Indholdsfortegnelse for December 2016 i Street Machine

THE LS1 SOUNDED AS ROUGH AS HESSIAN UNDIES, SO I THOUGHT, MAYBE I COULD BUY THE CAR AS-IS AND DO AN LS1-TO-308 CONVERSION. I COULD BE A PIONEER! HELLO, and welcome to the December edition of Street Machine. As we put this issue to bed, Telfo and Scotty are in the thick of the action on Drag Challenge 2016, so this month’s editorial comes from our old mate from the SM letters page, Redmond. RECENTLY I got a text from a mate giving me a phone number for an unfinished VH LS1 Commodore project in Townsville. So I rang the number and had a yarn with the fella. Now I have been a mechanic for 26 years and a street machiner for over 30, and there are a few terms…

IT’S VERY nearly Summernats time, and the 2017 event is set to be a big one – and not just because it’s the Nats’ 30th anniversary. On the Saturday night, the 10th and final Rare Spares Legend Award will be handed out. “In 2008 we created the Rare Spares Legend Award to recognise the lifetime achievements of those that have given great levels of dedication not only to the motor industry but also within the car enthusiasts’ community” Melissa McVeigh of Rare Spares said. “We will be inducting the final Legend, who will stand alongside previous recipients Rod Hadfield, Howard Astill, Chic Henry, Owen Webb, Peter Fitzpatrick, Geoff Seddon, the late John Taverna, Drago Ostric and Tony O’Donnell.” The winner will be announced on the main arena after the Supercruise…

BREAKDOWN VEHICLES: 1969 Ford Falcon XW GT, 1965 HD Holden, 1972 LJ Torana, 1956 FE Holden, 1965 Isuzu Wasp, 1971 Toyota Celica, 1975 Ford LTD, 1965 XP Ford Falcon, Mack R-Series, 1967 HR Holden station wagon STARS: Dennis Coard, Frankie J Holden, Ben Mendelsohn, Mickey Camilleri, Rachel Rains, Paul Nestor, Andy McPhee DIRECTOR: Ray Argall ACTION: Street pounding in a blue collar-spec HD with period six-cylinder twin-system goodness, HT grille, flutes, primer and fat jellybeans will warm the hearts of many. It’s hard not to scan the background scenery for classics and hotties PLOT: Two brothers reunite after following different paths in life, and learn that embracing each other’s differences can improve their own well-being TUCK yourselves in for a corker slice of Aussie movie pie with this flick, Return…

FUTURE FEATURE MY NAME is Ayrton. I’m 10 years old and I love reading your magazine. Last year I saved all my pocket money to buy my favourite car, a VK Commodore. My dad and I are currently rebuilding my car to feature in Street Machine and to take to Summernats. It will take a few years but l’ll be sure to let you know when it’s done. Here’s a drawing I did of KIL308 from the October issue. Ayrton Risby, email ADVERTISING: Matthew Rice agency/direct, GPO Box 4088, Sydney 2001. Ph (02) 9288 9706. Vic rep: Bruce Williams, mob: 0418 349 555. Adelaide: Meghan Ritchie Ph (08) 82675022. Queensland rep: Todd Anderson, mob: 0409 630733. Japan: Japan Trade Services Ltd, 2-24-1-302, Ohashi, Meguro-ku, 153. New Zealand: Bauer Media Ltd,…

THE COURSE WAS OPEN AND IN NO TIME THE AIR WAS FILLED WITH SANDY ROOSTER TAILS AND THE NOISE OF GROANING VINTAGE ENGINES   A BLATANT DISREGARD FOR PRISTINE PAINTJOBS, HISTORIC VALUE OR EQUIPMENT RARITY PROVED WITHOUT A DOUBT THAT THESE RACERS WERE THE REAL DEAL TO HELL WITH THE BAD WEATHER, I’M RACING NO MATTER WHAT. NOTHING’S GONNA STOP ME FROM HAVING FUN WITH 150 OF MY FRIENDS WHEN you think of California you might imagine palm trees, endless sunshine and girls in bikinis – and I don’t blame you – but for the inaugural west coast Race Of Gentlemen event, it was a different story. The Race Of Gentlemen (or TROG as it’s known to diehards) began on the east coast in 2012, with the goal…

