Innehållsförteckning för March 2019 från Street Machine

THE Australian Army’s Team Army project vehicles have been doing the event rounds for years now, with the ‘Project Digger’ Ford LTD and six-wheel-drive Land Rover, ‘Armygeddon’, wowing crowds and smoking rubber since the mid-2000s, and soon they’ll have a new stablemate to play with. Dubbed ‘TsunArmy’, Team Army’s latest project car is a 2014 Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen. This particular car was initially part of the Army’s vehicle-testing fleet, where it was damaged during the gruelling trials. Rather than scrap the sorry remains, Team Army decided to turn the six-wheel-drive Mercedes into a mean burnout machine as its new showcase car. While the G-Wagen will spin all four rear wheels on the pad like its Land Rover predecessor, it won’t be doing it under the The donk itself is being put…

It’s on E85; my wife doesn’t like it too much because she says she smells like fuel after sitting in it! WE RAN into Tim Harrison and his tough-as-old-wellies HG at Kev’s Australia Day Cruise in Geelong, and couldn’t pass up the chance for a quick yack. That’s a mean-looking machine you’ve got there! Thanks! I bought it without an engine to fix it up and flip it, but I ended up ripping it back to bare metal and starting again. Everything in it is brand new and it’s taken about four years to get to this point. What’s under the bonnet? It’s a 408ci LS that made 700hp on the engine dyno. It’s angry-as; it just wants to lift a wheel and the steering gets a bit sketchy above…

HERO IN WAITING I WAS interested in building something to enter Horsepower Heroes in the future but want to know what sort of numbers to shoot for to have a competitive entry. I was at Summernats this year and noticed that there wasn’t a lot of interest in the non-V8 categories. I contacted the Summernats people and they said to contact Street Machine. What sort of numbers have these classes run in the past? Clearly 46hp in the NA Four-Cylinder class isn’t much; a stock Prius would beat that! Has anyone cleared 300hp with a four-cylinder NA? Jye Lawrence, email HEY mate, some years the aspirated classes at Haltech Horsepower Heroes are quiet, and others you might find yourself up against some stiff competition. I can’t find a record of…

UNDER THE BONNET IS A SERIOUS 363CI WINDSOR BUILT BY PAVTEK PERFORMANCE, WHICH STOMPED OUT ALMOST 600HP ON THE DYNO SIX years after Mike King dragged a sad XM Futura coupe out of South Australia, the covers where whipped off a machine that stopped many Summernats 32 spectators in their tracks. Subtle to the casual eye, the ’64 coupe didn’t have a blower towering out of the bonnet or a retina-punching paintjob; it actually seemed to hide the extreme number of custom touches Steve Alldrick and the team at Deluxe Rod Shop packed into the build! Every part of the car has been modified, with custom metalwork running from stem to stern, a near-600hp Windsor up front, pro touring suspension and brakes, and fit and finish to rival a brand…

THEY say that good things come to those who wait. Well, Brad Fletcher had to wait a while to get his XA coupe, but, as you’ll discover, it really wasn’t that good a thing to start with. “It took me longer to find the car than it did to build it; XA coupes are just hard to come by,” Brad says. “Every year maybe a dozen would come up for sale, but it would be 10 XBs and two XAs. And I wanted to start afresh; I didn’t want to buy something that was already built.” The car showed up on Gumtree so Brad went and had a look. “It was your typical rusty coupe,” he says. “It had been stripped for 14 or 15 years and had just sat…

THERE are always a host of events available for car lovers to attend on the Australia Day long weekend, and sometimes it can be a bit hard to choose the best place to indulge your automotive passion. However, there’s no doubt that if you happen to be in the Central NSW region, the place to be is the Kandos Street Machine & Hot Rod Show. This year marked the 20th running of the two-day festival, which has a decent mini-Summernats flavour about it, including the headline burnout competitions, a killer show ’n’ shine, go-to-whoa competitions, grass driving events (when there isn’t torrential rain), dyno competitions, car stereo sound-offs and heaps more. While it now takes place at a purpose-built facility with a burnout pad, the festival was actually initially held…

