Innholdsfortegnelse for No 143 April 2017 i NZV8

Being a car guy is hard work — or maybe it’s just the fact that I’m lucky enough to see, and experience, everyone else’s projects on a daily basis that makes things hard work for me. You see, my inbox, newsfeed, and phone calls are generally all about cool stuff — cool cars, cool mods, or cool things to do with those cars — so the list of things I want to achieve with my own car seems to grow at a rapid rate, while my available budget seems to decline at a similar rate. One thing that comes up often around here — and it’s something you’ll see in the pages of almost every issue of NZV8 — is the pitfalls that people face when building cars, often caused…

AMERICARNA While we sadly couldn’t get Americarna into this issue, that doesn’t mean we don’t have some great photos from the event online. Search ‘Americarna’ on The Motorhood, and you’ll find hundreds of perfectly polished machines taking to the streets of Taranaki. DRAGGIN’ ACTION Despite the eagerly anticipated Trans-Tasman Nitro Shootout being cancelled, on account of an issue with the Australian Top Fueller, Meremere Competition Meeting 4 was still a hive of activity. Among the raft of PBs and breakages, we were also treated to the sight of a car we’ve had in the studio and will be featuring in an upcoming issue — Aaron Jenkins’ twin-turbo Holden Torana, soon to be the newest addition to our Quickest Streeters list. Search ‘Comp Meet 4’ to see more info and photos.…

THE BRUCE MCLAREN STORY IS COMING The documentary account of Bruce McLaren’s pioneering spirit, unswerving tenacity, and endless passion, McLaren, is soon set to grace the big screen. Directed by Roger Donaldson — The World’s Fastest Indian — McLaren is set to appear in local cinemas in June this year. Roger Donaldson commented, “I was delighted to be involved in the telling of such an incredible New Zealand story — bringing it to life on the big screen has been a huge effort by all involved in Bruce’s legacy. Ever since seeing Bruce McLaren and Jack Brabham race each other in the Tasman series years ago, I’ve been a McLaren fan. Few people know just how extraordinary his journey was, and how much he accomplished in his short life.” The…

EMAIL YOUR INFO TO: EDITOR@V8.CO.NZ MARCH 18 WAIKATO AUTOFEST Waikato Autofest blew us away last year, and it looks as if the crew behind it are taking things to a whole new level for 2017. To take place at the Mystery Creek Events Centre on March 18, the event is rapidly growing into a Summernats-style extravaganza, with car show, burnout pad, cruising, and more. Check out the Downtime Entertainment Facebook page or downtimenz.com for more info. MARCH 19 GEAR JAMMERS ALL FIRED UP CAR SHOW The hot rod show put on each year by the Gear Jammers Rod and Muscle Car Club sure is fun! This year’s looks to be no different, beginning with a cruise from Southward Car Museum, at 9.15am, to the show itself at Kapiti Primary School.…

The rules of anarchy are simple: there are no rules. The rules of building a car are much the same — well, apart from those pesky warrant-of-fitness and certification laws, of course. Similarly, just because you own a VK Commodore, it doesn’t mean it must be painted blue with a Group A bodykit and have gold Simmons wheels. Like us, Aucklander Dan Harvey’s quick to admit that combo looks great — so great, in fact, that it was something he did himself around four years ago, albeit with black Simmons not gold. The problem is that, since then, the number of blue, gold, and bodykitted VKs has snowballed to the point at which the colour scheme has become the norm, not the standout it once was. For many years, Dan’s…

It’s all too common for people to rag on Aucklanders for never leaving town while racers from across the country travel thousands of miles each race season. That comment is generally justified by the Aucklanders saying they’ve got everything they need on their doorstep, and it is hard to argue with that statement. However, with the facilities at Masterton Motorplex having got better and better over the last few seasons, there’s now a very good reason for Aucklanders to leave town — hence the IHRA Auckland Invasion. The event sees racers who’d predominantly compete at Meremere Dragway make the trek south to battle with the best the lower North Island has to offer. With the IHRA/NZDRA sanctioning battle still simmering in the background, each year there are a handful of…

As we’ve all seen at race meetings or on the telly, the safety car comes out to play, limiting the speed of race cars competing on the track, when safety is in question. This is most commonly as a result of an on-track incident, such as a crash; mechanical failure, such as fluid or debris obstructing the track; or poor weather conditions making continued racing overtly hazardous. The safety car essentially keeps the race on standby until the obstruction is removed or the weather to clears up. But it’s not all black and white, as we discovered by hanging around with The Motorsport Club’s safety car driver, Tony Rutherford, on the final, and rainiest, day of the New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing (NZFMR). TONY AND MATT ARE ON STANDBY…