WITH AROUND 350 ENTRANTS THIS YEAR, DRAG WEEK HAS BECOME ALMOST TOO BIG; MANY RACERS ELECTED TO MAKE JUST ONE PASS AND HIT THE ROAD FOR THE past dozen years, the toughest street cars in the USA have assembled in the American Midwest to take on the ultimate street car challenge: Hot Rod Drag Week. But it’s not just an American event anymore; this year Drag Week had more international flavour than ever, with spectators from all over the globe and teams from Sweden, Denmark, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands. Australia had the biggest international contingent, with five teams hailing from Down Under; Drag Week has become the ultimate bucket list adventure for many Aussie street machiners. Don’t be fooled though, Drag Week isn’t a holiday. Long hours combined with…

PRE-WAR HOT RODDING IS MOTORING STRIPPED TO ITS ESSENCE, A FULL IMMERSION OF THE SENSES THE journey: A 500-mile, mid-winter road trip from Canberra through the Riverina, on B and C roads only,, in a Model A hop-up. The destination: The Stroppy Jalopy Paddock Bash, Leeton, NSW. . Sound like fun? The unsuspecting lass I was trying to coerce into being my co-pilot hails from the balmy climes of Byron Bay, , and it’s fair to say I wasn’t selling her on the Model A’’s creature comforts – the interior is more bare metal than tuck ’n’ roll, and the ‘windscreen’ is a dollar-bill chop. Explaining that the ’banger likes a stately 50mph and was therefore “too slow for sleet to feel like needles” didn’t really help her warm to…

THERE is a lot of history that comes with building a Cobra. The brawny AC Cobra we know today had its origins in an elegant British sports car known as the AC Ace. AC began producing cars as Autocars & Accessories in England way back in 1904. While the company built a reputation for sporting cars and had significant success in motorsport during the 1920s, it produced everything from golf buggies to trains. The pretty Ace entered the picture in 1953, with an aluminium body and powered by an overhead-cam six-cylinder that was originally designed by company founder John Weller way back in 1919! This was replaced by the 135hp Bristol six-pot, before the car was significantly modified to accommodate the much-hotter Ford Zephyr six in 1961. Only 37 of…

“I’M HOPING FOR LOW 10S WITH THISCOMBO, BUT I’D LOVE TO HAVE A TWIN-TURBO SET-UP, ALL UNDER THE BONNET” I GOT into cars when Dad bought a ’65 Impala when I was a kid and I helped him build it. Then Adam Morandin with his blue Statesman, MNTLHQ, moved in across the road. Adam took me to a couple of events and introduced me to the burnout and drag racing worlds; I was hooked from then on. I love HQs – the clean body lines, the size and shape of them. I’ve always read Street Machine, and every time I saw an HQ in the magazine I’d dream of building one and maybe even getting it on the cover one day. So when Dad asked what I wanted for my…

WHY have a boring old catalogue to show off your wares when you can have a fully functioning and completely off-tap street machine that people can see, touch, smell and hear? That’s what the team at Castlemaine Rod Shop (CRS) are doing with this completely mental XP Falcon sedan. “I bought it for a jig car because we wanted to re-jig all our XP engine mount kits,” says Marc Waddington, co-owner of CRS with his brother Heath. “So I put a series of different engines in it, then Bobby Telford found a V10 on a buy, swap and sell hot rod page [on Facebook]. It came out of a 2002 Dodge Ram roll-over. It’s a cast-iron version that they developed the Viper motor from. Then we slapped a couple of…

LEGENDARY US auto painter Charley Hutton is coming to Summernats 30! It’s not his first visit – he was here back in 2011 for ’Nats 25 – but he can’t wait to come back for Summernats’ big 30th anniversary show. “It was a blast last time,” Charley says. “The burnouts were the funniest part for me. Everyone kept saying: ‘Have you seen the burnouts?’ and I’m thinking to myself, it’s a long way to walk to see a burnout, we have burnouts in America. Then you go over there and it’s like, holy crap! The other funny thing was, you don’t have a car in Australia unless you have a blower on it!” Of course, Charley’s not just coming over here to watch burnouts and drink JD slushies, he’ll be…

WRECKING CREW JUST read Simon Major’s article about the ‘wrecked a classic’ crowd (Blowin’ Gaskets, SM, Nov ’16). Hear, hear! I could not have said that better myself. You’re absolutely right Simon, it is a generational mindset. I’m reasonably new to all these groups on Facebook, and notice all the negativity from people who are far too young to remember that the HQ Holden was the most produced car in Australia’s history for years, and that we all used to walk through wrecking yards full of GTs, GTSs, GTRs, RTs, Prems and God knows what else just lined up rotting; there were literally millions of them. And the trends at the time were cutting-edge. So instead of cutting down an owner for 30-year-old modifications that don’t meet today’s genre…

