Innehållsförteckning för February 2017 från Street Machine

03-05 FEB, QUEENSCLIFF, VIC Queenscliff Rod Run, Queenscliff Recreational Reserve. Visit geelongstreetrodders.com.au or contact Greg 0409 955 348 . 04 FEB, CHIPPING NORTON, NSW Drag-ens Hot Rod Club Cruise Night, Drag-ens Club Rooms, 17 Childs Road. Contact Graham 0413 618 086. 05 FEB, SEATON, SA Super Chevy Sunday, Gleneagles Oval, Ailsa Avenue. Visit chevperformancesa.com or contact Paul 0411 678 884. 05-06 FEB, RELBIA, TAS Annual Heartkids Car & Bike Show, Josef Chromy Wines, 370 Relbia Road. 05 FEB, BACCHUS MARSH, VIC 12th David Calleja Memorial Car Show, Maddingly Park. Contact Nadine 0431 444 920. 05 FEB, TRARALGON, VIC Latrobe Valley Street Machine Show, Traralgon Showgrounds. Visit facebook.com/ LVStreetMachiners. 11 FEB, LAKESIDE, QLD Powercruise Powerplay, Queensland Raceway. Visit www.powercruise.com. 12 FEB, THE ENTRANCE, NSW Summer City Rumble #9: Car show, trade…

MY PASSION FOR HOLDEN VANS STARTED AS A KID,WATCHING MY OLDER BROTHER’S MATES DRIVINGAROUND IN TOUGH-SOUNDING VANS FOR many of us, the cars we desire later in life are the cars that inspired us in our formative years, and so it goes with Doug MacDonald and his HG panel van. “My passion for Holden vans started as a kid, around 14 years old,” Doug says, “watching my older brother’s mates driving around in tough-sounding vans and hearing stories about all the good times they had with them.” Doug wanted part of that dream, so when he finally got his licence and a bit of money in his pocket, he ended up buying a van from his brother’s mate. “I kept it original, tidied it up and drove it for a…

YOU CAN CHOOSE WHETHER YOUR CAR USES A STRETCHED FX OR FJ GRILLE, AND WHETHER IT PULLS IN THE VISUAL CUES OF A HIGH-TECH ROD OR A CLASSIC LEAD SLED HERE comes a stupid question: Do you remember EFIJY? Of course you do. The showstopping, Holden-built tribute to the FJ humpy knocked the ball out of the park both here and overseas when it hit the show circuit in the middle of last decade, even taking home trophies Stateside. So, a proper one-off, then? And definitely not something you or I could ever get our hands on? Er, hold the weddin’ judge. You might soon be able to buy yourself either a turn-key or DIY kit version of more or less the same thing. The bloke behind this grand scheme…

ADDING TO MARK’S GLORY IS THE FACT HE’S A FIRST-TIMER AT SUMMERNATS WITH HIS TONNER, AND THE FIRST WEST AUSSIE TO EARN GRAND CHAMP APPARENTLY, when you reach 30 you’re meant to grow up, but that’s advice that most of us in the street machining scene have ignored. Why settle down, kick back and be all sensible when there’s still plenty of fun to be had? The same can be said for Street Machine Summernats. Not many events can survive for three decades, especially at the same venue, but while it’s a much different event now to what it was back in 1988, at its core, it’s still a party for people from all walks of life that have one thing in common – a love of cars. The…

THE 2017 Summernats Burnout Masters promised to be the toughest skid fest Australia had ever seen – and rightly so. It’s supposed to be the best of the best, where anything less than perfection won’t cut it. It was a long, hard road to even make it to the final, particularly if you were one of the 24 combatants battling it out on Thursday afternoon in the Last Chance Wildcard Shootout for one of only four spots remaining in the Masters comp. In the end, Nathan Sutherland in his blown LS-powered Commodore, Craig Whiddett in his new blown LS car MUTINY, Jono Kelly’s VK Commodore, and Summernats debutant Sam Surace’s blown and injected 408ci Ford-powered Capri scored the last four prized Masters golden tickets. Saturday was when things got serious…

