Innehållsförteckning för No 182 July 2020 från NZV8

As HSV, the once-soaring performance arm of now-defunct automaker Holden, scrambles to find its feet after the aforementioned closure, it has been hit by another culling of its revised offerings. Switching lanes to offer the wider GM range, HSV was forced to stop offering the Camaro 2SS model last December following orders from further up the chain; now, it’s the local right-hand-drive conversion of the high-performance Camaro ZL1 that’s on the chopping block. With no plans for the 2021 model year and beyond and question marks surrounding the long-term future of the model in the US market, it looks as though it may never return. High exchange rates and softening demand are HSV’s official reasoning, wrapping up work in the ‘sports car’ sector and focusing on its Silverado utility offering.…

Traditional motorsport has been all but cancelled for the past couple of months, and in its place e-racing has thrived. Not only have the real-world series been forced to adapt to the virtual realm, but now some of the biggest names are also banding together to raise money for struggling Kiwi businesses amid the Covid-19 crisis. Dubbed ‘Racing Local’, the event will take place on the iRacing platform with the likes of Scott McLaughlin, Shane Van Gisbergen, Hayden Paddon, Nick Cassidy, Simon Evans, Earl Bamber, Greg Murphy, and Liam Lawson signed. With 25 drivers already registered, 25 more spots are available for holders of any motorsport licence. The remaining 10 spots are for wild-card entries, with entrants not having to hold a motorsport licence. The event will be live-streamed via…

How many late-model HSVs do you know that roll on 325-wide rubber? Craig Taylor is set to increase that number to one by throwing a set of 325/25R20 tyres under the rear of his VZ ClubSport. Those big liquorice strips are set to be wrapped around 20x12-inch Work Wheels CR 3Ps with a massive 186mm of dish. The monster rims are paired with more traditionally sized 20x9.5-inch versions up front. The move has meant ditching the car’s independent rear suspension (IRS) set-up in favour of a diff system sourced from Monro Racecars in Australia. This requires the suspension to be changed out for a custom coilover set-up, which, knowing Craig, will be set as low as possible. The third member itself is a Strange item, built to take all the…

Craig Watson’s initial idea was to track down a classic 1963 Chev Nova coupe and build a track car out of it. This job was entrusted to long-time Kiwi car finder Steve Davies in California, who found and delivered a dry desert Arizona car. After many months of Craig staring at his Nova coupe in the shed and deciding CMC/HMC was not the right choice, Steve suggested “How about having a crack at Bonneville?” It helped that Steve is one of the head scrutineers at Bonneville with loads of knowledge. The seed was planted in Craig’s mind, and it would lead to one of his most intensive research assignments. First question: what class would I run? The answer, CBGC—Classic Blown Gas Coupe. Says it all really! Then came the fun…

The crowd always pays attention when Doron Andersen Vazey’s wheel-standing 1968 Cuda comes to the line. That’s with good reason, as the two-time National Series–winning car is always on form, and always impressive. Ironically, it’s also not too far off being street legal, despite its best ET of 9.7s at 138mph from the 496ci big block. Having achieved all he set out to do in the car, Doron was recently faced with a crossroads. Did he convert the car to being street legal, throw more power into it, or make the jump to a different car altogether? Some talks with the right people soon led him to a clear path forward, and what a path it was. Fellow West Auckland local Wayne Grimmer’s own A-body Cuda was sitting ready to…

Despite the threats of global warming, the rise of the electric car, and the decline of the family sedan in favour of the SUV, a case can be made that we are living through the second coming of the muscle car. As someone who is old enough to remember the muscle cars of the classic era, I know that in the majority of cases they weren’t kept stock for long. Which all makes it rather hard to grasp the fact that the US car industry is still producing amazingly fast cars. The horsepower ratings of the top range of modern muscle cars are almost double those of the so-called golden age. Sure, the Mustang is a stand-alone for the Blue Oval brigade, but this year’s GT500 boasts 760hp and quarter-mile…

Besides contributing articles to NZV8, Andrew Johnston is one of the most streetwise business development specialists in New Zealand and a popular presenter and trainer. He has worked with more than 400 small and medium sized businesses over the past 15 or more years and has written a book titled Small Changes BIG Results, which is sold internationally in a number of languages. The Vietnamese version alone has already sold more than 5000 copies! (Search Amazon or Book Depository for a copy). Andrew’s second book, titled Small Changes BIG Tax Savings, is due out at the end of this year. He has also owned or built several successful businesses over the past 25 years. Most importantly, he’s no stranger to the automotive scene, having raced and modified motorcycles and cars…