I WANTED BROWN FROM THE OUTSET; SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. PAT KEPT SPRAYING UP SAMPLES AND I KEPT SAYING: “GO BROWNER!” JASON Cooke doesn’t really consider himself a car guy. Hell, his beautiful HOK Root Beer Kandy XP Falcon coupe is the first V8 he’s ever owned! And as for that plate? “It stands for ‘Eat, F*ck, Skydive’; the rest is self-explanatory” he laughs. Yep, Jason is an enthusiastic skydiver. How enthusiastic? He’s done it nearly 6000 times! So what brought about the change of enthusiasm from hurtling towards the earth to hurtling towards the horizon in a sweet V8 Falcon? “As a kid, there was a white-over-red XP coupe kicking around my area on a set of Center Lines. It looked gangster!” Jason explains. “So I bought this Gumtree special…

I WASN’T PREPARED TO WAIT UNTIL I HAD AN OPEN LICENCE, SO I BUILT A T ROADSTER ON MY TERMS AND TO MY TASTES THAT COULD STILL BE DRIVEN ON MY PS   I MET A GUY WHO WAS SELLING A HEAP OF NOS WWII AIRCRAFT GEAR, INCLUDING LAMPS AND SWITCHES. IT WAS A JACKPOT FIND,AND THEY WERE EASILY ADAPTED FOR AUTOMOTIVE USE NOTHING sours young automotive dreams like restrictions – whether on your wallet, on your skills or from the law. The first two can be overcome with plenty of hard work and a willingness to learn, but the third can be tougher to negotiate, especially when you’re looking to keep your nose clean with the powers that be. Nineteen-year-old Mason Cahill was at this exact crossroads a…

I WASN’T THAT FUSSED ON THE 1975 MODEL’S FRONT END TREATMENT, SO I COLLECTED THE NECESSARY PARTS TO RETROFIT A ’72 SHARK-TOOTHED GRILLE HOW did you come to be thumbing through this issue of the horsepower bible? Are you a third-generation gearhead with years of greasy fingernails to your credit, or a curious newbie drawn to the mix of flashy paint, chrome and rubber smoke? Most of us fall somewhere in between, but either way the passion for the humble automobile can be a soothing relief from the daily grind; it eases stress – okay, it sometimes causes it too – and often lays the foundations for mateship and a whole way of life. “I was the curious newbie,” explains 41-year-old Matt Balmer of his entry into the car…

THE TUBE CHASSIS HAS BEEN NOTCHED INTO THE ORIGINAL FRAMEWORK, AND THE ’CAGE IS NOTCHED INTO THE PILLARS – WITH THE TRIM FITTED YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW IT’S THERE IN THE fast-paced world of competition burnouts, it is difficult to come up with something fresh. All the big changes have already happened with the elite-level cars in the sport, so what is there to do next? West Aussie Brandon Mitchell reckons the way forward is to strive for an even higher level of build quality and refinement. His 2012 SS Camaro, dubbed GRUDGE, has certainly hit the mark, with just the right mix of attitude, pleasing aesthetics and clever engineering. “George Separovich [of Blown Motorsports] once told me that the big burnout cars expire after about three to four years.…

“I TOLD TERRY HE CAN BUILD THE ENGINE AND IF IT SHITS ITSELF HE’LL BE PAYING THE BAR TAB IN THE STATES. TERRY SAID: ‘I’LL TAKE THAT BET” IT’S ONE of the toughest motorsport events in the world, but Hot Rod Drag Week is also one of the most publicised. Which explains why Australian Harry Haig made such a big bang at last year’s event, when he dragged an old big-block four-speed ’69 Chevelle out of a field to use on the five-day, 1000-mile odyssey. But he wanted to go even bigger this year, with a built big-block and a pair of snails hanging in the breeze. Given the amount of publicity Harry and team received at Drag Week 2016, we’d say mission accomplished! Drag Week is no joke though;…

