Innehållsförteckning för September 2019 från Street Machine

FUEL altereds and gassers go together like nitromethane and methanol, and you’ll be able to get a massive dose of both at the Aeroflow World Fuel Altered Challenge when it hits Sydney Dragway on 21 September. It’ll be a massive day of drag racing full of cars with too much horsepower and not enough wheelbase, with the extra attraction of a three-way battle between the Aussies, Yanks and Kiwis. Graeme Cowin is bringing in four legendary US fuel altereds: Pure Hell, High Heaven, Rat Trap and Randy Bradford’s Topolino. Kiwi racer David Gauld is bringing his Nitemare ’34 Ford across the ditch, and he’ll be joined by expat Morice McMillin driving Spooky. Psycho III, Chucky’s Toy, Agro and Berserk from Cowin’s stable will make up the rest of the field,…

WITH just enough time to grow his hair long following his now-legendary role as John Milner in the 1973 classic, American Graffiti, Paul Le Mat slid back behind the wheel of a toughie to play young Los Angeles mechanic Bobby in 1975’s Aloha, Bobby and Rose. Bobby is floating through life spinning spanners by day and cruising and racing his beloved Camaro at night, while hustling cash at pool halls in between. Through bad choices and shirking his responsibilities, he seems permanently stuck behind the eight-ball – sometimes literally – and dabbles in petty crime to help make ends meet. He strikes up a friendship with the sweet and spunky Rose (Hull), a young mum balancing raising her son with caring for her alcoholic ex-actress mother (Bartlett). With their future…

SHED TEARS I’M NOT normally a fan of blacked-out chrome, but that 15NUTZ LJ Torana (SM, Jul ’19) looks fantastic! The black really works against the crazy flaked red colour, the interior is a great contrast and the tunnel ram really sets it off. But unfortunately, you’ve only got one photo of it looking ‘real’ – when did it become the norm to take car photos in sheds? Cars can look good in sheds, but for some reason they always look fake – they look Photoshopped or like a car on Gran Turismo. When I first saw TOXIC Q (SM, Oct ’14) at MotorEx years ago, I fell in love and I knew straight away that it’d be my vote for SMOTY; it’s a unique colour, but in real life…

THE opportunity to settle bench-racing matches at the track doesn’t often happen, which explains why racers have jumped on board to support the Grudge Kings event. Held at Sydney Dragway, it is a melting pot of car classes and racers of all manner of automotive persuasions, with Pro Slammers, turbo Pro Mods, radial-tyre V8s, turbo six Fords and VLs, triangle-motor rotors, six-second street-registered 2J Supras and R32 GT-R Skylines, and even the odd tough-nut four-banger all throwing down with each other. While the event had been slated to run on 6 July, Mother Nature saw fit to spend that week dumping rain on the Harbour City, so Grudge Kings boss Po Tung wisely chose to move to the back-up date of 20 July. Thankfully, the spectators still turned out in…

MIKE Bowden’s 1949 Ford Customline pick-up first punched into the scene way back in 1993, featuring in the Jan-Feb 1994 issue of Street Machine, and was later a Street Machine Of The Year contender. Mike’s Cusso, known as SPINNA, competed at Summernats 7 through to 10, placing in the Top 80 each time. The pair also blasted down Lake Gairdner’s salt to a top speed of 138.85mph; Mike and SPINNA still hold the XF/BGP (now XF/MP) and XF/PP records. I STARTED TO LOOK FOR IT, WITHOUT SUCCESS – THERE WERE MORE FALSE SIGHTINGS THAN ELVIS! Yet the following two decades became a true tale of survival for the single-spinner, weathering the unknown at the hands of several owners yet somehow escaping relatively unscathed; unfortunately, that’s not quite the case for…

THE number plate TEXAS PIG on Greg Freeman’s ’69 Camaro pretty much sums up the humble beginnings of this pro touring masterpiece – it was imported from Texas, and it was an absolute pig. “It was rooted. I blasted it and there was nothing left of it,” Greg confirms. “It had a 12-bolt in it and it looked reasonable, but it’s the first car I’ve ever bought without getting someone to go and look at it, and it came from a dealer. But as soon as I got it on the trailer I thought: ‘Oh my god.’ It was bolted together and that was about it.” It was a mess, but Greg was in a bit of a bind, as it was worth next to nothing as it sat, so…

