carsales Drive-Thru car chats with Melbourne Storm's Harry Grant
Melbourne Storm Hooker Harry Grant takes some time out from training to talk all things cars, road trips and mishaps...At the ripe age of 23, Melbourne Storm Hooker Harry Grant doesn’t have a yearning sense of nostalgia around cars – he’s owned just the one to date - but rather a more modest approach to choosing his wheels, with space and comfort high on the ‘must-have’ list.
Grant admits he doesn’t even have a dream car – he simply needs room for a few mates and a surfboard. Growing up in Yeppoon, Queensland, the 2020 Dally M Rookie of the Year has fond memories of family road trips heading south on Australia’s east coast in the family’s Mitsubishi Delica.
Parked-up in the back seat of a Toyota Hiace, Grant chatted with carsales about his life in cars thus far. carsales is a proud sponsor of the multi-premiership winning Melbourne Storm NRL team.
Would you call yourself a car guy?
“Nah, not really. I can recognise [certain] cars but I don’t know too much about them.”
What do you drive?
“I’m driving a Mitsubishi Triton – thanks to (sponsor) Tropical Auto Group. It’s a preference for me [the dual-cab ute]. It’s very convenient. You can do plenty with it.”
And what would we find in the tray?
“Probably a surfboard or whatever the boys need in the back. We do a few trips if the boys need a ute. And usually tools.” Grant agrees that friends are a plenty when you drive a ute.
First car?
“A Holden Viva – it was a good little car. I’ve still got it at home actually – bought it second hand. That was my first car straight out of school. Then I went to the Triton. I’ve only had the two cars.”
What makes a good car for you?
“Comfort and something that’s easy to drive. Then spaciousness is always a bonus. As long as it’s comfortable and easy to drive it’s a good car.”
On taking the Triton off-road…
“Yeah, sometimes on the beach, but not too many chances recently.”
Who taught you to drive?
“Mum and Dad were the majority and my brothers. But the majority with Dad, he was more patient than Mum. She got a little scared. It took me a little longer to get my licence. I didn’t rush it. I took my time. I had to do the 100 or so hours so that was a bit of a ‘mish’. It takes a while.
I got a manual licence, which is why it took longer. I had to get practice in a manual and I didn’t have one at the time. I did the extra hours in my brother’s work car.”
What do you remember about your family car?
“We had a family of six, so we had a big family growing up. We had a Mitsubishi Delica as the family car for a fair while. I think Mum and Dad got it off carsales actually! It was a good family car.
“I’m the youngest so I had the dickie seat, the smallest seat. Especially on long family road trips it wasn’t too comfortable.”
Family road trips?
“Yeah we did plenty. Plenty of camping trips. We’ve got family in Port Macquarie so we used to road trip down there a lot of the time, from Yeppoon. It was a bit of a trek, but always fun trips.”
How would you rate your parallel parking skills on a scale of 1-10?
“Oh, parallel…. does it have a reverse camera? *laughs* Right now with my car maybe I’d say a seven - so above average.”
How awful is your driver’s licence photo?
“It’s not too bad. I think it was [taken] when I was still in school. I was younger so it’s probably a better photo!”
Do you regularly top up with fuel or do you wait until the light is flashing and engine failure imminent?
“A bit of both actually. Sometimes I’ll top up if the fuel is cheap and then sometimes I just let it hang and get caught out! I’ve never run out of petrol. BUT I have put the wrong petrol in the car. It was my old boss’ work car and I put the wrong petrol in – which really hurt. I was lucky he was away for the weekend so he had a few days to sit on it and calm down a little. We just had to get it towed to a mechanic. We realised maybe 100-metres down the road. We could feel it. Probably not my best moment. It was a Volkswagen Transporter and you could just tell – it had a feeling. The guy I was working with asked straight away, ‘did you put the right fuel in this’. I said I hope so but I don’t think I did.”
In heavy traffic do you merge patiently or sneak up the inside lane and pray someone takes pity and lets you in?
“Oh a bit of both depends if I’m in a rush or not. You do get a kick out of letting people in. It feels good.”
What’s the longest car journey you’ve done?
“The drive to Port Macquarie [from Yeppoon] was pretty long [thirteen hours according to Google Maps]. They were fun trips. Sometimes we’d space it out over a week or two and make a trip of it. We’re a camping family, we camped a fair bit. It was fun.”
Who would you love to road trip with and why?
“With anybody? My Dad. That’d be good.”
What are two things we’d find in your car?
In my car you’d find probably a phone charger and a water bottle!
Do you have any idea how many kms your car can travel out of one tank of fuel?
Ooh, on a full tank? Nope. I’d take a guess at 700km?
What’s a feature in your car you couldn’t live/drive well without?
“Reversing camera – it makes life easier. Cruise control when you’re doing longer trips. And Apple Carplay makes it safer – for driving and navigation wise.”
Have you ever named a car?
“The Viva didn’t really have a name, but we called it the two-dollar coin because it was small and gold. I’m just keeping it because the Triton is a sponsorship car so they could pull the pin on that at any time - so I’ve got the Viva if I need it. Mum and Dad are using it with my brothers as the spare car around the house.”
Related: carsales Drive-Thru car chats with Trent Cotchin
Related: What your car colour says about you
Related: Six cars for surfers and keen beach goers
Tags
Please see our Editorial Guidelines & Code of Ethics (including for more information about sponsored content and paid events). The information published on this website is of a general nature only and doesn’t consider your particular circumstances or needs.
