Table of contents for January 2024 in Street Machine

IF YOU’VE been watching our Carnage YouTube channel over the past couple of months, you should’ve seen some awesome progress being made on our latest project, the VS Commodore ute we’ve dubbed Grimace. Grimace is destined to be our next Drag Challenge weapon and is being built with seven-second potential in mind. A big part of that is the twin-turbo Dart 427 LS Next that’ll be shoved under the bonnet, but it’ll take a lot more than just a banger mill to reach our goal. That’s why we’ve enlisted seven-second specialist Adam Rogash and his crew at MPW Performance & Race Fab to help with the build. They’ve been tackling the major fab jobs and set-up on the ute, giving us some wicked insights into how they approach the mad…

Write to: Your Stuff, Street Machine, Unit 9/3-5 Gilda Court, Mulgrave, Vic 3170, or email gday@streetmachine.com.au. Make sure you include your address (not necessarily for publication). Keep it short and sweet! > LETTER OF THE MONTH FAMILY AFFAIR HEY guys, it’s Austin and family here. We just had to drop you a line and say we really appreciate your hard work that goes into making the best car magazine in Australia. We are long-time readers and also enjoy your YouTube channel. I’m really impressed with the HSV SV88 (pictured right) in the November 2023 issue. I never thought I would love Holden cars again, but I was wrong – that VL SV88 that Tim Laidler built and restored is one beautiful street machine. I’m actually now considering a project car…

NODDY Perkins is a bit of a legend in the West Aussie car scene, so much so that we’ve already featured this HQ in the mag once before (SM, Sep ’14). But a few things have changed since then. The burnout game can be hard on cars, especially when they’re methanol-fuelled monsters like this Quey, so a rebuild was pretty much inevitable at some point. “We had a few fires at Summernats,” Noddy explains. “We had a big one during the World Record Burnout, and a couple of fires at Bindoon. That was when we decided it was time to pretty the car up a bit.” To that end, the Monaro has undergone a six-year rebuild that has turned an already very tidy car into an absolute showstopper. The most…

THOSE who’re down with the Melbourne street-car scene will likely recognise Dean Gianginis’s 1985 VK Calais, thanks to its killer stance and orgasmic V8 soundtrack. That mechanical symphony comes courtesy of an LS, but it’s unlike most you’d find stuffed into an early Commodore. There are no turbos, blower or even injection to be seen. Instead, the Adicted Performance-built 430ci LSX is an all-motor, carby-fed deal that screams to 9000rpm. “It doesn’t sound like any other LS out there; you just cannot beat the sound of an engine like this,” says Dean. “I grew up around angry aspo V8s, so it was the only way for me.” Dean also grew up with this very VK, having owned it since he was 15 years old. It was originally a 202 car,…

SAVE on the cover price FREE delivery to your doorstep PLUS free digital access to Street Machine DIGITAL ACCESS INCLUDES: Access to all magazines since 2015 – that’s over seven years of Street Machine! Early access to the latest issue before it goes on sale Browse from any device SELECT A PACKAGE: 3 ISSUES $29 SAVE 20% INCLUDES 6 MONTHS’ FREE DIGITAL ACCESS 13 ISSUES $99 SAVE 37% INCLUDES ONE YEAR’S FREE DIGITAL ACCESS 26 ISSUES $179 SAVE 42% INCLUDES TWO YEARS’ FREE DIGITAL ACCESS Scan the code or phone our new Australian-based call centre on (02) 8315 2092 or visit subscribe.streetmachine.com.au Offer valid until 7 February 2024. Prices shown are in AUD and available for Australian delivery only. Discounts represent the percentage saving on the cover price. Digital-only access available…

WHILE there have been wilder Commodores built, few are more iconic than Damien ‘Chubby’ Lowe’s VB (SM, Mar ’08). Chubby started on the car over 20 years ago when he fitted an injected 5.0-litre and applied a lustrous paintjob in Toreador Red. “I was 16 when I bought it,” Chubby says. “It was a stocker, base-model Commodore. I put VN SS wheels and VL Turbo brakes on it and lowered it, and by the time I was 18, I’d bought a V8 VB SL/E wreck for the motor and driveline. Six months later, I bought VN heads, EFI manifold, cam and a MicroTech computer, and put that on it. I blew the M21 into the next century, so I put a T5 in it and pulled it down and painted…

JASON KOUZOUKAS VK CALAIS “MY 1985 VK Calais is an SS Group A Brock tribute on the outside, but in the engine bay it’s a different story. It runs a JK Performance-built LS2 that receives standard boost from a 1.9-litre LSA supercharger to make 540hp at the wheels. The mill also runs 1000cc injectors, CNC heads, and a custom water tank and heat exchanger. Rounding out the drivelive is a TR6060 six-speed ’box, a custom tailshaft, and a shortened diff with a Truetrac centre and 31-spline billet axles. Underneath, there’s XYZ coil-overs on the front, while an adjustable four-link, Viking coil-overs and mini-tubs live out back, and the car rolls on Simmons FRs. This thing is driven, not hidden, and my girls and I love cruising in it with the…

