My journey into diesel performance started with a $2,000 Toyota Hilux Surf I bought off a mates neighbour when I was 18.
If you’ve ever driven one, you’ll know they’re slow as hell. Like, barely go up a hill kinda slow.
I immediately joined some Facebook forums to figure out how I am going to fix this problem of not being able to accelerate up hills.
I tried some weird stuff.
Resistors in wiring to the injection pump.
Dodgie’d up some Pajero intercooler under the bonnet.
All sorts of things.
But the first major upgrade that made an actual difference was fitting a turbo off a wrecked Saab 9-3 (A Garrett GT1752S to be exact) that my Dad had laying around, using a custom manifold to make it work.
It wasn’t about chasing dyno numbers (not by choice, let’s just say my $100 budget just didn’t quite cut it). But the car just drove better, and that was enough to light the fire for everything that came after.
Back then, the recipe for building high performance diesel setups at home was nearly impossible. I was just guessing and trying.
Parts were expensive, hard to get, and the little information that existed was locked up inside workshops that wanted to keep it to themselves. I literally couldn’t buy anything, of anyone to make this thing go any better.
If you weren’t paying big bills and dropping your car off, you were stuck. As someone who wanted to (or had no choice but too) get stuck in and do it myself, 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 actually get them without running into gatekeepers.
We’re not here to sell cheap junk, get a quick buck or make things look harder than they are. We’re here to stock the right gear, explain it properly, and back it up with real knowledge.
Here’s what we’re about:
Stock on the shelf. Parts sitting in Brisbane ready to ship or pick up.
Real parts supplier. Supplying is what we do.
Want it fitted and tuned? No worries. Our workshop can handle that.
No secrets. We tell you exactly what the product does and how it works.
Gear that just works. If it’s on our site, it’s tested and proven in our own workshop and in our own cars.
We’ve grown by keeping it simple: put the customer first.
That’s why we’ve racked up over 1000 five-star Google reviews.
In an industry that is plagued with retail buyers getting absolutely screwed with huge promises, and either no delivery, or enough hoops to jump through you wonder why you even bothered at all.
It’s not because we’re flashy.
We actually have quite an old workshop in a not so fancy area and that if it rains too much, will probably flood (like it has done multiple times already).
But, it’s because people know when they buy from us, the part’s in stock, it does what it’s meant to, they know they’re going to get it and they’ve got someone backing them who’s been through the same journey with thousands of others along the way.
Where To From Here?
Looking ahead, our plan is to keep doing what we do, and constantly get better.
More performance kits for more vehicles.
More fuel systems.
More turbos.
More stock.
More performance kits that are proven and ready to go.
Better knowledge.
Better service.
Continue learning.
The goal hasn’t changed since day one: make diesel performance accessible to the everyday enthusiast who just wants to build their car right.
At the end of the day, we’re still enthusiasts ourselves. We’ll never forget what it felt like to want more out of our 4wd, and we’ll never stop making sure others can have that too.
- Hayden Klaassen
