Inhaltsverzeichnis für March 2024 in Street Machine

NESTLED in the mountains of Far North Queensland, the beautiful Springmount Raceway has been home to Northern Nats since 2016, and the event’s eighth instalment is set to take place 10-12 May. With the Summernats team partnering with the event, it’s shaping up to be the biggest Northern Nats yet. The Street Machine team have been to Northern Nats several times, and we can tell you it’s a hoot and a half. All the favourites from previous events like drag and roll racing, powerskids, live music and weekend-long camping will return for the 2024 event, and on top of that, the cruise route and show ’n’ shine aspects will be given a big rev-up. The cruise route will now feature a Skid Row area, just like at Street Machine Summernats…

IT LOOKED for all money like the weather at Burson Auto Parts Motorvation 38 would be typically scorching, as the mercury soared to 40 degrees on the Friday of the event. Mercifully though, the Freo Doctor got up for work early on Saturday and Sunday to make for a very comfortable weekend down at the Perth Motorplex. Entrants had the place to themselves until 2pm on the Friday, when the gates were kicked open to the public. Prior to that, the competitors could get acquainted with Skid Row and make sure everything was on song for the weekend ahead. We rocked up a bit later, when that beautiful late-afternoon light started to hit just in time for the eighth-mile drags. There were some well-sorted cars having a crack and running…

MANY of us know how messy and painful things can get when we buy a half-done project. But sometimes, everybody wins and the end product comes out looking like Chris Wright’s gorgeous XT Fairmont. The Mildura fella has sampled a few spicy rides on both sides of the fence over the past decade or so, including a 363-cube XW GS, an SBC-swapped LC Torana coupe, and a brainmelting, 2500hp XW ute (SM, Mar ’16). “I had a stroke when I was 31, so I never got to drive [the XW],” Chris says. “I eventually got my licence back and had the Torana race car, but my health was still giving me grief, so I decided to sell it again and buy a street car.” Ballarat racer Simon Williams was looking…

SAMANTHA Holden is the epitome of a dyed-in-the-wool petrolhead, having spent her formative years watching her dad, Graeme, create wild street machines. She’s since nurtured her own taste for sweet rides with a race-look 1965 Chevrolet Impala and a 1940 Ford De Luxe coupe hot rod. Sounds like your dad strongly influenced you. Yes! Dad was a single father to my sister and me since I was five years old, though we had an extensive hot rod family of friends. Between the 60s and the 90s, he built a Y-block-powered EJ Holden; roof-chopped his ’54 Chev; chopped an HQ LS Monaro; created a half Ford/half Holden, split through the centre, for the ’86 Street Machine Nationals; and set a record salt racing his ’53 Ford Victoria, which he still holds.…

KADIN Berry and his ’46 Chevy hot rod went viral among the Queensland car community last year for all the wrong reasons, with the uber-cool rat rod catching fire en route to Rockynats 3. But while that sucked big time, everyone rallied behind Kadin to help the young fella rebuild the ’46 – another reminder of just how awesome our scene can be. Tell us a bit about how you got the Chevy, Kadin. I found it on Marketplace as pretty much a rolling shell. It was a ute body, which is what I was after, with just the chassis and basic body. It also had a Jag front end and HiLux diff, but besides that, it was pretty bare. My dad has always been into American rods and muscle…

DYLAN FIELD FORD ANGLIA “THIS is my 1955 Ford Anglia, which I’ve been building into a pro streeter for the past eight years. I’ve made a full custom chassis for it, and it will run a fully built turbo 1UZ for power, backed by a Powerglide and a HiLux rear end. The motor will be good for around 1500hp, but it will probably never see that, and the car should weigh around 1100kg when it’s all finished. All the fab work has been done by me, and I also did the engine work with the help of my two good mates Brendin Jones and Allan Bigham. The plan is to have the car finished by the end of the year, and it’ll be fully road legal and built to hit…

