Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2015 i Street Machine

PRIDE, bragging rights and a shit-ton of cash – it’s all up for grabs when the quickest blown and turbocharged door cars in Australia go head-to-head at Street Machine Supernats 21, 19-20 September at Sydney Dragway. Should he get a full field of 16 cars for his Turbo vs Blown Outlaw Shootout, promoter Ahmet ‘The Mad Turk’ Sehirligil will put up a massive $20,000 purse for the winner-takes-all contest. Well, almost all – there’ll be a $500 consolation prize for the first loser. “Drag racing in Australia is in a slump at the moment, so I’m trying to pump it up a bit” Ahmet said. “I want to get back to early days of Supernats with plenty of grudge racing – it packs the place out.” The most hotly anticipated…

IT WAS with a heavy heart that Melbourne’s drag racing community laid pro street legend Craig Brewer to rest this month. The big fella had garnered so much respect throughout the Victorian racing scene that over 100 of Melbourne’s toughest streeters turned out to send him off. A cruise, starting from the BP service station at Officer in Melbourne’s south-east, headed 55km to the memorial service at Lardner Park, and stretched for several kilometres. Some of the toughest machinery travelled on trailers, but many more made the trip under their own power, and at the other end the car park looked more like a show ’n’ shine than a funeral. It was a fitting send-off for a bloke who lived and loved pro street racing. He is survived by his…

THE indoor car show made an evolutionary step with this year’s Meguiar’s MotorEx. It was much more than a static display of some beautiful cars with a few trade stands thrown in for good measure; it was an all-in experience with light, sound, colour and entertainment. It’s how a car show should be, and hopefully we’ll see some of the glitz and glamour rub off and make its way to the shows held in other states – and we don’t just mean MotorEx Melbourne. I’d say the organisers had done a little research by visiting some of the big shows in the US, such as SEMA, Detroit Autorama and the Grand National Roadster Show. It would have been a tough job, but someone had to do it. It’s not that…

THE age-old adage that there’s no substitute for cubic inches is facing the threat of redundancy. Turbos, blowers, nitrous and all manner of electronic trickery make for fairly handy cubic-inch substitutes in the modern era. But then Steve Xuereb’s superb 632ci HJ Prem comes along and proves beyond reasonable doubt that big is still beautiful. The 10.4-litre, pump fuel, single-carbed rat motor that powers the car is simplicity at its finest. It has effortlessly spun up 911hp on the dyno – technology be damned! “You don’t even have to try and it fries them hard” Steve says. “It’s mental!” Aside from the obvious benefits that come with owning a 900hp, all-motor, big-block, Chev-powered street car, the absence of nitrous solenoids, blower drives, turbo plumbing and kilometres of wiring has made…

WEDNESDAY 02 SEP 2015 6.30PM-9PM: FREE Family Movie Night, Lasseters Casino THURSDAY 03 SEP 2015 9AM: Gates Open, Entrant Registration / Scruitineering, Blatherskite Park 10AM-4PM: Town Cruising, Alice Springs 5PM: Gates Close, Blatherskite Park FRIDAY 04 SEP 2015 – DAY ONE 9AM: Entrant Registration / Scruitineering, Blatherskite Park 10AM: Gates Open, Blatherskite Park 10AM-4PM: Town Cruising, Alice Springs 12PM-5PM: Elite Show Cars Judging, Blatherskite Park 4PM-5PM: Town Street Parade, Alice Springs ROCK ’N’ RUMBLE - FRIDAY NIGHT CONCERT 6PM: Rock ’n’ Rumble featuring Dr Elephant and Chocolate Starfish, Blatherskite Park 9.30PM: Gates Close, Blatherskite Park SATURDAY 05 SEP 2015 - DAY TWO 9AM-12PM: Elite Show Cars Judging, Blatherskite Park 9AM-10PM: Town Cruising, Alice Springs 10AM: Gates Open, Blatherskite Park 10AM-4.30PM: Elite Show Cars Display, Blatherskite Park 10AM-4.30PM: Show ’n’ Shine,…

DRAG ’EM! FOR those who like to live their lives a quarter mile at a time, there will be plenty of action at the Alice Springs Inland Dragway (ASID). The racing will be run on a quarter mile dial-your-own format, which means all vehicles should be in with an equal chance, from the mild streeter right up to the blown alcohol drag monster. If you’ve ever wanted to try your car at the strip, this is will be the place to go. WHEN: Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 September 2015 WHERE: Alice Springs Inland Dragway QUALIFYING: Saturday, 12pm-6pm FINALS: Sunday, 11am-1pm MOTORKHANA TO FINISH off the Red CentreNATS, and just before the after party gets started, there will be a short course tarmac motorkhana at the Lasseters Hotel Casino. It’s…

