Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2020 i Street Machine

AT THIS year’s Valvoline SMOTY VIP party (see page 174 for the full story), the 2020 Laurie Starling Scholarship for Innovation and Excellence in Automotive Fabrication was awarded to the motivated and talented Jasmine ‘Jazzy’ Green. Given what the 25-year-old mini-truck enthusiast has already achieved while working from her back shed, we can’t wait to see how her talent grows throughout the scholarship. Jazzy not only fabricates metal panels from scratch, but she has also turned her hand to spray painting, mechanical and electrical. “The only thing I don’t know how to do is trim,” Jazzy says. “I love metal – that’s my favourite – but I want to learn motor trimming, as it’s a new field.” It’s all part of Jazzy’s larger plan: “My partner Michael has started Woza’s…

CRAZY MEMORY WONDERFUL tribute to John ‘Crazyman’ Taylor in your January 2020 edition. I’d like to share a memory of my own. Castlereagh Dragway in the mid-70s: a torrential downpour hit the track and everyone went to leave. As we were running to the car park, I heard a nitro Hemi fire up and thought, WTF? I returned to the spectator mound in time to witness the most inspired driving I have ever seen. The ‘Crazyman’ staged his blown, injected, nitro-burning Capri, and, in almost monsoonal conditions, engaged launch. I vividly remember him wielding the car from one safety fence to another, with no regard for himself or his machine. He went past me at half-track completely sideways on full opposite lock, with the butterflies in the injector hat fully…

TWENTY years ago we had a pretty good handle on the concept of what a street car was – 12s were quick and 530hp won you Horsepower Heroes. Today we have road-registered seven-second cars making 2500rwhp, and Sydney’s ProFlo Performance want to push the concept even further. “Basically our client Milan wanted something different, which is hard, as everything has been done,” says ProFlo boss and street machining legend Paul Sant. He’s referring to the LJ Torana he whipped the covers off at Summernats 33, which packs a mountainous 940ci, 1600hp Sonny’s motor. “Putting this engine in a small car, and with the wheel concept, was different,” he continues. “I think people can relate to a street car more. I know it’s a street car on steroids, but it still…

BACK in 2017, we more than just farewelled the Commodore; we said ‘see you later’ to our entire manufacturing industry. That included Ford Australia, Toyota, Mitsubishi/Chrysler, Nissan and all the little also-rans that pioneered vehicle manufacturing and assembly in this country. When Holden closed the Elizabeth factory, it should have turned off the lights and shut the door with a resounding thud. Commodore gone. Curtains closed. By retaining the nameplate on the fully imported hatchback that replaced the Aussie, it felt as if Holden had left a lamp on in the hallway, that they were saying that Commodore wasn’t really gone, but rather had just switched suppliers, like your mum switches energy companies. Of course, there’s nary a person in this country who bought that, both figuratively and literally. And…

AFTER 41 years, five generations and dozens of driveline variations, Holden has finally, some say mercifully, laid the Commodore nameplate to rest. Across the decades, HDT/HSV usually took care of the go-fast brigade, but not all heroes wear capes. Holden snuck out a few speedy units – clandestine Commodores that didn’t look that fast, but were. Here are our faves. VL COMMODORE SL TURBO IF YOU walked into a Holden dealer in 1986, you could option the Nissan-built turbo upgrade on any model on offer, including the povvo-pack Commodore SL. Despite lacking even air and power steering as standard, the SL could be had with 150kW of RB30ET, getting you running 15-second quarters out of the box and on the road for about $18K. Cops loved ’em. VY COMMODORE SV8…

DENISE and Mark Stockwell’s ’67 Camaro pro tourer has a formidable presence thanks to a plethora of body mods, big rims and flush glass, finished off with a race-ready hue. But it took a ship-ton of work over several years to transform the Camaro into the beauty before you. “We’d previously owned a GTHO Falcon years ago, and wanted to get back into the muscle car scene now that the kids have moved out,” Mark explains. “We were looking for a project and decided that the ’67 Camaro was a good option. But it was a typical Mexican paintjob – it looked good but was far from it in reality.” So, Mark and Denise shipped the first-gen Camaro to Russ Weaver from Weavers Autobody Restorations to deliver them a turn-key…

AS A kid, Alex Fenech attended some of the earliest Summernats events, and will never forget the impression they made. “There were blowers and big tubs everywhere,” he recalls. “That’s where it all started for me. I grew up always wanting a car with that pro street look.” Now a 47-year-old trucking company owner, Alex has had his fair share of bruising street cars, including an HT Monaro GTS, an XD ESP Falcon, a ’57 Bel Air and a blown ’32 rod. Truth be told, this low-slung 1977 LX Torana sedan wasn’t his initial choice for his next project. “I had bought an FB Holden and originally intended to build that up with a big blown motor and fat rear end,” he says. “I bought a supercharged six-litre L98 from…

