Eric Bana is happily married with two children, but his family has to share his affections. The other object of his love is parked in a garage next to the family home in Melbourne: a 1974 Ford Falcon coupé that his father bought for him when he was 15. He’s raced it at 150mph, improved it and changed the colour from white to red — and he flatly refuses to sell.

In the time he has owned it, Bana, 40, has gone from car-mad teen to an international film star, known for lead roles in Hulk, Troy and Black Hawk Down. However, he says: “When I see old friends from school the first question is never: ‘What was it like working with Brad Pitt or Steven Spielberg?’ It is: ‘Do you still have that white Falcon?’ ”

By his own admission a car fanatic, Bana has finally got round to directing the film he has always wanted to make. Love the Beast, to be released next year, is a homage to his first car, exploring the 25-year relationship that has formed between man and machine.

The film reaches its climax with gripping footage of Bana taking part in the Targa Tasmania, one of the world’s most gruelling rallies, but the tone of the film is more Top Gear than Top Gun. In fact Bana persuaded Jeremy Clarkson to make a cameo appearance (sample quote from Clarkson: “So, 600bhp and leaf springs. Are you mad?”).

“I met Clarkson, in true British- Australian tradition, in a bar in Los Angeles with a couple of guys from Top Gear,” says Bana. “We were on mutual ground, far from home. I sent him an e-mail and said: ‘I would kill for you to be involved in this film. I will promise that I will come and do the lap on Top Gear at some stage.’ ”

Clarkson is not known for his love of American-style muscle cars such as the Ford Falcon, and true to form he doesn’t pull any punches. “He offers some humorous and honest appraisals of how shit muscle cars really are,” says Bana. “But the man is an icon. I think he’s hilarious, his show is brilliant and his Top Gear guys are great. We will look back on this period and thank God we have him. There has been so much pressure on the car movement, in general.”

The sense that the film is a convention for petrolheads, rebelling at the fad for Hollywood stars to drive Toyota Priuses, is reinforced when Jay Leno, America’s most famous car enthusiast, makes an appearance.

How did the love affair start? “My dad had a 1967 Thunderbird and I just grew up with cars, car club meetings, car club people, and it was ingrained in me,” Bana says. “I was always determined to be involved in cars.

“When I was 15, I manipulated Dad into a corner whereby my school grades were going to improve if I bought this car. So, for A$1,100 [about £400 at the time] we bought it off a dodgy guy from a newspaper advert.

“The car was in astonishingly bad condition, considering it was only 10 years old. But I had rose-tinted glasses on.”

Bana, a one-time professional comedian, did not make his film debut until a classy little Aussie movie, The Castle, in 1997. His breakthrough role came when he was cast as “Chopper” Read in the violent Australian film Chopper, which documented the life and crimes of one of the country’s most notorious criminals.

Later he went to work with Ridley Scott on Black Hawk Down in 2001, and with Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson on The Other Boleyn Girl.

Bana will be seen next as Nero, the villain, in the new Star Trek film — he has had to sign secrecy clauses that stop him giving anything away about his character or the plot.

His first car keeps him grounded, as important to him as his mates back home, he says. “That first car was like a campfire for me and my three close friends,” Bana says.

“We have known each other from schooldays and I consider that it’s no longer just my car; it belongs to everyone who has had anything to do with it.”

He dare not even consider how much he’s spent on the Falcon.“If I came up with a financial number, it would be scary,” he says. “But more frightening would be the number of hours I have spent working on it.

“I could have done anything with those hours — rocket science or brain surgery — had I chosen alternative paths to study. Every time I have rebuilt it, I have made it a car that is more powerful and less practical to drive.”

What happens to the car at the end of the film? Well, to find out you’ll have to go and watch it. Suffice it to say that it looks as though Bana is going to be spending a bit more time in the workshop after a nasty incident involving a tree.

MY STUFF...

ON MY CD PLAYER

A range of Australian and Canadian artists such as Broken Social Scene, Stephen Cummings, Powderfinger and Whitley

ON MY DVD PLAYER

Anything with Robert Duvall or Paul Newman, Al Pacino’s early stuff and early Steve McQueen such as Bullitt

IN MY DRIVEWAY

A turbo diesel Nissan Pathfinder

I WOULD NEVER THROW AWAY

Have one guess

Eric Bana:

MY LIFE IN CARS

1967 FORD THUNDERBIRD

His father had one and he grew up with cars

1974 FORD FALCON

Bought when Bana was 15. It was originally white, but he has since painted it red

PORSCHE 911

After Hollywood came calling, Bana indulged his love of speed

NISSAN PATHFINDER

Unlike many Hollywood stars, Bana has an unreconstructed gas guzzler in his drive