Indholdsfortegnelse for October 2017 i Street Machine

THE irony is not lost on us that Norm Hardinge – the man best known for supplying radiators through his Aussie Desert Cooler business – has gone and set a Bonneville land speed record in a car that doesn’t have a radiator! Yes, we do know they still have oil coolers, but it’s still pretty funny. The car Norm drove into the record books was the Karmann Ghia of Chris Mursick, a bloke out of Okanogan, Washington that Norm met at this year’s DLRA Speed Week at Lake Gairdner. Chris was part of the team that included Keith Turk and Hot Rod’s Dave Freiburger, who brought along three Camaros to race on the Aussie salt. Norm and Chris hit it off and formed an instant friendship. At this point you…

ORGAN DRIVE READING about Peter Illingworth (People Like Us, SM, Sep ’17) was uncanny. I have Type 2 diabetes and a burnout car called Organ Donor! Maybe we were separated at birth? We’ve done all right with the car: first and second at Kandos, Top 10 there every year entered, so we have a little…notoriety, shall we say! I want to promote organ donation and was thinking a bilateral promotion would work best. I searched for Peter on Facebook, but alas, couldn’t find him. If you could forward my details to him, or pass his to me that would be unreal. Sean Harvey, email TAKING ISSUE I HATE to be that whinging guy that has an issue about every issue, but… First off, I understand that the times have changed…

GENUINE seven-second street cars are few and far between, and while Adam Rogash’s positively stunning ALLSHOW VK Blue Meanie replica is yet to dip into the sevens, we feel very confident in saying that it’s only a matter of time. Allow us to explain. Adam is one of just three members of Street Machine’s exclusive Seven-Second Club, and his previous ride, a VX ClubSport known as NOSHOW, is a multiple Drag Challenge class winner. It has finished the event twice, four-up, towing a trailer full of parts and tools, with hardly a spanner being put to it for the full five-day duration. It also happens to have a PB of 7.80@178mph to its credit. If that doesn’t fit your definition of a seven-second street car, then I guess we’ll have…

THE MORE-DOOR HAS NO PROBLEMS WITH ITS POWER-TO-WEIGHT RATIO THANKS TO A 725RWHP 408CI LS UP FRONT A TUBBED tri-five Chevy is just about as iconic an image in street machining as you can find, and this ’56 sedan encapsulates everything awesome about tough street cars. Sydney’s Anthony Penna spent over six years building this twin-turbocharged, trophy-taking monster, although it all started by accident. “I had just sold my drag car and my ’bagged LS1 ’61 Cadillac and I was looking for a new project so I could have the best of both worlds in one,” Anthony says. “I was on the way to have lunch with my wife when I noticed the Chev parked on a footpath, so I turned around, did the deal and bought it. It was…

SURPRISINGLY THE DRIVETRAIN CONVERSION WAS THE EASIEST PART OF THE PROJECT; IT PRETTY MUCH SLOTTED STRAIGHT IN THE ABILITY to think logically can be a godsend when planning a project. Take Canberra’s Kosta Contis, for example. When looking for something different to power his CL Valiant ute, he simply turned to a couple of toy Mopars that were sitting on his shelf. “The models were a Dodge Charger and Dodge Challenger, both fitted with V10 Viper engines, and as they’re built to scale, I figured if a 1:25-scale V10 fitted into a 1:25 model engine bay, then a real one should fit in my ute,” he explains. Of course, Kosta’s experience with cars had forewarned him to the likely reality of engine mount, sump, steering and exhaust issues. But,…

EACH YEAR TODD WOULD ASK WHEN IT WOULD BE READY AND EACH YEAR THEY WOULD SAY, ‘CHRISTMAS’ – THEY JUST NEVER SAID WHICH ONE! AFTER a 15-year build process, Todd Bulkeley is justifiably proud of how his impeccably presented Datsun 1600 coupe has turned out. But ‘proud’ wasn’t exactly the word that came to mind when he first took ownership of the car. “I spotted it on the Ozdat forum and imported it out of Japan,” Todd says. “The photos weren’t great, but the guy told me it was immaculate. It arrived in my driveway on my birthday – and it was horrible. It looked like it’d been dragged behind the boat the whole way – rust, rust, rust. I was totally gutted.” Todd was told it had been driven…