THE artist formerly known as the Bandag Bullet has evolved and is now bigger and angrier than ever. Unveiled as the ‘Bullet Burnout Truck’ at Summernats 33, it’s undergone a major rebuild, with new owner Laurie Williams making the change from a Kenworth to an entirely different body. The eight-tonne beast is powered by two Detroit Diesel two-stroke V8s, force-fed by four turbos and two superchargers. Oh, and don’t forget the nitrous on hand! Not that it’s really needed, because this thing cranks out just shy of 3000hp and 6000ft-lb! After the 300km/h weapon was unveiled on Friday night, the big rig scorched the burnout pad and Skid Row all weekend long.…

PETER Gray and 17 members of the Peterson clan gathered on the burnout pad before the Masters finals to give the legendary John Peterson one hell of a send-off. Peter fitted his Camaro with blue smoke-emitting tyres in honour of JP’s allegiance to the Blue Oval. Summernats media guru Adrian Hodgson paid tribute to the man who not only invented burnouts, but in doing so was instrumental in the creation of the Summernats itself. Adrian then led the assembled crowd in a minute’s silence, before Peter strapped in JP’s number-one son Shane into the passenger seat and fired up his Camaro for a salute we know JP would have been proud of – even though it was performed by a Chev!…

THE Elite Hall was definitely the place to be at Summernats this year, and not just to get some respite from the heat and smoke. The quality and variety of the dozen vehicles in the Meguiar’s Great Uncover was sensational, and the Top 60 was genuinely a Top 60 thanks to requirements to keep the walkways a bit wider than usual. It was definitely noticeable as you moved around the show, as unlike previous years, you didn’t have to squeeze through narrow gaps and try not to fall over, step on or damage the display areas. There were still shoulder-to-shoulder crowds around all of the unveilings, and while most were the usual killer street machines and hot rods, Owen Webb also secured a couple of much larger attractions. Team Army’s…

IT WAS damn hot; the temperature in the Summernats Top Street show just outside the Elite Hall soared beyond 44°C. But that didn’t melt the smiles from the faces of Jason Pace and Peter Sidoti, whose beaut cars, parked adjacent to each other, had earned the honours of Top Judged Street (see breakout, page 146) and Street Champion respectively. Peter has been bringing his jet-black 1965 Mustang – powered by a blown, alloy-headed 302-cube Windsor V8 – to Summernats for around 15 years. In that time, he’s taken home plenty of awards, but this was his first Street Champion gong, and his first ’Nats with his family by his side, so this year’s win was pretty special! Another happy fella was this year’s Encouragement Award winner, Curtis Ryan. “The trim…

THE team from PPG picked 10 stunning cars to duke it out for the PPG Vibrance Supreme Entrant award on Sunday morning at Street Machine Summernats33. The award is voted for by the public, and with the 10 contenders lined up along Central Park – with no barriers around any of the cars – it was a great opportunity for the punters to get up close and personal with these stunning creations. With the pressures of the Elite Hall behind them, the car owners could relax and were more than happy to chat to spectators about the features that make their car special. When the votes were counted, it was Charles Harley’s ’57 Chev Bel Air that was crowned the Summernats 33 PPG Vibrance Supreme Entrant. We featured the car…

SUMMERNATS GRAND CHAMPION TODD SORENSEN 1967 Chevy Impala TOP SUMMERNATS CRUISER SCOTT BARTER 1973 Holden HQ rebodied pick-up ELITE AWARDS TOP JUDGED ELITE CHARLES HARLEY 957 Chevrolet Bel Air hardtop ENCOURAGEMENT AWARDS GARETH LOUGHER 1967 HR Holden DAVID GALEA 1969 HT Holden ELITE TOP 10 JASON BEHAN 1969 VG Valiant hardtop DAVE DORMAN 1932 Ford cabriolet CHARLES HARLEY 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air hardtop ZORAN KRSTEVSKI 1982 Ford XE Falcon HEATH & JACK MADGWICK 1964 EH Holden LUKE MITCHELL 1973 Holden Torana MILAN 1972 Holden Torana TODD SORENSEN 1967 Chevy Impala MARK STOCKWELL 1967 Chevrolet Camaro TONY WILSON 1932 Ford Model B tudor TOP EXHIBITION TEAM ARMY 2019 Mercedes G-Wagen 6x6 trayback TOP UNDERCARRIAGE/ DRIVELINE DAVE DORMAN 1932 Ford cabriolet TOP ENGINE BAY LUKE MITCHELL 1973 Holden Torana TOP BODYWORK JASON…

WHILE the six-cylinder Barra was Ford’s new-millennium high-performance engine of choice, the arrival of the Coyote quad-cam five-litre V8 in the Mustang a couple of years ago gave Blue Oval bent-eight fans a tough engine to take on the LS hordes. Ever thought about chucking one of these bad boys into your street machine? Well, Sydney’s RRS has developed a new Coyote swap kit to help you do it. We chatted to RRS’s Matthew Pankau to find out what’s involved in installing a Coyote into an XY Falcon. FITTING ROOM THE Coyote runs four cams and four valves per cylinder, so it’s a huge mill. Anyone who’s peered into a Falcon or Mustang engine bay knows there isn’t much real estate in there, so the stock shock towers will have…

