Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2016 i Street Machine

OZ ROCKERS Airbourne are excitable types by nature, but they’re practically bursting out of their skins at the prospect of headlining the main stage at Summernats 30. “We’re bloody excited,” says the band’s guitarist David Roads. “I’ve always wanted to go. Hopefully we’ll get down there early enough to have a look ’round and enjoy the festivities ourselves.” Airbourne will play the main stage on Saturday night (7 January 2017), heading up an awesome Summernats 30 musical line-up that includes hip-hop sensation Drapht and indie rockers Thirsty Merc. With the band currently putting the finishing touches on their fourth album, the follow-up to 2013’s Black Dog Barking, Street Machine grabbed a little time with David to discuss what’s in store come January. How are you feeling about playing Summernats for…

IN THIS crazy, busy world of technological advancement and media saturation, it’s nice to remember a simpler time full of raw fun and unrestricted adventure. In the late 60s and early 70s Ian Lording was earning a crust as an apprentice panel beater, spending his teens and 20s chasing the perfect wave all over Australia with his mates. More than 40 years later, Ian still indulges his passion for surfing, skateboarding and panel vans. Here’s Part 1 of a two-part Snap Shots looking at some of Ian’s coolest car-related memories. 01: HERE’S Ian’s mates George Crilley (left) and Steve Barlow ready for a road trip back in ’68. “Their weapon of choice was this 1955 Austin Westminster sedan, locked and loaded with their Klemm-Bell boards, tentpoles and a Transistor Seven…

I WANT A VALIANT THAT IS THE FOUR-WHEELED VERSION OF MY BMW HP4 MOTORCYCLE. IT HAS TO HAVE THE PERFECT MIX OF BRAKING, HANDLING, LOOKS AND PERFORMANCE I’VE HAD an epiphany. Jason Behan’s Valiant – dubbed MINTVAL – is the first Australian Mopar to score the full metal jacket for elite-level fabrication and finish. I thought surely among the elite-build Monaros, Falcons, Yankee muscle and even Cortinas that have dropped jaws around Oz, there would be a humble Wog Chariot that had been gutted and refabricated from raw stock. But there hasn’t been, at least not to my knowledge, and I’m a Mopar fan to boot. Danny Makdessi’s VC, Brent Murray’s Dart tribute, the X Customs Charger and our own Arby’s WAR440 have all taken Aussie Valiants to the next…

THE TURBO WAS GOING TO HAPPEN NO MATTER WHAT. I FIGURE IT ADDS A YOUNG TOUCH TO AN OLD-STYLE VEHICLE JESSE Kalb has undoubtedly been touched by the revhead fairy. At 25, he’s already a master mechanic with a heap of personal builds under his belt, and he attributes it all to his metal-finisher dad, Siegfried ‘Siggy’ Kalb. “I’ve been helping my old man build cars since I could pretty much walk,” he says. “Dad’s always built and had custom cars, American cars and Monaros.” Jesse’s current build is this wild ’29 Ford Model A roadster pick-up. It’s powered by a monster-turboed big-block Chev – as if one of those factors in a short-chassis lightweight car wasn’t enough, he’s added both. And it’s regoed! “My dad wanted a hot rod,…

DARRIN’S DREAM WAS FOR A BLOWN HEMI, SO A BLACK ANODISED 8/71 WAS SLAPPED ON TOP THE 12-INCH-WIDE MICKEY THOMPSON RUBBER STANDS NO CHANCE WHEN DARRIN HITS THE GO PEDAL! IF YOU were to picture the ultimate street Mopar, surely it would look something like this. From its factory Jamaican Blue coat to the stroked and blown Hemi monster within, this mental Plymouth Barracuda is both serious and subtle at the same time. The ’71 ’Cuda in question belongs to Darrin Stokes. He had wanted to own one nearly all his life, and first set eyes on this example about 15 years ago when it was for sale locally. “I wanted it, but I didn’t have the cash at the time,” he says. “But I knew one day it…

WE TOOK 2½ INCHES OUT OF THE FIREWALL TO DROP THE GRILLE AND FRONT BUMPER DOWN SO IT LINES UP WITH THE ROCKER THIS is another one of those show-stopper cars from SEMA 2015 in Las Vegas, a show where to stand out from the crowd you really need to build something eye-catching, really tough or just plain clever. This ’55 Chev is all three of those things. It’s owned by Greg Heinrich, a man who owns four Chevy dealerships and wouldn’t go near a Ford even if it had a Chevy engine in it. Greg’s first dealership is called Fairway Chevrolet, so the back-story of the car is a bit of a ‘what if’: What if Fairway Chevrolet built a supercharged car back in 1955, a bit like…

