

They weren’t expecting to see this in fact even how the garage was built the truck just fits like a glove. And then we moved up one level to see another garage where we saw the International Truck which was their recent addition and then to another garages where all the rest of the vehicles were garaged.

After talking about family, work and cars we all owned along with our future ambitions we went on our way across Malta where we visited Lloyd Darmanin in Marsascala. We also peeked into 3 different garages to see all his collection of vehicles! 

After 8pm I started to get hungry and since it was a Thursday I decided to go there for our final stop at the Old Motors Clubhouse in Mosta where I usually meet fellow petrolhead friends to talk about classic cars, have a beer and a bite to eat. 

We hope you enjoyed reading this article and please do get in touch if you’re reading this from abroad and would like to meet up during your stay in Malta, you can get in touch via Instagram, Facebook or even email us on [email protected].