THE Chic Henry International Motorsport & Driver Training Facility is the number one priority of the Belco Party in its bid to win seats at the ACT Legislative Assembly in October this year. Leading the charge is former police sergeant and street machiner, Jason Taylor, who joined the party to run for the seat of Yerrabi with the hope of fulfilling the late, great Chic Henry’s dream. “It’s what Chic wanted when he first ran for parliament before he passed away [in 2022],” Jason said. “So, to build not just a motorsport facility, but a driver training centre as well, would honour the legacy of a man who gave so much to the car enthusiast community.” With an estimated price tag of up to $100 million, building such a complex…

WE LOVE a long-running muscle car rivalry. Ford diehards, for example, still argue over which model marked the peak of the third-generation Falcon – XA, XB or XC? For Ashley Bell, it’s XA all the way, which is why in 2021 she sold her XC to build this gorgeous, Summernats Top 60-certified XA Fairmont as a counterpart to the XB GS built and owned by her partner, Michael Stivala of Hoon Customs (SM, Apr ’15). “Some people think it’s Michael’s car with a new paint scheme, which is funny,” Ash says. “We wanted them to match, but I like XAs more, so we built my car as a GS to complement the XB!” WE MAY HAVE UPSET A FEW PURISTS AND PAST OWNERS, BUT I THINK WE’VE GIVEN THE CAR…

JAMES Bullions just wanted a street car his wife could cruise with the kids. “It was never meant to be a show car,” he says of his incredible 1969 Mazda R100, which, as you can see, is now exactly that. “Then Owen [Webb] said he wanted us to unveil it [at Summernats], so we took it to the next level.” The entire car was built by James’s good mate Nathan Goodwin from the RAR Embossed workshop on the Gold Coast. James actually bought the car off Nathan, who’d already started the project quite some time before. “It’d been sitting on his mezzanine roof for about 10 years, so I purchased it and then we set about finally getting it finished,” says James. “I wanted to build something subtle, keeping the…

HOLDEN’S first-generation Monaro occupies a fascinating place in Australian automotive culture, as it is loved by enthusiasts who often have opposing viewpoints. There are those who want to see every example restored to pristine original condition, while others prefer to see them kept as survivors, battle scars and all. Then there are people like Martin Pecotich, who just want to watch the world burn. Martin has a very clear idea of how a Monaro should sit, look and go, and he doesn’t care who it might upset. That’s where this killer HT comes in. “Since I was a kid, I’ve always wanted a Monaro, and I’ve always loved that ProFlo Performance look,” he says. “I really like some of the cars they’ve built, like FATG and FUCKIT, and I wanted…

EMAIL your favourite jokes and funny pics to gday@streetmachine.com.au. GAG OF THE MONTH BETTER OFF DEAD AN OLDER couple were visiting Jerusalem and taking in the sights. Unfortunately, while they were there, the wife passed away. The mortician told the husband, “You can ship your late wife home for $5000, or you can bury her here in the Holy Land for only $150.” The man thought about it for a minute, then decided he would have her shipped home. The mortician asked the man, “Why would you spend so much to ship your wife home when she could be buried here in Jerusalem for so little? The husband replied, “A long time ago, there was a man who was buried here, and three days later he came back to life.…

DOCUMENTING a three-month slice of time in the lead-up to and aftermath of the 1957 Mille Miglia race in Italy, Michael Mann’s Ferrari delves into both the professional and personal lives of Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver). Despite grappling with business and relationship pressures, Enzo is intent on firmly re-establishing Ferrari’s dominance as a race car manufacturer. But with funds starting to dwindle and a media frenzy around his character and personal choices beginning to overshadow the brand, he becomes embroiled in further controversy following the death of driver Eugenio Castellotti (Marino Franchitti) during a training accident at the company’s Modena track. Still reeling from the death of his son, Dino, only months earlier, Ferrari is publicly chastised following his apparent inhumane response to Castellotti’s passing. Ferrari’s push for success sees…