WHAT does it take to get a car built in less than five months? A bunch of good mates sure helps, and so does a deadline that you absolutely, positively can’t miss. For Perth’s Vic Brockman, this HT wagon was meant to be a project that he could tinker on when he was a bit quiet at work, but that’s not really how it turned out. I knew nothing of the back-story of this car when I spotted it at Motorvation 33 in January, parked up under a gazebo. It looked pretty tidy with its crisp Ermine White paint, red Premier interior and nicely detailed Holden V8 under the bonnet, but then I started to read the little information board that was placed next to the car and realised how…

AT THE end of any car build, there is a ‘sorting out’ period. If you build the car carefully and with good engineering practices, you can mitigate problems ahead of time and minimise this period of ironing out the bugs – it’s all part of building a well-engineered project that both looks and performs great. It can be a frustrating time, as it will highlight any weaknesses in the approach to the project, and can ruin that initial honeymoon stage with your shiny new machine! I finished my first project when I was 20, while still studying engineering. My approach to sorting things out then was to drive the new car in increasing circles from my parents’ home, so that if anything fell off I could walk home and get…

01 STRUT YOUR TUFF LOVE Toranas? Of course you do! Tell the world with one of these beaut Torana T-shirts from the good folk at Rare Spares. Boldly emblazoned with one of the most iconic Aussie muscle cars of all time, the LX SS, these tees are available in either black or white, and in all sizes, from small all the way up to 4XL – everybody’s covered. If you’re a fan of Toranas, Holdens, or just cool car clobber, grab one from the merchandise section of the Rare Spares website, rarespares.net.au. 02 WATER WORKS EVERYBODY loves to drive a classic old car, but watching the temp gauge rise while sweating bullets can really suck the fun out of it. Well, those worrisome days may be over, thanks to a…

HEATHCOTE PARK 03 MAR Test ’n’ Tune 17 MAR Test ’n’ Tune heathcoteraceway.com.au Phone 0416 072 478 SYDNEY DRAGWAY 27 FEB Race 4 Real 06 MAR Race 4 Real 13 MAR Race 4 Real 20 MAR Race 4 Real sydneydragway.com.au Phone (02) 9421 0700 WILLOWBANK 23 FEB Street Series 23 FEB Test ’n’ Tune 27 FEB Test ’n’ Tune 02 MAR Radial Series 23 MAR Test ’n’ Tune willowbankraceway.com.au Phone (07) 5461 5461 PERTH MOTORPLEX 27 FEB Skyline Night 02-03 MAR Westernationals 06 MAR Hour of Power 13 MAR Subaru & Mitsubishi Night 20 MAR VW & Mini Night 23 MAR Nitro Hot Rods 27 MAR Honda & Nissan Night motorplex.com.au WHYALLA DRAGWAY 23 FEB Race Your Mates steelcitydrags.com SPRINGMOUNT RACEWAY 09 MAR Race Your Mates springmountraceway.com IRONBARK RACEWAY 09…

HIDING behind an unassuming-looking garage door in south-east Sydney is a trio of street machines with a collective power figure in the region of 3500hp. It’s all a part of the ongoing evolution of Tony Murr’s lifelong love affair of the four-wheeled variety. Born into a household with fuel running through its veins, it was practically a given that Tony would eventually begin building cars of his own. His father built engines for John Goss in the 1970s and even raced the big Falcon hardtops for a while, until he stepped away from the steering wheel to raise a family. “My dad was a mechanic and had a natural ability to drive fast cars,” Tony says. “I grew up hearing all his stories about that time and saw his style…

HERE’S a new story to file under: ‘Builds That Got Out Of Hand’. The king-sized donk that graces the engine bay of Marko’s XA Fairmont started out as a simple turbo Windsor deal, but has escalated into a potential 1500hp belter. The GT-spec sedan was built by esteemed car crafter Howard Astill, while the motor was pieced together by Sam Fenech from Westend Performance. Although Marko is somewhat aloof when discussing his horsepower goals, he says there’s solid reasoning behind his decision to combine V8 goodness with forced induction. “I went for a ride in a mate’s VK Commodore with a single turbo bolted to the 5.0-litre, and the way it could blaze tyres at speed was amazing,” he says. “When I decided to build this one I wasn’t going…

