Innehållsförteckning för April 2020 från Street Machine

AS WE go to press, Street Machine Drag Challenge Weekend is still a goer for Sydney Dragway, 3-5 April. The progress of the coronavirus in the next couple of weeks may impact that, but for now we are locked, loaded and very excited for our first three-day event in Sydney. If you missed the announcement last issue, the basics are that we are running at Sydney Dragway each day, but with a road leg of over 300km after the first and second day’s racing. The usual Drag Challenge rules of self-sufficiency apply – no support vehicles and no tow cars. Entrants will have to pack everything up and take it with them on both of the road legs. Spectators are welcome all three days. Adults are $20 per day; kids…

BREAKDOWN VEHICLES: 1964 Ford GT40, 1967 Ferrari 330 P4, 1966 Ferrari 275, 1965 Ford Mustang, 1962 AC Cobra 260, 1962 Chevrolet Corvette C1, 1963 Ford Country Squire, 1964 Chevrolet Corvette C2, 1959 MGA 1600, Porsche 356, Shelby 427 Cobra, Shelby Daytona coupe STARS: Matt Damon, Christian Bale, Jon Bernthal, Josh Lucas, Tracy Letts, Caitriona Baife, Noah Jupe, Remo Girone DIRECTOR: James Mangold ACTION: From test track to race track, the film bubbles over with big-revving, tyre-smoking, flat-changing perfection PLOT: Chronicles the personal and corporate battles faced by racing legends Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles, along with the Ford conglomerate, as they battle Ferrari for Le Mans glory AVAILABLE: Internet download, DVD IT’S been a long time since I was excited about seeing a ‘modern’ movie, and I can happily report…

FINAL CURTAIN GENERAL Motors’ announcement that Holden would cease to exist prompted much reflection on the iconic brand’s slow but sure demise, from both the Red and Blue sides of the fence. Here’s what you had to say on Facebook. Col Davis – Holden or GM took our government handouts for years – billions of dollars – and now just walk away when there are no more handouts. They should be made to repay the money. Owen Hargreaves – I agree. The money from the sale of their assets should go back to the government/taxpayers, but that won’t happen. We should have been taking a stake in ownership with every million we gave them. Mick Dutchie Van Ryn – What a lot of crap – I did my mechanic’s apprenticeship…

AUSTRALIA’S largest display of Blue Oval rides, Geelong’s annual All Ford Day has offered a varied spread of impressive vehicles for almost 30 years. Between old- and new-school Aussie metal, American imports and classic European machines, there are always plenty of surprises! ALL FORD DAY GEELONG A SELECTION OF THE FINEST RIDES FROM THE 2020 GEELONG ALL FORD DAY BETWEEN OLD- AND NEW-SCHOOL AUSSIE METAL, AMERICAN IMPORTS AND CLASSIC EUROPEAN MACHINES, THERE’S ALWAYS PLENTY OF SURPRISES…

WITH bushfires burning around Australia, the guys from The Carlective teamed up with Hunter Media, Car Culture Meets and CC Forged to hold a joint car meet/bushfire fundraiser on Saturday evening, 11 January, at the Wodonga Plaza car park in the Victorian border town of Wodonga. The meet was expected to attract around 250 cars, but around 1000 rolled up, filling the entire car park and overflowing into the streets and the Elgin’s Hotel car park across the road. Local businesses generously donated over $30,000 worth of goods, and money raised from the $5 car entry fees, sausage sizzle, auctions and raffles will be split between the Rural Fire Service, the Red Cross and the NSW Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service (WIRES). SM photographer Luke Hunter said: “All up,…

FOLLOWING on from last month’s column on how to fabricate a flat firewall, we now turn our attention to fabricating a pair of inner fenders to complete a silky-smooth engine bay. Again, this isn’t so much a ‘how to’ guide as it is a little insight into the thought process and metal fabrication required for a job like this. STEP 01 The rod frames we fabricated for the firewall design last issue now come in handy as a guide to see where the new panels will sit. Some scrap 0.6mm steel sheet serves as a template to get a correct line on the bottom edge. Decent card coupled with masking tape also comes in handy for this sort of work. STEP 02 A much-needed visit from the blaster sees things…

THIS Galaxy Blue EL may look pretty damn snoozy, but there’s much more to it than meets the eye – about 460kW (616hp) at the treads, for a start! The EL was just a bog-stock barbecue-powered GLi when Maurice D’Alberti took it off his dad’s hands and used it as a daily for several years. He’s no Blue Oval devotee either: “I love HK Monaros, and my four-year-old son Adam would come with me in the EL all over Victoria picking up parts for the one we were building together,” he says. Tragically, Adam was diagnosed with leukaemia in June 2017, and passed away on 2 April the following year. “He went into the Royal Children’s Hospital for a blood test and never left,” Maurice says. “I sold the Monaro…

