Table of contents for No 204 May 2022 in NZV8

I don’t need to bang on about how life has been for anyone over the past two years. We’ve all lived through it, we’ve all missed out on this, that, or the other, but the end is now here (kind of). My heart goes out to anyone who had to struggle because of it, and just so everyone is clear, I keep these columns about cars, not all the real-life stuff we all go through on the daily. Hence why I’ll talk about world problems as if cars are the be and end all of life. Anyways, I know a lot of you are jumping for joy right now given we can finally — after an entire season of almost nothing — get together at the track and sniff some…

At the age of 90 you might think ‘Big Daddy’ Don Garlits would be ready to slow down and check into a retirement village, but that could not be further from the truth. The veteran drag racer has announced a series of match races against fellow EV dragster racer Steve Huff. Garlits has been campaigning an EV rail car, dubbed Swamp Rat 37, for 10 years. He missed out to Huff to be the first EV dragster to run 200mph in quarter, who clocked 201.07mph with his batterypowered machine. This saw Garlits go back to the drawing board and build an all-new car, Swamp Rat 38, in which he now intends to go head to head with Huff in match races around the US. “I just turned 90 years old…

The demolition man, Peter Ward, has made it two rounds from two in the Ryco 24•7 V8 Utes Racing Series, racing under Covid-restricted conditions. This season has seen a new tune-up in the utes, similar to the one used across the ditch, and one that promises closer racing, which Ward seems to be delivering thus far. “There’s not a heap more power, but a lot more torque. You really notice it coming out of the corners,” stated series competitor, Greg Kroef, driver of the Heron Construction FG. Greg’s brother, Brad, claimed a race win during the opening round at Hampton Downs but it was Ward who took home the spoils, with two wins and a second to secure the round. Round two at Pukekohe again saw Ward take both normal…

When asked to pen this piece, I went back and forth on what direction to come from, and, to be honest, there are many — some good, a lot bad, but the best way to describe the place is as an enigma. The dictionary describes an ‘enigma’ as a person or thing that is mysterious or difficult to understand, and that pretty much sums up drag racing as a whole at Taupo over the years. The place should have been perfect: brand-new track, centrally located in a popular tourist destination, great facilities for the racer, and plenty to do in the local area, so turning a drag racing trip into a family holiday was an enticing and viable option. But, for every good, there was a bad, too, which ultimately…

With the progress Tamara Silk has been making through the ranks, and behind the wheel of her Top Alcohol Dragster, it was only a matter of time before she took out the title of New Zealand’s Fastest female. The previous record, held by Karen Hay, first in the Hay family’s Evil II Altered, and then in Russell Christoffersen’s twin turbo dragster, has been pushed to an impressive 5.89 seconds at 242.43mph. Until recently, Tamara’s PB in the Lucas Oils sponsored dragster sat at 5.93 at 232mph. Off the trailer at Masterton Motorplex’s Red Light Rampage on March 12, the car ran a 5.95 at 242.78mph, so was ever so close to Hay’s record. While the day wasn’t without its dramas, including a wild ride deep into the sand trap, it…

When we featured Steve and Leanne Milne’s Slick ’56 Chev back in 2015, Steve listed his dream car as a Pro-street style ’56. Our concept illustration in that issue was even exactly that, based on his wish list. And now, the car (albeit a ’55 two-door post) is under construction at the hands of Jason Sellers at JSE Custom Fabrication. The car, which is intended to be 100 per cent street legal, runs a full chromoly tube chassis, along with a fabbed nineinch diff, complete with full floating hubs. t’ll run 17x4-inch front wheels, and 15x17-inch rears, wrapped in 33x22x15 tyres, and Steve’s very keen to make sure the body is sitting down nice and low over the double A-arm front end setup and 4-linked rear. As per Steve’s concept…

Okay, by now you’ve made 20 or 30 passes over the past couple of meetings and truly have the bug. Times have dropped from meandering 14s down to a string of spritely 12s. Man, you’re good. So good your wife now asks when you’re going to clean under your fingernails and to “make sure you wash your feet before getting in the shower”. Yes, gone are the days all tuning decisions were made by your mechanic and today you are genuinely proud of being described as her favourite bogan. Downside to all this enthusiasm is your mates are over it. They loved the first meeting, the second was good too, but one of them has teamed with another wannabe to run a Camaro, while others are making noises about mowing…

