Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2017 i Street Machine

IT’S the most wonderful time of the year, and we’re not talking about Christmas. Street Machine Summernats 31 will be upon us before we know it, and as entrants scramble to get their cars together and ready for Australia’s biggest horsepower party, we thought we’d touch base with the man in charge, Andy Lopez, to find out what’s new and different about Summernats 31. Street Outlaws superstars Farmtruck and AZN will be returning to Summernats, and they’re bringing a Chevy C10 pick-up with them! It’s not the truck they race on the show, but it’s arguably even cooler – a purpose-built burnout car being pieced together by the team at the Canberra Institute of Technology, with hands-on help from Farmtruck and AZN themselves! “We chatted to the guys soon after…

NEW-millennium killjoys best leave any political correctness at the door before tucking into this 70s coming-of-age romp. Director Sam Grossman aimed The Van fairly and squarely at the hottest combo of the time: sex, drugs and custom vans. Bobby (Getz) is a daydreamer of a teen trying desperately to navigate his way from schoolyard nerd to regular beneficiary of the ‘free love’ vibe. With his senior year done and dusted, he scrapes together a down-payment for a hotted-up Dodge van dubbed Straight Arrow; we’re talking sidepipes, spoilers, fluff everywhere and – wait for it – a waterbed, using money saved working for Andy (DeVito) at the local car wash, topped up with a graduation cheque from his parents. He hits the streets hoping this van will become a super-magnet for…

FUTURE SHOCK HAVE we reached ‘peak street machine’? Why aren’t we talking about the future? Why aren’t car enthusiasts, as a collective group, in constant discussions with our government regarding our future? With the recent announcement of GM going all-electric, Porsche only racing electric, most of Europe banning fossil fuel-powered vehicle sales by 2040 – the list goes on – what does the future hold for street machine enthusiasts and the aftermarket industry that supports them? A recent study indicated that the electric car industry could result in 90 per cent of the jobs in the automotive aftermarket industry becoming redundant. Car events across the country are growing and are at record levels, but is this as good as it’s going to get, right here, right now? Throughout the years…

WITH ITS FACTORY-STYLE SATIN MIST PAINT AND SL/R 5000 BLACKOUTS, YOU COULD EASILY THINK IT’S JUST A TIDY TORANA WITH A NICE SET OF WHEELS ON IT A QUICK glance at Dale Jeffrey’s Torana doesn’t give you any clues that there are 700 horses hiding under the bonnet. Even the reverse-cowl scoop doesn’t draw your attention; after all, these were standard fitment on A9X Toranas and the stretched version from Alfa Motorsport Fibreglass looks right at home on the blacked-out bonnet. With its factory-style Satin Mist paint and SL/R 5000 blackouts, you could easily think it’s just a tidy Torana with a nice set of wheels on it. But if that was the case, we probably wouldn’t be featuring it in Street Machine. Nope, there’s a little bit of something…

THE HOLDEN V8 IS A PRETTY TOUGH LITTLE MOTOR, AND THEY SOUND A HEAP BETTER THAN AN LS! DRIFTING? Sure, there might be mad skills in hanging a car’s tail out at exactly 90 degrees and melting bitumen, but with no need to get to a finish line before the next bloke, surely it’s a bit like kids at school being given Certificates of Participation rather than First Prize? Not for Melbourne’s Braeden Kendrick. Having been busted too many times for street stunts, drifting seemed to him like a great way to have fun. “I did all the dumb shit,” Braeden admits of his antics in his first car, a VH Commodore SL/E. “Until one day, I collected a semi-trailer. I did a fair bit of damage. So I decided…

SOMEWHERE IN LAS VEGAS WAS A VG VALIANT WITH POR440 PLATES, ALONG WITH ITS DRIVER, MARK ARBLASTER, BOTH COOKED BY AN OVERNIGHT RUN FROM LOS ANGELES Day One THE HEAT IS ON I STEPPED out of McCarran International Airport into a furnace. It was Sunday in Las Vegas, where the dry Nevada heat prevents sweating – it simply evaporates on contact with the air. Yep, the desert basin that contains Vegas is no place for humans, and it’s not much more suitable for automobiles. But here, somewhere close by, was a VG Valiant Regal with POR440 plates, along with its driver, Mark Arblaster, both cooked by an overnight run from Los Angeles – the first leg of Arby’s epic journey to Hot Rod Drag Week 2017 in Illinois. I don’t…