DANIEL SHANNON VL COMMODORE “I BOUGHT this car as a stock-standard VL when I was 16 years old and have owned it for 22 years now. With a huge Holden influence among my family with Commodores, Toranas and Statesmens, I was destined to follow the footsteps of my father and build my own Holden ride. When my dad passed away 10 years ago, I decided it was time to go all out and build the car in memory of him. A decade later, the VL was finally ready, with a killer RB26/30 combo from Maatouks Racing up front capable of over 1000hp at the wheels. With custom bodywork, paint, driveline, wheels, brakes, suspension, custom interior, wiring and new glass, my first car has been transformed into the ultimate streeter, fully…

WIDELY regarded as the world’s most prestigious custom car show, the Detroit Autorama consistently draws astoundingly finished rides. First held in 1953 by the newly formed Michigan Hot Rod Association, the event soon took on former NFL player Don Ridler as a promoter. Under his tutelage, the Autorama grew rapidly, necessitating several moves to larger venues. When Ridler died prematurely in 1963, the Best in Show award was renamed the Don Ridler Memorial Award to honour the man who helped make the Autorama what it is today. This year’s honour was claimed by a stunning two-door ’63 Chevy wagon dubbed ‘Impressive’, built and owned by Brad Ranweiler and his sons Brady and Cory of Show Cars Automotive in Minnesota. “We started building this car almost 10 years ago, but the…

28 MAR, KOROIT, VIC Koroit Swap Meet & Show ’n’ Shine, Victoria Park. Call Willy on 0419 547 548. 28-29 MAR, KURRI KURRI, NSW Kurri Kurri Nostalgia Festival, Lang St. Visit kurrikurrinostalgiafestival.com.au. 28 MAR, MORPHETT VALE, SA Old Skool New Age, Morphett Vale Football Club. Visit offyarockerpromo.com or email autoshow@oyrp.com.au. 28 MAR, ECHUCA, VIC Revving the River Festival, Echuca. Visit zaidee.org or email allan@zaidee.org. 28 MAR, LUDDENHAM, NSW Sydney Veterans Lodge Show ’n’ Shine, Luddenham Showgrounds. Email zorayatibos@live.com. 28 MAR, MOUNT MARY, SA Mount Mary Show ’n’ Shine, Mount Mary Hotel. Call (08) 8581 0581. 29 MAR, LAUNCESTON, TAS VCCA Shannons Tasmanian Autumn Swap Meet, Mowbray Racecourse. Call Joe on (03) 6396 1144 or email jaclipp@bigpond.com. 29 MAR, CANBERRA, ACT Auto Italia, EPIC Arena. Visit autoitaliacanberra.com or email ciao@autoitaliacanberra.com. 29…

Part 2 LAST month we brought you the first instalment of our glimpse into Jon Williams’s car life and the diverse projects he has undertaken. Make, model and/or sporting application are no boundaries for Jon, and it’s safe to say that his car obsession rivals even the most ardent automotive nut. “All I ever dreamed of was having a car and just making stuff,” he says. “As a kid I would sit in front of an old black-and-white TV and immerse myself in Rallycross action from Calder and the annual Bathurst race. If it had cars, I was down for it.” 01: JON’S family moved to Belgrave in 1974, and that’s when his car obsession really took hold. “Guys like Dennis Kilner, who owned the local milk bar in Tecoma,…

WHILE A PRO TOURING AESTHETIC WAS FRONT AND CENTRE WITH THIS BUILD, YOU CAN’T LOOK AT THE CAR AND NOT TALK ABOUT THE AMOUNT OF CUSTOM BODYWORK THAT HAS BEEN DONE IF YOU dig through your collection of Street Machine magazines and pull out the February 2019 issue, you’ll be able to see this beauty in all of its naked glory. At the time of writing that story a little over a year ago, this 1957 Chevrolet was in the process of being stripped so it could be sent off to the paint shop. The owner, Charlie Harley, was confident that the car would be unveiled at Street Machine Summernats 33, and, true to his word, the silk covers came off as scheduled to the sound of many oohs and…

“WITHIN A MONTH IT WAS PAINTED AND BACK TOGETHER. I HAD IT GOING IN NO TIME” THE image of Peter Brock laying waste to the 1979 Bathurst 1000 in his Marlboro HDT A9X Torana is etched into Aussie history, with the six-lap victory just one dot point in his utter domination of that race weekend. It spawned a generation of Torana fans and surely helped the A9X become one of the most collectible Aussie-made cars of all time. Having done their time as cheap second-hand transport, LX Torana hatchbacks are now one of the most prized finds among Aussie car enthusiasts, so it takes guts to modify something worth a good chunk of house. But Daniel Szabolics thumbs his nose at the purist concours scene; he builds his cars how…