WANT to win a super-rare 1978 Ford XC Fairmont hardtop? No? How about $100,000 in cold hard cash? Well if you’re interested in either, the guys at Jimmy’s Chop Shop on Queensland’s Darling Downs have you sorted. They’re giving one lucky person the chance to win either of these fantastic prices, and even better, it’s all in the name of charity. Every $40 you spend on merch from the Jimmy’s Chop Shop website gets you an entry into the comp, with all proceeds going to help young athletes achieve their dream. The Jimmy’s boys will choose young upcoming athletes to sponsor to help them out with their financial difficulties as they fight their way to the top of their sport. “We’ve already sponsored four athletes,” says Jimmy’s Chop Shop fabricator…

ENGINE swaps are always good fodder for sparking online debate, and so it was a safe bet that Warick Meldrum’s Barrapowered Camaro was going to get keyboards a-clackin’. Warick rocked up to the most recent Street Machine DragChallengewith his freshly finished first-gen Camaro, one of General Motors’ most iconic muscle cars, into which he has placed a factory Ford XR6 Turbo motor! Not even 10-second timeslips could quell the disquiet when we posted a video of it on Facebook. Deb Fuller – Well done, Warick. Sanjay Joshi – Yuk!!! Sacrilege. Tom Mezzapesa – Confused, very... yeah, just no! Mike Patton – LOL. That’s gotta piss GM fans off. David Capser – What a shame. Shane Murphy – Wow! A whole new level of stupid. Daniel Peachey – So now it…

WE’VE got a strong love for tough little Toranas at Street Machine, and Stephen Sherry’s 1973 LJ GTR is a fine example of the breed. Having owned the car for over 30 years now, Stephen has made a real gem out of what started as a pretty average project. Stephen’s a retired NSW highway patrol cop, who now spends most of his spare time playing with his toys, including an RB30-powered Datsun 1200 ute and a neat little VW Beetle, but the Torana has always been the constant. “It’s been with me for longer than any of my five kids; it’s my baby,” he says. “I bought it in 1986 for $250 as a bare shell, and it came with a free rotisserie.” IT’S BEEN WITH ME FOR LONGER THAN…

KRIS Velkovski is well known in the Melbourne car scene, primarily thanks to his nine-second, turbocharged RB30-powered LC Torana, CGMFLY (SM, Feb ’03). Kris was one of the early adopters of turbo EFI performance in classic tinware, and his new twin-turbo small-block HT ute continues this proud tradition of nine-second performance with show-car finish. “I’ve always wanted an HK-HT-HG ute, and I was on my iPad at 10pm one Thursday night when this car came up on Gumtree,” Kris says. “My wife Mary and I both love utes, so when this one popped up I showed her and she said: ‘Oh that’s nice.’ From that point the deal was on!” Knowing that clean Kingwoods stay for sale about as long as an ice cream in the outback sun, Kris wasted…

THE first Throttle Stomp Kustom Style Weekend was held at Bairnsdale Dragway in eastern Victoria over the first weekend of the New Year, and boy, was it a hot one! The organisers were up against it thanks to some crazy weather: 43-degree heat, rain, wild winds, and a dust storm thrown in for good measure. But despite Mother Nature’s best efforts to derail proceedings, the inaugural Throttle Stomp went off swimmingly. With its pre-1969 cut-off for cars and bikes, the event was reminiscent of the early days of Chopped, with a relaxed party vibe, eighth-mile concrete drags, as well as a dirt drag strip, camping onsite and bands through the night at the Stomp bar. There was a wide variety of cool machines to ogle, from gassers to hot rods,…