As the talent behind the artwork you see on these pages, there’s no doubting that Callum Taylor (Oilslick Custom Art on Facebook) has a good eye. Of course, his artwork portfolio extends way back before he joined our team during 2019, as does his love of custom cars and bikes. Callum’s taste in bikes is predominantly aimed at stripped-back Brats, and his taste in cars is kustom, with a K. His dream machine, as shown here, is a 1950 Ford Spinner, which, as you can see, would undergo a plethora of work if, or when, he can make the dream a reality. THE DREAM The plan would be to give the car a mild roof chop, not to lose or radically alter the vehicle’s shape but simply to enhance it.…

ALL CLASS ’69 Camaro pilot Steve Scoles didn’t have the best of luck during the 2018–2019 Enzed Central Muscle Cars series when the crank in the car’s SB2 Chev engine broke. He managed to get it repaired and back in the car to compete in a few more rounds before the same thing happened again at Highlands in April 2019. The only solution was to replace it and ensure the engine was better than ever. Chris Ganley was the man chosen for this task, and once completed the engine was dropped back into the car by Duane Bicknell. While with Duane, new suspension arms were fabricated to replace the previously-broken items, then the car was ready to race once more before the round at Steve’s home track of Highlands Motorsport…

FIRST THINGS FIRST As you may have seen in our seat-belt installation article, we had to remove some Dynamat to get the seat belts installed. A few years back, we actually ran an article on the installation of Dynamat in the same vehicle, so if you want to see what’s involved, and how insulation can make a difference to your vehicle, head on over to themotorhood.com and search ‘Weekend Workshop: lay your own Dynamat’. REPEAT OFFENDER You’ve by now seen the cars of Charlie Bailey… and there have been plenty of them. Amongst those cars is his black ‘68 Chevelle. As expected, he turned the car from ugly duckling to a swan. Luckily he managed to own it for just long enough for us to point a camera at it.…

It’s called the ‘Mustang Cobra Jet 1400’—that’s 1400hp, by the way. What sets this Cobra Jet—Ford’s track-only drag racing version of the Mustang—apart from its predecessors is that you will find no monstrous V8 rumble emitted as it stages. An electric whine replaces the traditional note, powered by a fully electric heart that generates that 1400hp and sees the one-off prototype belt out a low eight-second quartermile with trap speeds of more than 170mph. The car’s been built in conjunction with Cascadia Motion, which was charged with incorporating the electric motor and inverter. It’s controlled by an AEM electric vehicle (EV) software control system, while the roll cage and chassis development came from Watson Engineering, veteran of previous Cobra Jet programmes and the Boss Mustang 302S race car. Ford is…

Cook Motor racing, the team behind a number of Bonneville speed record attempts had hoped to return to the vast salt flats this August for another record attempt. However, despite working hard on the team’s two cars during lockdown, that will now not be going ahead. At this stage, the event itself has not been canceled, but with the threat of Covid-19 still high in America, plus the delays that quarantine would cause when traveling internationally, it simply isn’t feasible. The big question at this stage remains if Speed Week will be on later in the year. We know many Kiwis have already canceled their trips, so even if it dies, it’s bound to be slightly different than usual for all involved.…

It’s a wild time for event organizers at the moment, with calendars up in the air and restrictions hindering feasibility. However, it appears there’s a new problem arising for some of our biggest series: clashes. As available dates in peak season are quickly being snapped up for revised schedules, events that don’t normally operate at a certain time of year, and those that traditionally follow the same scheduling are finding themselves looking at the same dates. This has seen Supercars enter talks with Speedworks—the latter is responsible for the running of New Zealand’s premier motorsport championships, including the Toyota Racing Series—as the International series prepares to cross the Tasman for the revised Auckland ITM Supersprint round on 9–10 January. Before all these recent events unfolded, you’ll remember that, due to…

The Krysler Shop is working on yet another seriously tough car for a customer, this time a 1957 Chev 3600 long-bed pickup. The rolling body was purchased for its awesome patina and with the intention of turning it into a pro-street monster. That extra-long wheelbase will come in handy on the street too, as the truck is being built with a 588-cube big block Chev engine topped with a 10-71 blower. The engine combo, complete with AFR heads, was plucked from a wrecked Caprice, but a quick teardown and reassembly showed it was undamaged. To get it into the truck, a second-generation Camaro front clip has been stitched into the OE rear rails, which, despite the massive 31x18.5x15 rear rubber, have been left uncut. A TH400 trans along with one…

