Innehållsförteckning för March 1, 2015 från Street Machine

WE HAVE been watching Ryan O’Hara from Uranquinty, NSW, build his new creation, dubbed ‘The Slug’, via the wonders of Instagram. He finished the project in time for the Kandos show on Australia Day weekend and even got it out on the burnout pad for a skid. We thought we’d better answer the question that was on everyone’s lips and ask Ryan that the heck it is! “It is a 1960 (I think!) Morris J2 bus/van cut down into a ute” he says. “A mate in my car club, Junkers, found it on a farm at West Wyalong. The original plan was to get it registered but everything was a bit too far gone, so I just decided to make something I could trailer around for burnouts, shows and possibly…

STREET Machine Summernats is such a big event that it deserves its own mag, and we’ve been doing just that since the very first ’Nats! Last year, we decided to give the Summernats mag a makeover, which we’ve developed further this year to create what we reckon is the best ever! This isn’t a quick and easy picture book – though the photos and art are top-notch – our journos take you deep into the event to capture the drama, the humour and the stories that make Summernats so unique. We cover all the big events – the burnouts, the dyno and the elite judging – with in-depth coverage that you won’t find anywhere else. But on the flipside, we also seek out the cars, people and stories that might…

CARS: 1957 Chevrolet 210, 1965 Chevrolet El Camino, 1965 Pontiac Le Mans, 1923 Ford Model T, 1956 Chevrolet sedan delivery, 1961 Ford Galaxie Starliner, 1940 Ford coupe, 1953 Ford F-100, 1966 Shelby Cobra STARS: Tony Danza, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert Wuhl, Fran Drescher, Gailard Sartain, Gary Graham DIRECTOR: Floyd Mutrux CAR ACTION: Cruising, tyre-smoking traffic-light drags, and a burger joint jammed full of cool rides PLOT: It’s Halloween 1965, and the Hollywood Knights embark on an evening of mayhem to mark the closing of their local hangout, Tubby’s Drive-In THE Hollywood Knights is a car club that sticks out like a sore thumb in ritzy mid-60s Beverly Hills. When a local community action group forces the closure of Tubby’s Drive-In, the Knights’ favourite haunt, they decide on a last hurrah to…

AFTER a five-year build, Shane Harvey’s mega-tough HZ ute, GRUNTA, stunned the crowd with its pin-sharp panels and traditional stance when it was unveiled at Street Machine Summernats 28. “I really like old-school cars” Shane says. “I love my 10x14s; I’ve had these same mags for more than 25 years. I’m not into the bigger wheels – 22-inch rims remind me of the prams we had in the 50s.” It’s not only the wheels and fat tyres that hark back to the 1970s and 80s. The grille is a tribute to the show van era; the vintage SAAS tiller is a perfect match for the GTS dash; the engine runs a tunnel ram and two sets of points; the extractors dump into hot dog mufflers; there are three pedals on…

HOW long does it take to change the world? A lifetime? An instant? Four minutes, 26 seconds? There are no hard-and-fast rules, but one thing’s for sure: When Ken Block uploaded his Gymkhana Practice video to YouTube back in 2008, no car-lover in the world could continue to live with a dial-up connection With a background in business and a passion for going sideways, Ken Block has carved himself an enviable niche; his success allowed him to dabble in rallying on a world stage, then fill his free time creating the Gymkhana series on YouTube, which fast became among the most viewed videos in cyberspace. Block’s Gymkhana cars reflected his real-world rally rides;after a pair of WRXs came a bunch of Ford Fiestas, each wilder than the last. But while…

MEETINGS of the tribes don’t get much stranger than the annual Geelong Revival sprint event. The track is made up of a quarter-mile of public road blocked off for the weekend, jammed in between the CBD and the beach – a beautiful location for racers of just about every type to rub shoulders. Where else would you see Norm Hardinge’s V12 hot rod, a NASCAR veteran, a state-of-the-art drift car and a twin-turbo VK wagon sharing pit space? The event was originally known as the Geelong Speed Trials and was born way back in 1956. The likes of Jack Brabham, Stirling Moss and Bob Jane all burned rubber during the early days of the event. Many Geelong-based street machiners have fond memories of sitting on the packed hill to watch…