STUNNING looks and a great personality? Yep, such a combo does exist, as evidenced by Joe Bauer’s Summernats 36-stomping, Grand Champion-crowned Dodge Charger. With a body worthy of a supermodel and an extremely persuasive 3000hp emanating from its blown Hemi heart, Joe’s Charger rocks beauty and brawn in equal measure. “I wanted to build an iconic American muscle car to an elite level,” Joe explains. “I also wanted to incorporate the performance and handling usually lacking with cars of this calibre.” Given the swag of trophies the Dodge picked up at ’Nats 36, along with the car’s performance in the Grand Champ driving events, it’s fair to say Joe well and truly achieved his goal. I WANTED TO BUILD AN ICONIC AMERICAN MUSCLE CAR TO AN ELITE LEVEL BUT INCORPORATE…

RHONDA and Al Magritzer never intended to become ‘those Morris people’, yet with a pair of them now gracing their garage, it seems inevitable. But only one of their cars causes heads to swivel, jaws to dislodge and eyeballs to pop from their sockets as it glides past with its tail dropped to the deck and attitude to burn. “Rhonda saw it in town and liked it, so I bought it,” Al says simply. “I’m not into Morrises, but it was a good, original car.” So good, in fact, that it had only had a couple of owners in its then 60 years on the planet. The car was built in Sydney’s Zetland plant, and the original owner was the local electricity company, then an old lady in Leura, NSW.…

I SPENT about five minutes on the phone with Brodie Ward before deciding he’s a lunatic. Not the kind that stands on milk crates and waves pamphlets at the train station, but our kind of lunatic: not only does he call this mechanically injected, 8/71-blown homage to horsepower a streeter, but he unapologetically intends to cruise it everywhere! Though it’s difficult to pinpoint where exactly Brodie’s defiant streak comes from, one thing’s for sure – working on some of the nation’s wildest builds as a fabricator for ProFlo Performance has certainly shaped his tastes. “I’m not really a diehard Commodore guy,” he says. “I had a turbo LS-powered Corolla event car, but I wanted something to have fun on in the streets. It had to be turbocharged, and I decided…

THINK about this for a second: Do you actually trust your car? Will it play the game when you’re trying to enjoy the fruits of your hard labour? Can you count on it to show you love when you’re 1000km from home? If not, you’ll need to know how to fix your ride when it won’t play ball – particularly if you’re in the middle of nowhere when it happens. And we’re here to help! Here’s how to get your car back on the road when it overheats or won’t start, along with some tips to help prevent future issues. Of course, there are myriad vehicles out there with a variety of different systems and specifications, so this is just a general overview aimed at more traditional street machine fodder.…

THOUGH he insists he’s not a Mopar nut, Dale Gridley admits he has a soft spot for the AP range of Valiants. “Not that I care, but I copped a lot of flak from the purists with my AP6 ute [SM, Apr ’21] for the single-turbo LS,” he laughs. “They love this one because it’s got a Hemi!” Dale is a mechanical fitter by day, and his work regularly sees him cruising around country Queensland. This AP5 sedan cropped up while he was in Chinchilla, having been parked up in an open shed since 1986. “It was missing the grille in the photos, and I didn’t pay much attention to the bonnet and guards, so I first thought it was an AP6,” he says. “When I found out it was…

SEND high-resolution photos of your car (at least 2MB each) and a few details of what went into the build to readerscars@streetmachine.com.au. WILLEM VAN DER MERWE HQ ONE TONNER “WHEN I got my 1973 Tonner, there wasn’t much left of it – the owner before me had an untimely engine bay fire, and then the car was completely stripped, sandblasted and primed. I bought the project as a roller. Working at Novel Smash Repairs in Bunbury, I had the chance to do the rust repairs and panelwork myself after hours. While I was at it, I fabricated the custom tray and tubs, smoothed out the engine bay a bit and then painted it that wicked Mazda Soul Red colour. When I first completed the car, I had a fuel-injected 5.0-litre…