Innholdsfortegnelse for No 146 July 2017 i NZV8

It’s been a while since I’ve been ‘the new guy’ — or, at least, it had been until a few weeks ago. Now, I’m the new guy at almost everything. As you may know, my family and I recently packed up, after 13 years of living in Auckland, and headed for the shaky hills of Wellington. With that has come a bit of a step back from some of the things I was doing with NZV8’s parent company, Parkside Media, although my role in NZV8 remains essentially the same — apart from Connal taking over some of the parts I can’t do remotely. Of course, that change of city means plenty more changes, too, including a whole range of new local events, the first of which I have been looking…

MORE MARINELAND We’ve got coverage of the Marineland Street Rod and Kustom Klub’s annual Marineland Hot Rod and Classic Car Festival in this issue, but our man on the ground in Hawke’s Bay took more photos than we could use in our print coverage. As such, we’ve got a decent online gallery of even more car-show and swap-meet action — just search ‘Marineland’ to see more. HOW TO SELL YOUR CAR Disclaimer: this is probably not how to sell a car — although you can’t deny its effectiveness in this case. Search ‘Eugene Romanovsky’ to enjoy the video created by Latvian visual-effects expert Eugene Romanovsky, in which he attempts to sell his piece-of-shit 1996 Suzuki Vitara. It’s totally stupid, and pretty damn cool at the same time. Full points for…

Nice truck, Richard; how long have you had her? Probably five or six years now, but it has been in the country for about 10 years. I always liked the look of the ’58s and ’59s, with the twin-headlight front end — better looking than the earlier models, in my mind anyway. It wasn’t that pretty when I got it, though. In fact, it was a bit of a roughy and painted matt black, but I could see the potential. It has taken a bit of work, a good panel and paint, obviously, plus a new deck tray in the rear, a new interior, shiny wheels, etc., but she’s looking pretty sharp now, and it’s nice that others think so, too. Pretty much any truck or car show I go…

If you were to meet David, it would be very possible to talk to him and never cotton on to the fact that he owns a mechanical masterpiece such as this ’56 Chev. In fact, he never really wanted to have his car featured, but went ahead with it to give thanks to the people who helped him bring a 13-year dream to fruition. The bones of David’s build follow the familiar route of a garage build snowballing out of control, but the story does feature a rather remarkable point of difference. Built to an astronomically high standard, fusing over-the-top attention to detail with an effortless subtlety, the ’56 is the finished dream of a man who works for his salary from Monday to Friday, just like most who will…

Although his name may not garner the instant recognition of legends such as Garth Hogan and Pete Lodge, Mike Gearing is a bona fide legend of New Zealand drag racing and hot rodding. Born in 1939, before World War II and in a world vastly different from the one we inhabit today, Mike achieved what others could only dream of: operating on a shoestring budget and an inventory of predominantly self-made parts, yet achieving six-second passes at more than 200mph down the quarter-mile in an era when such accomplishments were exclusive to the highest reaches of drag racing, at the same time earning a well-deserved reputation as one of New Zealand’s best engine builders. Despite his achievements and incredible self-taught knowledge, Gearing is as humble as they come. When he…

EMAIL YOUR INFO TO EDITOR@V8.CO.NZ BIG STEPS FOR TREV JNR Coming offthe back of an ultra-successful season in Junior Dragster, in which he won the IHRA National Series, the Meremere Dragway Comp Meet series, and the IHRA Nationals, there are big changes ahead for Trevor Smith Junior. There’s long been a rumour that a ’55 Chev top doorslammer is being prepared for him to step into, and we can now confirm those rumours. The vehicle, which was at one stage the quickest top doorslammer in the country, was purchased by the Smith family a few years back minus motor. More recently, the family purchased the five-second dragster of Shane Lodge for its running gear. Australian racing legends Victor and Ben Bray have been supporting the Smiths’ efforts, with Ben, who…