ETHANOL-blended fuels like E85 have become the hot ticket for those with boosted engines looking for an easy way to make up to 25 per cent more power without having to resort to drum-based racing fuels or full-blown methanol. However, the lack of availability outside metro areas and the high consumption rate for engines tuned to run on it often makes punters unwilling to set their cars up to run solely on the ‘corn syrup’. Thankfully, there is a solution for EFI engines, with several companies offering modules called ‘flex-fuel’ sensors that can be plumbed into the fuel system. These sensors read the ethanol content in the fuel as a percentage and tell the ECU, which adjusts the tune map accordingly. So you can fill your tank with E85 before…

REGARDLESS of the roads we travel, we all now live in fear of copping that dreaded speeding fine. Our modern-day awareness of the presence of speed cameras does tend to keep our road behaviour in check, so in that way they are having a positive effect. But the actual application and positioning of these units grinds my gears. Back in the old days (I’m old enough to say that now) you had at least some chance to legitimately explain your actions or try and bullshit your way out of a ticket – hey, it’d be un-Australian not to try – by pleading your case to the copper holding the radar gun. But nowadays these cameras can ping you and you won’t even know about it until you receive a letter…

PATRICK STAPLETON XG FALCON UTE “MY ORIGINAL plan with my Falcon ute was to build it as a burnout car, before the decision was made to go the whole way and present it as a good all-round street machine. Body and paint were done by myself in the shed at home, along with custom interior and styling that goes with piecing it all together. I made the choice to max out a small-block Ford, with a 9.5-inch-deck Dart Iron Eagle block, Callies crankshaft, Oliver rods, Diamond pistons and CHI Kaase C400 heads. This ended up making 851hp on Advanced Engine Performance’s engine dyno. An ATI converter and Reactor billet aluminium flexplate feed the two-speed Powerglide transmission through a ’moly tube tailshaft to a Strange alloy centre, which is full spool…

MANY folks – including me – were scratching their heads when the news dropped that the next car for our Carnage video series wouldbe a Mazda MX-5. Known as a Miata in the US and Japan, the MX-5 is – rightly or wrongly – widely derided as a hairdresser’s car. And while it is true that they do handle a set of corners with aplomb, it is also the case that they are seriously lacking in horsepower. Nevertheless, our Scotty had a vision of an MX-5 fitted with the ubiquitous LS1 V8, assisted by a pair of large turbochargers poking through the bonnet and balanced visually by a tubbed rear end capable of holding a set of 275 radials. The source of this inspiration? The idea of building something really…

23 SEP, ADELAIDE, SA Concours d’Lemons Down Under, Edwards Park. Visit facebook.com/ ConcoursdLemonsDownUnder. 23-24 SEP, ALBANY, WA GSSMA Triple M Albany Show & Shine, Albany. Visit gssma.com.au/show-n-shine. 24 SEP, HALL, ACT ACT Holden Day, Hall Showground. Visit facebook.com/actallholdenday. 24 SEP, HUNTER VALLEY, NSW 2017 Spring Cruiz-In, Gardens Village. Visit hvg.com.au. 29 SEP-02 OCT, TEMORA, NSW Regency Ramblers A Country Weekend In Temora. Visit regencyramblers.com.au. 01 OCT, FORBES, NSW Forbes Motorshow, South Circle Drive. Visit forbesmotorshow.com.au. 01 OCT, NOOSA HEADS, QLD Noosa Beach Classic Car Show, Lions Park. Visit noosacarclub.com.au. 06-08 OCT, MANILLA, NSW The Moonshine Rumble, Manilla Showground. Contact Steve on 0408 667 580. 13-15 OCT, NAROOMA, NSW 18th Early Falcon Nationals. Search ‘18th Early Falcon Nationals’ on Facebook. 14-15 OCT, ADELAIDE SUBURBS, SA HK-T-G Owners Club SA Big October…

IN THIS second instalment of our Snap Shots on Adam Shears, we learn how his ardent passion for the Holden V8 has evolved, and meet a couple of mates who have inspired him along the way. Age may have matured Adam’s tastes and slightly improved the quality of the finish of his cars and bikes, but thankfully it’s left his personality well enough alone. You can be sure there has been plenty of mischief associated with each of these rides. 01: ADAM bought this Windsor-powered XY Fairmont wagon while living in the Northern Territory. “The ‘every-car-needs-a-genre’ crowd would call it a barn find, but to me it was just an old piece of shit,” he laughs. “I paid $200 for it, then bought a big can of white jam [that’s…

