Mad world

Car workshops aren’t supposed to have beautiful downlighting and immaculate paintwork. They rarely feature giant wall-mounted speakers or a professional racing simulator either. Then you spot a gin and tonic shelf on a Tool Pro cabinet, a 1970s orange and mustard three-piece suite, and even a climbing wall. What’s going on here?

This is MaD Garage in the Melbourne suburb of Seaford – a workshop unlike any other.

For starters, it’s clinically clean. But look around and there’s the usual garage paraphernalia: a 4.5-tonne hoist with extra high lift (for utes and vans), a press, drill, bench grinder, vice, parts washer, and fabricating tools. Neatly organised tool cabinets are stacked by the walls, and I spot a TIG welder under the stairs.

“The premise was a fully functioning workshop that doesn’t look anything like one,” said Dan Gardner, the ‘D’ part of MaD Garage. The ‘M’ is Dan’s partner, Molly Taylor – recently described as Australia’s most successful female racing driver.

Not only was Molly the 2016 Australian Rally Champion, she and co-driver Johan Kristoffersson were inaugural Extreme E

The MaD workshop is fully functioning with hoist, tools and equipment, but aimed at use for motoring-related content creating rather than daily oil changes.

Champions – ahead of Cristina Gutierrez and Sebastien Loeb, no less.

Small but smart

Dan is a well-respected motoring journalist and presenter, so he and Molly present a unique combination of talents. The workshop, Dan said, is the third member of the trio.

MaD Garage was established as a functioning workshop for showcasing vehicles, products, and mechanical work. Used primarily for photography or video content creation, the space also serves as a very cool and relevant space for

“Customers can use it for anything that needs a clean looking workshop space,” Dan said. “That can be for taking images or doing video explainers while a car’s being worked on.

“They can do any work they like, as long as it’s done in a day. Others can come over and tinker with their cars, but no hospital jobs allowed – we just haven’t got the room.”

He’s not wrong. The workshop is a mere 77m2, fitting a maximum of four cars. The mezzanine above features a bathroom, lounge area, TV for showing motor sport, Molly’s racing sim, and her collection of floor, which looks surreal without the typical jumble of parts, tools, trolleys, rags, oil cans, and that non-running classic in the corner that was supposed to be finished last year. All familiar stuff to Dan.

To the extreme

A trained mechanic, Dan’s worked at a variety of workshops and specialists, including three years at Doncaster BMW when first arriving in Australia.

The German brand’s service departments are usually pretty schmick, but MaD Garage was to take things to the next level on that front.

“It had to be clean, organised and with no clutter,” Dan said. “It must function like a workshop, but look nothing like a proper one.”

By that he meant the necessary partchaos seen in garages where dozens of customers expect service and repairs to be done yesterday.

Molly’s pre-build plans? She said she wanted the space to be Formula 1 meets Google headquarters – such lofty ideals clearly part of a champion racer’s brain.

At first, Dan and Molly simply wanted the space to store and maintain their private collection of cars – motoring journalists and race drivers have a habit of buying ‘interesting’ vehicles they don’t really need.

At last year’s Australian Grand Prix, a chance conversation with Supercheap Auto high-ups saw the auto store giant express interest in getting involved.

“They see the value in relatable, approachable workshops, with driveway mechanics getting car stuff done themselves,” Dan said.

The workshop is also ideal for Molly’s personal sponsors – of which there are many – to help showcase their products with the star ambassador. Molly’s appearance on Seven Network’s SAS Australia raised her profile beyond even her incredible motorsport success.

Her revered skills explain why MaD has its own Can-Am Maverick X3 side-by-side dune buggy racer in situ for some visual excitement. Molly drove a Can-Am in this year’s Dakar Rally – arguably the world’s toughest motor sport event – so it all ties in nicely.

“A couple of people have talked about doing walkarounds of their cars here,” Dan said. “It’s ideal if they want to talk about anything underneath or in the wheel wells while it’s up on the hoist – but not in a grubby, oily environment.”

Hang ten

A great deal of time and passion has gone into this unique project, as witnessed on MaD’s “making of” and tour videos on their YouTube page. They’re worth a watch to show a fantasy workshop we know couldn’t exist when daily customers, head rebuilds, and gearbox drops are involved.

Plumbing and electrics aside, Dan and Molly (and some mates when required) have turned a drab concrete space into a beautiful and, as the kids would say, totally Insta-worthy space. With Dan’s video presenting talents, Molly’s otherworldly driving success and MaD Garage’s total rethink on what a workshop can look like and do, it’s quite a unique combination. Above all, this place exists for the love of cars: something we can all relate to. Reclining on the workshop’s hideous/ glorious 1972 orange Tessa sofa, a drink on Dan’s homemade Formula 5000 slick racing tyre coffee table, and the front bumper from Molly’s 2016 championship winning Subaru hanging above, there’s plenty to love about going MaD.

More information: www.youtube.com/@themadgarage