RIPPING the heads off your vehicle to fix a blown gasket might seem a little overwhelming, but if you break it down it’s a fairly approachable task. Some engines have their own idiosyncrasies through the removal and assembly processes, but the basic concept of sandwiching a gasket between the block and head remains the same. Signs of head gasket failure can include white smoke from the exhaust, milky oil, a bubbling radiator or a rough idle. Here’s an overview of the process. PUSHROD DINOSAURS REPLACING head gaskets in pushrod engines is no more or less difficult than in overhead-cam mills; they’re just different. Laying pieces out systematically to make it easy to put them back where they came from is key. Cast-iron heads may also require a re-torque after a…

I LIKE WORKING ON OLDER STUFF WITH CARBIES INSTEAD OF THE LATE-MODEL STUFF EIGHTEEN-year-old Wyatt Cronin was enthusiastically wrenching on his ’61 Studebaker Lark’s broken trans when we first spied him at Chopped 2019. The Daylesford local is a serious revhead with a keen interest in old-school cool. Here’s his story thus far. How’d you come to own a ’61 Stude? My dad inherited the Studebaker from his mum and in 2012 he gave it to me. The car has been in the family for 47 years, and a lot of that time was sitting in an open-faced shed, so it has good patina. A few years ago – when I was 13 – Dad and I decided to get it going, though the valves had seized in the heads…

THE inaugural Rockynats takes place in Rockhampton on 26-28 June, and it’s going to go off. In fact, I reckon it’ll be bigger than the V8 Supercars in Townsville. In particular, I’m looking forward to the no-prep eighth-mile street racing in Quay Street. I’m sure there’ll be some insane street-registered and driven cars levitating the front wheels off the bitumen on street rubber. One thing’s for sure: Rockhampton will be overwhelmed with the influx of revheads. Just about everyone I know has already bought tickets, booked their accommodation and will be driving their street machines, hot rods or choppers to the event. It’s going to take an act of god to keep me away. I rarely watch Supercars on TV anymore and wonder how it’s going to survive with no…

WE’VE been fortunate enough to nab the keys to a number of Ranger Raptors in the past couple of years, and we can confirm they’re beaut things. The flagship model of one of the bestselling utes on the market has the looks and off-road ability expected of the Raptor nameplate, but there’s always been one major problem with it: guts. While Ford Australia went to town redesigning the Ranger for Raptor duty, with chassis upgrades, raised suspension, Fox Racing shocks, a specific Baja off-roading mode, bigger wheels and tyres, and even a mean widebody, they neglected to bump up the power. The Raptor got stuck with the same 210hp, twin-turbo 2.0L diesel four-banger and 10-speed auto that the rest of the Ranger utes are slung with. While that may be…

JEREMY Schoch’s AP6 Valiant addiction started 20 years ago when the Brisbanite was 19. In a scene straight out of He Died With a Felafel in His Hand, there was a magazine nestled on the bachelor-pad coffee table amongst the 45 empties and stack of 50 pizza boxes that had an AP6 on the cover. “I just loved the shape and had to have one,” Jeremy says. “Most of the other young enthusiasts at the time were doing up Commodores and Falcons, but I like to stand out from the crowd.” He’s now owned over 20 AP6s, and it’s even rubbed off on his brother Adrian, who can lay claim to a sedan and ‘Canadian’ wagon of his own. 01: THE AP6 that started it all. Bruce Clavell’s beautiful blue…

ROADHOUSE 66 1984 > YOU CAN STILL GET YOUR KICKS ON ROUTE 66 BREAKDOWN VEHICLES: 1955 Ford Thunderbird, 1957 Chevrolet 210 sedan, 1955 Chevrolet 210 sedan, 1959 Cadillac Fleetwood, 1959 Edsel Corsair, 1968 Chevrolet El Camino, 1965 Chevrolet Malibu, 1965 Ford Mustang, 1960 Cadillac DeVille STARS: Judge Reinhold, Willem Dafoe, Kaaren Lee, Kate Vernon, Stephen Elliott, Alan Autry, Kevyn Howard, Peter Van Norden, Erica Yohn DIRECTOR: John Mark Robinson ACTION: Some sweet classic metal battles for line honours in a small-town road race PLOT: A privileged young man seeking adventure takes an unplanned detour on a cross-country road trip AVAILABLE: YouTube, DVD WHEN naive rich kid Beckman Hallsgood Jr (Reinhold) embarks on a Route 66 road trip from New York to Palm Springs in a gorgeous 1955 Thunderbird,…

