Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2025 i Street Machine

DRAG-and-drive events number in the dozens these days, especially in the US, where there are more than 30 different events to test your mettle – and your metal. Our own Scott Taylor has had a passion for drag-and-drive events that extends back 20 years, so he decided to take a sorely needed break from building cars in the Carnage workshop and head to Minnesota, USA to build a car for Sick Summer 2025. “It was both the best and worst thing I’ve ever done,” Scotty said. “Driving across Midwest America and racing at multiple tracks was an unbeatable experience, but attempting to build a car for the event in under 10 days was, in retrospect, an insane idea that taxed me to the limit.” After arriving in Minnesota, Scotty enlisted…

IF THE crop of young punks who’ve thrown their hats in the ring for the 2025 Hare & Forbes Machineryhouse Young Street Machine of the Year competition is anything to go by, the kids are all right. This is the third year of this all-important initiative, which aims to encourage, reward and acknowledge the younger generation of car crafters. These up-and-coming tinkerers are, after all, the future of our sport. This year, we welcome Hare & Forbes Machineryhouse aboard as sponsors for YSMOTY. The partnership is a great fit, because Hare & Forbes makes and sells the kinds of tools and workshop equipment that make projects like these possible. We thank them for their support! By the time you read this, the Street Machine team will have narrowed down the field to…

IF YOU’RE like us, you’ll be pleased to hear that Terry Vavitis refused to be swayed by his mates when they tried to convince him to turn his genuine VH Vacationer into an SL/E or SS tribute. “The side moulds and the decals were the last things to go on, and I was on the fence about it, so I drove it around for a bit without them,” Terry says. “But as soon as I committed and got them on, it completely changed the car for me; I love it and don’t regret keeping it as a Vacationer at all.” Terry ended up with this VH when a mate who’d stripped it down ready for an LS couldn’t see the project through. “I had an SL/E on my Ps, and…

THE IDEA WAS TO BUILD A CAR A NOVICE WITH A GIVE-IT-A-CRACK CAN DO MANY of you would be familiar with Steve Sines and his legendary HZ Kingswood, KINGER (SM, May ’12), which has evolved over the years from a cool cruiser to an all-out blown and injected skid monster. But a few years ago, the Sines clan made the decision to retire KINGER from skid duties, so they were keen to get stuck into a new project. This impeccably presented, LS2-powered HJ ute is the result. From the outset, Steve was keen to get his 14-year-old daughter Lacey heavily involved, especially in deciding the overall look of car, and she jumped at the chance. “The colour was always going to be the same as KINGER – custom Lacey Pink,”…

SOME ARE STILL HARD AT WORK AS TRADIE RIGS, FARM UTES, OR WELL-WORN DAILIES. OTHERS PROUDLY SHOWCASE GLEAMING PAINT, CHROME AND COUNTLESS HOURS IN THE SHED ON THE last Saturday of May, the twin Victorian/NSW border towns of Echuca and Moama roared to life with the largest gathering of Holden’s iconic WB ute we’ve ever seen! One of the country’s most distinctive car events, the annual UteZ WB Run began as a casual idea shared around a campfire, but it has grown from a modest 30-odd vehicles just a few years ago to an impressive 156 WBs lining up in 2025, creating a sight that stops locals and travellers alike in their tracks. The range of vehicles on display is as diverse as the owners behind them. Some are still…

DARREN Fosberg’s red-and-cream Chevrolet dream began rather inauspiciously in a fish-and-chips shop one Friday night in 2015. Flicking through a copy of Unique Cars magazine while waiting for his order, a choice classified ad caught Darren’s eye. “I’d always liked the ’55 two-door post, and this one jumped out at me when I spotted it in the mag,” he says. “I thought about it all the way home and mentioned it to my then-wife Donna over dinner. ‘Life is too short,’ she said. ‘Why don’t you buy it?’ Short story: I bought it!” After changing a few small things on his new acquisition, Darren spent the next five years adding plenty of kilometres to the Chev’s odometer, and it was a regular at many Sydney car meets. However, Darren being…

RESTORATIVE ADAM ZAHNOW VH COMMODORE SL/E “MY VH SL/E Commodore is a genuine Shadowtone car in Rhone Green over Mercury Silver. It’s been getting a nut-and-bolt resto, but it has snowballed, with expenses blowing out and me having to making sacrifices in life for that extra part here or that incoming invoice there. The engine is a built Holden 304 that uses a VS Series II block, grout-filled to the Welch plugs. It includes a COME 383 stroker kit; four-bolt mains; Torque-Power dual-plane manifold; Mopar 440 oil pump; oiling mods; bronze lifter bores; 6.5L sump; extensively ported VN heads; ceramic-coated headers; ICE ignition system; annular-booster 820cfm carb; a large hydraulic-roller cam; roller rockers; and all the fruit to go with it. That’s backed by a TH350 auto and a VL…