SHAUN SCERRI 1973 HOLDEN HQ GTS MONARO “THE build on my HQ took about four years. It started life with a 253 and four-speed combo, but that got boring real quick. The power wasn’t there, and I wanted to drag race. So the diff centre and housing were the first things to get sorted, and from there, installing the rollcage was the kick-off for a rebuild, including a full fuel system and trans swap. The new engine is a blown 400-cube small-block Chev with a Dart rotating assembly, solid-roller cam, AFR heads, and an 8/71 Blower Shop blower with two 750cfm E85 carbs. The full-manual three-speed Turbo 400 trans handles the 900hp with ease, but the 8.5-inch Center Line rims hate it! Both the engine and trans were sorted by…

THE third annual Hot Rod & Custom Auto Expo attracted 11,300 spectators and 179 entrants to Rosehill Racecourse in mid-May. That’s almost twice the punters of the 2015 event, and organisers Andy and Donna Minas couldn’t be happier. The weekend-long event was billed as a ‘back to basics’ car show – Andy says he’s trying to avoid the higher-end, MotorEx kind of vibe – attracting more of the type of cars that can be, and are, driven. “Not everyone can afford an elite-level car” he reasons. “We’ve already got entrants booking in for the 2017 show.” This year’s show boasted celebrity guests, including Chip Foose, who spent the weekend giving demonstrations at the 3M stand, signing autographs and picking the five vehicles he’d most like to jump in and drive…

DEZ Knight, proprietor of Knight’s Garage in Orange, NSW, has come a long way in such a short time – he’s not even 36! The first super-elite machine he worked on was good mate Mick Fabar’s 1933 Ford, RAWR. After they decided to fine-tune the already-stunning ride, the cutting-edge hot rod came back better than ever in 2011 to take out the prestigious MotorEx Best of Breed Hot Rod award. Not content to rest on his laurels, Dez then went on to be involved in back-to-back Street Machine Of The Year winners, back-to-back Summernats Grand Champions, as well as three ’Nats People’s Choice winners – including the latest stunner to roll out of his workshop, Grant Connor’s Bad Apple (see page 34 for full feature). The badarse XR Falcon took…

BUDGET-BUILT STREETER STREET Machine reader (and Your Stuff doyen) Redmond reckons you can build a neat street machine for under $10,000, and to prove it, he wrote a yarn for us (SM, May ’16) on his budget-built 308-powered VK Group 3 replica. What do you reckon – can you build a hot streeter for under 10 grand? Peter Clifford – Bought my Valiant ute for $10K already completed, with a 265 and four-speed; there’s bargains out there. Ryan Ingram – My ZH owes me about $7K. It’s a matching-numbers 351 with 150K on the clock. I added a carby, manifold, heads and exhaust, lowered it and added new wheels. Lee Hill – It can be done. I built my mate David Fritz’s XA to help him out as he was…

THE FACT THAT WE BUILT OUR OWN BENT-EIGHT SHOULD TUG AT THE HEARTSTRINGS OF EVERY PATRIOTIC AUSSIE SINCE its public release in 1969, the Holden V8 has held a special place in the hearts of most Australians. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Ford fanatic or a Mopar maniac; the fact that we built our own bent-eight should tug at the heartstrings of every patriotic Aussie. It’s a pretty decent donk too, when you think about it. There are guys out there making in excess of 1500hp and running high sevens with off-the-assembly-line factory Holden blocks. You couldn’t say the same for many other small-block V8s. Unfortunately there’s no denying the popularity of the Holden V8 is on the wane, and without a doubt this is due to the easy…

SPRINGMOUNT HAS A TOP-NOTCH QUARTER-MILE TRACK AND A DEDICATED BURNOUT PAD, AND THE NORTHERN NATS WAS ITS FIRST BIG HIT-OUT IT ISN’T always easy being a street machiner up in Far North Queensland – particularly at the moment. The downturn in the mining sector has really knocked around the economy up that way and a lot of folks are doing it tough, leaving little spare cash for automotive fun. The big distances between tracks and the scarcity of events is also a problem, while the attitude of officialdom towards motorsport varies significantly from place to place. Savannah Dragway in Townsville closed in 2012, leaving only Palmyra in Mackay to wave the flag for drag racing in the northern half of the state. Happily though, things took a dramatic turn for…

