After Eurovision, Danny Estrin was told he had terminal cancer. He’s now back in the driver’s seat

Danny Estrin , the lead singer of Perth progressive metal band Voyager , was told he had 12 months to live, soon after the band performed at the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest . Three years and several rounds of chemotherapy later, the father of two daughters, aged five and nine, is still here.

“I decided, I’m just going to enjoy the time between chemotherapy sessions as much as I can,” says Estrin, who is also still holding down his day job as an immigration lawyer. “It’s probably diametrically opposed to what a normal terminal cancer patient should be doing but I’m enjoying life as much as I can and filling it with good stuff.”

Voyager have just returned from touring the Netherlands and the UK, and Estrin is stoked to be back on home soil feeding his “lifelong addiction” – cars. Having combed the car meets and garages of Western Australia for other enthusiasts, he’s making his television hosting debut with a fresh take on the motoring lifestyle genre, SBS2’s Precious Metal: A Love Story .

His first automotive love was a Mercedes-Benz S-Class he spotted as a child in Hamburg, Germany, where he lived until his parents moved to Perth when he was 11. “It was the ultimate luxury,” he says. “It was huge. It was a 5.3-metre Colossus driven by executives. It had the car phone and electric everything, which back in the day was just crazy. It’s like, ‘Oh, someone important must be in that car!’”

More a “man of letters and music than a man of wrenches and spanners”, Estrin leaves the mechanical side to his qualified mate, metal music fan Will Keogh, who appears on the show. Estrin has lost count of how many cars he has acquired, most of which are sitting in the garages of friends “with big hearts”. His very first, the white 1988 Toyota MR2 AW11 sports car that appeared alongside him on the Eurovision stage, is on display at the Motor Museum of Western Australia.

“There’s something about the design and the shape of cars, and the fact that cars are objects of freedom and boundlessness. The steering wheels, the way the interior feels, smells, looks. The design, the headlights,” he says. “And the way that every car has a face: this one looks a bit sad; this one’s smiling, it’s a happy car. For me, styling was always much more important than the engine. I really couldn’t care about it. For me it’s about, ‘Oh, look! This has rear headrests! This has 16 ashtrays’ – as was the case in Germany in the ’80s. As part of this show I’ve explored other people’s reasons for their passion.”

Throughout the series, Estrin, sporting his signature shiny houndstooth suits, meets people from all walks of life. Their wheels are just as diverse, among them a Morris Mini, a Renault Spider, a Porsche 356, a 1927 Chrysler Silver Wings, two Jaguars, and a Tesla Model 3/Chrysler 300 SRT Custom. There are also a Nissan Cube and two Toyota Landcruisers, one belonging to the series’ sole celebrity guest, former Neighbours actor Dan Paris, featured in the first episode.

“They don’t necessarily need to be the most exciting cars,” says Estrin. “It’s the stories that are the main thing. It could be teacups. It could be anything that’s collectible and has a sentimental value.