WITH 130,000 punters, 2800 entrants and $46.6 million injected into the local economy, Street Machine Summernats 37 was a record-setting year for the event. And with Summernats 38 looking to be just as massive, the team has been working hard to ensure that everyone gets an improved experience. Guided by feedback from spectators, entrants and sponsors, the team has come up with some spectacular plans for 2026, including a literal red carpet access gate for entrants. Check ’em out! OVERPASSES! ONE of the hot topics in the Summernats Community Facebook Group has been the prospect of installing Supercars-style overpasses around the cruise route to allow both vehicle and spectator movement to flow more freely. Well, overpasses will now be a reality for 2026! That has to be a win for…

CHRYSLER Australia always took its go-fast Valiants down a different path to the Ford and GM-H muscle machinery of the time. This endeared them to a fiercely loyal fanbase whose passion for Mother Mopar still burns bright today. South Australia’s Aidan Karaivanoff is one such devotee, and his stunning VH Charger represents a two-decade journey from a neglected, forlorn wreck to an award-winning, 707hp stunner. And it’s all thanks to a poster. “I bought this VH 770 for $4000 off my friend Ricky in 2005 during my final year of high school,” Aidan recalls. “It was paddock-spec: a half-black, half-white rust bucket with holes riddled through the floorpan. I put three months’ rego on it and took it out driving a fair few times with friends, and I loved it,…

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AFTER popping my Mud Run cherry back in 2014, a revisit to the filthy field of dreams was long overdue. I’d spent each of the ensuing years watching the action via social media, staring longingly at the screen like a pre-internet kid at the window on a rainy school holiday. This year, I felt the mud calling me back. The road trip from Brisbane down to Gloucester, NSW for the 2025 Mud Run was my version of a drag-and-drive adventure, with the straight-line action replaced by paddock-bashing in mud. My better half, Kylie, along with her daughter Bella, were joining me for the trip, and so with the trusty Morals’ Valiant loaded full of warm and tools I hoped not to need, we jammed the tank full of 98 and…

WHEN Cleetus McFarland throws a party, fellow YouTubers and fans alike show up in droves. Cleetus’s New England 900 is a 90-lap race at Stafford Speedway in Connecticut, featuring Cleet and four of his onscreen buddies, 13 drivers from other YouTube channels, and a couple of bona fide NASCAR drivers in the form of Greg Biffle and Ryan Preece. Their race cars of choice? Identical Ford Crown Victorias, each fitted with a basic rollcage and window net, as well as a small nitrous kit (around 40hp worth) that the drivers use as a push-to-pass, with a yellow light on the boot letting spectators know when drivers are on the spray. The racing was wild at the 2025 running of the event. Drivers pushed their Nitto street tyres well beyond their…

SYDNEY’S Hot Rod & Custom Auto Expo has consistently been one of the country’s top car shows, and the 2025 edition was another cracker. Rosehill Racecourse once again played host to the two-day event, offering up a veritable melting pot of the city’s car culture, from elite street machines to hot rods, trucks and bikes. As always, the highlight for us was the Andy Colalillo-curated collection of vintage rods, customs and gassers dubbed Nostalgia Lane. Special guests this year included Shige Suganuma and the team from Mooneyes Japan, as well as Trixie Roth and family.…

HIDDEN in the Tablelands region of Far North Queensland, not far from Springmount Raceway, backyard builder Ronald ‘Tewesy’ Tewes is fabricating a machine that really can only be identified by the name he has given it: the Deutzenbarge. If the shape of the Deutzenbarge is one you can’t quite place, we’ll save you the brain-ache of trying to figure it out, as you won’t have seen it before. You see, despite its decidedly 1930s appearance, the Deutzenbarge is not a make or model of anything. Tewesy is building the chassis and body structure out of raw materials to create his vision of something wild and different. And it’ll be encasing an air-cooled, 19.1-litre Deutz V12 diesel engine that puts out 1000Nm (737lb-ft) of torque! One might expect such a creation…

To have your product featured here, call Kim Simonsen on 0439 422 285 or email kim.simonsen@streetmachine.com.au. 01 THE LOW ROAD YOU’LL likely know of Pulsar Turbo Systems for its magnificent range of turbos, but the company also offers plenty of other boost-ready components, including the new PSR LS low-ram intake manifold. Designed for GM LS Gen III and some Gen IV engines fitted with the early cathedral-port heads, this low-ram intake has a 102mm throttlebody opening to suit either drive-by-wire or traditional throttle-cable set-ups. The low design also allows for the use of a water-to-air intercooler, and PSR is developing its own ’cooler for just this purpose, which will be available soon. The manifolds also come with two sets of fuel rail brackets, allowing for short or long injectors to…