GARY Taylor is one of those car lovers who was born into it. “When I was born, I came home from the hospital in an XR Fairmont, and Mum used to drop me off at school in an XC Cobra,” he says. “We had a couple of Holdens, but Mum was always a Ford person, and Dad was a panel beater and spray painter who was into any car that had petrol in it.” Given his background, it seems pretty easy to understand why Gary would build this tidy XP as a weekender, right? “I don’t really like XPs, but ironically I’ve had three of them!” he laughs. For someone who doesn’t like XPs, he sure knows how to build a pretty striking example of the breed. This marvellous machine…

YOUNG fella Jayden Zahra has almost finished his mechanical apprenticeship with the family business, Spimar Car Repairs. All the while, he’s been toiling away in the background building his dream car. Looking around the workshop, it’s clear your family has a real passion for Holdens. Both my parents have had Holdens ever since they got their driver’s licence. I was brought up around them; I was even picked up from hospital as a newborn in a VS Calais. My dad’s father was an avid Holden enthusiast and my mum’s brothers also had Holdens, so I guess it runs in both our families. My dad Mario has been into cars since he was a toddler. He started building an HZ ute when he was in Grade 6 and turned that into…

THE CAR IS THE FIRST-EVER FOUR-CYLINDER IN AUSTRALIA TO RUN EIGHTS ON A RADIAL THIS year we decided to shake up our Drag Challenge events by adding a bunch of new classes, one of those being Tuff Mounts 235 Blown. The small-tyre power-adder class proved to be a big hit when we rolled it out for the first time at Drag Challenge Weekend in May this year, attracting a huge variety of small-bodied rockets with plenty of pace. One of those that caught our eye even before the event started was Michael Silk’s bright orange Datsun 1200 wagon. According to Michael, the car is actually the first-ever four-cylinder in Australia to run eights on a radial, but the story isn’t quite as simple as that. “I went out and ran…

1 LUBED UP OIL is a fundamental part of any car, whether it’s a daily banger or the beast that gets more attention than your better half, and Castrol’s range of EDGE oils is some of the best stuff you’ll be able to grab off of the shelf. The EDGE range claims a unique fluid blend that reduces friction by up to 20 per cent, so Rodney should be far less likely to come knockin’. Castrol develops its oils in conjunction with Audi, Jaguar, Volvo and VW, so if you want some proper primo stuff for your beast, head to your auto parts store or visit castrol.com.au/edge. 2 LOW STANDARDS HAVING a low car is one of life’s most pleasurably painful yin and yangs. You look and feel good, but…

WARWICK DRAGWAY 17 AUG Bracket Meeting 07-08 SEP Six-Banger/Bracket Meeting warwickdragway.com SYDNEY DRAGWAY 17 AUG Test & Tune 21 AUG Race 4 Real 24 AUG Atura Championship 28 AUG Race 4 Real 04 SEP 4WD Night 11 SEP Race 4 Real 14 SEP Test & Tune sydneydragway.com.au Phone (02) 9421 0700 WILLOWBANK 17 AUG Test & Tune 21 AUG Test & Tune 24 AUG Jamboree 31 AUG Street Series 07 SEP Test & Tune 08 SEP IHRA licence test day 13 SEP Test & Tune willowbankraceway.com.au Phone (07) 5461 5461 LAKESIDE 15 SEP Off Street Drags facebook.com/lakesidedragracing SPRINGMOUNT RACEWAY 23-24 AUG Nitro Funny Cars & 400 Thunder springmountraceway.com BENARABY RACEWAY 30 AUG Off Street Meet 31 AUG Qld Championships benarabyraceway.com Phone 0419 703 710 PERTH MOTORPLEX 11 SEP Diesel Night…

STREET Machine magazine has a long and storied history, chronicling the vibrant Australian modified car scene for the better part of four decades. With a vast archive of historic images and information at our disposal detailing the most influential Aussie builds ever, we thought it was high time we compiled them into a book. Street Machine Legends Volume One is the result – a glossy, 144-page hard-cover book containing beautifully rich imagery of 62 of the most iconic cars of our time. Focussing on the first 20 years of Street Machine’s history (1981-2001), the carefully curated mix of cars will take you down memory lane with the tyres blazing. The Monaros of Mick Curren, Wayne Pagel and Al ‘Bundy’ Lucas. The Toranas of Howard Bell, Ivan Hans and Phil Rillotta.…