ETERNAL FLAME I AM writing to you on behalf of my husband Jeremy Neuman, who had a two-page spread in SM some years ago with a very cool LH Torana. Like so many of your readers, he’s a car nut and would go to every show – Easternats, Springnats, Summernats – and the car was among some of the big names in the burnout scene. The LH had a unique whistle – it sounded like a jet engine – and it was pink (“Wild Plum”, if anyone asked Jeremy), so it really was hard to miss. But, as we all know, when playing with cars with this much horsepower things can go wrong, and the LH had an electrical fault and burnt to the ground. This was a really hard…

I WASN’T HAPPY WITH SOME THINGS, AND THERE WERE NEW CARS COMING OUT AND I GOT SOME NEW IDEAS, SO WE ENDED UP REDOING EVERYTHING BEING surrounded by a family that’s passionate about modifying old cars sure makes it a lot easier when you’re a young bloke looking to build a show-quality street machine. If it so happens you have a couple of uncles that work in the panel and paint trade, then you’ve hit the jackpot. Adam Agius is just 28 years old, but his XR Fairmont has been a labour of love for over six years, so he got bitten by the old-school street machine bug at a pretty young age. “The XR was a clean, registered weekend cruiser when I bought her,” Adam says. “The plan…

THE PAINT WAS TOAST AND THE INTERIOR WAS SHOT, PURELY DUE TO THE RAVAGES OF TIME, BUT WE MANAGED TO GET THE OLD 308 FIRED UP IT’S EASY to forget that, just like you and me, the majority of level-one drag racers cut their teeth tinkering with street cars. It makes sense when you think about it, but the glitz and spectacle of professional drag racing feels like a world away from hoicking out your 186 donk using the Hills Hoist. Camaro Doorslammer racer Stuart Bishop has been there, done that, and although the racing stakes are higher nowadays, he still hankers to build and own tough streeters. “I started out paddock-bashing as a kid and worked my way up to a nitrous-fed 360-powered CL Valiant ute that I raced…

YEP, you’ve almost certainly seen this gorgeous LJ Torana GTR XU-1 tribute before. It’s been doing the rounds for about five years now, and we featured it back in our May 2013 issue bearing the number plates CRAZY6. Those plates might be the only outward change since then, but beneath the skin, Clint Kelly’s Torry is now a whole different breed of beast. He’s managed to marmalade one of those new fandangled LS engines into the stunning little coupe, and he’s done such a ripper job of it that we figured the car was worth a second look. For those who might have missed it the last time it was featured, the car was running a nutso little Holden six with a J.ZED head and a trio of 45mm…

TRISTAN SOON HAD A HANKERING TO GIVE THE XD HIS OWN PERSONAL TOUCH, ALONG THE LINES OF A TOUGHER ENGINE, UPGRADED DRIVELINE, BIG AUDIO AND RE-TRIMMED BOOT EVER since spying a tough XD at Summernats as a 15-year-old teenager, Tristan Wright has always had a soft spot for the model that took the Aussie Falcon into the 1980s. “They’re my dream car,” he says. “I love the shape.” Early on Tristan satisfied his XD passion with a good-nick 351 Clevo-powered example. However, as often happens, life got in the way and his beloved XD got moved on. Fast-forward to 2015. While a show-quality blown BF GT and a few nice 4x4s had graced his garage, the now 35-year-old Tristan was still just as passionate about the squared-edged Falcon. As fate…

WHEN it comes to turbos, Jeremy Cullen is what the geeks call an early adopter. He’s been running a turbo six for 20 years on his genuine LC GTR, although it was initially a pretty low-tech affair utilising a draw-through carby set-up. “I’ve had the LC since I first got my licence; it’s my first car,” Jeremy says. “I decided to go EFI and started building a new engine. That was sort of dragging on a bit and halfway through building the engine I thought I’d give the car a bit of a birthday as well. I stripped it back to nothing and started again with it. The turbo and intake manifolds were done at Moolap Mufflers, but the pipework from the turbo to the manifolds I did myself.” Jeremy’s…