WHEN was your first spark with your significant other? For James Gatt, it was in 1996, when across a crowded oval he caught a glimpse of a curvaceous panel, then the glisten of a chrome grille, and knew then and there that he just had to have a ’64 Chevy Nova in his life. “I didn’t even know that Novas existed until I saw that one at that Penrith car show,” he says. “I absolutely love the style and shape. “Maybe six months later I saw an unfinished 1964 SS Nova project advertised. Novas are as rare as rocking-horse poop, so when I found one and close to home, I thought: ‘How good is this?’” And he scored fairly well, with the bodywork pretty much done and almost all of…

LIKE most Drag Challenge entrants, Matthew Tomkins took on the 2018 event mainly for the enjoyment of the experience. He wanted to spend the week with like-minded people, do a bit of sight-seeing, race some cars and just have a good time. And with a 660hp LS-powered Kingswood as his chariot, there’s no doubt Matt had plenty of fun. Matt bought his 1970 HT at an auction in Adelaide roughly five years ago – outbidding Rare Spares! – and took the car home to Victoria. While his intention was just to build a fun street car, he had always dreamed of having an LSA donk to pedal around. The blower sitting atop the engine is indeed from an LSA, but the powerplant Matt ended up going with asking for it…

I’LL happily admit to being a few stubbies short of a six-pack. Over the years my pea-brain has got me into all manner of strife, often with results that have cost me plenty of time and/or the folding stuff. But it’s my habit of checking the simple, most obvious things last that has most often had me questioning my sanity. Recently, for example, I spent a couple of days losing my shit over why I couldn’t get a shiny, glossy finish on a BMX frame. It was only after spraying a 3mm-thick layer of clear coat that I noticed the can said ‘Satin’. Then there was that time I had my Valiant hardtop on the verge of being in pieces out the front of the local video shop. I had…

TONY reckons he’s had about 40 cars so far. “I got my first one when I was 17: an XD Falcon kitted out to look like Dick Johnson’s TRU-BLU race car, complete with flared guards, spoiler and drop tank.” Over the ensuing decades, Tony has played proud parent to dozens of custom and classic cars of all stripes. No brand is over-represented, although there have been a few Fords in the garage, including one of the latest to leave the family – a 1973 XA GT hardtop. Tony built the car as a tribute to his dad’s history with the model when he built engines for John Goss and also raced himself in the 1970s. Tony surprised his dad on his 70th birthday with the completed coupe, which made an…

CAMERON & MARY DEWSBURY LX TORANA SEDAN “THIS is our 1976 LX Torana sedan. We found it in Toowoomba in a thousand pieces, brought it home and sat it in the carport for a couple of years before the work began. First things purchased were the Rodlite wheels, which are 15x6s with 165/80/15 front runners, and 15x8s with 235/60/15 tyres at the rear. Chris’s Differential Services then custom-made a diff to suit. The small-block Chev was built by Toowoomba local Tony Bellert from TBRE Performance and has custom Tri-Y extractors by Gonzos Racing Pipes. It’s running a Turbo 350 transmission and a custom torque converter. I cut and replaced all the rust before the body was finished off by Shaun McCarthy at Resident Restorations. It was painted in Lone O’Ranger…

22-24 FEB, HASTINGS, VIC Westernport Festival Classic Car Show, Hastings Foreshore. Visit westernportfestival.org.au. 23 FEB, HORNINGSEA PARK, NSW Cars Under The Stars Trash & Treasure Show ’n’ Shine, 1895 Camden Valley Way. Visit facebook.com/carsUTS. 23 FEB, LOGAN, VIC Logan Pub Car Show, 6472 Wimmera Hwy. Call Keith 0412 463 289. 24 FEB, MOONEE PONDS, VIC Showcars Melbourne PPG Showdown 8, Moonee Valley Racecourse. Visit showcarsmelbourne.com.au. 24 FEB, LENAH VALLEY, TAS Classic Ford Car Show, Lenah Valley RSL Club. Email dooley2000@bigpond.com. 24 FEB, GEORGE TOWN, TAS Wings & Things, Soldiers Settlement Rd (off North St). Call Rick 0459 039 090. 24 FEB, CRAIGIEBURN, VIC Car, Truck and Bike Show, 340 Craigieburn Rd. Call Jim 0408 305 558. 24 FEB, CASTLE HILL, NSW Motors for Miracles, 16-18 Victoria Ave.Visit hillsupercentre.com.au/events. 24 FEB,…

