Table of contents for No 198 November 2021 in NZV8

Here we are again, a month on from the last issue when I was in lockdown pushing the print button, and despite the whole short and sharp blah, blah, blah, here we are again doing the same damn thing as if we’re living out Bill Murray’s ’90s classic Groundhog Day. By the time you read this I, along with the rest of Auckland, should be in at least level 3, although who the hell knows? And while some will be rushing off to get their fill of fast food, I’ll be going straight to stock up the workshop supplies. I know that everyone’s situation is different — many can’t earn a crust during these times, so that’s super stressful. And for others it’s a full work day from the couch.…

STAY COOL Our beloved classics often have cooling systems that would have worked perfectly when ‘heavy traffic’ meant more than one car in front of you at the lights, but times have changed. Add the extra demands of performance modifications and competition driving into the mix and you will want to see the team at Adrad. They specialise in designing radiators for classic and performance cars, and stock aftermarket radiators, cores, and components proven in New Zealand and Australian conditions. All of Adrad’s radiators come with nationwide warranties, so you won’t be left hot under the collar. Visit 0800radiators.co.nz, or phone 0800 RADIATORS (723 428) for more info. UNLEASH YOUR LSA Unlock the true performance of your late-model, supercharged, LSA-powered HSV up to 600kW with one of Xair’s four stages…

Here’s my tip of the month: If you drive into a shop to get some work done on your car, and you don’t know anything about the owner and staff there, ask to speak to the owner first. If he comes out and looks to be about 19 or 20 years old, then just get back in your car and drive on out of there. Drive down the road, and find another shop. Any other shop. Why? Because that 19-year-old shop owner might be just like the 19-year-old version of me. And trust me, you wouldn’t want to leave your pride and joy with the dickhead 19-year-old version of me. I know this from experience. Bitter experience. Not so much my bitter experiences; more the bitter experiences of the good…

Barry Morgan has long been a fan of circuit racing, particularly the nostalgic stuff, and has been a regular campaigner of a pre-’65 Falcon for many seasons. Watching the big boys hurl their toys around circuits and seeing them grinning from ear to ear when drivers removed their helmets after battle was something Barry decided he needed a slice of, so the decision was made — he was going muscle car racing! With the fields full of Camaros and Mustangs, Barry really wanted to pedal something a little bit different. Eventually, he stumbled across a ’70 Ford Maverick for sale in the States. It was set up for drag racing, had recently been completely refreshed, and had zero passes on it. This would be a perfect donor car — or…

Art (ärt): noun: something that is created with imagination and skill that incites emotion and excites the viewer. Scale models are a pure 3D art form, specially crafted with details and design that almost rival their 1:1 scale counterparts. A steady hand, keen eye for detail, and unrivalled passion for authenticity and realism are what spurs Marc Bolan Dean with this art form. These 1:24 scale creations are the result of a fusion of creativity, and a passion for doorslammer drag cars. Scratch-built chassis, chopped bodies, and fully wired cockpits and engines are not the normal route taken by many scale modellers. Marc’s miniature creations are just like the real deal … only 24 times smaller. NZV8: How and when were you first introduced to cars? Marc: I was born…

1959 CHEVROLET APACHE 3600 Slammed and patinaed trucks sure are blowing up everywhere right now! This Apache is cool with a mix of new and old school tech. Starting with an LS2 power plant mated to a 4L60 transmission, power is transferred to an Eaton Posi filled 9-inch rear end. All of those components are bolted into the original frame that has TCI Engineering front and rear suspension clips installed, along with Ridetech shocks and Wilwood brakes. Overall a clean set-up. 1969 OLDSMOBILE 442 Eric nailed it with this build and he ended up with something different from the norm which was the goal from the beginning. Starting off with staggered 18 and 20-inch wheels to set the stance, he then got the ride height sorted with an air suspension…

“Green, green is nice.” A classic line from the ’80s cult Aussie movie that also starred a ’57 Chev, and while the ’57 in Running On Empty was black, this one was always going to be green. The reality is whatever Stefan and Toni were going to buy and build it was going to be green, and while Toni always wanted a ‘Greased Lightning’ car, or something of the style, Stefan always preferred the look of the Tri-Fives, especially ’57s. The fins on the ‘57s made a good compromise with the Greased Lightning look, so Stefan just sort of steered the search in that direction. After a bit of ‘casual’ looking, you know, not too serious but just watching the market to see what popped up, a ’57 was spotted…

EV ACE The AC Cobra’s predecessor the AC Ace, the car that directly led to what can only be described as one of the most iconic cars of all time, will once again be offered for sale 50 years after its production run ended. Although the Ace RS electric will retain its ’50s styling, it will be a very modern drivetrain, with Falcon Electric providing the EV power plant that will propel the lightweight sports car to 0-62 mph in approx. 5.5 seconds, thanks to the 230kW/500Nm peak power. The range is over 300km. This comes after the Cobra Series 1 electric was offered for sale in June, but both cars can hold nothing to the Cobra Series 4 electric, with one model boasting a 460kW/1000Nm power train. But don’t worry,…

Remember when Aussie cars weren’t worth the paint over their rust? Remember when American car owners looked down their noses at them? How times change! Lindsay Smith’s LX Torana hatch is something most petrolheads would kill to own — and that’s before you get to the guts of what really makes it tick. It’s been a project 34 years in the making, purchased in about 1987 when Lindsay had two young kids and no money to build it the way he really wanted to. “It had a 308 and three-stage auto, and was always a good and reliable car,” he remembers, “but it didn’t handle skids and racing down Carlyle Street, so unfortunately that [308] ended up with a hole in the side of the block.” On top of the…