WE WANTED TO PROVIDE AN ENGINE THAT WASAS RIDICULOUS AS THE CARS THEY WOULDBE GOING INTO EVEN if Mike Heim’s ’67 Camaro wasn’t powered by an Aussie-designed and built custom V12 engine, we’d probably still feature it just because of how wild it looks. Based off an LS1, the motor is the brainchild of brothers Matt and Shane Corish, a couple of Aussie blokes who love an engineering challenge and figured the market was lacking an engine that could live up to some of the wild machines people were creating. As Shane explains: “We realised there was a real gap in the market for people here in the USA modifying cars. They’re doing some really crazy shit out there now, but the engines are still crate engines. We wanted…

ADAM ROGASH WOUND UP THE BOOST, AND BANG – THE FRONT WHEELS WERE FOUR FEET IN THE AIR AND THE CAR WAS RIDING ON THE REAR BUMPER PORTLAND’S eighth-mile South Coast Raceway is one of our favourite country tracks. It’s run by a tight-knit group of genuine racing enthusiasts who get the track prepped to perfection every time we’re there. That’s why we had it down as one of our tracks for Street Machine Drag Challenge 2016, but big rain turned the pits into mud and we were forced elsewhere. The MPW LS Nationals was South Coast Raceway’s first event back since the place had dried out, so we were keen to check it out. Adam Rogash and Luke Foley from MPW were inspired by the old LS1 Nationals at…

WE REPLACED THE TIRED 186CI WITH AN HP BLOCK, BORED OUT TO 192 CUBES. IT’S RUNNING TRIPLE WEBERS AND A GILMER BELT DRIVE, SO YOU REALLY HEAR MY EH COMING! LOUISE Brownlee fits neatly into the brought-up-right box when it comes to cars. She spent her formative years working on early Holdens in the shed with her dad, and thanks to a nomadic army-family life, she visited car shows all around Australia. These days Louise well and truly bleeds Holden-red, and after years of grooming, this EH is her chosen steed. Neat EH, Louise! Thanks. I pretty much looked all over Australia for one. Then I ended up finding this two-owner ’64 EH parked out the front of the Bendigo Swap Meet 15 years ago. I rang the lady and…

> GAG OF THE MONTH SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY A MAN walks into a bar in the American Deep South and orders a white wine. All at once, the hillbillies sitting around the bar stop chatting and look up from their beer and whiskey. The bartender says: “You ain’t from around here, are ya?” “No, I’m from Canada,” the man replies. “Canada!” the bartender snorts. “And what do you do in Canada?” “I’m a taxidermist,” the man says. The bartender says: “A taxidermist? What in the hell is a taxidermist? Do you drive a taxi or sumthin’?” “No,” the Canadian replies. “I don’t drive a taxi, I mount animals.” The bartender grins and hollers: “It’s okay boys, he’s one of us!” Eilyke Kritters, email > FUNNY FOTO LONG TIME NO SEE BOB…

IF THERE’S one thing street machiners love more than fast cars, it’s free beer. On the Thursday evening of each Street Machine Summernats, we traditionally throw a shindig at a local Canberra watering hole while the deadset champions at Valvoline pick up the tab, and a good time is always had. It’s an opportunity to catch up with mates, feature-car owners and clients, as well as bestow two of the most meaningful accolades in our sport: the Valvoline Street Machine Of The Year award and the Laurie Starling Memorial Student Scholarship Award. It’s the hottest ticket in town, and our Summernats VIP Experience competition winners Colin and Belinda Osmond relished the opportunity to rub shoulders with the royalty of our sport. This year the time-honoured gathering again took place at…

THE NSW government has launched a new concessional registration scheme – known as the Classic Vehicle Scheme, or CVS – for non-standard cars and motorcycles at least 30 years old. It is in addition to the existing Historic Conditional Registration Scheme (HCRS) for stock or restored cars, which continues in its current form. Both are club-based logbook schemes, allowing for 60 days private use per year in addition to gazetted club events, at savings compared to full rego that you won’t believe. “Motoring enthusiasts in NSW have many fabulous older vehicles that they want to enjoy on the roads for limited personal use, and have others enjoy seeing these vehicles in their natural environment,” the Minister for Roads, Maritime & Freight, Duncan Gay, told Street Machine. “It was my intention…