IT’S the world’s youngest motorsport, all about maximum speed and minimum rules, and it’s attracting legions of fans Down Under . With more hot met al than a smelting factory , is it any wonder? Time Attack as a racing discipline started in Japan, with the RevSpeed Tsukuba Super Battle in 1994 widely regarded as the first ‘official’ Time Attack event. It was born out of workshop rivalries; tuners vied to prove their worth by taking a car they had built to the circuit and leaving with the fastest overall lap time on the day . In recent years though, the sport of Time Attack has bubbled up to the world stage, thanks in no small part to a group of Aussies. Today the premier event is the World Time…

BUILDING an engine correctly is a painstaking operation, as we’ve seen with the build-up of our Edelbrock 408 by Precision. Sure, you can throw something together in the backyard and hope it holds together, but do it right and you’ll never lose a night’s sleep. Our 408ci Chrysler stroker is being built by Powerhouse Engines; the amount of care and detail these boys put into their builds is staggering, and the result is just as awesome. Last issue they cleaned, line-honed, decked, bored and honed our 360ci small-block, along with balancing the bottom end. Now it’s time to finish it off. But before we throw it together and light the wick, the boys had to dummy-assemble the engine to make sure all the clearances were right. This revealed the bottom…

WE’VE had a bunch a people asking about the complexities of sending a car to the USA for Drag Week. As far as shipping is concerned, it’s a pretty straightforward process. You can either go for roll-on/off – where you deliver your car to the docks, they drive it on the boat and then drive it off at the other end – or send the car over in a shipping container. The downside of roll-on/off is that you don’t know who is driving your car, and you are not allowed to ship any other goods (tools, etc) in the car, so you’ll need to buy everything in the US once the car lands there. The other issue is that you need to find someone in the States who has the…

WE WANTED this to be engineered and complied in NSW – no ifs or buts” explains Howard Astill, the hands-on mentor for Adam and Kylie Perry’s astonishing FB Holden Tailspin project. “Plus, there was plenty of discussion and thinking about, ‘how do we make it weather-tight?’ and ‘how do we make it with no wind noise?’” As we’ve previously revealed, how the team building Tailspin will hit these targets – and yet stay true to automotive artist Steve Vespermann’s wild, chopped back-to-front FB Holden concept first sketched in Street Machine 20 years ago – is with a complete turret transplant. In this case, the donor is a mid-90s Nissan Skyline: roof skin; front, rear and door glass; all door and window seals; even the windscreen wipers. To keep things simple…

IT IS known as the granddaddy of all hot rod shows, and with good reason: this year’s Grand National Roadster Show, held at the Pomona Fairplex in California, is the 66th running of the event. The centrepiece of the show is the America’s Most Beautiful Roadster award, which is open to pre-1938 roadsters and tubs only. Despite the name, it is an elite-style judging process, with fit and finish counting for more than outright good looks. This year, there were 18 contenders for the prize and they were a real mix of styles, from a super-high-tech SpeedStar roadster sporting a Nissan 5.6-litre DOHC V8 to a humble Model A roadster powered by an essentially stock four-banger. The winner was instantly recognisable for what it was – the creation of Bobby…

KAM IN THE USA IT LOOKS like 2015 will be a big year for Aussie-built elite cars being shown (and driven!) overseas. David and Katrina Martin’s Boydster has been in the USA since late last year and made a big splash at the Grand National Roadster Show, winning five trophies, including Best Hot Rod in their class. The car is now on its way to Sweden for the Power Big Meet in July. Rob Zahabi from Rides By Kam has also put his Nova (SM, Nov ’14) on a boat bound for the US, where it will appear at a swag of shows, including Hot August Nights and SEMA, as well as competing for the Goodguys Street Machine Of The Year award. RED CENTRE NATS! THE build-up for Red Centre…

IT IS no secret that we are big fans of the annual Chopped Rod & Custom Show in Newstead, Victoria, so when it came time to try our hand at our first-ever, fully fledged, 45-minute Street Machine documentary, Chopped was a no-brainer. It features plenty of action, including the dirt drags and vintage speedway, but also some great insights into the history of the sport. You can download it to keep for $5.99 or rent it for $2.99; just head to vimeo.com and search for ‘Chopped The Final Frontier’ or visit streetmachine.com.au and look for the link.…

THE McDonald brothers – Ray, Russell and Lindsay (retired) – have been making a living out of fast cars for over 50 years, and in business as McDonald Brothers Racing since 1972. In that time, they have done it all – professional hot rod builds, speed parts distribution, drag car fabrication – and managed to put food on the table for six families to boot. A perfect storm of two welders and a mechanic, the brothers are mostly self-taught and have spent a lifetime using their expertise to make things easier for the rest of us. SM spent some time with Ray and Russell at their Thomastown factory to find out a bit more about their journey. Where did it all start for the McDonald brothers? As teenagers, back around…