WHEN he had to part with his 1972 XA GT some 20 years ago, Bill Kaglatzis promised himself he’d eventually get another one. “It was identical to this car,” says Bill of the one that got away. “Red Pepper, black interior, 351, auto. I sold it to start my business, BK Race Engines.” Bill vividly remembers what eventually motivated him to fulfil that promise. “I was out getting an ice cream with my wife Dina and son Kosta,” he says. “A convoy of hotted-up cars drove past our Mazda 6: Monaros, Camaros and GT Falcons – it was instant depression! I decided then and there that I needed something that I could the take the whole family cruising in.” Following a futile two-year search for a suitable donor car, Bill…

THERE are precious few car events that have run for a more than a couple of decades, but the Victorian Hot Rod Association’s premier yearly show surely trumps them all, having now reached its 55th birthday! In late January, the 2020 Victorian Hot Rod & Cool Rides Show packed out Melbourne’s historic Royal Exhibition Building with rods, customs and muscle cars for a weekend of rorty exhausts, detailed undercarriages and extremely shiny paint. As usual, the front and back areas outside the Exhibition Building were packed with classics, rods and bikes, along with live bands playing daily. The general public are always enthralled by the sight of so many crazy cars that they usually don’t see on the road. Then, of course, there are the sounds – it’s not every…

IT IS said that some cars find their owners, and it’s certainly true of this super-neat, super-tough VN SS, as owner George Josevski explains. “I’ve got a very tidy SV5000,” he begins. “It sits nice – really low with a tough engine and lots of detailing. I had it at a big car gathering, enjoying the atmosphere, and a bloke came up to me: ‘I want to buy your car.’ I told him: ‘Sorry mate, not for sale.’ After he persisted for a bit I tried to shut him down: ‘I have a number of other Commodores and I never sell them.’ He came back at me with: ‘You should buy my mate’s VN SS then – it’s the best one around.’ ALREADY THE OWNER OF A NUMBER OF BOOSTED…

WHEN a new model of a car is produced, you’ll sometimes hear that “the new chassis is x per cent stiffer”. But I’m guessing that most people’s response to that is simply: “So what?”. While everyone knows the advantage of more power, almost no one will be able to tell you the benefit of a chassis with a high degree of torsional rigidity. But increasing your chassis’ stiffness should be cause for celebration, as it will improve ride comfort by allowing the suspension to work more efficiently. Torsion is the twisting of an object (usually a shaft) due to an applied torque. When you apply a torque to a shaft, the shape of the shaft, its cross-sectional area and the elasticity of its material will dictate how much it twists.…

AUSTRALIA’S modified car scene has hot rodding at its root, but in 2020, these old jalopies – more than a century old, in some cases – are less commonplace in all-make shows and cruises. When it comes to rod enthusiasts, it seems they’re either born into it or are brainwashed later in life! For 23-year-old Shenae Bekkers, it has been equal parts of both, thanks to her family’s unwavering love of hot rods and chrome-bumper rides. Tell us about your family and cars. I have always been around cars, from my dad to my grandparents and uncles. Now my younger brother and my cousins are getting into the rodding world too. My family has always had projects on the go, from minor touch-ups to full restorations. What about your own…

END OF AN ERA FAREWELL to the Commodore and to the Holden brand. Massive thanks must go to Glenn Torrens and Dave Carey for wanting to hear and share my experiences (SM, Dec ’17 and Mar ’20). I just wish it was under different circumstances that I was featured, but what a memento to have! If you had told me in our glory years of the VY/VZ that one day Commodore wouldn’t be number one in sales and that I’d be out of the job along with thousands of others, I would have scoffed. I thought the Brocky/Holden divorce was the end of the world, but it was nothing compared to the death of Holden. But I have no ill feelings towards GM; I’m extremely proud to have been part…

IF YOU haven’t heard of Steven Alldrick or his business, Deluxe Rod Shop, then you may have been living under a rock for the past 10 years or so. Then again, Steve doesn’t really like to blow his own horn or talk himself up. He’s quietly spoken, modest to a fault and always turns out beautifully built, subtly styled hot rods and street machines. For a bloke who’s still in his 30s, he sure has built a lot of nice cars, but that’s because he’s pretty much been doing it his whole life. Steve is following in his father Ray’s footsteps, who ran TCR Carponents for many years. The fact he’s a second-generation hot rodder has definitely given Steve a bit of a head-start and is probably part of the…