16-19 AUG, NAMBOUR, QLD Power On Petrie Auto Festival, Nambour Showgrounds. Visit poweronpetrie.com or call Matt 0477 827 830. 17 AUG, TIRRANNAVILLE, NSW A Chequered Past Museum Car Show, Wakefield Park Raceway. Email programs@nma.gov.au or visit nma.gov.au/whats-on/chequered-past. 17 AUG, HIDDEN VALLEY, NT Gazzanats 2019, Hidden Valley Motorsports Park. Visit gazzanats.com or contact myersgd1@bigpond.net.au. 17-18 AUG, UNANDERRA, NSW Killer Rides Live, Illawarra Hocker Centre. Visit killerrides.com.au or email paul@killerrides.com.au. 17 AUG, HORNINGSEA PARK, NSW Nuts & Bolts & Bikes car and bike show, 1895 Camden Valley Highway. Search Facebook for more. 18 AUG, BENDIGO, VIC All Holden & GM Day, Bendigo Showgrounds, 47 Holmes Road. Call Ray 0438 881 635. 18 AUG, EASTERN CREEK, NSW CMC Shannons Sydney Classic, Sydney Motorsport Park. Visit sydneyclassic.com. 18 AUG, CAMDEN, NSW Narellan Car Show,…

THE new-generation C8 Corvette has finally been announced, and as well as being the first-ever mid-engined ’Vette, this is the first time the car will leave the assembly line in a right-hand-drive configuration to be made available to us Aussie battlers straight from Holden dealers. The new C8 comes fitted with the 6.2-litre LT2 V8, pumping out just shy of 500hp, and will be auto only. Local pricing is still to be confirmed, but with US prices starting at $60,000, the threat of our government’s unexplainable luxury car tax sinking its claws into this new Ferrari lookalike is worryingly high. We shared the news on our Facebook page; here’s what you had to say. Jason Cant – It looks more like a cross between a Ferrari 458 and an Acura…

THE HT IS A TRIBUTE TO MY LATE BROTHER MICHAEL, AS HE NEVER HAD A CHANCE TO BUILD A CAR BEFORE HE PASSED AWAY AT AGE 16 BUILDING a classic car, whether modified or stock, takes a huge commitment of time and money, and Jason Pellett knows this all too well after building his super-smooth HT Kingswood. An eight-year odyssey, Jason did the whole lot, start to finish, in his suburban double garage after buying the HT already blown apart. “My wife Ashley and I bought the HT from Albion Park eight years ago,” says Jason. “It was just a six-pot, column-auto car that had been sandblasted and completely pulled apart before it was going to be done up. But then they realised how much it would cost to do…

MIG (Metal Inert Gas) and TIG (Tungsten Inert Gas) are the two most common types of welding practised in automotive applications. This month’s column will serve as an introduction to both types, for anyone wanting to jump in and have a crack themselves, using the most common of auto body metals: 1mm mild sheet steel. 1 BASIC EQUIPMENT PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT A GOOD helmet is right up there on the list of priorities, and like most things, you get what you pay for. This is one piece not to skimp on, as anyone who has suffered from welder’s flash will attest – you only get one set of eyes. A separate helmet for TIG and MIG is also handy, as MIG tends to dirty up lenses. Fitted welding gloves, long…

ZANE Heath is the mastermind behind Maxx Performance, one of the leading specialists for all things Ford and Barra. While the Maxx crew is capable of taking on just about any project and engine, turbo Barras are their bread and butter; they offer bolt-on packages and dyno tuning that make them one of the best in the business with the Aussie 4.0-litre. It should therefore come as no surprise that Zane’s own stealthy EF Fairmont is also hiding a Barra mill, but oddly, there’s no turbo in sight. “When I bought the car around two years ago it already had a Barra conversion with just a standard BA taxi engine and auto,” Zane says. The conversion wasn’t quite up to Maxx’s standards, so the boys ended up redoing the whole…