WIN! PEN letter of the month and your car will be showered with $196.95 worth of Meguiar’s and Liqui-Moly products, thanks to Motoractive. For more info, visit www.motoractive.com.au. LETTER OF THE MONTH DATSUN AWESOME IDEA I AM a long-time Street Machine reader, and my brother Phil took over my subscription a few years ago when he was about 14. When Phil was 16, he bought his first car, a sky-blue Datsun 1200 ute. As you can imagine, it was his pride and joy, and he was well-known in our area as ‘the kid in the blue Datto’. Unfortunately, Philip was killed in a car crash in July last year, three months shy of his 18th birthday. He was driving his mates in his beloved blue Datto; his best friend sustained…

A: Brake booster and master cylinder is an RRS under-dash unit (the second they made; the first one is under Howard Astill’s dash). All that leaves in the edge bay is this compact little fluid reservoir B: The four rails either side of the monstrous 1220cfm Pro Systems SV1 single-barrel aren’t just for nitrous. The outer rails feed in the nitrous while the inner rails add the potent Sunoco MaxNOS 116-octane race fuel C: Craig has a Racepak V300 SD system on board with data from the air/fuel ratio sensors from both banks sent back via these ‘talk boxes’ on the firewall. He also captures rpm, fuel/nitrous/ oil pressure, engine temp, driveshaft speed and voltage D: Just your basic puke tank, but Craig has plumbed it so the radiator overflow…

FOR the first time in 10 years I didn’t go to Street Machine Summernats; I took some long-service leave and spent time with my family instead. For most of those 10 years – and a few years prior – a lot of my mates would head down to Phillip Island to attend the Kustom Nats, which is usually on the same weekend as Summernats. But this year, and for only the second time in its 13-year history, the custom party down at Phil’s joint was on the following weekend. So I booked it in with the good wife and got a weekend leave pass to be Telfo’s wing man, neither of us having been to Phillip Island or the Kustom Nats before. Getting picked up from the airport in the…

WE LOVE classic metal here at Street Machine, but the appeal of hot rodding a late-model muscle car isn’t lost on us, either. Melbourne’s Justin Ellis has applied a very traditional and comprehensive approach to the build of his VY SS Commodore, with impressive results. Unlike the majority of modified late-model Commodores, KINGGM is more than just a cam-and-heads package, lowered coils and a set of 20s. It was completely rebuilt from the ground up, and included body mods, custom paint and trim, and a built – and very turbocharged – 408ci LS combo. In saying that, Justin’s VY has lost none of the elements that make late-model muscle cars such an attractive proposition in the first place. It still has air, steer and cruise, power windows, a decent stereo…

BOB Bruhn is no newcomer to building standout cars, but he usually likes to take the road less travelled. “I like to do everything myself, so if I’m building a ’55 Chevrolet and Foose is building one and Alloway’s building one, it takes me three years to build one and it takes them six months to a year” Bob explains. “They can build two more of them and by the time I get mine out, it’s old hat – even if I could build a car as good as them.” Bob’s previous cars include a very nice ’32 roadster, and a hardtopped ’40 tudor designed by Chip Foose, which got quite a bit of attention a few years back. Then there’s the ’54 Corvette he has built three times, each…

01 THE WHEEL THING JAZZ up your hoops with some KWC forged wheels from Showwheels – Australia’s leading protouring wheel brand in two-piece construction. Custom fitments, deep lips, high caliper clearance, polished, powdercoated, chrome and brushed options are available for each wheel, ensuring perfect fit, balance, performance and looks. Sizes 17in to 26in available. Call (03) 8768 8188. 02 WEIGHT ISSUE AT THE top end of racing it’s vital to shed unnecessary weight. Enter Aeroflow’s new Kryptalon-series ultra-light Kevlar braided hose and billet big-bore lightweight fittings. Developed to increase flow capacity and excel in hardcore performance environments, they can also be easily assembled in your garage. Call Rocket on (02) 8825 1900. 03 WE HAVE LIFT OFF MAINTAIN a clean floor when you work beneath your ride; pick up a…

Aged around 21 or younger and have a neat ride? Send some pics and info to: Young Guns, Street Machine, Locked Bag 12, Oakleigh, VIC 3166 or email us at: younggun@bauer-media.com.au IT WAS my 21st birthday yesterday, so I’m especially smashed up after a big night with my Wagga crew – mates and family – at Summernats. We were on it. Plus I fried my Trimatic doing skids earlier in the day! Anyway, we bought the Commodore at the tip in January last year for $500 and had it going by June for Brashernats in Sydney. I’ve always loved cars and I have a few mates who are into them as well, so I thought I’d build my own car to have some fun. It is pretty stout…