I GAVE THE OWNER A COMMITMENT THAT I WOULDN’T MODIFY THE CAR IN ANY WAY. SORRY! WHEN Queenslander Gavan Starr-Thomas bought a ’62 Willys Jeep wagon, he had no intentions of turning it into the wild art deco-inspired custom you see here. In fact, he was forbidden from touching it. “I gave the owner a commitment that I wouldn’t modify the car in any way, as at that time I had no reason to think otherwise. Sorry!” Sure, he may not have kept his promise, but only the most rigid purist could fail to be impressed by the two-door wagon’s transformation. Instead of building something really in-your-face, Gavan has turned the car, dubbed Swell, into a classy art deco custom thanks to the lowered roof height and new 1930s front…

IT’S HARD to talk about American car magazines without the name Robert Petersen popping up. The publishing titan instigated much of the US automotive media landscape we know today – iconic mastheads like Hot Rod, Rod & Custom, Car Craft and Motor Trend. While Petersen Publishing has been bought and sold and traded since it began in the late 1940s, the name remains a cornerstone of Southern Californian automotive culture. Located on the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles, The Petersen Museum was first established in 1994 to celebrate Petersen’s passion for automobiles and motorsport and help spread the fire via carefully curated exhibitions. For two decades, it was a must-see for both locals and travellers and boasted over 300 rare, unique and important vehicles in…

01 BIG AIR THE Edelbrock Performer RPM LS3 intake manifold is designed for use with Gen IV LS engines equipped with LS3, L92 and L76 rectangular-port cylinder heads. It’s ideal for anyone looking to build a carburetted LS2 or LS3 street engine. It features a high-rise dual-plane design combined with a plenum that has been optimised for square-bore carburettors. In testing, the Edelbrock Performer RPM LS3 produced 519hp and 457ft-lb on an LS2 short block equipped with LS3 heads. For more info visit: www.apd.on.net. 02 PLUGGED IN AS ONE of the largest OEM parts suppliers, Denso is an industry leader in sparkplug technology, innovation, development and performance. Denso offers a complete range of sparkplugs, including Iridium Power, Nickel TT, Iridium TT, Iridium Racing and standard. To find a suitable plug…

I WAS READY TO FORGET ABOUT BUILDING A BIG FANCY SHOW CAR, BUT SCOTT WAS HELLBENT ON BUILDING THE BEST CAR IN OZ MANY show cars from years gone by have turned sour, corroded by time, poor treatment and neglect. But the Holden WB ute of father and son John and Scott McLachlan isn’t one of them; this car still looks as good as it did when it was featured in SM, Apr/May ’89. Having sat in a shed under a tarp for most of the past 20 years – registered, insured but rarely driven – it’s a perfectly preserved time capsule of late-80s street machining. The ute was purchased in 1984 from the Holden dealer in Portland, Victoria, near the McLachlan family home in Heywood. At the time son…

18 JUNE, STAWELL, VIC Stawell’s $5K Burnout Comp, Stawell Motorsports Club. Contact Ben 0438 043 132. 18 JUNE, EASTERN CREEK, NSW Motortainment Car Show with Hi-Tec Drift Allstars, Sydney Motorsport Park. Visit www.motortainment.com.au. 18 JUNE, CARRARA, QLD Car Mad Community Showdown #2, Alabaster Drive. Contact Evan 0435 770 884. 18 JUNE, MONTO, QLD Monto Car Torque 2016, Airport Road. Contact Jo 0407 308 104. 18 JUNE, CABOOLTURE, QLD Caboolture Regional Car Club Swap Meet Show ’n’ Shine 2016, Caboolture Showgrounds. Visit www.crcc.com.au. 18-19 JUNE, CLAREMONT, WA Perth Hot Rod & Street Machine Show, Claremont Showgrounds. Visit www.wahotrodshow.com.au. 19 JUNE, MINCHINBURY, NSW Idlewild Prospect Hot Rod & Custom Car Show, M Centre. Contact Chris 0403 253 811. 19 JUNE, WILLOWBANK, QLD Mopar Mayhem, Queensland Raceway. Contact 0488 318 727. 20-30 JUNE,…