LEEANNE MacDonald must have shares in a chiropractic clinic with all of the neck-snapping she does trying to catch a glimpse of any V8 she hears nearby. So in a bid to curb her insatiable appetite, she’s now cruising her own loud and healthy bent-eight in a big, red and oh-so-curvaceous ’56 F100. Nice truck, Leeanne! Thanks! Her name is Mae, as in Mae West, as she’s nice, sexy and buxom. I bought her about six years ago from California. I wanted a 50s Ford truck as they’re nice and big; also I like that era, including the music. What’s she running? A 351 Clevo; she’s pretty stock. The nose was high, so I’ve had it lowered, then shortened the nine-inch to bring the tyres inside the fenders, as well…

BRENTON WATKINS FPV FG FALCON GT-P “I HAD to give up work at age 50 due to serious illness. When one doctor tells you: ‘If you keep working, you will be dead soon,’ and another one says: ‘If you have any retirement plans, bring them forward,’ it rocks you a bit. So I gave up work and wondered: What the hell happens now? I had gone from a decent wage to a wage of $0 overnight, and my wife was only working part-time. It became obvious in the first few weeks that to survive, I would have to sell my pride and joy, my FPV BF F6 Typhoon R-Spec, which I had spent three years doing up. Eventually my superannuation fund agreed on compassionate grounds to release my money early,…

THE vast majority of big-power LS engines rely on some form of artificial aspiration to make grunt, so it’s easy to forget that these mills can be pretty handy in all-motor trim. This example was pieced together by Troy from Warspeed, and it’s essentially a full-effort, naturally aspirated deal. It uses a Dart SHP LS Next block, with a 4.155-inch bore and four-inch stroke to arrive at a capacity of 434 cubic inches. The rotating assembly consists of a K1 steel crank and K1 6.125in H-beam rods topped with custom CP pistons. A lofty compression ratio of 15.8:1 means that the engine, much like my good self, is alcohol dependent. The camshaft is a big ’un – a custom grind from Comp with duration in the realm of 270 degrees…

“Most people guess it’s a fully worked 202 with a massive cam; when I show them the rotary I just get: “Wow!” They really don’t expect it” WE SPOTTED Mick Jurenec's rather cool-looking HR ute at the inaugural Unique Cars Rolling 30 event at Sydney Motorsport Park, and couldn't help but wonder why it was making such strange noises. Once Mick was back in the pits and the H R's bonnet was popped, all was revealed - he'd gone and fitted a turbocharged 13B Dorito donk! That ought to rattle a few cages! A Holden ute and a rotary is a curious combination. How and why did it all happen? I get a lot of people asking me why. I've had the ute going on 16 years now, but I…

Part 1 MOST kids in the late 70s read fairytale books, whereas my preferred brand of childhood fantasy and excitement was found in my dad Russell Parker’s personal drag-racing photo albums, chronicling his quarter-mile exploits in 1960s and 70s South Australia. Trying to choose just a few photos for this yarn was not easy, so we’ll continue the journey next issue. For now, we’ll take a look at Dad’s adventures at Brooksfield, South Australia’s first drag strip (which he helped get up and running), a bunch of his FED rails, a couple of cool streeters, and a demolition derby car! 01: BETWEEN Dad’s exploits and those of Pinky Tuscadero from Happy Days, you can bet that I was smitten with the art of the demolition derby. The hands-on-hips, helmet-wearing fashionista…

THIS modern, European-influenced vision of a VH Valiant Charger may well be one of the most well-thought-out street machines ever built in this country. It might not be the most visually modified or have Ridler Award-winning detail, but in terms of being built with a very clear set of design objectives – and meeting them – few cars come close. A major factor in that achievement is how long Mario Ciarrocchi has had to formulate the ideas in his head – after all, he’s owned the car since 1986. “My father and I bought the car when I was 17 years of age,” Mario explains. “Thirty years later, he mentioned that he knew that I had an interest in cars and that he’d bought the car to keep me occupied…

STREET cars have never been quicker than what we’re seeing today, with six- and seven-second monsters blowing away records. But we’re also seeing people building these incredibly swift pieces of engineering to an Elite level, blurring the lines between street, race and show cars. A great example is this killer twin-turbo ’54 FJ ute owned by Troy David. It has run an 8.2@171mph, but has also taken out Grand Champion at Red CentreNATS, showing just what a well-rounded package the Northern Territory landscaper has built, from quite humble beginnings. “My late father-in-law, Phil Kerr, found the car in the paper on a Saturday morning,” Troy explains. “An army guy had moved from Victoria to Darwin and had no room to hang on to it. It had a small-block Chev, TH350…