Owen Grigg started buying old American iron as soon as he obtained his driver’s licence, his first car being a ’38 Chev—although he really had his heart set on a ’50s American car. However, as his budget was, quite naturally, somewhat limited at that time, he settled for an earlier version. From that small automotive beginning, Owen very quickly became more ambitious and, after taking more than a passing liking to 1958 Chevs in particular, he was soon travelling the length and breadth of the country with a good buddy buying up old ’58s in an attempt to corner the market. Owen reckons that at one stage he owned seven or eight of them in various states of disrepair. As time went by Owen’s passion for American cars grew stronger…

‘You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone’—the old adage has never rung more true than it has over the past couple of months here in New Zealand. We’ve quickly had to face the reality that everything that we take for granted in our day-to-day lives—the complete freedom, the assumed stability of the status quo, and the access to anything we could ever want (providing we’ve got the money, of course)—just isn’t guaranteed. We’ve become too complacent and unappreciative of all we have in this incredibly beautiful, safe, and inclusive country, and, for Kiwis like us, the postponement of Repco Beach Hop 20 and the accompanying fallout has made all that painfully obvious. A few months ago, the idea of Beach Hop not taking place would have seemed ludicrous—beyond…

While most drag racing events were finished for the year before Covid-19 hit, Meremere’s Winter Drag Wars was still to happen. At the time of writing, the rounds are scheduled to take place on 7 and 21 June, 5 and 19 July, and 2 and 23 August. Obviously, those dates are subject to change pending the state of the nation at the time. Assuming they go ahead, it’ll be a great way to get in some low-stress racing. The Meremere Dragway Comp Series and Night Night Speed Drag Wars and Comp Series prize-giving that was to be held on 9 May has been postponed to July 11th, and as always will be held at the Pukekohe Hot rod Club with doors opening from 5.30pm.…

The good thing about being young is having the ability to know everything, and afford anything. Well, at least that’s the feeling at the time. Southland’s Jason Harpur knows that feeling well, having purchased his first Falcon at age 16. You can only imagine the fun he and his mates had in the 289-powered machine; gas was cheap, responsibilities were zero, and fun was the main item on the agenda. Being an apprentice metal worker at the time, Jason recalls, “I knew what I was doing with some panels while I was learning the trade, so there was lots of stainless steel panel work under the bonnet, a stainless steel drop tank, and lots of door and guard work.” Soon, all the custom bits were swapped over into a different…

During the last 10 years, I’ve written a number of books on the subject of car and automobilia collections owned by enthusiasts from around New Zealand. These books include: Kiwi Hot Rodder’s Guide To Life, Petrolheads in Sheds, Kiwi Hot Rodder’s Guide To Life 2, Kiwi Muscle Car Collections, and Petrolheads. My real passion is motorsport history, and while most of my recent books have been focused in this area, for a few years there I really enjoyed travelling around New Zealand, visiting these amazing enthusiasts who’d amassed these epic collections. For a tiny country of only four-point-something million, positioned way out in the middle of nowhere, we sure have some incredible cars. Some of them are unbelievably rare — in some cases, one of one. But just as impressive…

CHARGE N’ MAINTAIN If your shed is filled with toys, then the often-painful battery maintenance is admin you’ll be familiar with. Making it easy and, more important, safe is Projecta’s range of Charge N’ Maintain smart chargers. No-fuss operation means you can hook it up and the charger will do the rest, as it communicates with the battery to balance its load while optimizing its charging methods to ensure that charging is stopped when the battery reaches full capacity. Available in a range of sizes to suit different battery sizes. See the full range at leading automotive and hardware stores throughout New Zealand. BETTER THAN NEW Many factory-fitted hinges are now reaching their midlife crisis — 40 years of hinging can result in worn-out pivot points, causing issues with alignment.…

Mike Lavallee made a name for himself as the pioneer of a flame-painting technique that dramatically changed the way flames were applied to cars. True Fire was Lavallee’s signature and it not only made his Killer Paint workshop an industry name across the globe but saw him spend years travelling the world to teach others how it’s done. We featured his trip to our shores back in Issue No. 121. Lavallee landed himself a role on Chip Foose’s Overhaulin’ after a chance encounter at the Seattle Roadster Show saw Mike offer to fix a scratched paint job on a displayed vehicle, which turned out to be none other than Foose’s. That appearance led to his being on Monster Garage, West Coast Choppers, Rides, Miami Ink, Rock the Boat, Hot Rod…

