Innehållsförteckning för November 2018 från Street Machine

THE eighth edition of our Street Machine LSX Tuner mag is on sale now, packed with incredible feature cars, tech tips, engine swaps, and the best performance parts to wake up your LS motor! As always, the Street Machine LS tuning engine bible is a must-have for anyone looking to modify their LS-powered vehicle – from mild to wild. Our cover star for this mag is Nathan Borg’s immaculate genuine HDT LE VL Commodore. Yep, this monster was originally a very tidy HDT turbo six car, and it now houses a 440ci Dart LS Next with twin turbos. Nathan’s name might be familiar to street machiners, as his last big build was a little red Datsun ute dubbed HRDWRK, which won Grand Champion at Summernats 28. For his VL build,…

’DERE HUNTER GOD I hope you guys do a feature on Tony Netzel’s ’61 Plymouth Belvedere (below and right) from the Powercruise USA feature (SM, Oct ’18). The pro street styling takes me back to the late 80s and early 90s. Brilliant! Paris Riskos, via Facebook LANEWAY FESTIVAL I NOTICED that Summernats is intending to implement another lane for burnout enthusiasts. I thought of some names for the new lane; not sure if they’re any good, but here are a couple of names that could work for you: 1. Skid Row 2. Sidewayz 3. Slippig (slippage) 4. Burn4You 5. Let Loose 6. Let It Rip 7. The Haze Anyway, hope it helps! Robert Tripp, email THANKS mate! I think Skid Row is the unofficial winner! – Telfo PLANKKING  G’DAY, Brian…

CAST your mind back to 1992; those with long memories will remember a story we ran called Hot Tuner, about a young Queenslander making waves with EFI. Well, a quarter of a century later, that same quietly spoken, good-humoured and very personable bloke, Jeff Pye of J&J Fuel Injection, hasn’t looked back. We spoke with Jeff as he celebrates 30 years in business as J&J, reminiscing about his early days and delving into his latest build. I RACED MY OWN RAIL POWERED BY A 138 GREY WITH METHANOL-FED TRIPLES; IT RAN 11.80S AT SURFERS How did your passion for cars and tinkering with mechanical stuff begin? I started pumping gas at the local garage when I was 12 years old and was taken on as an apprentice there at 14.…

AKE a moment to drink in that glowing T turquoise and all the factory brightwork sparkling in the sun. Feast your eyes on those ruler-straight panels, the serious suspension and extensive chassis work. Yep, Mat Salvador’s XM Falcon is one stunning street machine, but needless to say, it wasn’t always so neat. Our story begins in 1995 with a crusty garden ornament and a 15-year-old with a dream. “I went to look at the car with my brother-in-law Keijo, and it was shocking,” Mat remembers. “It was all different colours, the interior was screwed, every single orifice was filled with pine needles and there was grass growing out of the gutters. We offered the guy 250 bucks and took it home that arvo. “I worked on it every chance I…

MULLETS. Acid-washed denim. Shoulder pads. Fluoro. All things that we’re very glad didn’t make it past the end of the 80s. But fat-tyred, flared and drop-tanked Toranas? Thankfully, they’ll never go out of style. I LIKED THE WAY TORANAS WERE DONE IN THE 1980S: THE HALF’CAGE, THE RECARO SEATS, THE SIMMONS RIMS AND ALL THAT “I always liked the way, to this day, Toranas were done in the 1980s,” says Jason Sandner, owner of this tough LX sedan. “You know – the half-’cage, the Recaro-type seats, the Simmons rims and all that. I just thought that it’s a look doesn’t age, so we took it and put a modern twist on it.” When you take in this Opaline Blue beauty, it’s clear that there’s plenty of old-school racing influence, with…

SINCE 1948, the Bonneville salt flats in Utah, USA, have played host to much failure and heartbreak. Yet despite knowing this, year after year hundreds of land speed racing enthusiasts roll out onto its milky white surface in the name of speed. Considering the environmental and mechanical hurdles that need to be conquered, land speed racing can be a painful sport, but chat to anyone suiting up in the sweltering heat at Bonneville and they’ll tell you their pilgrimage to the promised land has been worth it. CHAT TO ANYONE AT BONNEVILLE AND THEY’LL TELL YOU THEIR PILGRIMAGE TO THE PROMISED LAND HAS BEEN WORTH IT This year’s Speed Week boasted healthier salt conditions than in recent memory, and with an added fourth course to the now-customary three (long, short,…