WHEN Holden announced the end of the Commodore badge last December, it heralded the end of a decades-long Red vs Blue rivalry. With the future of Supercars racing seemingly up in the air, Ford and Holden diehards took to Facebook for a classically robust debate. JJ Dano – Holden followers tend to forget, Ford was there at the start and have been there to farewell Holden. Darren Dee – Ford, during their period of not building Aussie V8s, pulled out of racing in Oz and it was only privateers flying the flag. JJ Dano – It was the privateers flying the flag and Ford did have some involvement, be it parts or certain supplies. Ford has never shied away. Just never stayed as constant with factory support. Heath Macfarlan –…

TWENTY years ago, Geoff Newton’s super-slammed Mk1 Escort graced the pages of Street Machine, sporting a turbo four-pot from a Sierra Cosworth between its chassis rails. But after seeing Mark Dall’Acqua’s DMT351 Mk2 (SM, Jan-Feb ’93), Geoff had always intended to jam a V8 into it at some point. Two decades later, the time finally arrived. “This build evolved from my son Mitchell,” says Geoff. “When Mitchell was born he had an instant attraction to burnout cars, and he watched the burnout DVDs over and over. Then we started taking him to Summernats, and it was all about the big, blown cars like UNWANTED, UCSMOKE, INFERNO and STRUGLN. So I thought it would be a good idea to build a blown car.” Geoff initially planned to use a triple-rotor 20B…

HOLDEN built 2.4 million Commodores between 1978 and 2017. The imported ZB added a mere 11,000 to that total over the past couple of years, and will go down in history as one of Holden’s less common mainstream models, but it’s far from being the rarest meat on the barbecue. Factory-supported tuners HDT and HSV created plenty of special editions; that was their jam. Holden itself wasn’t so keen on exclusive content, yet a few unusual variations slipped through the dealership doors over the years. VC SL/E WAGON THIS early-bird luxury wago-barge is one of those editions shrouded in mystery. Launched for sale exclusively through Melbourne and Geelong Holden dealers, a specific number of 67 was touted in the brochure, with three colours available: Nocturne Blue, Firethorn or Nutmeg. Enthusiasts…

THE PRIVILEGE OF USING THE LOCAL AIRPORT’S HANDY STRETCH OF BITUMEN IS THE RESULT OF A STACK OF EFFORT BY THE MID COAST DRAG RACING ASSOCIATION WELL, this is pretty freakin’ cool. It’s a warm, sunny Saturday morning. It’s my birthday. I’m seated in my just-finished, restored-with-patina ’68 dak-dak that I’ve been spannering on during those long chilly winter evenings, and I’m about to take it for its first real drive. And it gets better: I’m peering through my helmet at two white lights, waiting for the orange lights to drop to green for my first-ever run at the inaugural Taree Airport drags. Alrighty! The event is organised and hosted by the Mid Coast Drag Racing Association (MCDRA), and the privilege of using the local airport’s handy stretch of bitumen…

CLINT Ogilvie’s iconic FRONT/BACK LC Torana was one of the biggest head-turners on the cruise route this year, barking away like an attack dog on a leash just waiting to be let loose. The car was first featured in the May 2008 issue of SM, but the former Burnout Masters winner had been missing in action for a few years. “We had a big methanol fire, so I took a bit of a break after that,” said Clint. The car made a triumphant return for 2020 with a new lick of pink pearl paint and the blown Holden mill dumped for a 370ci SBC topped by an 8/71, screaming out to 8600rpm. “We only dropped the engine in a week or so ago,” said Clint. The new mill also means…

THE Summernats celebrity mower racing challenge was a US v. Australia shootout, pitting Yank Cleetus McFarland and his crew against Aussies Jake and Gary Myers, Shannon Noll and the fearless Bubba Medlyn. The first race saw all competitors hit the dirt track, with the top-placed Aussie and Yank finishers to battle it out in the final. It was abandoned after Nollsy had a spectacular roll after just a few corners on the first lap, forcing a red flag. This was a frustrating anti-climax for Bubba, who had jumped from last on the grid to second place by the first corner (though there may have been some sneaky track cutting involved). The restart saw Cleetus lead for most of the way in the first race, before Nollsy hit the front with…

WITHOUT looking at the Summernats record books, it’s a fair bet that Peter Sidoti has collected more Street-class trophies than anyone. The Sydneysider has brought his 1965 Ford Mustang to Canberra for 15 years or so and has carried home plenty of tin in that time, including Top Judged Street in 2009 and 2018 and Top Street Overall in 2010. The latter gong was recently renamed Street Champion, and that’s the big boy Peter took out this time. “It’s had so much work done to it over the years,” said Peter of his B&M-blown, alloy-headed, 302ci Windsor-powered ’Stang, which he regularly refreshes for Summernats in between doing plenty of kays cruising around Sydney. Helping the jet-black Muzzy steer and stop is an RRS strut front-end conversion with rack-and-pinion steering, and…