Most of you will have heard of Freddy Krueger, the lead character in Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street series of films. The fictitious character is among the most psychotic and visually scary characters ever to grace the big screen, so, when we were invited around to a property belonging to a guy nicknamed after him, we weren’t quite sure what to expect. We found Roger ‘Krugar’ Belfield and his wife, Krissy, who, in contrast to Freddy, just happen to be two of the nicest people you could come across. Their shed is also far from being the stuff of nightmares. In fact, we’d say the property, which they’ve owned since the year 2000, is more the type of place that many of us dream of owning. What appear…

GROUP 2 TUSSLE It’s been a stellar return to Central Muscle Cars (CMC) this season for VK Commodore driver Andrew Sinclair. After having been out of the driver’s seat for a few seasons, he showed, right from round one, that he hasn’t got any less competitive. Fellow Group 2 competitor Steve Noyer is no slouch behind the wheel, either, and the two drivers have been having a good close battle all season. Despite Noyer taking the round-one win and Sinclair taking out the next three rounds, just a handful of points separated them going into round five. Sadly, Sinclair’s chance of a championship win was decimated in round five when two mechanical issues resulted in two did-not-finishes (DNFs). The first issue was a pinhole in a power-steering hose, which unfortunately…

CHECK OUT THE EXTRA CONTENT WE COULDN’T FIT INTO THIS ISSUE THE OTHER ONE You remember that the feature article for this issue’s cover car mentions that the owner, Robert Pegler, has got another? Head onto themotorhood.com and search ‘Aero Warriors’ to read a triple-car feature article that includes Robert’s other Torino Talladega, a Dodge Daytona, and a Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II — the Nascar aero era at its finest! HOP PREP Whether you’ve made it to every Beach Hop since the start, or haven’t attended a single one, you’d best be prepared. The Ultimate Beach Hop Survival Guide in this issue has got you covered. For the Beach Hop newbies, we’ve got coverage of previous hops online. Simply search ‘Beach Hop’ on The Motorhood to get a feel for…

SOME MUNTER’S 15 MINUTES OF FAME Inspiration can be found in the most unlikely of places. If you’re a frequent reader of this magazine, you may at some point have picked up on the H-series Holden–shaped pile of rust I sometimes chip away at in spare moments. It’s very much a part-time project — although the heat has been slowly turning up, since I just want the thing to be done (eventually). It’s by no means a big project, but it’s enough. Anyway, that’s where the whole inspiration thing comes in. I never thought I’d find it in a rotarypowered BMW E36. Maybe that statement needs a bit more clarification … Just as you probably toil on something in the shed after work with the dream of driving it on…

TORQUEBACK, NZVR MAGAZINE, PO BOX 46,020, HERNE BAY, AUCKLAND 1147; EMAIL TORQUEBACK@V8.CO.NZ THE GAP IN THE MIDDLE Hi NZV8, I know you guys must get sent stuff all the time, and I know you are very busy. Having had a few V8s now, I have come to realize that only unique cars are going to get any sort of write-up. So here’s my unique and very different Mazda FC RX-7 drift car running a stock LS1 with a cam upgrade, and, of course, the main power-maker: a Garrett GT3582R turbo. The main purpose of the car is to be a drift-ready package that is reliable and turnkey on pump gas. It was dyno tuned recently, and 316kW [424hp] was the result. Thanks, Andrew Tippett Thanks for the message, Andrew. You’re…

CLARKE HOPKINS HSV VF CLUBSPORT R8 Hey, Clarke. We usually see you behind the wheel of a Torana in the Enzed Central Muscle Cars (CMC) series. We’re guessing, since you’re driving this, that you’re a Holden man through and through? Without a doubt. I love the old lion badge — always been loyal to it, and always will be. It sounded a bit different from normal when it rolled in; what’s the deal with it? It was a 340kW [456hp] R8 Clubsport and I took it into Eastern Automotive, where the team did a cam and added Walkinshaw stainless extractors and [a] three-inch exhaust, which gives it a good rumble. Obviously, it idles quite lumpy. What sort of power does it make now? It went from 340kW to 430kW at…