PART CRAZY WHEN it comes to researching performance parts, I am pure old-school. I’m electronically retarded – ask Telf to verify this as I send him my incoherent, misspelt ramblings on the back of soggy beer coasters – and I’m afraid that if I use a computer I may press the wrong button and order a shipping container of brides or shutdown the jukebox at Dunedoo RSL! So instead I resort to a tried and true method of parts research: I grab SM and head to the bog. I see what the big dogs are using on their cars and see what the vendors are advertising and seek common ground. I work out what the part will cost, divide that by two and come up with the TTMP (‘tell-the-missus price’),…

IN THE 1960s and early 1970s, Ash Marshall bestrode the formative Australian drag racing scene like a colossus. Though he never won a national title, he ran his racing like a business, creating a motif that would be copied by numerous racers who followed him. Marshall came up through the 1950s motor racing world in typical fashion, starting in speedway sedans and then a sprintcar before moving on to rallying and circuit racing, in everything up to and including a D-Type Jag in 1962. His introduction to drag racing would come in 1964 while on a buying trip to the USA, where he sought stock for his second-hand car business specialising in ‘luxury’ American vehicles. His main US contact was Bob Fuerhelm, the workshop manager at a Pasadena Plymouth dealership…

MELBURNIANS had no shortage of cool car stuff to do over the Australia Day long weekend, with King Of The Hill at Calder Park, cruises galore and the Victorian Hot Rod & Cool Rides Show at the Royal Exhibition Building. This year, we rolled out to the latter in Mr Dodgey and parked up with the other cool cruisers outside the front entrance for $15. The usual outdoor displays on the museum side of the Exhibition Building were absent this year, but in their place was a new display area at the rear of the building that mixed a new bunch of cars each day amongst the gardens and an outdoor bar. Mint! Inside the hall was a collection of high-end metal, some already familiar from Summernats, but many others…

MINI-tubs can provide clearance for a lower stance and bigger wheel-and-tyre combo for your ride, and the resultant look is something all street machiners lust after. The good news is that knocking up a set of tubs is a lot easier than you may think. Here’s how it’s done! It’s a fair understatement to say things look like a dog’s breakfast back here, with decades of poorly executed patch work and rust holes making the decision to replace both full wheel tubs on this 50s Chrysler a lot easier. Since we’re after a slightly more aggressive appearance than factory, things will be beefed up, giving the edges a smaller radius to create a shoulder and adding more width with a centre strip to create the desired look The traced area…

THE Sigma Scorpion was Mitsubishi’s affordable sports coupe for the 1980s, although we use the term ‘sports’ pretty loosely. Powered by a 2.6-litre four-cylinder producing a monstrous 78kW, it barely had enough grunt to get out of its own way – it was a sports car for your nanna. But with a fairly large engine bay and solid rear axle, it makes a fine canvas for a sleeper build, which is exactly what Vince Riccotti and Jason Ghiller from Tunnel Vision have done. A couple of years ago Jason had a 3.0-litre Nissan V6 VG30 motor from a 300ZX sitting at his workshop that he planned to put in his work ute. But one day he and Vince were browsing Gumtree and came across this mint, grandma-spec, one-owner Scorpion. They…

WE HAD A BIG ARGUMENT OVER THE COLOUR BEFORE FINALLY CREATING THIS CUSTOM COLOUR, WHICH WAS NAMED DIVORCE BLUE! WE FIRST spotted Ellisha Staples wearing a dress that matched her glistening 1969 HT Brougham at the HK-HT-HG Nationals in Adelaide. The sweet build drew us in, so we had to find out more. Nice colour! We wanted a colour to match the original interior, but also something unique. Our first pick had too much purple in it, and after several attempts my husband Anthony and I still couldn’t agree. We had a big argument over it before finally creating this custom colour, which was named Divorce Blue, ha ha! Cool number plates! I hear this is only half of your Brougham pack. Anthony’s building an HK Brougham with a big-block…