MOPAR small-blocks don’t get a whole lot of respect, but maybe that will change when people see Brett Roberts’s 1555hp ProCharged 426ci stroker. It was built by Mopar gurus Muscle Motors in the good ol’ US of A, and the guys have used all the best bits to make sure this screaming small-block makes solid repeatable numbers. “The blower isn’t working hard at all” Brett says. “You can see that with the pulley ratio.” Muscle Motors started with a 48-degree lifter Mopar R3 block, which corrects the factory 59-degree lifter bores. They’ve filled the bottom end with a Callies crank, Oliver rods, Ross pistons and a roller cam that rotates inside rollerised cam bearings. This is nothing like your grandad’s V8 Valiant! Up top they’ve gone for a pair of…

FOR one day each January, the little town of Tooradin, south-east of Melbourne, becomes a haven for horsepower – though not for the types of vehicles you might expect. Nope, we’re not talking muscle cars here; the annual Tooradin Tractor Pull is all about modified tractors of all shapes and sizes battling to pull a weighted sled the furthest down a 100m dirt track. And when we say modified, we mean it. This ain’t your run-of-the-mill farm machinery, folks – some of the larger tractors have been known to run WWII V12 aircraft engines! There are several competition classes, from Mini Modified tractors to 2WD Trucks, and the amount of weight to be pulled varies according to class. While all classes were hotly contested on the day, probably the most…

21 FEB, WARWICK, QLD Rods Over the Gap Show ’n’ Shine, Leslie Park, Palmerin Street. Contact Ross 0417 782 212. 21 FEB, HASTINGS, SA Western Port Festival Classic Car Show, High Street. Contact Chris 0422 572 091, visit www.westernportfestival.org.au. 22 FEB, PANANIA, NSW Hughes Charity Car Show, Kelso Oval. Contact Glen (02) 9521 6262, visit www.hughescarshow.com. 22 FEB, PENRITH, NSW Blue Mountains Hot Rod Club Show ’n’ Shine, Penrith Leagues car park. Contact John 0416 208 730. 22 FEB, WARRIEWOOD, NSW Northern Beaches Car & Bike Fest, Pittwater Rugby Park, Pittwater Road. Contact Barney 0478 032 122. 22 FEB, BERWICK, VIC 2015 Berwick Show: Beaut Ute Comp, Akoonah Park. Contact Annetta 0433 077 362. 22 FEB, BUNINYONG, VIC Buninyong Ute Show, paddock next to Buninyong Crown Hotel. Contact Louise 0498…

SHAUN and Tracey Pask have long dabbled in the hot rod, street machine, custom and drag scenes, with a serious leaning towards cars from the GM and Mopar stables. With a cool-car rap sheet a mile long, spanning more than 30 years, the Pasks have nonetheless managed to select just a few favourites to share with us. 01 SHAUN’S first car was this EJ ute; he was 17. “It was a true old-school hottie” he says, “with a red motor, side pipe and Speco floor shifter for the three-speed.” It had plenty of street-cred for the mid-80s with its silver paint and chrome wheels, and served as a daily driver and work hack. “I was also building an HQ Monaro in Lone O Ranger with a tough small-block and huge…

ALL-AMERICAN HOLDEN? READY for a Holden Camaro? Looks like we may see Holden-badged Camaros sold in Oz, after the locally built Commodore bows out for good in 2017. According to our mates at Wheels, General Motors has confirmed that a V8-powered muscle car will be sold here post-2017, and the Camaro appears to be the most likely candidate as it would be the easiest to produce in a right-hand--drive version. Our Facebook followers were keen to offer their views on the subject. David Williams – This would be great; us Holden fans need a hero car, one to beat those Fords. Dan Santillan – Good. I hope the Camaro does come, that way Holden owners will know what it feels like to be the best. Well, until the Ford Mustang…

THERE is an old saying: You can keep some of the people happy all of the time or all of the people happy some of the time, but not all of the people happy all of the time – well, something like that anyway. For a few years now, this has been the struggle facing the organisers of Motorvation, WA’s own mini-Summernats (although Motorvation has been running one year longer and will be celebrating its 30th anniversary next year). In the past there have been claims it was becoming the ‘Commodore Nationals’; comparisons to a Woolies parking lot may or may not have been bandied about. One thing is for sure, they’ve been listening to the people and there were many changes at this year’s event. It may have pissed…