“IT WENT 7.000 ON THE LAST PASS AND I WAS REALLY HAPPY, BUT ALSO DISHEARTENED. I KNOW IT’S GOING TO RUN A SIX, AS THE COMBO CAN MAKE A LOT MORE POWER” I BELIEVE Frank Marchese from Dandy Engines can lay claim to the contentious title of Australia’s quickest street car, after the twin-turbo XW Fairmont he owns with Dandy boss Lou Iudica ran 7.000@203mph with a stock chassis and stock rear floorpan on a 275 radial! When the car was built three years ago, the talk of it running into the sixes seemed insane, but with every meeting this 450ci small-block Ford-powered machine gets better and better. “We have had the same tune in the car for three years; it’s just been reliability that has let us down,” Frank…

WHEN I WAS ABOUT 20 I HEARD A BRIDGE-PORTED 13B GO PAST AND LOVED THE SOUND AMONGST a sea of European supercars, high-revving Jap sports cars, and Aussie and US muscle at Motul Racewars sat the bright blue ’53 Morris panel van of Ian Latta. Talk about standing out like the proverbial dog’s balls! It had some widened steel wheels and an exhaust that exited just in front of the rear wheel, but that’s about the only hint you got that something special might be hiding under the bonnet. At a guess, I would have said a hot Holden six, maybe even a V6, or possibly an SR20 or some kind of turbocharged four-cylinder. Well, it was Japanese and it was turbocharged, but I would never have thought of a…

WOLFGANG BACKER XY FAIRMONT AROUND 14 years ago, Wolfgang Backer had a magazine photo on his fridge – a black XY Falcon, the type of car that dreams are made of. Yet sitting metres away in his garage was an XY Fairmont that was more of a nightmare than a dream. “The car was a dog’s breakfast,” Wolfgang says. “Stuff was held in with Tek screws and cable ties and it didn’t run well at all. The saving grace was the reasonably sound body and the fact it was a factory Fairmont, which was important to me.” Around 10 years ago, Wolfie’s cousin, Simon Woodley, did him a massive favour and helped panel and paint the car for free. Of course, the car was going to be black – just…

NO MERCY and its sister meeting, Lights Out, are the Super Bowl of radial-tyre drag racing in the USA. Promoted by Donald ‘Duck’ Long, the events are held at South Georgia Motorsports Park and attract epic fields of competitors to race over the eighth-mile. This year we had a bumper crop of Aussie racers competing, with Wade Wagstaff and Jeremy ‘Jet’ Martin both sending cars across the pond, while Harry Haig scored an invite to participate after Drag Week and Jarrod Wood copped a guest steer of a US-based car. Expat Aussie Milos Pavlovic rounded out the contingent in the AAP Mustang. Jet and his VB Commodore were the stars of the show. He’d won the Grudge Kings at Sydney Dragway a couple of months beforehand and immediately stuck the…

19-21 OCT, ADELAIDE, SA HK-HT-HG Holden Nationals, various locations in Adelaide. Contact hkhthgcarclubofsa@gmail.com. 20 OCT, EPPING, VIC Northern Classic Cruisers Charity Car Show, 195 Harvest Home Road. Visit Northern Classic Cruiser on Facebook. 20 OCT, WARRNAMBOOL, VIC Bike & Rod Run, Warrnambool to Halls Gap to Woolsthorpe. Contact bikeandrodrun2018@gmail.com. 20 OCT, POORAKA, SA Burst Of Freshness Charity Meet, Adelaide Produce Market. Contact Frank 0418 890 405. 20 OCT, WODONGA, VIC Utes & Classics On The Murray Show ’n’ Shine, The Causeway. Contact Craig 0427 605 613. 20-21 OCT, KIALLA, VIC HSCCA Statesman Nationals, Shepparton Motor Museum.Visit statesmannats.com. 21 OCT, PENRITH, NSW All Chrysler Day, Museum of Fire.Visit allchryslerday.com. 21 OCT, TRAFALGAR, VIC Gippsland Holden Festival, Trafalgar Holden Museum, Waterloo Road. Contact Neil 0418 512 239. 21 OCT, COOROY, QLD Cooroy…

