SHEARING’S STREETLEGAL SUCCESS

When Brendon Shearing made the switch from his eight-second-proven supercharged combo — as fitted to his Monaro when we featured it back in Issue No. 115 — to his new twin-turbo set-up, the performance capability was a bit of an unknown. With the potential that the new combo wouldn’t offer the performance he was after, Brendon held off re-certifying the car, so that he could swap back easily if need be. However, after running an 8.44 at 168mph at Ruapuna in January, Brendon and the team were convinced that there would never be a need to go back to the blower, and, as such, had the car LVV certified. The plate was fitted, and WOF and rego gained, just in time for the NZDRA Nationals at Masterton in mid March — at which the car hit the strip once more as a legitimate street car. A tractionless 8.82 at 159mph on the first run was enough to see Brendon back in the game — although not where he wanted to be. The real results didn’t come till day two of the event, when the first pass of the morning — an 8.21 at 171.95mph — had the crew ecstatic. Not only was that a new PB — the first with the car street legal once more — but it also saw the team take the number two spot on the NZ’s Quickest Streeters list, which has been a long-term goal of Brendon’s. The day continued to get better, ending in a best of 8.13 at 171.44mph before the input shaft on the TH400 transmission broke. Despite that, the 1200km journey from Riverton in the deep south to Masterton was well worth it. Now tantalizingly close to having the South Island’s first seven-second street car, the team are hard at work prepping for the last event of the season at Ruapuna on April 9. Brendon would like to extend a huge thanks to his crew for all their help as well as Glenn Suckling for his tuning expertise, which has been invaluable.