ALTHOUGH GM-H never made a five-door GTS, Matt Gibbs’s range-topping Premier wagon was the closest thing to one that money could buy back in the summer of ’69. The HK was the last Holden model before the release of the locally developed 308ci V8, and Matt’s example rolled off the production line fitted with a 307ci Chev and Powerglide transmission. Aside from making it a fairly rare and desirable car, the driveline configuration meant the wagon was a particularly solid base for modification, especially for devotees of longroof Holdens. “About 10 years ago I had an EH wagon that was completely stock except for a fuel-injected 202 and tricked Trimatic” Matt says. “I pulled the EH off the road to do a build and after doing the sums I decided…

AT THE end of last year, the Street Machine team made our first trip to Japan’s famous Mooneyes Hot Rod & Custom show in Yokohama. It was the 23rd go-around for the event, which is the centrepiece of Mooneye’s activities. We knew the show would be awesome and were hoping to shoot a few feature cars too, so before we left, we did some research to see if we could find some suitable candidates. After about 10 minutes of searching Instagram, we found Masakazu Sumi and his slammed ’61 Falcon sedan delivery. While far from a glossy showpiece, the Falcon was everything that boils our potatoes: a body style we can relate to, done in a mild custom style and slammed to the ground. We continued to dig and discovered…

TURBOCHARGERS and fuel injection are the hot new tickets in street machining today, but much of this technology wouldn’t exist in the aftermarket without the pioneering efforts of Gale Banks. The 72-year-old Californian has lived the American hot-rodding dream. Starting out in a humble backyard garage hopping up his mum’s Model A four-banger, he now has 100 employees in a 12-acre facility in Azusa, California. Here, his Banks Power brand designs and builds engines for military, marine, truck and racing industries. Gale’s story, however, runs much deeper than just having a successful business. He has led countless innovations for petrol and diesel engines, revolutionising turbocharging and engine management. He’s also a mega-friendly guy who shows no signs of slowing down, despite having been in the game since the 1950s. An…

COOL MINCE TRISTAN Ockers has finally parted with the blown small-block Chev in his MINCER Ford Capri. The 360ci motor was always up against it due to the difficulty in fitting a block to the car that was Pro Street-legal. He is repowering at ProFlo Performance with a blown and injected 511ci big-block Oldsmobile-based engine. It’s a motor with all the bells and whistles and hopefully will allow the team to run in the sixes, with an affordable maintenance schedule. The block is an alloy Brodix with a Callies crank, GRP rods and Arias pistons. Heads are Big Chief 14-degrees, while the blower is a K11 Kobelco Superman fitted with a carbonfibre DMP injector hat, Pro Mag 44 and a Waterman fuel pump. The car will be ready for Powercruise…

SEND photos of your car and a few details of what went into the build to Readers’ Rockets, Street Machine, Locked Bag 12, Oakleigh, VIC 3166 or email readerscars@bauer-media.com.au. Please note: send us copies of prints as we are unable to return your photos. WIN! WIN one of three Eagle One gift packs, including Wax-As-U-Wash, 20/20 Glass Cleaner, Wax-As-U-Dry, Nevr-Dull Wadding Polish and Wipe & Shine Detailer. See www.eagleone.com.au for info! GLEN SCHARPER 1981 VC COMMODORE “HERE’S my 396ci VC HDT replica. The engine is a VS II roller block that is 30thou over, decked, grouted and O-ringed. Inside bits include a COME Racing nodular crank, Diamond forged flat-top pistons, H-beam rods and a Comp solid roller cam. Heads are Higgins CNC-ported alloy Yella Terra Dash 9s; comp is 12.3:1.…

Send your favourite funnies to: LOL, Street Machine, Locked Bag 12, Oakleigh, VIC 3166 or email them to: streetmachine@bauer-media.com.au HAD ENOUGH SHOCKS I CAN’T wait to find out who just kicked the jack out from under this car I’m working on – the suspension is killing me! Jack Dupp, email AMISH PARADISE AN AMISH boy and his father were visiting a nearby shopping centre. They were amazed by almost everything they saw, but especially by two shiny silver walls that moved apart and back together again by themselves. The boy, who’d never seen an elevator before, asked: “What is this, father?” The father (having never seen one either) responded: “I have no idea what it is.” While the boy and his father were watching, wide-eyed, an old lady…