How HD Automotive started
My journey into diesel performance started with a $2,000 Toyota Hilux Surf I bought off a mate’s neighbour when I was 18.
If you’ve ever driven one, you’ll know they’re slow as hell. Barely-get-up-a-hill slow. I joined every Facebook forum I could find to work out how to fix it, and I tried some weird stuff: resistors in the wiring to the injection pump, a dodgy Pajero intercooler under the bonnet, all sorts of things.
The first upgrade that made a real difference was a turbo off a wrecked Saab 9-3 (a Garrett GT1752S, to be exact) that my dad had lying around, on a custom manifold. It wasn’t about dyno numbers. My $100 budget didn’t stretch that far. But the car drove better, and that lit the fire for everything that came after.
Back then, building a proper diesel setup at home was close to impossible. Parts were expensive and hard to get, and what little information existed was locked up inside workshops that wanted to keep it to themselves. If you weren’t dropping your car off and paying big bills, you were stuck. As someone who wanted to get stuck in and do it myself (and had no choice anyway), that didn’t sit right.
That’s why HD Automotive exists. We built the kind of store I wish I had when I started.
A place where anyone can buy the parts, understand what they do, and get them without running into gatekeepers. We’re not here to sell cheap junk or make things look harder than they are. We stock the right gear, explain it properly, and back it up with real knowledge.
What we’re about
- Stock on the shelfParts sitting in Brisbane, ready to ship or pick up.
- A real parts supplierSupplying parts is what we do, every day.
- Fitting and tuningWant it fitted and tuned? Our workshop can handle that.
- No secretsWe tell you exactly what a product does and how it works.
- Gear that worksIf it’s on our site, it’s been tested in our own workshop and our own cars.
Customers first
We’ve grown by keeping it simple and putting the customer first. That’s how we’ve built up over 1,950 reviews with a 4.9-star average, in an industry where buyers too often get big promises and then no delivery, or so many hoops to jump through they wonder why they bothered.
It isn’t because we’re flashy. Our workshop is old, in a not-so-fancy area, and if it rains too much it’ll probably flood (it has, more than once). People come back because when they buy from us, the part is in stock, it does what it’s meant to, it turns up, and they’ve got someone behind them who’s been through the same build with thousands of others.
Where to from here
The plan is to keep doing what we do and keep getting better at it: more proven performance kits for more vehicles, more fuel systems, more turbos, more stock on the shelf, and better knowledge and service.
The goal hasn’t changed since day one: make diesel performance accessible to the everyday enthusiast who wants to build their car right. We’re still enthusiasts ourselves. We haven’t forgotten what it felt like to want more out of our 4WD, and we’ll keep making sure others can have that too.
Hayden KlaassenFounder, HD Automotive
