In the 80’s and 90’s, David Bowden, father of Bowden’s Own founder Dan Bowden, developed a passion for old race cars, those driven to success by legends like Peter Brock, Dick Johnson, Allan Moffat & Norm Beechey, to name but a few.
In those days nothing had less value than an old and no longer competitive race car. Many were being stripped and sold for the worth of their parts, dumping what was left. With son’s Dan and Chris in tow, David slowly tracked down many significant cars, from all over Australia and overseas, and set about restoring or preserving them, for the simple reason that he believed it was history worth saving. From this point the collection began to really grow, filling sheds with a lot of significant Australasian racing machinery.
This meant the family had some very significant cars to care for, many with original paint & signwriting. For years they had been using a large range of highly regarded US and European “quality” car care products, till they noticed a few issues to the finishes of their prized cars.
They commissioned a local chemist to do some in-depth research and review what they were using. To their surprise, they found that most of the products contained cheap and quite damaging ingredients, with the general formulas not being ideal for long term use. Being a fussy bunch when it comes to cars, they soon came to the conclusion that for them to have something they would be happy with, they would need to make their own. This began their journey to develop new premium car care products, custom made to suit their needs.
After many months of testing a diverse selection of product formulas from their very patient chemist, Bowden’s Own finalised their first batch of 4 products in 2000 - a wash, paint cleanser, detailing spray and liquid wax. It was a happy day, as they now had their hands on something they could trust to care for their cars. It wasn’t long before other car fanatics started to notice how good they were...