MY HG Premier station wagon was built in November of 1970 at the Holden assembly plant in Elizabeth, South Australia. I bought the car off a friend in April 2016 while still a learner driver. At the time I had the intention of leaving it as it was, with a 253ci V8, reverse-cowl bonnet and Center Line wheels. It was a factory 186/Trimatic car, and as much as I loved how it looked, I eventually – with some persuasion from Dad – decided to go for the original look and take out the old, tired 253 and put the original 186 back in. The car itself was in very good condition and had been well looked after, with minimal rust, and good paint and interior as well. While the engine…

THE Dandy Engines XW is back on track, and owner Frank Marchese has resumed his pursuit of a six-second pass at 200mph. The previous combo certainly had the potential to get the job done, with an identical package having run 7.08 in Steve Bezzina’s blue XW GT (both cars appeared in SM, Oct ’15). Unfortunately, Frank’s hand was forced a little when, as he puts it: “The aluminium engine block broke into 10 million pieces, so I’ve been off the scene for a year or so.” After reassembling the package, the Dandy crew took the car to the Jamboree up at Willowbank in Queensland and ran a half-track PB that matched Steve’s 7.08 pass. “But we didn’t run it out the back door,” Frank explains. “These cars make 40-43mph in…

BREAKDOWN VEHICLES: 1965 AP6 Valiant, 1970 VG Valiant, 1966 VC Valiant utility, 1965 XP Falcon utility, 1982 VH Commodore, 1970 HT Holden, 1971 LC Torana, 1974 Toyota Corona, 1972 HQ Holden one-tonner, 1960 Volkswagen Beetle, 1965 XP Falcon coupe, Yamaha motorcycle STARS: Rod Zuanic, Steve Bisley, Tracy Mann, Christopher Truswell, Toni Allaylis, Peter Hehir, Denis Moore, Julie McGregor, Peter Collingwood, Ron Hackett DIRECTOR: Ken Cameron ACTION: An AP6 Valiant has its slant donk pushed to the edge as it tries to outrun the local fuzz in their VH Commodores. Some great street scenery with plenty of now-classics in their natural environment PLOT: A troubled yet bright teenager navigates growing pains as he struggles to survive in the tough western suburbs of Sydney in the 1980s AVAILABLE: YouTube AUSSIEcomedy/drama Fast Talking…

SHORT SHRIFT THE MOST powerful team owner in Australian drag racing, Santo Rapisarda of Rapisarda Autosport International, recently delivered an ultimatum to local tracks Sydney Dragway and Willowbank Raceway demanding the end of quarter-mile Top Fuel racing in Australia and the implementation of the 1000ft race distance adopted by the NHRA due to safety concerns. The Street Machine Facebook page was running hot with your responses. Chris Wallin – Sounds like he’s having a sook! Nik Young – 1000ft is 320ft short of a real drag race. Scotty Mac – I hate the thought of the traditional quarter-mile racing going, but they do have a valid point. Adam Castle – How will 320ft change anything at the speed these cars do? Grant Meier – It’s a quarter-mile race; upgrade the…

NOBODY BATTED AN EYELID AS THE MISMATCHED BUT AWESOME CONVOY ROLLED DOWN THE SOUTHERN MOTORWAY THE CLEAR MAJORITY OF BURNOUT COMPETITORS AT CHROME WERE JUST REGULAR GUYS AND GIRLS CUTTING LOOSE IN THEIR STREET CARS OVER the past few years, Aussie rego rules have been slowly moving towards making it a bit easier to keep your cool modified car on the road. But if the convoy of awesome rides heading south from Auckland to Hampton Downs for this year’s Chrome Expression Session was any indication, it seems that New Zealand is still way ahead in fighting the good fight for petrolhead freedom. We spotted everything from big-tyre Camaros and Mustangs with sidepipes and engines hanging through the bonnet, to hacked-up and cable-tied-together drift cars that would be taken off…