WE HAVE featured plenty of Chev V8-powered HR Holdens in the pages of Street Machine over the decades. In fact, John Vergotis’s 327-equipped HR sedan scored a feature in our second-ever issue (Oct-Nov ’81). There have been some rippers since then, but only a select few come close to the way Jim Georgalas’s ute combines raw toughness with elite fit and finish and strict street legality. Yep, despite the angry small-block under the bonnet and massive rubber out the back, Jim’s HR has passed the full tranche of VicRoads engineering hurdles, including full track and noise testing. Jim’s relationship with the HR model dates from far humbler beginnings. “I only ever remember my old man driving HRs when we were kids,” he recalls. “My first car was an HR, and…

WITH its fire-breathing, 937hp, 598ci Jon Kaase big-block wedged between its shock towers, retina-searing paint and massive rear meats, Simon Madigan’s Yellow Glow XY practically set the pages of Street Machine alight when we featured it in the February 2014 issue. The weapons-grade Falcon also wowed punters at Meguiar’s MotorEx, the Extreme Auto Expo in Adelaide, and the Sydney Hot Rod & Custom Auto Expo, among other top shows. SIMON ALREADY HAD A PLAN IN MIND FOR THE XA: “I THOUGHT TO MYSELF, ‘WHY AIM FOR EIGHTS WHEN I COULD RUN FIVES?’” When building that XY, Simon was already very well versed on the go side of things, having been around the Aussie and US drag racing scene since the age of eight. However, he credits his good mate Chad…

SOME people really spit the dummy over GT mock-ups, as though someone turning their car into a tribute to a beloved classic that would otherwise be out of their reach is some kind of personal slight. But Aaron Apps seems to revel in the purists’ scorn – when he bought the GTHO tribute you see on these pages, he stipulated that the FAKER plates had to come with it! While it’s been quite a while since he’s piloted something this cool, this XY isn’t Aaron’s first foray into the wonderful world of modified cars. “My first car was a two-door LJ that I bought when I was 15, and I had an XW ute that I drove on my Ls while I did up the Torana with my old man,”…

JUNE is always a massive month for the South East Queensland car scene, with the Gulf Western Oils Winternationals, Downunder Beachfest and Cooly Rocks On all happening within a couple of weeks. Rain put something of a dampener on Beachfest at Caloundra this year, but Cooly Rocks On was treated to perfect weather all weekend. Cooly’s organisers have made tweaks and additions to the formula over the years, and for 2025, they added an 80s zone (for cars manufactured between 1980 and 1985) to the show ’n’ shine, which caused some consternation among traditionalists on social media. On the other hand, keeping any nostalgic event ‘authentic’ is hard yakka, unless you go to the extremes demanded of entrants and spectators for events like The Race of Gentlemen. And from the…

WE ROLLED INTO THE VAN NATIONALS TO FIND OVER 200 VANS CAMPED UP, WITH SAANDEE MAKING IT FOUR MINT JULEP HX SANDMANS ON SITE AFTER a test run to Red CentreNATS last year, Darwin lad Brad Stott had the itch for a serious road trip in his genuine HX Sandman, otherwise known as Saandee. So this year, he set out solo for five weeks, covering 14,000km. Here’s his story. SAANDEE had spent 10 years collecting dust in a shed up in Humpty Doo when I got her. The 355 was done, the trans was toast, and there were dodgy backyard fixes everywhere. I called them ‘sins of the previous owners’. Lucky for me, I had a stash of parts and half a brain to work with. The auto got ditched…

UNAPOLOGETICALLY bright pink, Shenade Austin’s LS-powered 1987 VL Calais has the shove to match its presence. Shenade spent her childhood perusing car shows, but her conversion to full revhead came after being introduced to Summernats as a 16-year-old. How did you come to own your VL? My hubby Ryan and I were headed home from Powercruise in 2017 when I decided I wanted a VL Calais, so I found one on Marketplace shortly after. It was a swap deal – the first I’d done – as I changed out my running and registered VZ Commodore sedan for the Calais project. What condition was it in then? It was light blue with a girl in a bikini airbrushed on the bonnet, and had no interior. There was a home-built RB30 with…

WANT your pride and joy featured in the mag? Just send some photos of your car (minimum file size 2MB each) and a few details of what went into the build to readerscars@streetmachine.com.au. JOHN & DEBBIE BRIDGE 1933 FORD COUPE “TO MAKE our ’33 Ford, we ordered a composite body from C&W Components and chopped it 5½in. The front of the body is channelled 1in at the firewall and is slightly kicked up at the rear with a custom curved spreader bar. It has laid-back A-pillars, a fully functional wind-out windscreen, and a steel cowl vent. I’ve had the vintage 427ci FE Ford engine sitting aside for some years, waiting for the right car to use it in – and this is that car! It has Edelbrock alloy heads, a…