Sachin Balu bought his first V8 in 2004. Although he didn’t hold on to the VT Commodore SS for too long, the seed had been sown, so it wasn’t long before he began hunting for something else. With V8 nut Peter North as a brother-in-law and having seen many of the early Commodores Pete had built over the years, Sachin’s thought process naturally veered in that direction. With his wedding approaching, Sachin knew that getting the idea of a project car past his wife-to-be, Kim, was going to be a bit of a long shot. He managed to get her across the line by promising that the build wouldn’t exceed $10K, and he kept his word … kinda. The wedding came and went without a hitch, but the honeymoon had…

Everyone who has ever visited Waihi knows that it is a town with a heart of gold — quite literally, with an open-cast gold mine smack in the middle of it and various other operations around it. In fact, miners have been pulling gold out of this area for more than 100 years, and there is no sign of it stopping anytime soon! What most visitors will not know is that, in the hill just outside of town, there is a lot of tin to be found, too — mainly of the Ford and Mercury varieties. Just a few miles out of town, Brian and Liz Smith run Ajay’s Ford V8 Parts, and, while you would expect the business to have plenty of goodies, car enthusiasts Brian and his incredibly…

In a world that seems to be becoming more and more beige, people like Mark Holdaway are a welcome relief. While many are becoming too afraid of the PC brigade to do anything remotely outside the box, Mark’s struggling to remember what the box looks like, seeing as he’s lived most of his life outside it. The main area in which Mark likes to be a nonconformist is with his cars. While he uses some amazingly rare and hard-to-find parts that traditionalists would give their left baby-maker for, he’s not one for sticking to a set traditional recipe. The 1932 roadster that Mark’s owned for the past three years is a great example of this. There’s no doubting that its retro look is bang on, but there’s a whole lot…

BEFORE AND AFTER Every finished car started somewhere, and, if you read the story about David’s ’56 Chev Bel Air, which features on the cover of this issue, you’ll know that his was in less-thanideal condition to begin with. David was kind enough to supply us with a CD of the build progress, so we’ve got a neat transformation gallery on one of our most subtle cover cars. MORE GEARING We’ll have part two of our interview with Mike Gearing in the next issue. As you saw in this issue, Allan Porter was so kind as to provide us with a number of fantastic photos from the ’70s and ’80s, some of which we’ve put online with excerpts from the interview. THE SOUNDS OF NITRO Dave Gauld performed a fire-up…

Earlier this month, I was given the privilege of interviewing Mike Gearing. If his name doesn’t ring a bell, you can read the man’s very interesting history later on in this issue; if you are familiar with his name … well, it is one that needs no introduction. I am interested in drag racing and enjoy the spectacle of it all — not just watching it but the full sensory experience it provides: the sound of an irregular and incredibly angry idle through open headers; the smell of melted rubber at the burnout; and, where applicable, the essence of fuels that aren’t even petroleum-based. Nothing smells like drag racing; the sensations are so far removed from day-to-day life, existing solely for the purpose of going fast — of defying the…

SEEKING MAX Hi Todd, I am hoping you would not mind passing on my contact details to Roger Whyte, whose Mad Max Interceptor was featured in the June ’17 issue. I am currently part way through a very slow build of a yellow sedan Interceptor, so I figure I should get hold of him. If you are a member of AFF[Australian Ford Forums], you can see my build thread there. The sedan is my first car project, and I started it all the way back in ’09. I recently moved house, and now need to build a shed to get it all rolling again. It has been epic. Something I do that you might be interested in is … [making] reproduction printed circuits for all of the Falcon range that…

BLOWN TOW WAGON With the drag scene now in hibernation for winter, racer Ryan Sheldon is turning his attention to his street project, a 1955 Chev panel truck. The slab-sided hauler has received a Heidts independent front end along with a TCI fourbar rear kit, both of which will rely on airbags to achieve the desired drop in ride height. A horsepower lover at heart, Ryan didn’t pass up the opportunity to keep the 540ci big block Chev from his old Impala, to which a 10-71 supercharger has been fitted. This has been topped with an Enderle hat and will run a Hilborn EFI throttle body controlled by a FAST ECU. To support the power, the Chuck Mann–built TH400 was also retained from the Impala and a Currie nine-inch fitted…