A LOVE of cars generally evolves from fairly standard influences: Family, friends or rides you see on the streets or TV can all trigger the passion, but for Todd Swinscoe the obsession for everything automotive came from an unlikely source: wallpaper. “Yep, that’s right,” Todd laughs. “I was three or four, and my folks covered my bedroom walls in a print that featured cars like Stutz Bearcats and Model A Fords; I was surrounded by it day and night.” So began a journey that’s seen Todd own more than his fair share of neat rides in his 41 years. Here are a few he remembers fondly. 01: TODD’S nanna bought him a book on exotic cars for his sixth birthday. “I read that thing inside out and back to front,”…

FORD got it 100 per cent right with the XA-XC Falcon hardtops. It’s one of the nicest-looking shapes ever penned in this country – and certainly looks the business in GT livery. Bosko Serkinic, the owner of this stunning Red Pepper XB GT, certainly agrees, having spent 10 long years tracking down and returning this genuine coupe to better than new. Having previously owned a GXL with 351 and nine-inch, an XD ESP, and a Red Pepper XB GT sedan, Bosko went looking for an XA or XB GT hardtop as his next project. “I spotted this one online,” he says. “I drove seven hours from Wollongong up to Coonamble to look at it, then seven hours home again. I made a couple of offers over the next few days…

I WAS LOOKING AT PUTTING A 434CI SMALL-BLOCK CHEV IN IT, BUT THEN I WENT FOR A SPIN IN HARRY HAIG’S TURBOED BIG-BLOCK HQ AND WAS BITTEN BY THE TURBO BUG GEELONG’S Trav Grace has a deep-seated affinity for tri-five Chevys that dates back to his formative years. “My cousin, Paul Henderson, owned the ex-Super Plus ’55 Chev that ran 11-second passes back in the early 80s,” he says. This connection to such a storied ’55 Chev kick-started an enduring appreciation for the model and Trav has owned several in the years since, but none have been built and refined to the level of his current toy. He’s owned this one since 2011, when his wife spotted it advertised for sale by the Volo Auto Museum in Volo, Illinois. He…

WITH a record pool of over 2500 entrants and a dazzling level of quality, you wouldn’t be a judge at Street Machine Summernats 30 for quids. And with the sheer volume of competition this year, it could be argued that being awarded an Elite Top 60 berth meant more at Summernats 30 than it ever has before. As if to really hammer home just what an honour it is to occupy a parking space in the hall, this year’s finalists were flanked by 30 of the most pivotal cars of Summernats past, including the Howard Astill-built ROCK 3 Falcon, Peter Fitzpatrick’s six-time Grand Champion-winning FC Holden, and Rob Godfrey’s TOYTON HQ one-tonner, which has both Tuff Street and Grand Champion wins to its name. The magnitude of the occasion was…

THE dyno hall was packed solid for Summernats 30, with dozens of punters through the door to see what power their car makes. Adam Rogash and the MPW Performance boys were running the Horsepower Heroes show this year and, while they only had one dynamometer compared to the previous year’s twin set-up, they got through heaps of cars. While we saw strong results from turbo fours and sixes, everyone was hanging out for the top-dog forced-induction V8 class, which saw a familiar face back in the hall. 2008 Horsepower Hero Craig Munro brought back his legendary twin-turbo TRYHRD HSV VX ClubSport to have a tilt at knocking off Jake Edwards and his 2000hp LH Torana. But it didn’t all go to plan. With a new twin-turbo LS combo in the…

TWO years ago, the Street Machine crew visited Japan to discover just how special the Mooneyes Yokohama Hot Rod & Custom Show is. A dozen or so Aussies attended that 23rd running of the event and were simply blown away by the sensory delights on show. Fast-forward to December 2016 and we were thrilled to be heading back again – but this time with a handful of homegrown entrants in the show. 2016 marked the 25th anniversary of Shige Suganuma’s Mooneyes show – and I can confidently report that it is still just as impressive as ever. With 300 cars and 650 motorbikes proudly on display, there was never a shortage of stuff to look at – 60s and 70s-style customs, rods and bikes were still a huge hit, and…