The aero wars of the late 1960s and early 1970s created vehicles the like of which we’ll never see again. Sure, there are still a handful of vehicle manufacturers that create the occasional homologation special, but, back in the early days of Nascar, race cars were exactly that — no creature comforts or road-going concessions. Those cars were built to race and race only — that you could buy one was a by-product of the rules, not a move to help the manufacturer’s bottom line. While the fact that you could buy these cars off the showroom floor helped to fuel that old ‘win on Sunday, sell on Monday’ sentiment, which was crucial to sales at the time, it was sales of the brand that it fuelled, not necessarily of…

Canterbury has been going through a rough time of late, with the effects of the Kaikoura earthquakes and the recent Port Hills fires, all of which came around near the sixth anniversary of the first Christchurch earthquake. But all this was forgotten, even if it was for just one day, on Saturday, February 25, with the third Hanmer Motorfest, held in Hanmer Springs. Hanmer Springs is a beautiful alpine village well known for its hot pools; cycle trails; and fresh, clean country air. But, once a year, that calm is interrupted when the Falcon Fairlane Car Club of Christchurch brings its Motorfest to town. This year’s event proved how popular the festival is becoming, with a massive turnout of vehicles and people — a number of them choosing to make…

As far as bolt-on performance modifications go, realistically, you’re going to be looking at three main items — carburettor, intake manifold, and headers. We looked into carburettors in NZV8 Issue No. 124 and may look into exhaust design in the future, but, for now, let’s delve into the world of intake manifolds. There is a lot of information floating around with regard to intakemanifold applications, as well as broad generalizations — for example, single-plane manifolds are only suitable for race use — and all of that will be examined. First, it is important to understand the purpose of the intake manifold. The intake manifold acts as a conduit between the carburettor, which meters fuel to meet demand, and the combustion chamber, which requires an air–fuel mixture dependent on engine speed…

After buying a running but very tired 1938 Chev sedan, it took Gerald Smith three years of head-scratching and soulsearching to work out what the hell he was going to do with it. With Gerald being a flower grower by trade, some may think that a delivery would be an obvious choice, but it wasn’t until a friend put that idea into his head that he decided that that was the way to go. Looking back now, some 17 years after the idea was first put to him, we bet that Gerald at times cursed his acceptance of the suggestion. On paper, it sounds simple — just weld up the rear passenger doors, cover some windows, and cut a door in the rear. Easy, right? Sadly, that couldn’t be further…

WIN SOME, LOSE SOME It wasn’t meant to be for Cambridge driver Nick Ross at round five of the BNT NZ Touring Car Championship at the New Zealand Grand Prix (GP) meeting. Despite being one of the fastest cars on the circuit, the Total Lubricants Nissan Altima was plagued by mechanical gremlins, putting a dampener on what had been a promising weekend. Despite qualifying in second place — just 0.210 of a second behind championship leader Simon Evans — Ross had a second-place finish, a did-notfinish (DNF), and a seventh-place finish over the weekend’s three races, leaving him seventh overall for the weekend. The poor results were hard to take for Ross and his Concept Motorsport team, as they had claimed three podium finishes at the previous round, held at…

ISSUE NO. 23, APRIL 2007 BUY THIS ISSUE ONLINE AT MAGSTORE.NZ WHERE IS IT NOW? 1970 PLYMOUTH CUDA — BRENDON TORDOFF Brendon Tordoff’s ‘SIKFSH’ Cuda turned heads and dropped jaws when it was unleashed on the public in early 2007. The result of a two-year build, the 1970 Cuda was ahead of its time — on local soil at least. Dropped low over 20-inch and 22-inch wheels — as you might expect when the owner’s spent his working life at the family’s wheel-and-tyre import business — the Cuda is still talked about to this day. Not too long after its magazine appearance, the car seemed to disappear from the public eye. This was partly due to Brendon having other priorities and partly due to his dissatisfaction with some parts of…

SPEED FREAK GM has managed to push its 2017 Camaro ZL1 to an official top speed of 198mph on a German high-speed testing track. With the speed determined by taking the average of two runs in opposing directions, to account for factors such as wind direction, the ZL1 hit a peak of 202.3mph, with the second run maxing out at 193.3mph. Now, as far as real-world performance is concerned, this is largely useless information that really only matters after five beers at the pub, but it is nice to know that the package contains such performance potential. The design is modern-day tough, yet it clearly has the aerodynamic properties to achieve a decent terminal velocity and, presumably, half-decent fuel economy, and the 650hp supercharged LT4 has clearly got the balls…

