Table of contents for No 225 January - February 2025 in NZV8

YouTube has become a powerhouse platform for car builders and enthusiasts, offering endless content to learn from and enjoy. One standout personality making waves in the V8 scene is Cleetus McFarland, whose high-octane projects are grabbing global attention. His latest build, a Pro Mod Camaro dubbed ‘Eagle’, is turning heads everywhere. Unveiled on his YouTube channel, Eagle is a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro built in collaboration with Cameron Johnson Race Cars. This beast is designed for five-second quarter-mile runs and features a twin-turbocharged Pro Line Hemi engine capable of cranking out up to 5000hp. The Camaro recently smashed a four-second eighth-mile shakedown pass and made its competitive debut at the Haltech World Cup Finals at Maryland International Raceway, where it achieved an incredible five-second pass at over 240mph! This project showcases…

The start of any season is pretty damn exciting, and for the first round of the NDRC XPro Funny Car Championship, I have to admit I was pretty pumped. We headed down to the dragway at The Bend Motorsport Park in Adelaide for the opener. Anyone who has seen the new dragstrip knows how incredible this venue is. The facilities and the racing surface are both world-class. If you remember the last column, I talked about testing and trying a new combination. Well, with what we had learned from the test and from talking to some of our friends in the US, going into this event we had not only thrown away our data from last season but also from the test. I had decided to go with a completely…

“So then,” many people ask me, “what’s it like to race a V8 muscle car?” I figure any of us who like fast cars or have harboured the notion that we might want to have a go at circuit racing one day, will have a bit of an interest in what goes on, and what it’s like. I’ve spent a lifetime wondering about all this and have finally started to learn a bit about it first-hand just these past eight or so years. I tried to give a sense, a few years back in these pages, of what it’s like to start at the bottom rung of the motor racing ladder, and undertake (for me, quite late in life) a circuit racing ‘apprenticeship’ in a basic four-cylinder Toyota Levin within…

Get ready for the Kumeu Hot Rod Festival, happening 17–19 January 2025 at the Kumeu A & P Showgrounds in Auckland. This is the ultimate weekend for car lovers, with over 1000 classic cars, hot rods, and vintage gems on display. Whether you’re into collecting, cruising, or just soaking up the vibes, there’s something for everyone — 100-plus trade stalls, rare car parts, a rad vintage caravan park, and a Kids Hot Rod Racing event. Plus, you can catch drag racing displays, live music, and all the best food options. It’s the perfect family-friendly event, but get there early for the best deals! Parking’s easy, but if you’re cruising in, head to Gate 6. Tickets are available at the gate, but snag them early online for a sweet deal. Don’t…

With colours with names such as Plum Crazy, Go Mango, Sublime Green, and Green Go, the marketing team at Chrysler was anything but boring. While the company used different names for the same colours across its Dodge and Plymouth divisions, there’s one colour that perhaps sticks out from the pack — Pink Panther — which in the Plymouth line was known as ‘Moulin Rouge’. Whichever way you look at it, it’s eye-searing pink, and Taranaki’s Cathy Willemsen is in love with it. That wasn’t always the way though, as her early years as a member of the American Muscle Car Club (AMCC) saw her behind the wheel of a ’70 Mustang, and her heart was devoted to the Blue Oval. It wasn’t until she was at a friend’s house picking…

In this issue of The Burnout Files, we head to AutoFest 2024, win a ticket to the Summernats Pro Series finals, and score ourselves a ride to Australia! Sounds awesome, right? Well, it is — until you realise you’ve got less than four weeks to prep your car before it gets packed into a container and shipped off to Sydney. And the kicker? You won’t see or touch your car again until the day before the biggest burnout competition in the world! With two Summernats Pro Burnout Series tickets, two wildcard tickets, a spot in the Burnout Masters game, and one of the kings of Australian burnouts, Jake Myers, here to award a very cool trophy for the sickest tip-in, the team at Downtime had once again proved their commitment…