EVEN BEFORE IT BECAME BAD APPLE, GRANT COULDN’T RESIST THIS XR’S CORRUPTING INFLUENCE CONTRARY to popular belief, it wasn’t eating the apple that got Adam and Eve expelled from the Garden of Eden – they were lured out by Bad Apple, Grant Connor’s irresistible candy-coloured XR Falcon. Given the slick sedan was an instant crowd favourite the minute it was unveiled at Summernats 29 (and went on to take out the Meguiar’s People’s Choice award), you could hardly blame the curious couple; they were only human, after all. Even before it became Bad Apple, Grant himself couldn’t resist this XR’s corrupting influence. “I originally bought it just to drive around; I never intended to do it up,” he says. “But not being able to leave well enough alone, first I…

THE STRAIGHT-SIX WAS HOICKED OUT, THE FIREWALL RECESSED AND TRANS TUNNEL RAISED TO MAKE WAY FOR A 350CI CHEV CRATE MOTOR YOU’VE probably heard of Auto Transformers. The Adelaide-based workshop has churned out some quality customs and full turn-key builds, including owner Andrew Mitchell’s own ’39 Lincoln Zephyr coupe (SM, Jan ’14). West Australian Les Rogers had heard of them too, and despite living in a different state he trusted them to build his chopped V8-powered Holden 48-215 (FX) sedan in South Australia. Turns out Les and his FX have a connection to South Oz. “I lived in the Barossa Valley and bought the FX when I was 18 years old,” he says. “Then one night as I was driving home from a 21st we ended up in a paddock…

FOR a sport that is supposed to be about individuality, the car-crafting game has a lot to do with trends, fashions and fads. A look back through the past 35 years of Street Machine reveals that while we may not always be the most fashionable members of society in terms of sartorial splendour, the best and brightest car crafters of their era can spot a trend with a clairvoyance that would put Nostradamus to shame. Deviations from the orthodoxy of the day are often met with derision, but it is inevitably those who stick to their own path that are the longest remembered. When Ron Barclay’s coral blue HQ ute debuted, it was nothing like the full-chassis Pro Streeters that dominated the scene at the time, but its attainable simplicity…

THERE WAS A GREAT MIX OF ORIGINAL OLD RODS AND MODERN TAKES ON THE COOLEST 40S-60S STUFF MARK BROWNRIGG’S AV8 ROADSTER HELPED TURN ME ON TO TRADITIONAL HOT RODDING AN EVENT LIKE THE BOOGALOO WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE 10 YEARS AGO; THERE JUST WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN THE NUMBERS For a first-time event, the Boogaloo Invitational sure went off with a bang. Held at Wattle Flat Recreation Reserve in Castlemaine, Victoria, the weekend-long event-as the name suggest - was invitation-only. “We sent out 425 invitations all up; about 100 of them were bikes. We had 280 of them RSVP and most of them turned up on the day,” event organiser Des Russell says. Whatever the final number was, there was plenty of nice stuff to check out while you…

ON THE first Saturday of May, hundreds of hot rodders, drag racers and old timers made their way through the gates of the Auto Club Dragway in Fontana, California for this year’s Antique Nationals. Now in its 46th year, the Antique Nats has been put on by the Four Ever Four Cylinder Club since its humble beginnings in 1971, when the club broke away from other local drag events to host its own, with a focus on early four- and eight-cylinder racing. Over the years it has evolved to encompass all pre-’54 vehicles and engines, and is now a must-go event each spring. It’s the perfect place to get your fill of all kinds of vintage machinery. This year, rickety Model A Fords rubbed shoulders with fire-breathing altereds in the…

AFTER destroying his gutsy 2006 VZ SS ute at an event in Tasmania, Street Machine Drag Challenge veteran Tim Bailey has found a 2005 Series 1 ute as a bare-shell replacement for the old warhorse. The new car will see a whole bunch of upgrades, from wiring and interior to brakes and fuel system. A new custom intercooler has been built to the same spec as the old item and all the intercooler piping for the F1 ProCharger has had an upgrade. “I’ve got a bunch of new engine bits to make it live as long as it did before, and I hope to be pushing around 15psi on 98-octane fuel,” Tim declares. “I’ve decided to move away from the stock bottom end and have new pistons and rods on…