HUNDREDS of rubber-tanned skid buffs gathered along the burnout pad to get a glimpse of their favourite cars and drivers during Thursday’s Last Chance Wildcard Shootout at Summernats 33. A lucky selection of burnout desperados lined up to fight it out for one of five Burnout Masters spots and a chance of taking home the ultimate title. Tyres started frying at 4pm with Hayden Wilby in NUTOUT, a VT Commodore shipped from New Zealand. Hayden promptly christened the pad with a thick cloud of smoke over the grandstands. Johno Murphy was the first competitor to set the pad on fire in his TUFF20 Corolla, getting the crowd riled up and ready for more carnage. New Zealand’s Chris Daley smacked the wall at the far end of the track in his…

JASON Pace’s Blue Meanie SS Group A-inspired VK Commodore was bought three years ago already built as a 308-powered true-blue tribute. The car’s path to Street-class perfection began soon after the rear suspension failed during a hit at Sydney Dragway. A bit of metalwork under the rear soon grew to a full-on build that saw the car arrive at Summernats last year. The body and paint is a team effort by Steve’s Custom Automotive, Malibu Paint & Panel and Ground Level Panel & Paint. “I built it as a Street-type car, but the judges encouraged me to run it in Elite last year,” Jason explained. “But for this year I put it in Street, which is what I intended all along.” Rolling on 22s, it’s powered by a naturally aspirated,…

CLEETUS McFarland (aka Garrett Mitchell) is one of the biggest names in the YouTube world for car nuts, amassing a huge following in only a few years with his love of turbos, V8s, Mountain Dew and all things freedom. His most famous car is Leroy, a twin-turbo, seven-second manual Corvette (not that there’s much ’Vette left) that launched him into stardom. Summernats 33 was Cleetus’s third time at the event, but this time he decided to take his ’Nats game to a new level by building and shipping his own car all the way from the US to take on the Burnout Masters. What resulted was a hastily prepared third-gen Camaro dubbed TOAST, sporting a monster 632ci Blueprint big-block and with a huge, freedom-inducing blower. With such a short turnaround…

THE build-up to Summernats 33 was nothing short of chaotic for the Carnage crew, who worked through most of the Christmas break to get two mad machines ready for a weekend’s cruising and burnout action. After some long hours, many swear words and crossed fingers, both cars somehow made it to Canberra, and fans couldn’t stop gawking at the new-look, now Barra-powered MX-5 and laughing at the 1JZ-powered Trolvo (yep, a Volvo at Summernats). Both cars impressed on the MPW Performance hub dyno, too, with the Mazda massively exceeding Scotty’s expectations. “I was hoping for around 500rwhp, so 562hp is just awesome!” he said. The Trolvo also put in a good showing, screaming out 491rwhp with its (arguably) oversized turbo. While you would think 490 horses would be more than…

AFTER a season of smashing tyres and taking scalps at the biggest burnout competitions in Australia, the 10 top burnout cars and drivers from around the country assembled on the Sunday afternoon of Street Machine Summernats 33 for the annual heavyweight showdown. With $15K and the title of Burnout Masters Champion on the line, the packed grandstands were in for one hell of a show. Alex Hirst in BADHT was first to step up to the plate. Alex had recently had the 400ci small-block in his HT ute totally rebuilt after the oil pump seized mid-skid, and the thundering supercharged Chevy smashed out big revs and smoke in an instant. The output was impressive, though he forfeited a little momentum when he got lost in his own smoke due to…

THE custodians of Australia’s hot-car legacy are a small yet dedicated bunch, passionate about keeping the six decades’ worth of our local hot rod, street machine, panel van and drag racing history alive. Brisbane’s Dean Kubler is one of them, a bloke whose finger is definitely on the pulse when it comes to the importance of preserving classic builds of the past. Shortly after the passing of drag racing stalwart and Summernats legend Milton ‘Milty’ Adey back in 2010, Dean learned that a mate had the remains of Milty’s old Super Stock ‘Hawkeye’ Pinto in his backyard. His love for nostalgia –along with nudging from his father, Ashley, who told him that he absolutely needed to restore this car – was just the prompting Dean needed to seal the deal.…

PLENTY of us have memories of the Chrysler Sigma, one of Australia’s most popular family cars of the 1980s. But it’s not often you read ‘Sigma’ and ‘performance’ in the one sentence. That’s not to say you can’t bulk them up though, as Jason Waye’s LS1-powered ’81 GH shows. The blue four-door packs a cammed 350rwhp LS1 and ran a PB of 11.8 at Drag Challenge 2019, yet it has also been through all the engineering hoops to be street-legal in Jason’s hometown of Adelaide! The car turned out so well because Jason runs Tuff Mounts, a company specialising in fitting the right engines into the wrong cars. After his Barra-powered Fox-body Mustang wasn’t going to be ready for the Haltech Radial Blown class at DC19, he built the Sigma…