THERE might be faster XYs, there might be finer XYs, but there are few tougher than this one! I know that’s a bold statement, but the guttural howl of the 8/71 huffer and whining Gilmer blower drive, combined with the thunderous bellow of nearly 1000 horses erupting through the three-inch exhaust, would surely make anyone stop and gape at this Falcon as it rumbles on by. Whipped into shape by Roy and Frank Velardi and the team at Sydney’s V Resto Garage, this Ford cuts an imposing figure, to say the least. Before going any further, let’s deal with the elephant poking out the bonnet. It’s a 438ci World Products Man O’War tall-deck block with World Products heads, Edelbrock intake, a Blower Shop 8/71 pump and genuine JBR carbonfibre hat…

01 ANGELO FURFARO VC VALIANT AUGUST 2019 IT IS a shame we don’t see more tough VC Valiants cruising Aussie roads, as Angelo Furfaro’s proves how cool they can be. Under the bonnet is a Dodge R5P7 NASCAR motor wearing twin turbochargers and making 750hp on just 6psi. While the arrow-straight VC sedan has ridiculous stonk, it is still a street machine. After picking up gold medals for Body, Engineering and Engine Bay at MotorEx 2019, and taking home the prestigious Laurie Starling award, the car wasn’t trailered out of the hall. “We drove it home from MotorEx,” says Angelo. “The boys were so excited to be cruising home in their new favourite ride.” 02 MATTHEW MORGILLO HQ STATESMAN FEBRUARY 2019 MATT Morgillo proved without a doubt that pro street…

TOURING England can be a wasteland for an Aussie car enthusiast. The roads are filled with grim, soulless hatchbacks, lacking in real estate and powered by diesel. As spring turns to summer, older ‘motors’ gradually filter onto the busy, moist roads. But MGs, Healeys and Anglias hardly a street machine make. On my recent travels in the Motherland with my kids, I did see a Calsonic-inspired R34 Skyline, a late-model LHD Dodge Charger R/T, and absolutely flipped my shit over a German-registered Opel Kadett C (aka Holden Gemini). But homesickness is a bitch. Until recently, we Aussies made some bloody good cars – do the Poms know this? Well, apparently some do. I hooked up with a crew of crazy characters who can make the rare claim of driving an…

WHILE many turn their nose up at Holden’s 253ci V8 in favour of offerings with more cubes, Shannon Heraud has history with GM-H’s baby V8, having used and abused them in his ex-burnout Torana sedan. During the planning stages of the build of his killer Mk1 Escort burnout car (SM, Aug ’18), Shannon was looking for something unusual and affordable to power it. “I had the motor left over when I retired the Torana, so I thought, why not? It just progressed into seeing what we can get out of this little V8.” What he has ended up with is an amazing piece of street-machining engineering, using plenty of nous to get a killer result for minimal fiscal outlay. “I was given the block years and years ago by my…

WHEN engineers talk about depth of section, we are referring to the ‘cut-through’ view or section view of a particular shape or style of material being used in a construction; the depth of the section is the longest axis or side of that shape. If you pick up a piece of timber stud on a building site, you can bend it over your knee if the short side is vertical. But now put the long side (axis) vertical and all that happens is that your knee hurts. There’s no bending that sucker! That’s a simple test that confirms the importance of depth of section. The most common structural shape in the automotive world is the rectangle. Hot rod chassis are rectangular, and unitary-construction street machines have rectangular subframes holding them…

TOILET TRAINING A MAN is eating soup at a restaurant when he drops his spoon. The restaurant is particularly busy, so the man thinks: “Great, by the time I get another spoon, my soup will be cold.” Nevertheless, he flags down his waiter and tells him that he dropped his spoon. The waiter immediately produces a spoon from his vest pocket. “Wow, that was convenient! Thanks!” the man says. But then he looks around and notices that all the other waiters have spoons in their pockets too. “Why do you all have spoons on hand like that?” he asks the waiter. “Well, we had an efficiency expert come in last week, and after a study, he deduced that the most dropped utensil was a spoon,” the waiter explains. “So the…