OPTIMA’S Ultimate Street Car Challenge is coming back to Australia in 2024, returning to Calder Park Raceway in Melbourne on Saturday 20 April. As the name suggests, the Optima Ultimate Street Car Challenge is designed specifically for street-worthy, registered machines. It began in the States, with the US version drawing in hundreds of entrants every year, before venturing Down Under for the first time in 2019. If you love the idea of a pro touring-style event, this is for you! Entries are open to all types of street cars, from drag-and-drive to pro touring, Japanese, European exotics, and anything in between. If it has rego, it’s in! Competitors take on a wide variety of driving challenges designed to test the cars and drivers in all types of motorsport. For the…

DRAG racing lost a towering figure in December with the passing of Don Schumacher at the age of 79 after a battle with lung cancer. It was his second major fight with the disease. In 2015, Schumacher overcame head and neck cancer and immediately returned to the drag strip. Schumacher had two distinct but incredibly successful careers in drag racing and was an important advocate and innovator in the safety side of the sport. Schumacher was part of drag racing’s golden era throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, earning five NHRA victories in his first drag racing career, including the 1970 US Nationals. The ‘match racing’ circuit was where Schumacher found his niche, being paid to tour race tracks across the country with his ‘Stardust’ Funny Cars. From 1968…

IN THE wake of the recent Street Outlaws: No Prep Kings Australian tour, no-prep racing is the new black Down Under. So, it was with much anticipation that Junga Bunga’s No Prep Cash Days made its return to the freshly renovated Warwick Dragway for its third instalment of nail-biting, heads-up eighth-mile racing. A rainy start to the day didn’t dampen the spirits of the 70 entrants from all corners of Queensland and even NSW that converged at Morgan Park on Saturday 25 November. The slippery conditions added an extra element of excitement to the already high-stakes style of no-prep racing. Throw a line-up of seasoned big-tyre racers and high-performance streeters into the equation and you had a spectacular feast of horsepower on offer. Drivers were granted one test pass to…

KICKING OFF IN ENGLISHTOWN, NEW JERSEY, THE LZ WORLD TOUR HAS TAKEN IN CANADA, IRELAND, AND FINALLY AUSTRALIA AT CALDER PARK MUCH like burnouts, drifting is a motorsport that’s seen a massive boom in the past couple of years, and here at Street Machine, we’ve been keeping alow-key eye on the sport of all things sideways. Speaking for myself, I bloody love it. I own quite a few Japanese cars, and took up the sport of drifting properly this year in an R31 Skyline beater. I’d argue it’s one of the funnest things you can still do with a car on a modest budget, and it’s easy to see why it has become so popular. So, when American YouTuber and drifter Adam LZ announced he was bringing the LZ World…

FOR Brendan Wright, there’s never been a time when this stunning XM Falcon coupe wasn’t in his life. Of course, it didn’t always go, steer and stop quite like this. “This was my pop, Bob’s car,” the Thirlmere, NSW bloke says proudly. “It was bought in 1978 for $97. Times were tough back then; Pop scraped together every spare dollar he could, even emptying his money box to make the purchase.” The six-pot, automatic coupe was already nearly 15 years old by that point, and eventually it passed between family members until it landed in the backyard of Brendan’s uncle. Brendan’s dad, Norm, purchased it around 2010 and enlisted Brendan’s older brother Craig and his best mate Pat Wojtkowski to rescue the now-miserable body. “The bodywork was done first, and…

HEMI-POWERED POM ROB BENNETT 1948 AUSTIN A40 “I’M BUILDING an Austin A40 running a 354 Hemi, which has been pushed out to 364ci using the stock crank and rods, Ross pistons, Comp cam and Total Seal rings. Heads are ported factory castings with Chrysler shaft rockers. On top is a Blower Shop 8/71 supercharger and two boost-referenced Holley 750 carbs, while down below there’s a Milodon oil pan. The transmission is a basic shift-kitted TH350, which runs back to a limited-slip Ford nine-inch diff with 3.50:1 Richmond gears. The A40 body sits on a fabricated chassis, with a four-link and coil-overs out back and a narrowed LJ Torana crossmember and rack on the front with Koni adjustable shocks. Wheels are 15x6 front and 15x10 rear Wheel Vintiques, wrapped in 165…

GAG OF THE MONTH BLOWING IT THERE was a man who was obsessed with tractors. He owned multiple tractors and heaps of tractor-themed merchandise – toy tractors, tractor calendars, posters, everything. One day, he and his wife were riding one of his tractors around a field, when his wife fell out, got run over and died. The husband was distraught, and vowed never to have anything to do with tractors again. He sold all his tractors and merchandise. A few years later, the man decided to start dating, and he managed to land a date with a beautiful woman. He took her to a fancy restaurant. During the date, something in the restaurant kitchen caught fire, and soon the entire restaurant was filled with smoke. Everyone was coughing and panicking,…