NEW Zealand’s Beach Hop kicked off in April 2001 in the town of Whangamata, on the North Island’s picturesque Coromandel Peninsula. Over 6000 people came together for a weekend celebrating the 1950s and 60s rock & roll lifestyle, raising $3000 for the local surf club. But those humble beginnings were soon eclipsed as subsequent runnings of the event saw both the funds raised and the number of attendees increasing exponentially each year. With over 110,000 punters flocking to 2015’s Beach Hop, it was again another packed year of cool tunes, chilled vibes and sweet pre-1972 cars. A change of headline sponsor to Repco, following Sony’s run for the past few years, meant an Aussie automotive company was supporting this NZ event – a fitting display of ANZAC spirit! The party…

THE humble Holden six-pot would have to be one of Australia’s most widely modified engines. Thanks to a production life that spanned almost four decades, they are nothing if not plentiful – and eminently tuneable. Sydney supercharger specialist Jeff Ramsay has over 30 years’ experience fettling Holden sixes, so when he and son Matt decided to embark on a personal project, it was always going to be something special. Enter this wild Duggan-headed, Whipple-blown, mechanically injected 186 Holden red motor, set to produce upwards of 650 thundering horsepower and send the Ramsays’ FJ drag ute down the standing quarter in no time flat. “The engine was fully built and engineered in-house at Jeff Ramsay Engineering, using only the best componentry” Matt explains. “Hundreds of hours were spent measuring, checking and…

I HAD a VU SS burnout ute named THRASHA, but I hit the wall quite badly at the Motorplex [Google “Thrasha – worst wall hit ever at the Plex” for video!]. The damage was too much to fix, so I stripped the ute and the shell went off to a scrap-metal yard. I bought a VX SS instead, and put the ute’s motor, gearbox, trans cooler, diff, coil-overs, fuel cell and fuel pumps into that. With JJ from Obsessive Customs lending a hand, we did the whole swap, including the vinyl wrap, in six days leading up to Gazzanats. It hasn’t missed a beat since! Thanks to Justin Pitsikas from BYE Performance for tuning the car, and Boddington Tyre Services for supplying me with tyres at every car event. As…

FOLLOWING on from their highly successful Armygeddon and Project Digger builds, Team Army are at it again with their latest build based on the Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen, Project TsunARMY. “Project Digger, a ’78 Ford LTD that was a general’s staff car, and Armygeddon, which represented our Land Rover fleet, were about the Australian Army’s history” project manager Lt Col Tom Regener explains. “We thought it would be great to do something that represents the modern army. We recently acquired 2268 G-Wagens. Before we do a major capital procurement like that, we run very rigorous trials, and at the end we purchase the preferred vehicle” While in most cases the army would auction the test vehicle off, those trials take quite a toll and the G-Wagen copped a flogging. In that respect,…

BACKYARD builders are the cornerstone of the Australian street machine scene, guys like Harry Tonkin who create absolute gems using plenty of self-taught know-how and the desire to create something different. A veritable historian of the early panel van and street machine years, Harry kept the camera close to document his own builds. Here’s a few that he remembers fondly. 01: HARRY built this HQ ute in the early 80s. Dubbed Summer Magic, It featured all the signature mods of that era, including a Statesman front, sunroof, sidepipes, a Mack bulldog on the bonnet, Hotwires and ‘Bob Jane’ wing. All of the work – bar the murals – was carried out at home. “I would buy dead-stock cars at bargain prices, then get busy” Harry says. “The ute ran a…

SOME projects are a lay-down misère. A black, blown ’57, for example – for maximum impact and street cred, it’s a guaranteed winner. It’s a legendary combination on Aussie shores thanks to the film Running On Empty, as well as the antics of our own Mr Bray in Old Faithful. Scan these pages, though, and you’ll see that John Mawhinney has not only added to this legacy of tough ’57s, but taken it further. You could call it fate. “Cars are in my DNA” John says. “My dad, John Norton, was a car nut and champion speedway driver. So was my grandfather, Digger. My early years were spent in a house that was smack-bang in the middle of a car yard and Dad would let me choose a hottie off…

THE DREW family live and breathe street car racing. When they’re not cruising, they’re building cars; when they’re not building, they’re racing; and when they’re not racing, they’re cruising. That’s the circle of life in the Drew household. “Raelene pretends she’s angry about all the cars, but secretly she loves it” Mark Drew laughs. “We’ve been together 24 years; she knew who she was marrying.” Mark’s had a list of fast Toranas as long as your arm, the quickest of which was his bright orange 622ci LH sedan that ran 8.39@165mph; we featured that in the October 2012 issue of SM. His previous ride, a bright green nitrous-assisted 434ci LC Torana, was also pretty rapid, running 8.78@158mph. Maybe a little too rapid: “The LC was a handful” Mark says. “LH…