NOT everyone has a fat stack of cash to spend on modified cars, and it always amazes me what some blokes are capable of with sheer determination and a little (or a lot) of lateral thinking. Take West Aussie Jason Berard’s Torana, for example, which is actually a UC that has been converted to an LX! You see, 25 years ago he was cruising around in an LX Torry, and like a lot of people back then, he sold it for next to nothing. These days, with three young kids to feed and with the prices that some of the hatches are fetching now, purchasing another one was pretty much out of the question. What Jason could afford, however, was a basket-case UC Torana that came with a rear LX…

OSTOJA PEKIC 1973 HOLDEN LJ TORANA “THIS is my 1973 LJ Torana. Years ago I had a minor accident in it, and that’s how this build started. I thought if I’m going to repair it, I may as well repaint it a different colour, and that’s when it snowballed into what it is today. The heartbeat is a Holden 308 stroked to 355ci, with a COME Racing crank, Crane cam, Torque Power intake and cast VN heads. Being a streeter, it has a solid Powerglide, running to a nine-inch diff with 3:9 gears. JL Racecars installed the mini-tubs and six-point rollcage. Wheels are 15x4 Weld Racing V-Series up front and 15x8 Billet Specialties Comp 5s on the rear. The LJ has standard front suspension, coil-over rear and factory boxed control…

BREAKDOWN VEHICLES: 1973 Chevrolet C10, 1974 Chevrolet Impala, 1974 Ford Galaxie 500, 1970 Mercedes-Benz, 1976 Pontiac Trans Am, 1977 Pontiac Firebird, 1970 Triumph Bonneville, 1963 Cadillac Fleetwood STARS: Ryan O’Neal, Bruce Dern, Isabelle Adjani, Ronee Blakley, Joseph Walsh DIRECTOR: Walter Hill ACTION: Fast-paced, high-impact, big-city car chases are all the better for the unusual inclusion of a Chevy C10 pick-up broadsiding to the max. The absolute flogging of a Mercedes sedan in a basement car park mixes awesome driver skill with gratifying destruction PLOT: A professional getaway driver is locked in the crosshairs of a crooked cop, who stakes his career on taking the driver down SOME flicks rely on the ‘less is more’ philosophy to provide quality entertainment, while others saturate the viewer with non-stop action and a constant…

MASTER BLASTERS CONGRATS to Steve Nogas, who took out the Street Machine Summernats 30 Burnout Masters comp in his KILLA-B blown Camaro. His perfectly executed skid in the elimination round put him in the Top 10 for Sunday’s final, where he combined massive smoke with inch-perfect precision and used every corner of the pad to take the win. But it’s fair to say Steve had some pretty stout competition on the day. Andrew Lynch in the LYNCHY Corolla, for instance, put in one of the best burnouts we’ve seen from him, though in the end he only managed fourth place. But judging from the reaction on our Facebook page, quite a few of you thought he should have taken top honours. Clint Webb – First off, congrats to Steve Nogas.…

THE PRI SHOW IS SEMA’S STRIPPED-DOWN, HARDCORE BROTHER. IT’S ABOUT ANYTHING THAT MAKES YOU GO REALLY FAST AFTER SEMA rolls past each year, the truly devout horsepower addicts wait until December when the winter temps drop below zero for the annual Performance Racing Industry Trade Show in Indianapolis. The PRI Show has been leading the way for high-performance racing since its inception in 1988, and now hosts over 1200 exhibitors and 48,000 industry members each year in the Indianapolis Convention Center. The event is now owned by SEMA, so you could consider PRI as SEMA’s stripped-down, hardcore brother. It’s not about selling 24-inch rims and fuzzy dice; it’s about blowers, race engines and just about anything that makes you go really, really fast. Like SEMA, the three-day PRI Show is…

EVEN WITH THE RESTRICTIVE ROAD PIPES ON, THE COBRA HAS PLENTY OF POKE. I CAN TELL IT WILL BE A WHOLE MESS OF FUN ONCE WE GET IT OUT ON A TWISTY COUNTRY ROAD JUST over six months ago, I found myself in the driveway of Python Vehicles Australia, looking at a bare tube chassis and a bare AC Cobra replica body. Since then, Python has been my second home, and now, after following along every step of the way, I’m about to drive the completed car. We’ve spent the day down at the VIPAC testing facility, to watch the Sidchrome Cobra undergo its emissions test. The bright red beast passed with flying colours and Python head mechanic Joe Imperatori is relieved and happy that the project is nearing its…