THE term ‘sleeper’ means different things to different people. Some reckon that a car with a ground-shaking idle and 10in-wide drag radials qualifies as a sleeper as long as it’s also got venetians and a factory-style two-tone paintjob. Others feel that for a car to be truly sleepy, there can’t be any external cues to give away its real potential. Ben O’Neill’s XR follows the latter philosophy – it flies so far under the fast-car radar it may as well be subterranean! The Falcon was a different beast when it entered Ben’s garage 10 years ago. “The paint and interior were good, but the mechanicals were pretty crap,” he says. “I took it for a quick spin around the block and it was just horrible to drive, so I started…

JAY SMITH 1981 FORD XD FALCON “I’M A Ford man through and through and have always loved XDs. I had an XD as my first car and have had seven of them since then. I bought this one six years ago; originally it had a six-cylinder in it, but it now has a 460ci big-block with ported aluminium heads, a Lunati flat-tappet cam, Victor manifold and a 950 Quick Fuel carby, putting out over 1000Nm of torque. The motor was built by Brook Gunning at BTG Mechanical & Performance in Albany; he does a brilliant job and has built my previous engines. The gearbox is a manualised Powerglide with a 3500rpm stall, but we’re now changing that to a 4500rpm stall, built by Dean at Fremantle Torque Converters. The rear…

WE ALL know someone who has been crushed by scope-creep during a project. What starts off as a ring-and-bearing job ends up with a stroker crank, aftermarket heads and plenty more. Such is the story behind Adam Bowling’s stout plastic motor. Built by Sam Fenech at Westend Performance, the Holden V8 was never meant to go this far. “Adam came in to us wanting a pretty basic 500hp, single four barrel-fed 355ci stroker for his LJ Torana,” explains Sam. “By the time we’d finished, it ended up as the combo we have here. If I was going to do it all over again from the start I’d probably push the compression up to 13:1. It is only 11-11.5:1 at the moment, so I’d consider it a little bit soft in…

31 JAN-02 FEB, BATHUST, NSW Bathurst 12 Hour, Mt Panorama Circuit.Visit bathurst12hour.com.au. 31 JAN-02 FEB, MORUYA, NSW South Coast Nostalgia Hot Rod & Custom Run, Riverbreeze Holiday Park. Call Lee 0419 845 890 or email southcoastnats@bigpond.com. 01 FEB, KANIVA, VIC Car & Bike Show, Kaniva Recreation Reserve. Email kanivacarbikeshow@outlook.com. 02 FEB, SWANPOOL, VIC Swanpool Motor Festival, Albert Heaney Oval, 2426 Midland Hwy. Call Ross 0417 351 304 or email rcoles49@gmail.com. 02 FEB, BACCHUS MARSH, VIC David Calleja Memorial Show, Maddingley Park. Call Nadine pm 0431 444 920 or email nadineh@djhs.org.au. 02 FEB, BERKELEY, NSW Autorama Illawarra Car & Bike Charity Show, East Berkeley Sports Club. Call Giovanni 0418 966 323. 06-08 FEB, KATANNING, WA Kaos In The Country burnout event, Katanning Speedway, Forrest Hill Rd. Search Facebook for more info…

AUSTRALIA’s aftermarket performance industry has always punched above its weight and shown the world just what our little island continent is capable of. One thing that many of our local aftermarket pioneers share is that their careers grew out of their hobby; names like Bennett, Hadfield, Splatt and Cowin all honed their craft by tinkering in home sheds. A similar grounding has seen Andrew Holdsworth forge a 40-year career as the man behind ET Performance Products, High Energy Oil Pans and Kool Wrap. We chatted to Andrew about cutting his hot-car teeth with an iconic XR Falcon sedan, and how he turned a ‘temporary’ post-uni job at a speed shop into a full-blown career. What sparked your interest in cars? I was your typical eight-year-old kid, racing Matchbox cars around…

THE venerable Commodore wagon has had a storied career. It’s been a custard-stained family hauler, a mile-munching rep-mobile, an overloaded work truck and a stickered-up promo rig. It’s not always been the fastest or the most stylish, but we still have plenty of love for the longroof. Like its sedan brother, the first-gen Commo wagon (released in July 1979) shared styling with its Opel donor, before diverging significantly from its European roots for the VN-VS. The wagon gained extreme booty for the VT-VZ range, before retiring as a lithe and likeable Sportwagon across VE and VF. Here are some of our favourites. HSV VFII CLUBSPORT R8 LSA TOURER TAKE one Holden wagon, cover it in plastic bits (including a cow-catching front bar), install large brakes and 400kW of blown LSA…

BUILDING a race car at home in the shed, taking it to the track and driving it into the eights is an act of considerable bad-arsery for a person of any age. But Tony Rohr, a retired farmer from Mudgee with no formal automotive-related training, has managed to do just that at 77 years young. Sure, you might be cool, but odds are you ain’t that cool! Paint, ’cage and transmission aside, Tony tackled the whole process from go to whoa on his own, with no outside help. He repaired the rust, specced and built the twin-turbo 427ci RHS-blocked LS, fabricated the turbo system, and plumbed, wired and assembled the car from top to bottom and front to back. The finished product ran out of injector on the ACM Engines…