BREAKDOWN VEHICLES: 1974 Dodge Charger, 1982 Chevrolet G30 Busette, 1968 Ford Mustang, 1978 Kawasaki KZ1000, 1977 Chevrolet C30, 1984 Jeep Grand Wagoneer STARS: Joanna Cassidy, Marcie Leeds, Carlos Cervantes, Arlen Dean Snyder, Jon Conrad Pochron, Kirk Nelson, Henry Max Kendrick DIRECTOR: Christopher Cain ACTION: A lengthy car chase includes crashes, jumps and even sideways bus action against a backdrop of dust and mega-fireballs PLOT: A bus driver’s daughter is hunted by a psychopath in a menacing Dodge Charger, forcing her to pull out all the stops to save her girl from probable death AVAILABLE: YouTube, DVD LOS Angeles single mum Laura (Joanna Cassidy) and her teenage daughter Stephanie (Marcie Leeds) decide to leave their big-city life behind and make a fresh start in the small town of Copper Valley, Arizona.…

POWERING THE FAIRMONT IS A 1100HP BLOWN WINDSOR THAT IS TOUGHER THAN AN OLD BALMAIN WHARFIE OUR hobby can take root in a variety of ways, but for many of us, it was family that introduced us to the car life. This was certainly the case for Tim McDonald, whose memories of working on this XY Fairmont with his dad have made this car more than steel, rubber, and glass; it’s an irreplaceable part of his family. “Dad bought the XY out of Rockdale in 1984 when I was nine,” Tim explains. “It’s a factory Fairmont, and he paid $4400 for it. The guy had just put a V8 in it but left the six-cylinder suspension, so it bottomed out the whole way home, and that’s what led to him…

LIKE so many other cars of this era, Luke Novel’s VH Valiant ute could have been left to rot away at the local rubbish tip or crushed into an unrecognisable mess by a D9 dozer. But luckily, this one was saved and brought back better than ever. “The ute was given to me by my late grandfather,” Luke begins. “Initially, I was told to take it to the tip and bring the battery back for the tractor, but I saw something bigger, so gave him the battery but kept the ute.” INITIALLY, I WAS TOLD TO TAKE THE UTE TO THE TIP AND BRING THE BATTERY BACK FOR THE TRACTOR! Purchased new by his grandfather in 1971, the ute was pretty basic, with a 245 Hemi and three-on-the tree, and…

THE coolest projects don’t always come from a sale listing. Whether they’re a family heirloom, payment for a job, or something that’s stumbled upon, finding a car can be just as much of a story as building it. Chris Borg’s stunning HT panel van is a great example, stemming from an eagle eye and a cold, damp adventure to Emerald in central Queensland. As the Greenvale, Victoria builder explains, he spotted the rear half of a van body sitting in the background of a listing for some other parts. “The seller, Damien, constructed and lived in a mud-brick home on his amazing property,” Chris says. “Being in construction, seeing another form of living was an eye-opener! “The van was sitting in a barn, covered in dust and home to mice,”…

WITH a keen interest in high-end, mid-2000s Commodores and a love of smoking rubber, Chantelle Loveday-Lamont used track time at big events to teach herself how to do burnouts in her beloved VY ClubSport, KAOSGM. But as the events evolved, so did Chantelle’s car. Now her cherished skid-pig has been refreshed into a staunch cruiser. Sounds like you’ve been a Commodore devotee for a while. Yeah, Mum always had Commodores, and we grew up around her ’57 Chevy. My sisters and I really loved Commodores. I had wanted a VY or VZ Clubby or Senator since I was 16 years old. And I’ve previously owned a VT Calais, VZ Calais and a VE Senator. Tell us about your ClubSport. I’ve had the Clubby for around 10 years. I found it…

HAVING spent his life running a farm in Horsham, Victoria, Brian Petrass recently found himself with time on his side and an itch to finally build a car for himself. However, while he chose Holden’s most popular 70s model for his project, he’s no one-eyed fanboy. “I had an HQ as a young bloke, but I couldn’t wait to get rid of it, because they drive like a bucket of shit,” he laughs. The HQ you see here certainly doesn’t, though – not once Brian was finished with it, anyway. “I looked for one for ages, and this one was in a shed 10km from where I live,” he explains. “It sat outside for several years, and I was going to paint it, but my mate Jeff Umbers introduced me…

01 SCREENING PROCESS IF YOU’VE got a turbocharged mill in your street machine, it’s important to stop unwanted debris from entering your prized hairdryer. That’s where these new turbo screens from Proflow come in. Simply position the screen over the top of the compressor housing inlet to stop all many of nasties from getting in without restricting all-important airflow. They come with a stainless-steel clamp for easy fastening, and are available in a range of diameters, from three inches to five inches. For more info, check out vpw.com.au. 02 REGULATE! TURBOSMART’S new ProOPR rising-rate oil pressure regulator is a significant improvement over the traditional fixed-rate OPR V2. The OPR V2 targeted 40psi under any conditions, whereas the new rising-rate ProOPR starts with a lower base pressure and then creates a pressure differential…

SEND your photos of fun with cars to: Sunday Too Far Away, Street Machine, Unit 9/3-5 Gilda Court, Mulgrave, Vic 3170, or email high-resolution images (1mb+) to: sundaytoofaraway@streetmachine.com.au. Please send copies of prints as we are unable to return your photos.…