UNDER THE STARS MOVIE NIGHT BRING the whole family along for a free movie night under the stars at Lasseters Casino to celebrate the start of Red CentreNATS. We’re inviting Alice Springs residents, entrants and visitors to come along for a relaxed evening on the lawns of Lasseters. Bring a rug and a chair to get comfortable, and come early to grab a feed. The screening of Disney Pixar’s Cars will start at approximately 6.30pm. WHEN: Wednesday 2 September 2015 WHERE: The lawns of Lasseters Casino, Barrett Drive, Alice Springs TIME: 6.30pm ROCK ’N’ RUMBLE  CONCERT GET ready to rock at the Red CentreNATS Concert on Friday 4 September. One of Australia’s most beloved rock bands, Chocolate Starfish, will play a special one-off concert on the opening night. The band…

JOE Hickenbottom is proof you don’t have to slow down in retirement. In fact it just means more time to build cool cars and the Monterey, California, local has so many in his shed, he’s not even sure how many. But for this story we’re focusing on just two – his ’66 Plymouth Barracuda gasser and its matching Dodge C500 hauler. They are just the tip of a very cool iceberg of old race cars. “That’s what I do; build drag cars – old-school stuff. I’ve got a ’40 Dodge with a Hemi that was raced in the 50s. I raced that for a while but retired it and just drive it on the street. I’ve got a ’48 Anglia which was raced in the 50s and 60s; I’m doing…

NICE PAINTJOB A BLONDE, wanting to earn some money, decides to hire herself out doing home maintenance, and starts canvassing a wealthy neighbourhood. She goes up to a house, knocks on the door and asks the owner if he has any jobs for her to do. “Well, you can paint my porch” he says. “How much will you charge?” The blonde replies: “How about 50 dollars?” So the man agrees and tells her that the paint and other materials she might need are in the garage. A short time later, the blonde comes to the door to collect her money. “You’re finished already?” the man asks, surprised. “Yes” the blonde answers, “and I had paint left over, so I gave it two coats.” Impressed, the man reaches in his pocket…

WITH all the hype surrounding LS engines and their seemingly limitless potential in boosted applications, it’s easy to gloss over the fact that the Blue Oval now packs one hell of a counterpunch with its Coyote 5.0L DOHC bent-eight. American tuning houses are yielding awesome results with turbocharged Coyotes, and Armageddon Turbo Systems is leading the charge with its range of crate engines and forced induction solutions to suit. The really great news is that Aussie tuning powerhouse and Ford specialist Herrod Motorsport has partnered with Armageddon to make its range of go-fast Coyote hardware available Down Under. This rather fearsome-looking example has been prepared by Herrod for an Australian customer, and it’s a very stout package. “This is an Armageddon MPS1500-equipped 5.0L Coyote engine, and it’s rated to handle…

22 AUG, BERRI, SA Riverland Auto Lifestyle Expo, Riverland Complex. Contact Stuart 0438 874 652. 22-23 AUG, CAIRNS, QLD 2015 Cairns Auto Show Spectacular, Cairns Showgrounds. Contact Charissa (07) 4042 6611. 23 AUG, BERKSHIRE PARK, NSW Berkshire Park Motor Show, Berkshire Park Oval. Contact 0414 766 543. 23 AUG, MUDGEERABA, QLD Gold Coast Car Show 2015, Mudgeeraba Showgrounds. Contact 0439 170 882 or 0498 054 140. 23 AUG, SILVERWATER, NSW EH Car Club of NSW Show ’n’ Shine, Silverwater Park. Contact Michelle 0478 599 729 or Mitchell 0447 420 498. 23 AUG, TAREE, NSW Mid Coast Old Holdens All GM Day, Market Square Park, Cundletown. Contact Sue 0497 230 676. 29 AUG, BIGGENDEN, QLD Ruff ’n’ Tuff Charity Car Show, Biggenden Showgrounds. Contact Bryan 0439 261 662. 29 AUG, BUNDABERG,…

BREAKDOWN VEHICLES: 1920 Indian Scout replica, 1953 Vauxhall Velox, 1950 Triumph Thunderbird, BSA A10 Golden Flash, 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air, 1958 Buick Special, 1954 Chevrolet Bel Air, 1955 Chevrolet 3100, 1940 Chevrolet pick-up, 1962 Ford Galaxie, Hammon-McGrath-Whipp ‘Redhead’ streamliner, 1963 Chevrolet Suburban, 1961 Mickey Thompson Challenger I, 1963 Mercury Colony Park STARS: Anthony Hopkins, Aaron Murphy, Annie Whittle, Craig Hall, Diane Ladd, William Lucking, Walton Goggins, Christopher Lawford DIRECTOR: Roger Donaldson ACTION: High-speed road and beach action will get you primed, while the Bonneville salt lake runs are both a visual and aural delight PLOT: New Zealand land speed racer Burt Munro acts on a 25-year dream to race his Indian motorcycle at the Bonneville Speedweek in 1960s America Based on a true story, The World’s Fastest Indian tells of…