SPRINGNATS is one of Australia’s longest-running car events, and central to its appeal is the Shepparton Showgrounds burnout pad – one of the largest in all the land. As well as burnouts, the 2019 event, which took place 22-24 November, offered the usual show ’n’ shine, a massive street cruise through the centre of town, and autokhana, grab-a-flag and go-to-whoa competitions. It’s not hard to see why people travel from as far away as Adelaide or even Kandos in northern NSW for the three-day party. THE CRUISE WAS HELD UNDER A PERMIT THAT ALLOWED EVEN THE WILDEST UNREGISTERED ENTRANT CARS TO TAKE TO THE STREETS It all teed off with Friday evening’s four-hour burnout expression session. The free time out on the pad served as a test-and-tune and practice opportunity…

IF YOU doubt the intentions of generation whatever-we’re-up-to-now, then don’t judge this fastidiously clean, factory-esque XY ute by the birth date on its owner’s licence. There’s a young bloke up in Queensland who knows that ‘doin’ the hard yards’ doesn’t mean mowing the lawn up a really steep block. It’s about getting of out of something what you put into it. In the case of this pristine 1971 XY Falcon ute owned (and largely built) by Tyler Davey, that’s four years of painstaking labour at nights and weekends trying to achieve a look faithful to what Ford Australia might have done in ’71 had there been a market for tough utes back then. And making sure the oily bits are man enough to match the faux GTHO cover art. Working…

KEITH Fabian comes from a family of street machiners. His brothers take the more commonly trod path of owning Ford and Holden products, but 36-year-old Keith has always been a bit different: “My first car was a Centura and I’ve never not had a Valiant. My brothers reckon I was dropped on my head as a baby.” Another reason – or excuse, depending on your view – is that Keith’s originally from South Oz, which could be considered a Mopar stronghold compared to other parts of the country. Where he lives now, though, is the windswept township of Geraldton, about five hours north of Perth. “I had some family over here and my wife wanted to do some study. We thought we’d come over for a few years; then I…

WHEN it comes to the driving events at Summernats, having the most powerful car is not necessarily an advantage – especially in the grass-driving events – but on the bitumen in the go-to-whoa it definitely helps. Having said that, it’s really power-to-weight that reigns supreme here, because while the grunt of a V8 might help you accelerate, pulling up 1700-1800kg of V8-powered sedan can be a struggle – even with ABS. But if you’ve got 300hp at the treads and a car that weighs around 750kg, like Sebastian Desisto’s Datsun 1200 ute, then you’re going to be tough to beat. He’s no stranger to Summernats, having won Street Champion in 2018 and Top Judged Street at Summernats 18. In the go-to-whoa this year he outran and out-braked Mark Rowley in…

YOUR Summernats 33 Grand Champion is Todd Sorensen. Todd’s 1967 Chevrolet Impala joins a hallowed group of cars whose high level of construction and performance has elevated them to Aussie street machining legend status. “Holding that sword – it’s all worth it,” said Todd when we spoke to him soon after his win on Sunday. “It magically makes all the frustration and pain of the build disappear!” The big, smooth Chev is the result of a decade of on-again, off-again work in between customer jobs at Todd’s Ipswich-based Rocksolid Autobody. The beautifully constructed, PPG Cool Vanilla-hued Chev is powered by a carb-fed, 750hp, 528ci big-block Chev fronting a TH400 auto and a Chev 12-bolt diff with 4.3:1 cogs. The coil-over rear end spans 20x10 Intro Saltsters with 295 rubber, while…

TUFF Street is not the place to hang out if you value your peace and quiet. With Skid Row just next door, the joint is constantly cloaked in tyre smoke, and the roar of blown V8s is ever-present. Though that seems fitting, given the nature of the mechanical monsters that call Tuff Street home. Sky-high tunnel rams, howling superchargers, meth-addled big-blocks, turbos the size of your noggin and whopping tubs filled to the brim with drag radials are the order of the day. Several repeat offenders fronted up for Tuff Street judging at Street Machine Summernats 33, including Phil Kerjean with his aptly named TUFFST Commodore wagon. A past Tuff Street Champion, the flanks of the wagon are airbrushed with other winners, and the car is powered by a mental…

BRUTAL heat and thick bushfire smoke didn’t stop records being obliterated in the Haltech Horsepower Heroes dyno comp at Summernats 33. Maria Passos’s XR6 Turbo Falcon blew the crowd in the MPW Performance dyno hall away with the very first run of the competition, running 2048rwhp from the 3.7-litre turbo Barra to break Michael Daniels’s 1131rwhp Forced-Induction Six-Cylinder class record from Summernats 27. Maria backed it up on Sunday with a 2202rwhp run, pushing 57psi through the little big-six to not only take the FI six-pot class win but also the outright Haltech Horsepower Heroes award. “The goal for the weekend was to make over 2000hp at the wheels, and we did that on the first day,” Maria said. “This car is my life, and the ultimate goal is to…