SHOOT TO THRILL HI GUYS, just a suggestion for a section or competition for car photography (amateurs only). Maybe the prize could be that at the end of the year the winner gets to hang out with the guys photographing Street Machine Of The Year and/or Summernats? It would be minimal cost to you guys and lots of good publicity for the car shows that are out and around, and I think just hanging out with your guys and seeing professional automotive photographers work would mean you could learn a lot and meet some great people. These pictures are ones that I took at the EH Club of NSW car show. None of the cars are mine; sadly my EJ ute and wagon have been in storage for 13 years,…

CHUCKING fat laps of your local cruise spot is a rite of passage for gearheads all over the world, and it was this experience that led to the creation of Daryl O’Sullivan’s amazing HK Kingswoodute. The LSX-fed two-door commercial has been smoothed and shaved, packing awesome sheet-metal work and engineering like air conditioning, a full chassis and all power accessories under the fresh metal skin. The Kingswood’s new tarmac-hugging, slick finish is thanks to Chris Wells and the team at BMV Engineering on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, though the story of Daryl’sute starts many years before. “I grew up in a country town called Tumut,” says Daryl. “Everyone used to cut laps on a Friday night, which is what we did back then, and that street scene is what inspired me.…

THE reaction to Chris Dicker’s HZ ute could best be described as polarising. With the bonnet shut, most people would just see a pretty tidy Sandman ute, then they’d probably figure out that the Sandman stripes seem to morph into an XW GT stripe at the front of the car. With the bonnet up, the lightbulb moment happens a bit more quickly, as people can clearly see that the straight-six engine is most definitely not a 202! Chris covered the build on his FG Holden Ute Facebook page, with some posts garnering hundreds of comments. “There’s been some pretty nasty stuff, but most people are cool with it,” Chris says. “I’d say about two-thirds of the people like it, most people are okay with it, 10 per cent love it,…

AFTER GOING TO SUMMERNATS A FEW TIMES, I GOT THE BUG TO STEP THINGS UP A BIT MORE THOSE of you who love burnouts should be no stranger to this car and its 29-year-old driver, Matt Watts. Matt has been cruising and abusing this Torana ever since he got his licence. Inspired by photos he’d seen of his dad’s LC XU-1 as a kid, Matt dragged this one home from country Victoria at the tender age of 16 and proceeded to hot it up, firstly with a very tough, circuit racing-spec naturally aspirated combo before upping the ante and adding a blower about four years ago. “Everything I’ve focused on has been to make it go better,” Matt says. “When I was 20 I built the first engine for it,…

CALDER PARK 12 NOV SM Drag Challenge 16 NOV SM Drag Challenge calderpark.com.au Phone (03) 9091 0777 SYDNEY DRAGWAY 20 OCT ATURA Championships 24 OCT Race 4 Real 25 OCT Smoke ’n’ Skidz 27 OCT Test ’n’ Tune 31 OCT Race 4 Real 02-03 NOV East Coast Thunder 07 NOV Race 4 Real 09 NOV Mega Meet 14 NOV Race 4 Real sydneydragway.com.au Phone (02) 9421 0700 WILLOWBANK 20 OCT Test ’n’ Tune 26 OCT Test ’n’ Tune 27 OCT Nitro Funny Cars 27 OCT Qld Championships 31 OCT Test ’n’ Tune 03 NOV Test ’n’ Tune 04 NOV Nostalgia Drags & Hot Rod Reunion 09 NOV Test ’n’ Tune willowbankraceway.com.au Phone (07) 5461 5461 HEATHCOTE RACEWAY 03-04 NOV El Disaster Drags ’n’ Show heathcoteraceway.com.au Phone 0416 072 478 PERTH…