Picture this — you’re driving down the motorway taking the family to the drags, when you overtake a ute towing a trailer with a few slicks in it. You assume that the driver must be taking the slicks to the track for a race car that’s already there and think nothing more of it. Once seated in the stands, hot chips in hand, you see that same ute pull into the staging lanes with the slicks now fitted. It proceeds to launch with the front wheels in the air and runs through the traps with an eight-second time showing on the boards at more than 150mph. The look of disbelief and shock on your face would be photo worthy in itself. This is the reaction of the uninitiated to Dave…

MIKE BARI’S CHEVELLE OCCUPIED A PRIME LOCATION AND RAISED THE BAR AS SOON AS HE DROVE IN Autumn is a strange time of year for outdoor car shows, as you never quite know what you’re going to get. As luck would have it, the person in charge of weather over Auckland must have been in a good mood on Sunday, May 7, and the atmosphere at Clevedon School was positive right from the get-go. It’s also important to note that, although the event was run by the GM Enthusiasts Club, attendance was not limited to vehicles from the GM family stable. That said, you could have been forgiven for thinking that was not the case, with only one non GM present — the bright magenta ’66 Plymouth Fury driven by…

So, you have an image in your head of a typical mad fuel-altered pilot, right? ‘Wild Willie’ Borsch probably comes to mind: a tangle of crazy hair, granite jaw, steely glare, and a cigarette dangling out the side of his gob as he casually reflects on another quarter-mile episode — are we close Well, yes, that’s the picture you would expect of a fuel-altered pilot. But, here in New Zealand, we tend to do things in a more casual manner. Whether it be Keiran Read downplaying an All Blacks win, Lydia Ko staring at her shoes after another trophy, or Joseph Parker apologizing to his mum for being too aggressive, we certainly are a humble bunch down here at the bottom of the planet. That description pretty much sums up…

One of the team within the NZV8 offices recently took the leap of purchasing his first classic, a ’67 Mustang fastback. It was a step into the unknown for our staffer, so, obviously, every creak, knock, or hum was enough to make him freak out. One of his immediate concerns, apart from the ongoing fear of every spare penny being sunk into his new pride and joy, was the tyre wear on the inside edge of the rears. He knew when he bought the car that he’d be replacing the tyres, so he wasn’t too worried about that expense; he just wanted to make sure the irregular wear wouldn’t continue on the newies. Of course, our advice was simple: get a bloody good wheel alignment. We had heard about some…

WHERE IS IT NOW? 1968 PLYMOUTH BARRACUDA —WAYNE GRIMMER BUY THIS ISSUE ONLINE AT MAGSTORE.NZ Wayne Grimmer’s name is synonymous with Hemi-powered Plymouth Barracudas, namely his old 604ci Ray Barton–powered ’73 Cuda — a genuine nine-second, all-motor street car. However, he also made the cover of NZV8 with his race-only ’68 Barracuda fastback, which was imported as a roller. Wayne had Ray Barton build a race-only 604ci Hemi, with a Bryant billet knife-edge crank, billet rods, and gas-ported JE pistons good for around 13.5:1 compression and 1130hp. A Liberty clutchless five-speed and Mark Williams Dana 60 difftransferred brute force to the ground. At the time of the feature, Wayne had managed a PB of 8.30 seconds at 164mph A decade on, the Yuasa Batteries ’68 Barracuda drag car is still in…

GLOBAL STAMPEDE The Ford Mustang may have been the largest selling sports car in the US for half a century; now, according to Ford’s global analysis, it’s the largest selling sports car in the world. Factoring into this is the six-per-cent increase in global sales from 2015 to 2016, which saw a total of 98,000 of the vehicles shipped to customers outside of the US since 2015. Helping those export numbers is the fact that Mustangs are now offered for sale in 140 countries, with a further six countries reported to be receiving the cars later this year. The big Mustang purchasers to date have been Germany and China, where enthusiasts have long wanted the vehicles but have never before been offered them. NHRA BANS DEMONIC MOPAR You’ve heard the…