Cufone of 1FATRAT fame. It’s a ’68 Chevy Nova, resplendent in black (of course) and highlighted with a white Yenko S/C stripe; Yenko being racer Don Yenko’s Pennsylvanian Chev dealership that was renowned for its customised muscle cars in the 60s. Dom Luci left his just-unveiled VK in the Elite Hall and jumped into LITMUP to cut some laps with a carful of mates, but surely the wildest ride at the Supercruise was Fred Cavassini’s ’34 coupe, which had been off the road for 20 years. After losing good mate Mario Colalillo to a heart attack in late 2018, Fred figured life’s too short and is getting as much use as he can out of the blown and injected methanol-fuelled beast. Three waves of cruisers completed their laps, and the…

AFTER 300 cars had battled in searing heat on the Friday and Saturday to qualify for the Summernats 33 Burnout Championship finals, come Sunday afternoon it was finally crunch time. The scene was apocalyptic even before a tyre was blazed in anger; yellow and red skies and heavy smoke from the fires that were mercilessly ravaging our country had settled over the whole of Canberra. Fortunately, a southerly breeze brought some cool relief as burnout stalwart Dom Luci opened the finals in his tough-as LS-powered HZ Holden, LITMUP. Having narrowly missed out on winning Grand Champion with his stunning new VK, Dom held nothing back. Massive revs from the aspirated small-block, high-speed tip-ins and awesome use of the pad had the crowd on their feet. It was a hard act…

HELD each year at the George Harcourt Inn on the Thursday night of Summernats, our Valvoline Street Machine Of The Year party is an invitation-only VIP shindig featuring a who’s who of the street machining industry. Car builders, noted racers and business owners from all over Australia spend a few hours catching up with each other while blowing the froth off the top of more than a few jars of fine ale. While everyone loves a party, there was a serious side to the night this year, as Louis Younis kicked off a fundraiser to help the fire-fighting going on over the New Year’s period around Australia. Louis, the boss of ITF Hire, threw a grand in the whippy, and attendees further donated generously to the cause, with the total…

I’M STANDING beside a hot and dusty wheat field. The air is thick with flies, yet all I can hear is the buzz of rambunctious retirees. This energetic crew are the pioneers of South Australian drag racing, and they’ve gathered to remember this Middle Beach paddock’s heyday over five decades ago, back when it was the Brooksfield Dragway. The story begins in the early 60s, when a group of speed-hungry youth, frustrated by uneventful single-lane sprints, decided that change was required. “A bunch of us met up at Sid Eckert Motors after the sprints and agreed that we needed to get a drag strip happening,” says ex-Eckert mechanic Graham Flavel. Fellow racer Trevor Edmond ran the Golden Fleece servo directly in front of Eckert’s, and he knew Dennis Ryan from…

SPARKPLUG leads can’t add horsepower, but they can adversely affect your vehicle’s performance. That’s why it’s important to select a good-quality set of leads to deliver juice to your plugs. Even though they’re simple parts with no moving elements, there’s surprisingly little information about how to choose the right leads for a given application. So let’s try to cover the basics. The number-one job of any sparkplug lead is to transfer an electric charge from your ignition to your sparkplugs. The challenge is to get the maximum amount of this charge to the plugs without creating electromagnetic interference (EMI) or radio frequency interference (RFI) for nearby electrical components. As the high charges of today’s electronic ignitions move through the leads, a magnetic field is created around them. This field can…

THERE’S no missing this striking purple HT Premier, proudly owned by Holden lover Kim Perry. Although the Prem was in a bit of a state when she bought it, Kim and hubby Michael have since lovingly built it into a reliable yet eye-catching cruiser. Sweet HT! Tell us why you chose it. About four years ago I had a VE SS and I wanted something more old-school. I wanted a cool old Holden to drive around in, more of a muscle car. So when I came across the HT Premier I really liked it. What condition was it in? It was pretty rough, with an RB30 motor in it that wasn’t running. They’d also cut the floors to fit the motor. We took the motor out and Michael replaced the…

JOURNEY PLANNER I RODE to the bottlo yesterday on my bicycle, bought a bottle of whisky and put it in the bike basket. But as I was about to leave, I thought to myself that if I fell off the bike, the bottle would probably break. So I decided it would be much better if I drank all the whisky before I cycled home. It turned out to be a very good decision – I fell off seven times on the way home! Bykiz Wobblie, email FINE DINING A LADY goes to the doctor and complains that her husband is losing interest in sex. The doctor gives her a pill. “Slip it in your husband’s mashed potatoes at dinner,” he advises. “But remember, this medication is still experimental. We don’t…