THE CANADIAN FALCON GRILLE IS REALLY RARE. THEY’RE ABOUT $1000 ON EBAY, BUT I FOUND THIS ON A FACEBOOK GROUP FOR $100! PHOTOS SIMON DAVIDSON LEWIS Cromey is a young bloke with a lot of style. He’s been cruising around in this well-worn, super-cool and very low XM Falcon ute since he first got his licence. Usually, that means there’s a little guidance and assistance from a more experienced person, and that’s definitely the case with Lewis, as his dad Alasdair usually parks his even cooler and even lower ’55 F100 right next to Lewis’s XM when they go out cruising. Born in the UK, Lewis came over here pretty young, so he even sounds like a proper Aussie now. Tell us a bit about your dad. He was a…

“IT LOCKED UP AND WENT SIDEWAYS FOLLOWED BY A BIG BURNING SMELL, SO I SHUT IT ALL DOWN AND LAUNCHED MYSELF OUT OF THE CAR” I FIRST met Cara Bertoli at the 2007 Adelaide Gazzanats, where she rocked up in her R34 Skyline ready for her first-ever go-to-whoa. Later, a change of workplace to Holden in Elizabeth altered her automotive palate, while her extracurricular activity became centred around drag racing. What she’s endured in the pursuit of quick times would be enough to have most packing up their bat and ball, yet Cara just gets on with it, returning more determined than ever. When did you get Yellow, your HZ ute? I bought her late in 2011 as a $500 roller off Gumtree, after writing off my previous car while…

WHEN your deep-seated passions are Australiana and cars, it’s likely you’ll combine the two to include some ripper Aussie rides in your collection. Lane Parsons grew up knee-deep in cars thanks to the guidance of his father, Neville (Snap Shots, SM, Jul and Sep ’18), and has been tinkering with all things automotive now for more than 40 years. 01: START ’em young: That’s Lane as a young tacker standing next to his father, Neville, with brothers Derin (coming through the windscreen) and Kim (at the kerb) helping to pull the donk out of this wrecked Morrie van. “That’s how you raise three car-mad boys!” Lane laughs. “Dad used the motor for his convertible after buying the van from an impound lot that was located directly under the Story Bridge…

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE FACT I HAVE A SEVEN-SECOND CAR THAT I CAN PUT MY FAMILY IN AND CRUISE LIKE A REGULAR CAR DRIVE to the track, run a quick number, then drive home again. It’s the goal of many, but with a best of 7.84@177mph, along with several other solid seven-second passes, few have achieved it so emphatically as Bobi Mircevski and his gorgeous black Falcon, 1BADXY. “I absolutely love the fact I have a seven-second car that I can put my family in and cruise like a regular car,” Bobi says. “We cruise it everywhere – in 35-degree heat, in the rain! My wife Lydia and daughters Emily and Mia love going cruising in it just as much as I do. Lydia even drives it!” To further reinforce…

WHILE CAR TRAILERS ARE HANDY, IT’S MUCH MORE FUN TO LEAVE THEM BEHIND AND JUST DRIVE YOUR RACE CAR BEFORE the first Red CentreNATS was held in Alice Springs in 2015, the idea of having a major car show in the middle of Australia was preposterous. Who in their right mind would drive or tow their car all that way? Turns out, plenty of people – including me! In fact, this year’s event pulled 802 entrants from all corners of the country and more than 15,000 spectators. That first year I drove out in the EJ in the company of a bunch of mates in much faster cars than mine. Then in 2016 I flew there and realised that at least half the fun of Red CentreNATS is in the…

THE success of the Sunset Strip Nostalgia events stems from two key ingredients: the intimate country setting in Mildura in north-west Victoria, and the community spirit of Australian grassroots drag racing. Further adding to the ambiance are the dedicated drag cars in 60s-70s livery – heavy metalflake, enamelled signwriting and bold, era-correct colourings. It’s a scene that really gets you in the mood for some spectacular eighth-mile battles. For the Sunraysia Drag Racing Association’s third Nostalgia meet, the pre-’78 entries were capped at 120 (up from 105 last year) and were filled some seven weeks prior. “This year was a lot bigger to organise,” said a tired yet proud Kingsley Kuchel, SDRA president. “But as with any of our events, all of the volunteers worked their backsides off to run…