SHANE WHITING 1973 LJ TORANA “I BOUGHT my Torana 10 years ago, as I had wanted an LJ since I was a kid. It was in pretty good condition when I bought it; it just needed a freshen-up. Originally it had an RB20 in it, but that was quickly pulled out in favour of an RB25DET, along with custom turbo and intake manifolds built to suit. The stock internals were replaced with Spool rods, CP pistons, and HKS cams and lifters. With the Garrett T04Z turbo, the motor made 504hp on pump 98, tuned with a Microtech LT12. It shifts through a five-speed manual with a billet NPC clutch, while the rear end consists of a nine-inch with 3.7 gears and 31-spline axles. Thanks to Spot On Performance and Justin…

AT FIRST glance, this looks like a kid’s toy spaceship for show-and-tell at kindergarten, but what you’re looking at here, fellow street machiners, is just over two-point-eight litres of freaky-fast, force-fed, flat-four firepower. This is the mill from Phil Mizzi’s awesome blue patina ’54 VW Kombi ute, affectionately named Grover (SM, Jun ’14). Yes, we’ll allow you a little chuckle at ‘just’ 2.8 litres, but when you realise the 1954 Kombi’s original motor was 1.1 litres, and the biggest-ever flat-four VW engine – used in the last of the air-cooled Kombis and Transporters (and one or two Porsche models, too) – was just under two litres, then 2.8 litres represents an increase of more than 40 per cent. That’s a bit of a stretch! Motorsport soon finds the limits of…

10-13 NOV, TAUPO, NZ Powercruise #64, Taupo Motorsport Park. Visit www.powercruise.com. 12-13 NOV, BENDIGO, VIC Bendigo Swap Meet, Prince Of Wales Showgrounds. Visit www.bendigoswap.com.au. 13 NOV, SCORESBY, VIC HQ Holden Cruise Club CRUZ, BP Eastlink Outbound. Visit www.melbourneoldschoolcruisers.com.au. 13 NOV, GUMERACHA, SA Gumeracha Show ’n’ Shine, Gumeracha Oval. Visit www.gumerachashowandshine.org. 13 NOV, YANCHEP, WA Good Fellas Hot Rod Club Yanchep Picnic, Yanchep National Park. Contact Jeff 0403 173 568. 13 NOV, LARDNER, VIC Tread Cemetery, Lardner Park. Visit www.treadcemetery.com. 13 NOV, LARDNER, VIC MotorEx Cruise For Charity 13, Lardner Park. Visit www.motorex.com.au. 13 NOV, HORSLEY PARK, NSW Idle Wild Hot Rod Club Memorial Run 2016, Horsley Park Reserve. Contact Enzio 0412 186 327. 13 NOV, PORT MACQUARIE, NSW End Of An Aussie Era Car Show, Westport Park. Contact Mick 0416…

HERE at SM we’re all about cutting-edge builds that feature the latest technologies and mind-blowing craftsmanship. But we also love old-school customs and harbour a great respect for our tyre-torching forefathers. We always strive to promote and defend our modified car history in an attempt to educate and unite generations of our sport. So strap yourselves in for a look at a few builds that rocked our car world 30-plus years ago. There’ll be more next month! 01: BILL Cooper’s HQ Monaro was a popular show-winner that ran a blown 350 Chev, Turbo 400 and Detroit Locker nine-inch combo. The Monza Red body was treated to a mix of subtle and not-so-subtle mods, including a Commodore front, Manta-type rear flares to house 10-inch Keystone Klassic rims, and HJ sedan tail-lamps…

CRAIG’S PLANS FOR A NICE STREET CAR WENT OUT THE WINDOW ONCE HE HEARD ABOUT A BLOWN BIG-BLOCK MICK BRASHER HAD FOR SALE IT’S A tale as old as time: Boy buys ute, ute drops valve, boy decides to take ute off the road for a ‘quick freshen-up’. Naturally, said freshen-up escalates into a full-scale, nut-and-bolt rebuild. It’s just how these things tend to go. A trophy-hauling, 1200hp blown and injected skid rig wasn’t exactly what Craig Craft had in mind when he first came to own this HJ Kingswood ute. “When I bought it I wanted a tough street car” he says. “It was already pretty tidy, but I only drove it three or four times before I hurt the motor. I made some calls and got some…