LOW FAST FAMOUS 1971 Chevrolet El Camino @ABIMELECDESIGN Does anyone remember the Holden HQ ute ‘Blo Bak’? If so, now is your chance to recreate it using a Chevrolet El Camino and the latest 1000hp naturally aspirated crate engine from GM Performance, pushing 632 cubes. Inspired by, and using, a Porsche 917 transaxle, it will get the party started no matter where you are. Custom coilover suspension along with tyres as wide as you can find will get the stance right and hopefully the traction somewhat under control, so good! 1963 1/2 Ford Galaxie @TOTAL_PERFORMANCE_ MOTORSPORTS It is always a risk when modifying a classic, but TPM did a great job with this one. With the FE big block mated to a TCI C6 transmission through to a Currie nine-inch…

First rolling off the production line in ’28, the Model A Ford was quickly accepted by the public after the long production of the Model T. Produced for four years from ’28 to ’31, the Model A Ford has always had universal global appeal across all sectors of the automotive world, from vintage guys to hot rodders and racers alike. It was back in 2019 when most people celebrated the 90th anniversary of the Model A Ford, and here in New Zealand Chris Hornblow and Shane Adlington wanted to celebrate by getting everyone together — creating Model A Day (MAD). An event hosted via word of mouth each February, it has grown over the years, with people travelling from all over New Zealand to attend. Held at Chris and his…

Mark Shotter got busy during the 2020 lockdown. How busy? Try a two-door conversion on this four-door MKI. While this conversion itself is no joke, the real hard work has actually been the complete custom chassis he has built. To do so, the floor and front end all met their demise with a grinder and have been replaced with 75x50 RHS and a full roll cage. The rear end now sports a four-link and Currie fabricated nine-inch with Strange head and axles to hold the 15x12s, while upfront is a mixed bag of OEM components. A narrowed Skyline crossmember holds a narrowed VK rack, and the front uprights are Nissan S15 items, all part of the game to get it street legal. The engine is a 5.3 LS sourced from…

If you’ve been wondering what your Sunday arvos have been missing recently, the answer is your fix of Repco Muscle Garage. But never fear, on 29 May the show is making a return to its home on Three’s CRC Motorsport for its 10th season. As always the show will also stream via YouTube, and will showcase the best cars, sheds, and events our great country has to offer, alongside some of the characters that are driving forces behind the scenes. Season 10 will air for 10 episodes, and is made possible with the support of Repco New Zealand, Meguiar’s, and Mount Shop Ltd. The season kicks off with a Repco Kumeu Classic Car and Hot Rod Festival special and a look at New Zealand’s newest nitro-burning nostalgia machine, so tune…

Not since ’76 has a Nascar contested what is one of the most gruelling races on the planet, but that looks set to change in 2023 with Hendrick Motorsports securing the 24 Hours of Le Mans Garage 56 spot, a garage typically reserved for manufacture prototypes and emerging technologies. Garage 56 requires the entrant to meet the safety and performance requirements to which main competitors are subject. While not able to race for honours, their placings are classified as official results. Hendrick will field a specially prepared next-gen ZL1 Camaro Cup car, and is taking its one-off race very seriously, working alongside Nascar and Goodyear. Rick Hendrick stated, “This is a full-bore, full-blown effort to run 24 hours and to run competitive times. Our guys are working aero, weight, horsepower.…

If you were superstitious you’d have to call the C8 Corvette doomed, but a more logical thinker will just put this latest disruption in production down to global supply shortages. Like many manufacturers, GM is currently having to re-spec cars just to keep production flowing, due to microchip shortages among other shortcomings, but there is some tech it is just not willing to forgo, this being tyre pressure monitors, so production at the Bowling Green, Kentucky, is now paused. GM had already removed the front and rear spoilers, as well as the magnetic ride control, in an effort to keep things moving but the tyre monitors were clearly a must-have. Last year, a tornado ripped through the facility, causing extensive damage and production delays. Just when C8 production will restart…

HIDDEN BASS The Kicker Hideaway HS10 is a compact, self-contained 10-inch subwoofer housed in an all-aluminium frame. With 180 watts RMS, it accepts signals ranging from a mere 0.25 volts to as high as 40 volts (400 watts at 4Ω) and is fully compatible with newer vehicles using start/stop systems. It comes with an adjustable low-pass crossover, variable +6dB bass boost, phase switch, and two auto turn-on options: DC-offset or signal sensing. It’s a mere 2mm taller than its little brother, the HS8, yet delivers more power and bigger impact, and is easy to install. Available from Kicker stockists throughout New Zealand: kickernz.co.nz/where-to-buy. MODERN WALKY Tyre technology has advanced considerably since the ’80s, and you can capitalise on that fact without ruining the look of the classic Walkinshaw 16-inch five…