I WANTED THIS APACHE TO BE THE BEST ONE IN AUSTRALIA, SO WE HAD TO SPEND TIME CLOSING UP THE SHOCKING GAPS AND GETTING ALL THE SURFACES SPOT-ON PARTNERS of car fiends who not only tolerate but actually encourage project-car builds are surely the rarest and most sacred creatures in all the street machining world. Having someone who understands the roughed-up hands, financial burdens, long hours in the shed and unending frustrations that project vehicles deliver can make the whole process so much easier. Melbourne’s Reece Christensen can attest to this. Having previously built an astounding 1960 Chevrolet Biscayne sedan-delivery, Reece wasn’t exactly racing out to get his teeth into another full-bore, old-school project. It was actually his wife, Susan, who kicked off the build of this epic ’59 Chevy…

I LOVED THE IDEA OF RUNNING A CHRYSLER 300C 5.7L HEMI WITH A FIVE-SPEED AUTO FOR HIGHWAY TRAVELLING WITH LS and Barra engines regularly being slotted into cars of all makes and models right across the country, it’s refreshing to behold a late-model Hemi that’s been shoehorned into a classic car of the same lineage. “I’m pretty sure it’s the first AP with this powertrain,” says Mick Cox, owner of the 5.7-litre, Hemi V8-powered ’65 AP6 Safari wagon in question. Mick’s a Valiant lad through and through, having grown up with the Aussie Pentastar breed in the town that manufactured them, Adelaide. “I have good memories of my parents’ mint AP5 Regal wagon, followed by a baby-blue ex-cop VK Valiant 318ci sedan,” he recalls. Spurred along by partner Tina, Mick…

JASON MCGRATH’S GORGEOUS LC TORANA WON TOP TWO-DOOR, PEOPLE’S CHOICE AND THE COVETED GRAND CHAMPION YOU don’t need to be Tim Bailey to know that much of country NSW has been ravaged by extreme weather and bastard bushfires in recent times. In fact, a couple of weeks out from the annual Kandos Street Machine & Hot Rod Show, organisers weren’t certain the event would go ahead. “We were worried, but then we had some rain and things turned around,” said club secretary Kristie Healey. “In the end we had 207 entrants, which is a great result, all things considered.” Anyone who frequents the show knows that the weather is often a factor, and 2020 was no exception, with searing heat interrupted on the Saturday afternoon with a brief but heavy…

A SINGLE ’57 Chev is enough to turn heads on the street, so imagine the neck-snapping going on at the Carralbyn Eighth-Mile Drag Racing Display, where punters thrilled to the sight of 100 pre-1968 hot rods, rat rods, gassers and dragsters racing on an airstrip. Held over the last weekend of February, the second annual Carralbyn drags saw gearheads from all corners of the country converge in the Kooralbyn Valley, about 100 kays south of Brisbane, for a nostalgic three-day race-fest. Shenanigans began on Friday for drag entrants, with a friendly game of golf at the Ramada Resort, while Saturday featured a cruise through the streets of nearby Beaudesert, along with lunch and a few beers at the Rathdowney pub. Octane started pumping on Saturday afternoon, as the Kooralbyn airstrip…

01 KEEP YOUR COOL FUEL temperature is often overlooked when you’re trying to squeeze the most neddies out of your engine. Moroso has just released an updated Cool-Can design, now capable of withstanding up to 125psi of fuel pressure. It’s fully insulated and able to function with both carburetted and injected systems. Moroso claims the Cool-Can lowers fuel temps by an extra 20 per cent in comparison to other brands, thanks to its polyethylene shell. Inlet and outlet threads are both–8AN, and heavy-duty mounting hardware is also included. To find out more, get in touch with Automotive Performance Distributors on (08) 8363 5566 or visit autopd.com.au. 02 REACH THE SUMMIT WHETHER it’s a fully built 1500hp beast, tame classic cruiser or daily driver, your ride isn’t going anywhere without a functional clutch.…

GAG OF THE MONTH SEAT OF LEARNING A PHILOSOPHY professor walks into class to give her students their final test. Placing her chair on her desk, she instructs the class: “Using everything you’ve learned in this course, prove to me that this chair does not exist.” Soon, all the students are scribbling furiously as they attempt to outline their proofs – all except one student. He spends 10 seconds writing his answer and hands in his paper, to the astonishment of his peers. Time goes by and the day comes when all the students get their final grades. To the amazement of the class, the student who took only 10 seconds to complete his answer gets the highest grade. His response to the question: “What chair?” Phil O’Sofficle, email INKED…