I WANTED THE WHOLE LOT TO LOOK RIDGEY-DIDGE, RIGHT DOWN TO THE STEERING WHEEL. AND THEN YOU POP THE BONNET AND ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE    EVERYONE’S SPENDING THOUSANDS ON ECUS TO RUN THESE THINGS, BUT MINE IS JUST A STANDARD ONE I BOUGHT FROM COMMWRECK FOR $150. THANKS FOR COMING! YOU CAN JUST BE CRUISING ALONG AND JUMP ON IT AND IT’LL BLAZE THE TYRES NOTHING seems to send the keyboard warrior brigade spiralling into a frenzy quite like modifying an Aussie classic. As Simon Major pointed out recently (Blowin’ Gaskets, SM, Nov ’16), all you need to do to raise their ire these days is make a few tweaks to a relatively nondescript 1960s Holden. At that point they’ll use the power vested in them by…

FIFTEEN years ago, HSV’s top-spec 285kW Grange rattled off a high 13-second quarter-mile, which wasn’t bad for a car with all the cushions. But Josh Calgaro’s 2003 Grange has run a PB of 8.96 at over 250km/h! Having said that, this level of performance hasn’t come easily or quickly. Josh bought the car from a mate in 2005, who’d modified it almost from new. “It was a pretty quick car back in the day” the Canberra local says. “For what it was, it was a pretty good thing and I fell in love with it. “I started playing around with exhaust and tune and converters and all that stuff. Then around 2012 I went to Powercruise and began playing with blowers.” Since then Josh has broken about eight gearboxes, a…

IT WAS A TOUGH BUILD, BUT TOO MANY OLD SHOW VANS LEFT THE SCENE FOR REBUILDS AND NEVER CAME BACK; JAFFA DESERVED BETTER THAN THAT IT’S A fine line between pleasure and pain when building a retro-inspired project. Balancing the elements of new and old is crucial in order to avoid an identity crisis that can see your finished build looking a little ‘confused’. You know what I’m talkin’ about, Willis: It’ll be the early Holden painted Harlequin but dripping with Nasco accessories; the nostalgia hot rod rolling on 20-inch rims; or – heaven forbid – the flat-black Hyundai Excel sporting 50s-style flames. That said, the 70s custom panel van and modern-day street machine would be two of the most challenging polar opposites to combine into a single build. Why?…

THIS VY HAS PROWLED MELBOURNE STREETS UNNOTICED FOR ALMOST SIX YEARS WITH A FULL-TILT FORGED 427CI LSX AND A PAIR OF CONCEALED TURBOS BUILDING a tarmac-shredding brawler that looks like it belongs in the RSL car park is one of the hottest tickets around at the moment, because few things are better than dusting up show-ponies who fancy themselves a bit too much. This Cosmo Purple VY SS is a perfect example. It’s prowled Melbourne streets unnoticed for almost six years with a full-tilt forged 427-cube LSX motor inflated by a pair of turbochargers concealed beside the transmission. We spotted it while it was at VCM having the gearbox replaced. At first we ignored it on the hoist, but then we spied all the oil scavenge lines and pump under…

“MY CHOSEN SPEED WAS ABOUT 140KM/H – FAST ENOUGH TO KEEP MY ATTENTION ALONG THOSE STRAIGHT AND TEDIOUS ROADS, BUT NOT SO FAST THAT I PASSED THROUGH CARAVANNERSBEFORE SEEING THEM” OVERSEAS, Australia’s endless desert highways conjure up sexy images of nubile young ladies, glistening in sweat, reclining in the passenger seats of Kombi buses driven by shirtless, six-packed young surfer boys, the harsh sun beating down on them as they hurtle down an endless, dead-straight strip of asphalt towards the ever-distant horizon. But you and I know that the reality is that those roads are actually long, tedious and teeming with serial killers. And they’ve just got longer and tediouser. The Northern Territory is so vast yet sparsely inhabited that constitutionally it can’t even be called a state. Sure, there’s…

SHORT-CHANGED A GORILLA walks into a bar. The bartender comes up to him and asks him what he wants. “A scotch on the rocks, please,” the gorilla replies, and hands him $20. So the bartender takes the money and goes to fix his drink. He thinks to himself: “Hey, this is a gorilla, he doesn’t know about the prices of drinks.” So when he gives the gorilla his drink, he only hands him 15 cents change. Later on, another bartender asks the first bartender about the gorilla and he replies: “Yeah, he’s nice. Go talk to him.” So the second bartender goes to the gorilla and strikes up a conversation. “Hey there! You know, we don’t get too many gorillas in here.” “I’m not surprised,” the gorilla growls. “At $19.85…