Hi, Mark—grouse-looking Camaro; what year is it? It’s a 1968 model, which was imported to New Zealand around 10 years ago. One of the things that jumps out, besides the bright-red paintwork, is the wheels. What are they exactly? They were actually on the car when I first got it, and, with the lowered stance, the whole thing really works well. They’re Ridler R695 Series, the rears are 20 inch and the front are 18 inch. Is this your first V8? It’s my first American car, but I have had a couple of Commodore V8s, including my current daily-driver, a 2017 SS Redline wagon. Have you always been a General Motors guy? Growing up, my dad always had Commodores that came with his job, and I have always liked the…

As we see progress back to normality, and event organizers issue revised schedules, local governing body MSNZ has unveiled its ‘back in motion’ plan, which outlines how motor racing–related events can take place under Covid-19 restrictions. The document looks at issues such as hygiene requirements, social distancing protocols, and the number of people allowed at events. It stipulates that up to 100 people—excluding officials and volunteers—are allowed in outdoor spaces, with up to 10 people per group indoors. The plan also suggests that spectators should be discouraged from visiting events under Level 2 restrictions in order to allow organizers to focus on the competitors, officials, and volunteers. Those who do enter the venue must register for contact tracing. With a limited number of marshals and officials present, to comply with…

It’s not often you’ll see a Mini in NZV8, but Craig Roberts’ Mini isn’t your ordinary Mini. Being built for the burnout pad, the 2004 Cooper S shell has been relieved of its floor and firewall and fitted with a full chassis and roll cage. The stock front end is long gone, replaced with RX-7 front uprights and steering box. An RX-7 cross member has been shortened to fit, but not so much that the 355ci small block Chev can’t be dropped in. The Chev is backed with a Powerglide trans and tough Hilux diff. With the Mini being front-wheel drive to begin with, obviously a serious amount of fab work has gone into getting the car set up in rearwheel-drive format, including the creation of a four-link to mount…

Bevan Chapman knows exactly what it’s like to own rare and precious gems—automotive gems that is. Having his name on the ownership papers of a genuine VK Brock Commodore, he experienced the full gamut of feelings that come with it. Included in those are pride and happiness, along with fear, anxiety, concern, angst, and rage. Sure, the car brought a smile to his face—many smiles in fact—but, any time it was parked, the other range of emotions would come to the forefront, and the fear of owning something so precious would take over. IT WASN’T LONG BEFORE HE HAD IT IN THE SHED IN BITS Bevan’s not exactly the kind of guy to try to conserve gas when driving, or conserve rear tyres, either, and as much as he may…

Dave Saunders and his tough-looking Chev Nova have been notably absent from the track for a while, partly by design and partly not. The Chev last raced with a stout 468ci naturally aspirated (NA) big block under the giant bonnet scoop. In that guise, with a Powerglide on shifting duties, the car managed a best of 10.75s at 125mph. To go faster, Dave needed to pull the car apart, but to do that he needed a new shed to do it in, and so the time away began. The fancy new shed was completed a couple of years back, and now Dave’s making progress on the new motor combo needed to drop the ETs. The new set-up is a 504ci big block topped with a 10-71 high-helix blower with a…

A few months back we featured Charlie Bailey’s gorgeous pro-tour Chevelle (NZV8 Issue No. 170) and there was an unexpected response to the eight-week build along with the list of his previously owned vehicles. Yes, that compilation was long and quite an accomplishment for a guy so young. It was only after we received messages asking where he had been hiding that we realized you’d certainly need to be driven to have amassed such a stable of muscle. And driven is what we found Charlie, after asking about all those cars, trucks, and bikes. It all started way back up north, well before he could even drive (see what we did there?). His passion for all things automotive began in the sand dunes on the outskirts of Kaitaia. Actually, it…

When we started talking about building a car with the guys from The Rock radio station, none of us quite knew what to expect. We were well aware it wasn’t the first hare-brained idea from the iconic afternoon slot duo of Robert Taylor and Jono Pryor, and anything could have happened — well, it kind of did. Full credit must go to Robert, whose twisted mind created the concept of wishing to join a Ford and Holden together, and of course for being smart enough to know that, to do that, he’d need our help to project-manage it. Although the concept of cutting a car down the middle front to rear was discussed, the reality was that it wouldn’t happen without ridiculous amounts of labour and the outcome was likely…

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