THE starter motor churns and the big Clevo bustles into life before settling into a melodious fast idle. I kick my heels so as not to drag dirt into the XB Falcon’s pristine interior and plant my arse in the seat, swing the long door shut, reach back for the seatbelt and begin grinning. If I’m grinning, owner Darren Blackman is absolutely beaming. And he has good reason. He’s sitting in the car he’s always wanted – a car he’s spent the past however-many years busting his balls on – and now, after two of its three planned show appearances, he gets to drive it. Darren pulls the Falcon’s shifter back to first gear and gently burbles out onto the rural bitumen, so that snapper Wielecki can get some more…

THE premise is simple: you vote for the best street machine you’ve seen in the past 12 months, and we hand a trophy and a $20,000 cheque to the owner of the car with the most votes. That’s the Valvoline Street Machine Of The Year in a nutshell. This year’s field of 16 finalists comprises favourites like Toranas, Falcons, Kingers and Mopars mixing it up with unique driveline combos, mega-cube big-blocks, trusty Aussie small-blocks and no less than two Nissan RB sixes. Bagged, blown, turboed and everything in between, this year’s SMOTY is hotter than ever. The 2015 Street Machine Of The Year winner will not only become the 28th to have their name engraved on the hallowed SMOTY intake runners, but will also bag a $20,000 cheque, thanks to…

BURNOUTS UNDER LIGHTS! THAT’S right; Red CentreNATS contestants will be qualifying under lights in Alice Springs. It all kicks off at 6.30pm Saturday with two hours of Burnout Championship qualifying, and then things will click into overdrive at 8.30pm for the Burnout Masters. “It’s a compact program for this year and we’re going to jam as much into it as possible” Summernats co-owner Dom McCormack says. “Obviously it’s been pretty tough to run burnouts at night at Summernats because of the EPA, but there’s a lot more freedom out there in Alice Springs. There’s also the entertainment value too, it’ll be great to watch burnouts under lights after a long day in the sun” As is the case with Summernats, the Red CentreNATS will operate two separate burnout competitions –…

KRIS Nothdurft has always wanted a big block-powered Commodore, a lurching burnout machine with a single-digit quarter-mile slip. And thanks to a couple of mates who shared his dream, Kris’s VU ute no longer just hauls goods – it is the goods. A tiler by trade, Kris purchased the stock LS1-powered SS as a work truck. But being a revhead by nature, Kris knew the ute was destined for so much more. LS motors love a tickle, so Kris took it to Robby Abbott of Abbott Engine Reconditioning for some heads, a cam and a 150-shot of nitrous. “With a 4500rpm stally, she could blow the doors off the import boys with the work trailer still on the back!” Kris chuckles. “And she’d run 10.7s all day without it.” Kris…

POMGOLIAN Steve Neimantas started drag racing back in 1987, his car back then a 1969 Plymouth GTX. He’s run the quarter-mile pretty much every year since, and his list of race cars reads like the ultimate dream garage: 1964½ Mustang convertible; 1970 Plymouth Duster; 1969 Plymouth GTX; Triumph Vitesse convertible (okay, not everyone’s idea of a dream) with a 440ci Chrysler donk (better); 1966 Dodge Charger; 1934 Ford; 1970 Dodge Challenger; and an Aston Martin Vantage (527ci Mopar, 14/71 blower, tube frame). All Steve’s cars have one very important thing in common – they have all been street-legal. Clearly UK laws are a tad more lenient than Oz! I first met Steve in 1992. I’d landed a job with Street Machine (UK) and the editor sent me back to my…

MITCHELL & ASHLEIGH BRADY 1968 CHEVROLET CAMARO “MY DAD bought this Camaro off eBay back in 2006, as we had been talking about building a car together. It needed a lot of work; the motor was tired and the interior had been stripped out when the car arrived. A ProCharged 383 stroker was added, good for 540hp, shifting through a Turbo 400 to a nine-inch diff. It was meant to be my wedding car, but got written off about four months beforehand – the whole rear end was bent. Fortunately, Dad’s friend Pat from Pat’s Pro Restos & Refinishing got it all fixed and it was ready to go the day before the wedding. My parents wanted to sell the car, so my wife and I bought it off them.…