After testing the Aeroflow Top Fuel Funny Car, our next assignment was the Aeroflow Nitro Hot Rods and a match race we had booked in at the Day of the Drags at Sydney Dragway. With Spooky having been sold to New Zealand, I was once again given the honour of driving Graeme and Wendy Cowin’s ‘Psycho’ fuel altered. For those of you who don’t know, Psycho is a re-creation of their first nitro car, and the car they sold to start what has become Aeroflow Performance and Rocket Industries. It’s fair to say this car has heaps of sentimental meaning. Psycho is also one intimidating car, not just from the meaning, but we don’t call it the shopping trolley with a nitro motor for no reason. Going into the event,…

It’s 2008, and you’re wandering around the Melbourne Motor Show looking at the various lukewarm offerings from local and international manufacturers. That’s when you hear a rising din — a hubbub even. You clutch your plastic goodie bag, filled with brochures, key rings, and other useless shit that you’ll probably never look at again, and muscle your way through the crowds towards the excited thrum. Suddenly, the sea of Aussies parts, and there it is: the ‘Holden Coupe 60’ concept — or, as any sane person would have assumed at the time — the new VE-based Holden Monaro. Distinctly familiar, with its Commodore-based styling, yet strikingly different, the coupe 60 is a shock — not just to you, not even just to the other attendees and motoring journos crowding around…

In last month’s column, I concluded by asking, “How many would turn up to an event with no awards?” Well, if you happened to be in Onepu, near Kawerau on the outskirts of Whakatne in mid March, you would have seen the result first-hand. Take the aspects of a Whakatne Rod Run, add aspects of the Hot Rod Blow Out, Muscle Car Madness, Nostalgia Drags, and turn the clock back to what is known as ‘March Meet’. Hosted by hot rod gentleman Squeak Bell, and his partner Janet, March Meet is a hot rod party where you forget the outside world and enjoy things with no officialdom, no ego, no prizes, but much fun, hijinks, good times, and plenty of laughs. March Meet also coincides with Squeak’s birthday and this…

The Chevrolet Fleetline is one of the most beautiful car models ever to come from a designer’s pen, the flowing lines of the body proving irresistible to kustom and low-rider builders the world over. Thus, almost from the time they started rolling off the production line, they were placed under the knife. But, no matter how many beautiful examples have been crafted, there is always something fresh and new to bring to the table — or in this case a new level of low. This month’s concept is based around a ’49 Fleetline, which will have the top chopped four inches up front and tapered back to around three inches in the rear. To match this, the boot lid will also be sliced and pancaked to suit the new rear…

It’s amazing how much can be achieved in a short time frame when a bunch of mates get together with a deadline, just as Chris Piesse and co. achieved with his very wild ’34 Ford Y street car. The bulk of the build was undertaken in an 18-day thrash in the lead up to Western Bays Street Rodders car show in 2020. Sitting on a custom (LVVTA-spec) chassis with double-hoop funny car–style cage, the chassis has been styled to mimic traditional ’32-style rails up front, and runs a traditional set-up with transverse leaf and So-Cal drop axle, while, out back, a four-linked nine-inch holds a pair of 15x15s. Ensuring it has a radical look, the body has been chopped and channelled over the custom frame. The engine combination has changed…

Imagine how good it would be to have not only a drag strip but a race circuit, speedway, and drift park in Taranaki! Well, you may not have to imagine for too much longer, as Taranaki motorsport associations are signing a founding document along with the Stratford A&P Society. This document formalises the structure under which the planned facility will operate. Stratford Park, as the group is known, is currently raising funds to purchase a neighbouring property to the A&P ground and to fund the required resource consent application. An independently prepared economic impact report is under way, with delivery expected in June. Meanwhile, the park is currently working on the first stage of the development, which involves a relocation of the equestrian facilities to a new site, away from…

By the time you read this, reigning Repco V8 Supercars champion, Shane van Gisbergen, will have made his Australian national rally debut. Piloting a Red Bull–backed Škoda Fabia R5, with veteran co-driver Glen Weston alongside, the Kiwi attended a pre-season test to begin getting a handle on the R5. “The car’s much better than the driver, and there are some big jumps out there, but I’m just learning what it can take and how it feels,” stated SVG in an interview. While it is SVG’s first national-level event, he has competed on gravel here — successfully, we might add — both in an Escort at the 2020 City of Sails rally, where he won his class, and in an AP4 at Jacks Ridge, also in 2020, taking out overall honours.…

