About RACV

the last surviving tarrant car

• Two seater roadster
• 4 cylinder side valve unit
• 3.5 litre
• 14-16 hp
• Designed and built in Melbourne by the Tarrant Motor Company
• Tarrant cars were the first production cars built in Victoria and were the first petrol driven cars produced for sale in Australia

Tarrant cars were the first production cars built in Victoria and was the first petrol driven cars produced for sale in Australia.

This Tarrant car was discovered by Maurice Shmith, a former employee of the Tarrant Motor Company, in 1932. Shmith presented the car to Kenneth and Peter Holmes, grandsons of its creator Colonel Harley Tarrant in 1960. They painstakingly restored the car with their mother, the late Mrs Doreen Holmes, employing elderly tradespeople to apply the original methods of production.

This Tarrant car is probably Australia's most precious piece of automotive history. RACV acquired the car in 2002 and is proud to display it in its Club premises.

colonel harley tarrant

Harley Tarrant built about 16 cars between 1900 and 1907, before he could no longer compete in price with such imports as the Model T Ford. Production of the car ceased when Tarrant Motors became the main distributor for Ford in Victoria in 1908.

Colonel Tarrant was a foundation member of RACV and a councillor from 1906 to 1910. He was awarded life membership in 1947, before he died in 1949, aged 89 years.