IN THE September issue, we gave you the rundown on Muscle Garage’s Jason Waye as he shoehorned a Ford Barra turbo inline-six into a dunger VS Commodore ute. The goal was to build a car he could take to our Street Machine Drag Challenge and run 10s for $10,000. The South Aussie had the ute almost done except for an exhaust and the custom flash-tune in the stock XR6T ECU, along with filling it up with fresh Nulon fluids. That doesn’t mean there weren’t problems in the lead-up that tested the Muscle Garage crew’s resolve and patience. “We first had issues with the rear brake calipers, which were seized and so we couldn’t bleed them,” Jason says. “A quick trip to the wreckers and that was fixed, but then we…

AT JUST 18 years old, Jesse Wilkins has not only put together this killer XL Falcon wagon, but he’s also got a ’48 Triumph chopper in the shed that was cool enough to get invited to the Boogaloo Invitational – and take home a trophy! He’s spent the past three years working at BMV Engineering in Yandina, which isn’t your average automotive workshop. They build the kind of stuff that car magazines like us love to feature – lots of cool fabrication and slammed-to-the-ground ride heights. So it’s not surprising that young Jesse’s wagon features some very nice metalwork, and its arse-on-the-ground stance isn’t due to a set of six-inch lowering blocks and gas-axed springs – although it did sort of start out like that. “My pop found the car…

10,000 MANIACS > JUSTIN ROBINSON AND SKIDIT RETAINED THEIR DRAG CROWN AT THIS YEAR’S PERFORMANCE CAR MANIA THREE days of powerskids, drag racing, burnouts and cruising the track at Victoria’s Winton Raceway: that’s Performance Car Mania in a nutshell. The off-street drag competition is always a cracker. It is a flag-start, no-prep deal, with no namby-pamby cool-off periods for stinking-hot race cars to cool down between rounds. If you lose, you’re out. If you win, you go straight around to face another racer until there are none left. It is a tough event that really tests the limits of what the competitors’ cars are capable of. In the finals, local racer Justin Robinson in his big-block SKIDIT Torana faced off against Street MachineDrag Challenge veteran Rodney Browitt in his turbo…

21 OCT, CUNDERDIN, WA Cunderdin Hot Rod Show, Cunderdin Sport & Recreation Centre. Contact Troy on 0401 176 167. 21 OCT, VIRGINIA, SA Oz Nats Adelaide, Adelaide International Raceway. Contact 0438 033 246. 21 OCT, TABLE TOP, NSW Ettamogah Pub Ute Show ’n’ Shine, 6 Burma St. Contact Craig on 0427 605 613. 21 OCT, EAGLEHAWK, VIC Show Us Your Wheels Car Show, Albert Roy Reserve. Contact Craig on 0427 511 158. 21-22 OCT, NEERABUP, WA Shannons Perth Classic, Barbagallo Raceway. Visit wascc.com.au. 22 OCT, TRAFALGAR, VIC Trafalgar Holden Museum’s Holden Farewell Cruise & Display, Waterloo Road. Contact Neil on (03) 5666 1384. 22 OCT, PENRITH, NSW Anything Goes Custom Car & Bike Show, Jamison Hotel, Smith St. Contact Anything Goes NSW Car Club on Facebook. 22 OCT, SALISBURY, SA…

CAR ownership is a concept that can mature along with our lives. What we aspire to own at an early age can deviate as our tastes and personal circumstances change with ever-increasing family, time and work commitments. Simon Cole has travelled far and wide across our great country, but has always managed to own one or three sweet rides at any given time, adapting their form and function to match whatever adventures his life has in store. 01: HERE’S a sight bound to tug at a few Gen-X heartstrings. “I bought this Datsun 1600 as my first car back in 1985,” Simon says. “It was a low-mileage thing in pretty good nick and was great fun to fang around. Even with suspension that high, I’m sure it saved me from…

LAST month on streetmachine.com.au we published a story about how there was a new Guinness World Record for the largest simultaneous car-tyre burnout. The previous record of 103 skidders was set at Street Machine Summernats in 2015, at ’Nats 28. The new title-holders are a group from Saudi Arabia, who got together 119 tyre-fryers to celebrate Saudi National Day. You can watch the video on our website. Surely Aussie burnout enthusiasts aren’t going take that lying down? How do we remedy such an affront to our reputation? Here’s what you had to say. Peter George – Only 119? That can be easily beaten if arranged in Australia. I reckon we could get close to 1000 cars to do a burnout all at once. Bobby Patrick – This won’t last long;…