EMAIL YOUR BUILDS TO EDITOR@V8.CO.NZ BLACK WIDOW Serial Chevelle-owner Paul Ross is deep into construction of what he says will be his last serious Chevelle build. The 1970 coupe was imported from Modesto, California, in great condition. That said, it’ll have more new parts than old when it hits the road again later this year. The factory-fitted 402ci big block is currently being rebuilt with a roller cam and other horsepower-friendly components. The stock Chevelle wheels are set to hide Wilwood brakes all round, while the interior will wear full SS options with red stitching on black trim. Paul did mention that there are a few other surprises in store, and we can’t wait to see them! DEEP SLEEP Brian Mathews is rapidly finishing one of the coolest sleeper projects…

Grant Greenville’s ’57 Chev Bel Air has had a hard life. You certainly wouldn’t know it now that it’s all deep paint and polished chrome, but there is a well of abuse beneath the veneer of beauty — stories we will never know and will never need to know. Our story here is a slightly happier one. It begins sometime in the ’90s, as Morrinsville local Bruce Ireland gazed upon a battered ’57 Chev sitting in a used car lot in the high desert in Arizona. With windows perforated by bullets and a body covered in scrapes, it can’t have been much to look at, but Bruce clearly liked what he saw. Before long, he’d arranged for the bucket of bolts to be shipped home to New Zealand, with help…

EMAIL YOUR INFO TO EDITOR@V8.CO.NZ PLYMOUTH VALCOHOLIC Jason Franklin is currently working on a very cool supercharged outlaw drag car, based around a mint-condition ’69 Plymouth Valiant. The two-door post sedan has a pretty cool shape, although the ‘Valiant’ name is sure to confuse some! Being a crew member of Drunk Goat Racing, campaigning Michael Franklin’s tough ‘540GTO’, Jason has access to a wealth of knowledge when he needs it. However, he plans to handle the bulk of the build himself, with help from his son, Tim. So far, the Valiant’s floorpan has been chopped out and the rear wheel arches extended to accommodate large rear slicks. The Valiant’ll have some big feet, with the built — and severely shortened — GM 12-bolt diff measuring something like 42 inches hub…

Unlike most of Trev’s builds — the ones he’s done for himself, at least — the steering wheel in this car was on the left-hand side. This just wasn’t right for him (no pun intended), and the decision to swap the handlebars meant the car would no longer be original. With that realization, Trev’s mind started running wild with the work that could potentially be done. However, he knew he should do it right and that the car should be subtle — even though most people on this side of the globe wouldn’t know what a stock Sky Hawk looks like, anyway. Thus, due to Trev’s restraint, it’s now hard to tell what’s stock and where Trev’s magic begins — and that’s exactly the look he wanted to achieve. Although…

This concept is a strange one — one that ties into this issue’s aero-themed cover car. We’ve actually run a similar concept — in Issue No. 121, if you’re interested — concerning what would happen if an Australian Chrysler Valiant was built as an aero warrior; but what if Ford Australia did something of the sort? We’re going to think slightly out of the box for this one. In 1969, the Falcon XW series would have been the latest and greatest, and, whil Australia have bankrolled such a project, it’s surely not beyond the realms of fancy that a cashed-up privateer might see the allure of racing an Aussie Ford at 200mph in the US. Now, there is a large problem with this, but we’ll address that later … CONCEPT:…

It has been a couple of years since Enzed Central Muscle Cars (CMC) raced at Manfeild, and, for most, re-familiarization with the track was needed. As a bonus for this, the fifth round of the season, it was a dry meeting — not a drop of rain all weekend, and the wets were firmly placed in the corner of the pits. The Friday of the event saw two practice sessions, with the usual tweaking and tuning of equipment going on in between. For something different, the club had been invited to take part in a drive through town that evening, as part of the town’s promotion for the race meeting, and ended up parking up at a local business premises. A police escort was arranged from the track into town,…

We’ve been heard before saying that the Waikato region holds the best events. Morrinsville Motorama is one of the prime examples of what we were talking about. Hosted by Yankee Haulers hot rod club over February 11 and 12, 2017, the event saw the usual Saturday show ’n’ shine, followed by a mystery cruise and a night at the drive-in movies. Sunday, as always, was the main display day, and a huge variety of cars was present, representing all the major car manufacturers and many minor ones. It’s the huge range that makes walking around the venue for hours on end interesting — every lap you do, the vehicles change. Wagons seemed to be in abundance this year, with many Kiwinew cruisers rolling into the venue. One of our favourites,…