DREAM MACHINE While you may not see Paul Freeman at the strip all that often, that’s not to say he doesn’t live and breathe drag racing. The Wellingtonian has been enamoured with the sport ever since getting his driver’s licence 40-odd years ago, but with work, family, and other commitments his time at the strip is somewhat more limited than he’d like. So limited in fact that he’s yet to make a pass in his HQ ute since the blown injected engine combo was fitted. Having always wanted an Altered as his ultimate race car, when one came up for sale he couldn’t resist sending the link to his father-in-law, Peter Craig — an equally-as-keen racer. While that car may have sold before he could get it, he was soon informed…

The Giocattolo Group B seems like one of those great ideas that boil to the surface after a few tins with your mates. They’re the sort of conversations that start with, “Wouldn’t it be cool if you could…” and generally finish with, “I can’t see why it wouldn’t work… but …” We’ve all had these hop and malt-laced dreams, yet in the case of short-lived Australian supercar manufacturer Giocattolo Motori, there was no ‘but’. These guys actually had the money and the blind confidence to follow through on their big ideas. Unlike the slew of homebrew ‘supercars’ that came and went in the ’70s and ’80s, the Giocattolo Group B was anything but agricultural. While the kit sports car fare of the day were usually limping around on a VW…

A build simply isn’t a handful of nuts and bolts, a coat of jam sprayed across fettled surfaces, and a smorgasbord of mechanical additions. Sure, to the bolt-counter peering under the bonnet at a car show passing judgement, what you see is what you get. But there’s always more to it — every enthusiast vehicle happens for a reason, some deeper than others, but these things ain’t no A to B wagon. Beyond the surface is often a rich tapestry of anecdotes, relationships, good times, and often a couple of bad times thrown into the mix. Builds are as much a commentary of mechanical prowess as they are a journey through a A myriad of personal experiences — in some cases it’s the culmination of these experiences a little further down…

Weight is the biggest enemy of performance, and while some choose to ignore the benefits of reducing it as much as possible, preferring real steel and chrome, for those who embrace a serious weight loss program carbon fibre is a must as a weight-watchers weapon. With many online how-tos, some showing the right and some the not-so-right ways of doing it, tapping into the knowledge of a professional is the best way to get a foolproof system for producing parts in your shed that will not only save you weight, but look good doing it. For the purpose of this guide Zac is covering off the build of a set of rear widebody carbon guards: “This is a race car, not a show car, but the principles are the same.…

Since its inception in 2014, the NZ’s Quickest Streeters list has been the source of inspiration, controversy, and entertainment. The list was dreamed up to help showcase the performance and success of street legal drag racing, but of course stirring on a little healthy competition was also part of the plan. What we didn’t quite expect was the level of competition that it would create, and just how far the scene would come in a relatively short period. The rules to get on the list were (and remain) fairly simple, with the theory being that it’s easy, self policing, and of course fair for all drivers. With that in mind, the rules are that the vehicle must be registered, warranted, and with an LVV cert plate that matches the car’s…

Last month we started talking about what an Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro funny car actually is, and some of the unique things about them that make the series such a success. We kicked things off talking about Nitro and how it works; this month I thought we would touch on the ignition systems. When you break down any type of internal combustion it’s a simple recipe. You need air and fuel to make a fire, and then you need to light that fire, and that’s where the ignition system comes in. An Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro funny car uses a single MSD 44-amp Magneto and, like nitro, we could spend pages and pages talking about ignition systems, but let’s just keep it simple. As the name suggests, these Magnetos put out 44…

I don’t know about you, but I really enjoy hot I rod history. I love the stories and I love the mystery surrounding some of those stories. It is great that hot rodding has grown in this country with professional shops in every town, events throughout the calendar, multiple publications, and even televised hot rod content. However, there is a downside. The message of what it is all about has become diluted, resulting in no real true appreciation of our rich hot rod past, both locally and internationally. Sure, we are all entitled to enjoy it how we want, and that’s all part of the Kiwi casualness of it all. But as I say, there is a colourful hot rod history to be learnt. We never stop learning, and hot…

If you were lucky enough to be around the New Zealand drag racing scene during the nitro heyday of the 1970s and 1980s then you’ll know the name Mike Gearing very well. He was one of the key players in the drag racing scene, having worked his way through the ranks from rookie to the quickest and fastest man in the country, taking part in a variety of classes along the way. Despite building countless race engines for customers, it was his development of nitrofueled Hemi engines in Top Fuel class that saw him rise to fame. This life of living a quarter-mile at a time wasn’t without danger though, and sadly, not once but twice Mike was involved in serious — life-threatening — accidents due to his desire to…

PURE BRED PONY Christchurch’s Rhys Gould has been making a name for himself in the South Island Endurance Racing scene over the past 2 seasons in his Hyundai TCR and will take to the track this season in a 2018 Nissan GTR Nismo joining the top GT3 class. This coming season will see another vehicle change for him as he takes the reins of an Angus Fogg–built 1970 Mustang. While there was initially talk about purchasing Angus’s own highly successful car, he still has unfinished business in the class, so a deal was done to see him build a clone. Going about it this way has allowed him to include the three seasons of development changes that have gone into his own car. Additionally, he is also able to use it…

TRACK ATTACK Built purely to have fun and blow off steam after a long week on the clock, Marcel Plaisier’s VN has been a regular at local track days for the past eight years. The VN LS (an HSV special edition) had been sitting de-reged and dormant in a West Auckland barn before being saved by a mate. After tidying it up and getting it legal again, Marcel stepped in and scooped it up. He then got a manual conversion and started hitting the track. For the first two years it was kept road legal, but once the cage went in it all became too hard and it began straying further and further from the street. Still powered by the original V6, some misfiring issues led to discussions with Simon…