RESPECT BEGETS RESPECT; ENTRANTS OBSERVE THE ROAD RULES, THE COPS OBSERVE FROM A DISTANCE, AND EVERYBODY HAS A GOOD TIME A LICE Springs is one of the most isolated towns on the planet, so what is it about Red CentreNATS that draws people to the place from every far-flung corner of this wide, brown land? I got my first clue within minutes of jumping off the plane, when I spotted Sydneysider Layton Crambrook casually arriving at Alice Springs Airport to pick up some mates in his Summernats Top 60 HQ Monaro, HUMBLE. It’s a rare and beautiful thing to see a blown car on the street these days, and it left me grinning like an idiot. Then as we rolled into Alice in our hire car, I could hardly believe…

THIS CAMARO WAS LARGELY COBBLED TOGETHER IN JUST THREE WEEKS WITH LEFTOVER HARDWARE FROM SCOTT’S ’69 BUILD IF YOU like the look of Scott ‘Stoney’ Stoneman’s ’68 Camaro with its slammed stance, 22-inch Simmons wheels and turbocharged LS powerplant, then you should see his other Camaro. After all, this one was largely cobbled together in just three weeks with leftover hardware from his ’69 build, so you can bet the new car will be kind of a big deal when it eventually hits the road. But for now, let’s focus on the ’68, because it’s a pretty impressive bit of kit in its own right. “The other Camaro has a pro touring chassis from America and is body-dropped with a 14/71-blown LSX and airbags; it lays its sills on the…

 I’LL admit, long before I typed the first word of this article I jumped online to see if there were any Valiant VE VIPs for sale. THE SELLING POINT WAS THAT THE CAR WAS THREE-QUARTERS DONE TO THE WAY I WANTED . I LOVED IT No, adding a Valiant to the garage isn’t on my radar, but there’s just something about the combination of trim, paint, chrome, vinyl roof, wheels and stance of Mick Lulic’s VIP Val that is tremendously appealing. Mick is a through-and-through Valiant guy. He’s owned a Charger for the best part of 25 years. And it’s definitely a family thing, because his dad owns one, too. That said, owning a 1968 VE VIP wasn’t originally in his plans. Upon attending the Mopar Nationals at Calder Park…

YOU only have to pick up a newspaper, have a conversation at the pub, turn on the TV news or log onto a social media site to get the impression that car thieves are lurking around every corner. If it isn’t gangs of baddies lifting cars to order to be resold in the Middle East, it’s the local midnight spares mobs or even those rascals who’ll break into your house, bash your goldfish and steal your car on the way out. But what’s the truth? Is it as bad as the media would have you believe? And, if it is a widespread social problem, what can you do to prevent it happening to you? The truth is that car theft in Australia is on the decrease. Figures from a joint…

BILL DEMPSEY 1969 FORD MUSTANG “THE V8 bug hit me at eight years old, when my mother gave me a toy ’69 Mustang. Who would have guessed decades later I would own the real thing? Coming off the production line in lime green metallic, this ’69 sportsroof originally had the 302/three-speed manual with optional style pack, which included bonnet scoop, hood pins and stripes. A previous resto saw a debadged body with new sheet metal, Raven Black paint, a later-model 302 and four-speed. I purchased it over the internet a few years back, and boarded the big bird to Perth with a mate in readiness to seal the deal, looking forward to the our ensuing 3000km road trip home. But my rudimentary skills and patience were tested when 50km out…

UNLIKE MOST PROJECTS THAT START OUT AS BASKET CASES, FAT XY WAS BORN FROM A VERY TIDY PHASE III TRIBUTE, WHICH HAD BEEN BUILT WITH A NUMBER OF GENUINE PARTS JOHN Saad wanted a streetable car that had 1000hp naturally aspirated. “No blowers, no turbos,” he says. And that’s exactly what FAT XY is. With an engine bay filled to the brink with a massive 673ci Sonny Leonard, hemi-headed big-block Ford, this gorgeous black XY GT tribute exceeded John’s requirements with a bona fide 1354 98-octane-friendly horses. If you think 1354hp is stout, you’ll be blown away by the fact that John actually had the engine detuned to make that power. US-based Pro Stock/Pro Mod gurus Sonny’s Racing Engines originally built the Hemiheaded mountain motor for an Aussie drag racer…