FIRSTS FOR CRC SPEEDSHOW The 11th annual CRC Speedshow will pack out Greenlane’s ASB Showgrounds over Saturday, July 22 and Sunday, July 23, and event organizers are touting it as being a show of firsts. One of those firsts will be the unveiling of ‘Craz-E-Horse’, a late-model Mustang being built locally to take over the world. The 2000hp car is powered by a single electric motor and is intended to become the fastest road-going electric vehicle in the land. Drift legend ‘Mad Mike’ Whiddett will also make his first appearance at the show, amazing the crowds in the Live Action Arena, where a handful of lucky CRC Speedshow visitors will have the chance to sit alongside him. There’s also set to be no fewer than 20 asyet- unseen cars on…

For those who don’t count duck shooting among their list of hobbies, the Sunday of May 7 may still have held a reason to load the boys into the car and go for a drive. Marineland Street Rod and Kustom Klub holds its Marineland Hot Rod and Classic Car Festival annually at the Meeanee Speedway, just out of Napier, and it’s a show that is well worth your time. This year’s event was even more special than usual, though, as it marked 25 years since the first. Each year, the show celebrates an integral part of the hot rodding scene, and, this year, the Ford Model T was put on its pedestal for worship. Unlike some past events, the morning dawned crisp and cloudless, with no frost on the ground…

I haven’t got an out-there concept I’d build; however, I am a big fan of the ’50s styles, and one of my favourite cars is Ian Rainbow’s ’50 Chev Business Coupe,” says David. “I think he really nailed it. “I’d street rod a ’52 Chev Deluxe coupe — a cross between Ian’s ’50 coupe and the 2011 ‘Icon Derelict’ ’52 coupe [google it if you don’t know about this one]. It would be reasonably stock looking but a real sleeper. “Chubby Morrow would do the bodywork. I’d keep all the stainless-steel trim but remove the hood bird, smooth the hood centre seam, mini-tub the rear inner guards, and alter the wheel arches by shaping both front and rear tail ends to give a more streamlined look and custom touch. “Ian…

Trentham Racecourse has cemented itself in the minds of capital-city petrolheads as the place to be a couple of times each year, the annual Capital Rodders Horsepower Display and Swap Meet being one of those. The venue, usually home to horsepower of a different type, works remarkably well for car events, with plenty of different parking areas on offer, food and beverage vendors, and as much indoor space as required. Come Sunday, May 21, the locality awoke to the sound of committee members and dedicated enthusiasts arriving before the sun was out — well, theoretically speaking; the time the sun would have been out. Having gone to school right next door to the venue, I was well aware of just how cold and miserable the weather around Trentham can be,…

KEEPING CURRENT We’re currently experiencing a time of year that’s particularly hard on cars during start-up, and, if every turn of the key gets you praying, Century has the answer. The European Ultra Hi Performance battery range has been specially designed to meet the performance and unique fitment requirements of European and imported vehicles. These batteries have been designed to combat battery failure with superior starting power and reserve capacity, and come with a maintenance-free design and built-in water indicator for added peace of mind. For more information, free phone 0800 93 93 93, or visit centurybatteries.co.nz. BOOM AND ROOM Ever wanted bass and boot space in the same car? Well, that’s no longer a caraudio paradox, thanks to the Zeroflex ZF262 micro slotport sub enclosure. The smallest ported enclosure…

The guys at Play Dead gave us some of their new car-care product to test. We found a perfect situation that we’ve all been in before to give it a good crack. 11.19am The guy reckons he’ll be here to check it out at 11.30, with cash in hand. The car’s a f*cking mess. Lucky we have this conveniently placed stash of Play Dead car-care product and 11 minutes to see if it will do what it’s supposed to do. 11.20am Wheel Cleaner is applied liberally to the wheels. The trick is to make sure the wheels are cool, with the product allowed time to soak into heavy grime. We give it about half a minute, then use a clean sponge to work the more resilient bits loose, before a…