HOP BOUND Last time we checked in, Trev Halstead’s 1947–’51 custom Studebaker was deep in the works. And if you know Trev, you’ll know that he’s not one to hit the brakes. He’s been full steam ahead, transforming the 1951 bodyshell into something truly extraordinary. The car’s undergone a wicked four-and-a-half–inch chop and channel, split screens have been added front and rear — with a raked front screen — and the side window body belts have been dropped. Trev’s also pancaked and peaked the roof, radiused all the corners, and opened up the fender arches to give it a mean stance. The bodywork is nothing short of insane. He’s extended the bulkhead by two inches, added a peak to the trunk to flow seamlessly with the roof and bonnet, and…

Here are some quick hits of content from social media channels around the globe, curated by Low Fast Famous. They relate to some of the projects and completed builds that have been generating the most interaction and impressions in the past 30 days. Check out more of the work from the vehicles highlighted via their Instagram handles listed or at Low Fast Famous: @lowfastfamous 1955 CHEVROLET @CHRIS_CERCE_CUSTOMS Man, this ’55 Chevrolet has it all and is one tough street machine. Starting with a Roadster Shop Fast Track chassis to get the handling and stance sorted, it was fitted with the best components from Baer Brakes and Strange. Power is via a Dart block LS3-based engine that is boosted with a Whipple 4.5-litre supercharger pushing 1050rwhp. Rolling stock is via Forgeline,…

HE “WANTED SOMETHING DIFFERENT”. A TAME SMALL BLOCK WAS DEFINITELY NOT ON HIS RADAR Adding his name to the long list of previous caretakers, Warwick Garth certainly has big shoes to fill, but he assures us that he’s well and truly up to the task of keeping the spirit of this Camaro alive. The Gisborne-based Garth family’s journey starts at The Toy Shed in Rotorua, where Russell and Glen were building Warwick a ‘show-and-go’ Holden One Tonner. The ute featured a set of seriously narrowed frame rails, air suspension, and a set of 15x10-inch wide meats on the rear. The team were quickly getting to the ‘we need an engine now’ stage of the build, and Warwick said that he “wanted something different”. A tame small block was definitely not…

DOUBLE OR NOTHING Trevor Smith Racing (TSR) have been teasing us with talk of a two-car team for many years now, one for existing driver Trevor Smith Sr and another for his son Trev Smith Jr. Well, that plan is now very close to reality thanks to plenty of assistance from Team Bray in Australia. Although TSR previously had a different chassis in mind, when the chance came up to grab the sister car to Ben Bray’s 1979 Corvette, it was a no-brainer. The ’Vette was driven by Frankie Taylor for a season-and-a-half before TSR purchased it minus motor in 2019. From that time onwards, largely in secret, they have worked with the Brays to put together a 514ci BAE complete with PSI D-rotor blower and Pro 600 coil pack…

Soldiers returning from World War II not only brought the passion and desire for freedom and a new life back from their military experience – they also brought skills. Mechanical, design, fabrication, and technical skills resulting from a period when the future of their country relied on the military industrial machine moving at speed and with precision. That’s quite apart from the fact more rudimentary versions of these engineering skills were simply part of going to school in those days. And the abundance of these skills was a catalyst for the birth, evolution, and growth of drag racing, salt-lake racing, and revolutionary OEM vehicle design and manufacture. It also created many small businesses operated by skilled engineers, designers, and fabricators making specialty products for all kinds of niche markets like…

GARY GOT HIS FIRST TASTE OF DRAG RACING BY SHARING THE DRIVING OF HIS BROTHER VIC’S ROADSTER Most people who know Gary and Jo-Anne Crook know them as diehard Holden people, but, more than that, they are amazingly dedicated to their family — sons Dion and Aidan and, in recent years, a collection of grandkids. However, although Gary has a deep love of Holdens, his dream car is actually a 1963 Corvette, and he’s very lucky that Jo-Anne doesn’t mind them either. How this particular car — now known as ‘Cleopatra’ — came to be in their lives is a long story, and for that we need to rewind back to when Dion (now aged 33) and Aidan (now aged 30) were just little nippers Back then, Gary got his…