THE BULLET HOLE-RIDDEN PACER HAD PATINA BY THE SEMITRAILER LOAD FROM SPENDING ALMOST 30 YEARS IN THE BUSH IT’S not often that the most talked-about car at a car show is also the worst-looking one, but that was definitely the case with David Rawnsley’s bullet hole-ridden VG Pacer hardtop at this year’s Red CentreNATS. This thing had patina by the semi-trailer load from spending almost 30 years in the bush not far from Aileron, a little town about two hours out of Alice. “I moved to Alice Springs in 2002 and heard about a Mustard Pacer dumped north of town,” David says. “All my questions fell on no one knowing the car; then, in about 2009 a mate through Valiant circles mentioned his dad had seen one north-west of Alice…

MATT was inspired to head down the blown six route by Matty Arnott’s BLO006 LC Torana, which we ran in Readers’ Rockets in the March 1995 issue of Street Machine, and it was also featured in Torana Mania.“I had a picture of that car on my wall; I was just so taken by it as a kid because it was so different,” says Matt. We’re happy to report that after parting ways with the car a long time ago, Matty Arnott has bought it back and is in the process of restoring it to period-correct glory. We’ll keep you in the loop with its progress.…

“PHIL EDMONDSON’S XB COUPE STRUGGLED WITH TRACTION FOR A LOT OF THE DAY, BUT STILL MANAGED TO RUN IN THE EIGHTS” A GOOD number of Blue Ovally-inclined Street Machine Drag Challenge competitors took the opportunity to limber up for DC 2018 at the inaugural Ford-Powered Nationals. The Heathcote event was run by Todd ‘Axle’ Foley, who’d identified an opportunity to apply the proven formula he developed for the Holden-Powered Nationals to an event for the Ford set. And some big-hitters turned up. Frank Marchese from Dandy Engines fronted with the XW Fairmont he owns with Dandy boss Lou Iudica, and while the track wasn’t up to the flat-seven-second pace that recently earned it the mantle of Australia’s quickest street car [as Arby discusses in Urban Warfare, page 126], it ran…

“I HAVE A FANTASTIC HENRY FORD STEEL BODY, WHICH I’LL BE CHOPPING AND CHANNELLING OVER THE ORIGINAL ’34 CHASSIS. UP FRONT I’M SLOTTING IN A 1954 331CI HEMI” WHEN it comes to keeping focus solely on my project car, I am like a cop driving past the doughnut store, distracted by the prospect of instant gratification instead of concentrating on the task at hand. And I’m not the only one; distraction and temptation seem to plague any enthusiast with multiple projects on the go, fanciful daydreams taking you away from what should be your primary focus: the in-pieces build that’s begging for your attention. For me it’s the ’34 Ford three-window coupe project sitting in the shed that pleads for my time and money. It’s an intensive build, as most…

01 BRIGHT SPARK THERE’S no point having a big, powerful donk if there’s not enough spark to light the fire. LS engines are particularly well known for killing spark leads, so Aeroflow has come up with a new solution. The new XPRO 8.5mm sparkplug wire sets come ready to plug onto LS1- and LS2-series engines, and with their durable silicon sleeve and EPDM outer cover, they’ll be able to give your LS all the spark it needs. Find out more at aeroflowperformance.com. 02 GOT LIFT? ENGINE cranes have long made the life of the backyard tinkerer a whole lot easier, and now Hare & Forbes has released its latest crane to take it to the next level. The new crane will now lift up to 1000kg, has a double-acting hydraulic…

DREAM ON A WOMAN was taking an afternoon nap. When she woke up, she told her husband: “I just dreamed that you gave me a diamond ring. What do you think it means?” “You’ll find out tonight,” the husband replied. That evening, the man came home with a small package and gave it to his wife. Delighted, she opened the box. Inside was a book entitled The Meaning Of Dreams. G Thanx, email MAJOR PROBLEM A MAJOR arrives at a remote post. “Where’s your lieutenant?” he asks a private. “Sir, there isn’t a lieutenant assigned to this post,” the private replies. “I was told there was.” “No, sir, no lieutenant here.” “I’m pretty sure there is.” The private thinks about it for a moment. “Well, Major, if I may ask…