THE BODY WAS NEARLY MINT; I REMOVED NO MORE THAN ABOUT 10 SQUARE CENTIMETRES OF RUST OUT OF THE WHOLE THING JIM Ayoubi just loves cars. As a kid he knew every make and model off the top of his head, and by 13 he was helping out at his cousin’s panel shop. So it’s not surprising to learn that these formative years steered the now 41-year-old Jim down a similar career path, with proof of his skillset evident when you eyeball the flawless panelwork spread across these pages. For Jim, the build of his seriously mean XC hardtop was an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. He was keen to build a car for his son, Hatem, but had unfinished business to settle with a couple of…

I LOVE THE STOCK LOOK WITH MODERN FEATURES AND BIG WHEELS, LIKE IT COULD’VE ROLLED OFF THE FACTORY FLOOR LIKE THAT CAN you imagine how good it would be if your grandparents had kept their chrome-bumper purchases from the 60s and 70s? For a lucky few, this dream is a reality, and Dan McAuley is among them. “Mum vividly remembers their family going to Adelaide’s John H Ellers Holden in 1968 to buy a brand-new HK Kingswood wagon; a 186S with a three-on-the-tree,” Dan says of his grandparents Bill and Nevis Newbury’s purchase. It was Nevis who most often steered the family truckster, which she promptly named Sadie. “If you mentioned Sadie everyone knew that you were talking about the wagon,” Dan says. Sadie diligently became a useful hauler shared…

THE HIGHLIGHT OFTHE DAY WAS THEDUAL FULL-HEIGHT WHEELSTANDS FROMCHARLIE PITT’S HK MONARO AND DYLANARGENT’S CAPRI NOSTALGIA Drags – just the pairing of these words conjures up inspiring images of drag racing’s rich history. But when these words denote a real event – well, that’s the next level of inspiration entirely, so we just had to get along to Mildura’s recent Nostalgia Drags for a look-see. In its second year at the town’s Sunset Strip eighth-mile dragway, the event attracted a 92-strong field and a heap of punters – most driving half a day from Adelaide or Melbourne. And thankfully there was sunny weather, perfect for racing. This year, the husband-and-wife team of Kingsley and Lauren Kuchel of the Sunraysia Drag Racing Association (SDRA) put in the hard yards both organising…

01 HARNESS THE POWER HERE’S an exciting new product for those looking to convert a good old-fashioned V8 to an aftermarket EFI set-up. Haltech’s brand new terminated engine harness suits big- and small-block Ford, Chevy and Chrysler V8s. It features a simple plug-and-play design with an integrated Haltech six-circuit fuse and relay block. Featuring a two-wire connection to a distributor ignition module, it can be easily converted to an eight-channel individual coil ignition by using Haltech high-output ignition coils with a plug-and-play terminated ignition coil harness kit. It’s compatible with both Hall Effect and VR-type crank and cam sensors, and also plugs directly into commonly used MSD flying magnet crank sensor setups. There are plug-in connections for sensors such as manifold pressure, fuel pressure, oil pressure, air temp and coolant…

MY GRANDMA HAD A BLACK XP, WHICH IS WHY I’VE ALWAYS LIKED THEM. THEY’RE REALLY CUTE AND COOL AND A BIT DIFFERENT JODI Page-Smith’s automotive upbringing was shaped by her dad’s British racing influence. But her heart was always yearning for her grandma’s car: a sleek, black XP Falcon coupe. Have you always been into cars? I was doomed to be a car enthusiast, as my parents met at a hillclimb in the 50s. Dad was into racing MGs and we would often go to the speed trials as a father-daughter bonding thing. Now I’m with Dean, who’s into cars as well. In fact, we recently built a car together, before the XP. What was that? The first car I truly fell in love with: a ’59 Plymouth Belvedere. You…

FUNNY FOTO SIXES & SEVENS TEACHER: “If I gave you two cats and another two cats and another two, how many would you have?” Johnny: “Seven.” Teacher: “No, listen carefully – if I gave you two cats, and another two cats and another two, how many would you have?” Johnny: “Seven.” Teacher: “Let me put it to you differently. If I gave you two apples, and another two apples and then another two, how many would you have?” Johnny: “Six.” Teacher: “Good. Now if I gave you two cats, and another two cats and another two, how many would you have?” Johnny: “Seven!” Teacher: “Johnny, where on earth do you get seven from?” Johnny: “Well, I’ve already got a cat!” Rithma Tick, email BRIGHT SPARK A CHEMIST, a biologist, and…