THE weather gods were pretty forgiving this year at Summernats; it was still warm, but nothing like it’d been in previous years. But that all changed once the Burnout Championships started running, with quite a few cars lighting up the pad – and the signage and the odd fireman – in an epic show of horsepower, driving ability and outright craziness. There were so many cars entered that the burnout qualifying went over two days – Friday and Saturday – with well over 100 cars hitting the pad on the first day before time ran out, leaving another dozen or so cars having to wait until Saturday for their qualifying tilt. I lost count of how many more came through the next day – I’ve got notes on another 60…

A GROUP of New Zealanders dubbed Kiwi Carnage came to share in the Summernats 30 experience and went away with a ton of great memories, new mates, and a collective desire to give the burnout scene across the Tasman a good kick in the pants. “New Zealand tends to get forgotten about when it comes to doing burnouts, but these guys here have got too much talent for us not to come here and show that we can do it as well,” said Liz Gracie, who did a lot of the heavy lifting to pull this team together and get them and their vehicles across the water. Their 40-strong crew of family and friends were camped around five killer burnout cars – Liz and husband Ryan’s EVIL 69 Camaro, Shane…

EVERYONE relax. Devout Charger racer and stripy Valiant aficionado Brad Keem hasn’t retired his inappropriately named SLO265 gold VH; he just chose a more sedate mode of transportation to enjoy the 2016 Street Machine Drag Challenge. “I killed the VH on Day Five of Drag Challenge 2015,” Brad says. “I finished the event but blew the turbo and did a heap of engine damage as a result, so figured it was time to take 12 months off.” And it’s a well-deserved break. Brad has spent the better part of a decade developing SLO into arguably Australia’s quickest street Hemi, running a best of 9.20@143mph with its turbocharged 265-cuber before being sidelined. “I’m planning a fresh combination that will hopefully see it dip into the eights,” Brad says. “But I was…

IT SEEMS the internet is awash with people asking the best way to put an LS V8 into an old Holden – mainly HQ-WB – but it’s hard to get a definitive answer from the chorus of opinions coming back. So we decided to give it a go ourselves, aiming to get an LS V8 and transmission mounted, wired and plumbed to run in a day. My mate Scotty Barter had planned on sticking a cammed 5.7 LS1 and Tremec T56 six-speed manual into his HJ Sandman van, but couldn’t resist a cheap supercharged LSA crate motor when it popped up. This was where his dad Richard’s HJ one-tonner came into the picture. Scotty wanted to give his dad’s commercial a big birthday; Richard has owned his HJ since new…

01 BRACKET RACING TUFF Mounts unveiled this laser-cut 6061 aluminium bracket at Summernats 30. It has been specially designed to mount aftermarket fuel pressure regulators to the front of any LS motor using the top two bolts of the factory timing cover. As you’d expect from the blokes at Tuff Mounts, it’s Australian-designed and made, and it’ll fit first time, every time. The brackets are available in a variety of finishes and priced from $38.50. For more information visit www.tuffmounts.com.au. 02 TAKE CHARGE LOOKING for more grunt from your Coyote Mustang GT? Well the guys at Edelbrock now have their E-Force Stage 1 Supercharger Kit that’ll take your factory manual 435hp 5.0L Muzzy up to a monstrous 690hp at the flywheel – seriously impressive gains for a bolt-on kit. In…

IT’S AN ANGRY LITTLE THING. AT THE ’NATS BURNOUTS I STARTED IN THIRD GEAR AT 7000RPM, BUT HAD TO DROP BACK TO SECOND BECAUSE THE TYRES WEREN’T MAKING ENOUGH SMOKE. EVENTUALLY IT STALLED ON ME JUSTIN GOLDSWORTHY is one of those young guys that make you realise the future of the car scene is in good hands. He’s an apprentice fitter and machinist, and he’s not afraid to break out the grinder or welder; he tubbed this Ford XP Falcon Deluxe himself and basically built it from the ground up. “Dad bought the car when he was just 19,” Justin says. “He gave it to me when I was 16.” That was three years ago. In that time Justin has painted it, done an engine conversion, tubbed it and a…