Power can do strange things to a person; give someone a little taste and nine times out of 10 that taste will soon no longer satisfy their hunger, leaving them yearning for more. While any kind of power can do that to a man, from wearing a badge to organising a community fundraiser, we’re talking the language of horsepower power here — one of the most intoxicating forms you can get. Add to that a sprinkling of the most addictive sports known to man — drag racing — and you’re in for a world of trouble. Goalposts are moved, dreams expanded, and sticking to a budget becomes nothing but a distant memory of simpler times. Everyone, we’d like you to meet Dave Vea, a serious victim of the above circumstance,…

I’m not in any hurry to finish this life (and I’m certainly hopeful that it won’t end anytime soon), but I’ve got to say that I’m pleased I don’t have to live on this same planet that you younger readers are going to have to occupy for the next 40 or more years. There’s an increasing proportion of our population who seem to thrive on being offended and outraged by anything and everything, and they’re just doing my poor old tired head in. This whole notion of being outraged or offended over shit that really doesn’t matter, and then launching into social media to express it, is bad enough, but more and more people in this diverse society of ours — so I’ve been told for a few years now…

It would be fair to say that Paul Boden is a fan of ’55 Chevs. It would also be fair to say that sentence is a complete understatement. He’s not just a fan of ’55s, but is also somewhat obsessed with them, and has been ever since he first saw the iconic Two-Lane Blacktop on the big screen many years ago. However, somewhat ironically, he’s never owned a clone of the tough black two-door ’55 that’s the hero car of the movie, despite owning no less than 10 ’55s in his time. Five of those are still in his ownership today, although from that impressive collection, one thing was missing … a pro-streeter. So around four years ago, Paul set out to sort this significant Chevrolet deficiency. Being more than…

When Hugh Gardiner joined the grid for Round Six of the 2017–2018 CMC season, those in the know knew he wasn’t there just to make up the numbers. Having come from a background that reads like a how-to guide to competitive racing, including starting with karts before working his way up into Formula Fords and into tin tops, Hugh’s no slouch behind the wheel. His time in Porsche GT3 Cup and BNT Supertourers proved this, with Hugh gracing the top step of the podium on multiple occasions. Having him enter the CMC madness part-way through the season was a real ‘cat amongst the pigeons’-type scenario, where all of a sudden he was able to take points away from championship contenders. His vehicle of choice for this was a Ken Hopper-built…

SPECIAL THANKS TO: BRENDON DEERE AND THE BIGGIN HILL HISTORIC AIRCRAFT TRUST FOR HOSTING THE SHOOT Stacey Emeny operates Mercury Garage from a pretty cool barn out the back of Shannon in the Manawatu, but don’t let the building’s well-worn looks fool you. Stacey is a genuine automotive craftsman; you could say he’s one of the last of a dying breed, a true metalworker rather than a panel replacer. The majority of the cars that roll into the rough and raw-looking building are in need of a bit more than a quick in and out patch-up job. If you’re after a full back to a bare shell, better-than-new restoration build with plenty of custom touches, then Stacey is your man. There isn’t much that Stacey cannot do to a piece…

It is touted as the biggest and most significant private car collection in Australia, a collection of past championship winners, Bathurst icons, and stars of some of the greatest moments in Australian motor racing history, an ode to an era of motorsport that will never be repeated, and, thanks to the collector David Bowden, will never be forgotten. Bowden’s teenage years were spent as a hot rodder — before he got his first taste of Aussie muscle (touring cars) with the purchase of a factory-built Phase IV GTHO, a Ford development car. The Ford was so good compared with the home-made hot rods David was used to that it started him on a life-long journey of amassing, restoring, and maintaining these significant pieces of Australian touring car history. When David…

The team at Danny’s Auto Services in Palmy have been putting in the wrench time on Pete Coopers’ NZ-new 1979 Ford F100. The plan for the build is to be a tough cruiser/sleeper, so while it might look tame and almost unmodified from the exterior, it’s under the hood where things get interesting. The 302 has been stroked to 347 cubes and a pair of Borg Warner turbos have been hung off each side. Phil Blumont from Engine Rebuilders Palmerston North machined the block, and Matt Tasker from Danny’s has built the 9.5:1 compression booster with a Custom Kelford Cams roller cam, Eagle crank, Eagle rods, CP Pistons, and EFI conversion. They have also handled the custom manifolds, full stainless exhaust, manual conversion, and drop tank. The Windsor takes its…