THERE’S NO GLAM AND NO TRENDS, JUST A COMMITTED GROUP OF RODDERS WHO’LL GENUINELY RACE UNTIL THEIR WHEELS FALL OFF FOR over 60 years, the Movie Manor has put on drive-in movies for the township of Monte Vista, nestled in mountainous Rio Grande County, Colorado. But for even longer, the sound of engines has reverberated across the adjacent dirt airstrip. First carved out in 1931, this strip primarily saw action as an auxiliary airfield during the Second World War, but has remained in use for most of its 86-year life. But when the Hot Rod Dirt Drags come to town, it sees action of a very different kind. Mike Nicholas and the Nick’s Garage crew are the heartbeat of the Colorado hot rod scene, and their penchant for preserving…

IF CRAIG Kilgallon did not believe in fate six years ago, he does now. Back then he was browsing around for something to replace his recently sold VS 5.0L ute and kept coming across this bright yellow HQ online. “I was on the hunt for a late-model V8 Commodore, but the mundane cars on the market had to have too much spent on them to bring them up to what I’d be happy with,” he says. “So I broadened my search and started looking at old-school cars.” Craig had seen the HQ in the metal previously, and was left suitably impressed. It was a gem of a hay-hauler, but its previous owner was looking to move it on. “I think it was fate because I remember seeing the ute years…

ENGINE Brand: Holden 202 Induction: Custom EFI intake manifold, Proflow throttlebody Turbo: Garrett GTX42, 50mm watstegate Heads: Yella Terra alloy 12-port, CNC-ported Cam: Solid-roller (252/242@.050 duration, .396/.386in lift, 114 lobe separation) Pistons: SRP Crank: Black motor, nitrided and balanced Conrods: H-beam Exhaust: 3.5in Ignition: EFI Hardware crank and cam trigger, six Bosch coils ECU: Microtech LT16C TRANSMISSION ’Box: Fully manualised Trimatic, transbrake Converter: 3500rpm Dominator Diff: 9in, 3.5 gears, Truetrac, 31-spline THANKS John & Chris at Spencer Race Engines; Strop at Moolap Mufflers; Craig Dyson; Barry Adams for the transmission; A1 Automotive for the tailshaft; Paul Hodges & Sean Cole at Autoshape Restorations; Garrick Neivandt for the trim; Lachie Mahar for stripping down the engine CRAIG DYSON RECOMMENDED THE GTX42 AND SAID I’D BE ABLE TO MAKE AS MUCH POWER…

THE Sainty team have been testing a brand-new billet block on their Top Fuel engine. The mill, made entirely in-house at their workshop in Western Sydney, has until now utilised a three-piece block, simply because of the unavailability of a big-enough billet. But the recent Darwin Top Fuel meet saw them test one of the single-piece full billet blocks, and the team had a killer weekend. “We did have a catastrophic engine failure on Friday,” Terry Sainty said. “We believe one of the gears on the quad-cam drive failed and the engine fired at the wrong moment, which made a terrible mess of the bottom end. “We slipped a new motor in and ran a bunch of passes, our best being a 4.87 [on an early shut-off], which is close…

01 FUEL TO FIRE SPECIALISING in performance fuels and lubricants tailor-made for performance, racing and testing applications, ETS Racing Fuels has developed a range of go-juice for the drag racing market, aimed at the racer that demands only the best and most consistent fuel. Stocking both unleaded and leaded oxygenated fuels, ETS can deliver just the right drop for any given donk. For more information contact Speed Pro on (03) 9794 5177, or check them out at speedpro.com.au. 02 LSA THE WORLD BOUGHT an LSA crate engine and looking for all the hardware to get it up and humming? Look no further! Chevrolet Performance LSA engine controller kits include all the components required to run your Chevrolet Performance Parts crate motor. In amongst it is an engine harness, a mass…

NINETEEN-year-old Chloe Board is not only a qualified hairdresser, she’s also a killer driver – both on dirt and the blacktop. She’s just taken out the Four-Cylinder Sedan Track Championship at Cullen Bullen Raceway, while her V8-powered VK Commodore chucks ripper skids and on-point go-to-whoas, which has seen her bag some of the top spots at Kandos and Bathurst Autofest. When was your first burnout? Dad [Danny Board, whose VK one-tonner was featured in SM, Aug ’17] decided to revive a VK Commodore 134-pack for the 2014 Bathurst Autofest, and I was keen to have a go too. A few days out I asked Dad to show me how to do a burnout, so we headed to a tiny three-metre-long concrete slab between two poles and a gate in the…