CONCEPT CORNER

WE’VE SEEN WHAT KARL STANBRA (THIS ISSUE OF NZV8’S COVER CAR OWNER) CAN DO WITH AN HQ MONARO, BUT WHAT WOULD HE DO IF THERE WAS AN UNLIMITED BUDGET FOR THE NEXT BUILD?

Karl Stanbra’s HQ Monaro is a great allround package. It looks stunning, has the power to match, and the build quality is top-notch. It’s very much an Aussie-style build, and his previous car, a pro-streetstyle HQ ute, was also heavily Australian influenced. His concept, though, is far from it, being all-American. With the 1956 Chev Nomad that Karl would base the build on having a separate chassis, there are plenty of options available to simply bolt in a replacement one — saving all the hard work of trying to make the 60-year-old car handle like a car of today. An Art Morrison replacement would be the flavour of the day, and, rather than messing around trying to establish a suspension set-up that works, he’d order the chassis complete with the package — which not only includes custom suspension arms up front and a four-link on the rear but adjustable coilovers at each end too. To get it rolling, and perhaps show that Aussie cars are his bread and butter, a set of Simmons FR wheels would be fitted. These would measure in at no less than 20x8 inches up front and 20x12.5 inches at the rear and be wrapped in suitably sized rubber. Big wheels need big brakes behind them, and, for this, he’d turn to the Wilwood catalogue for a set of six-pot fronts and four-pot rears. The Nomad’s body would be dropped to just the right height — rims up under the guards — requiring some reworking of the rear wheel tubs to get those wide wheels in there. Thankfully, the wheel arches sit behind the rear seat, so a stock-width seat can remain — albeit retrimmed, of course. Other interior adornments would consist of Auto Meter whitefaced gauges and a billet steering column. But the outside would catch attention first, due to its candy-apple red paint with ice white accents — a colour combo that’s always hard to go past. Of course, a car like this has to go just as well as it looks, so there’s no way that anything less than a big block would do it justice. Of course, since this is just a concept, and doesn’t require any real money to be spent, the idea here would be to fill the engine bay with a Big Al’s Toybox 496 stroker motor topped with an 8-71 supercharger. On top of this would sit an EFI Birdcatcher hat. According to the Big Al’s website, this combo would create 830hp and 762lb · ft of torque. That sort of power would be getting up there for the proposed Tremec six-speed manual gearbox, but there’s no denying that a manual box would be a whole lot of fun, even if the RXT twin-plate clutch took a bit of leg work. Luckily, the nine-inch diff, filled with a 3.9:1-ratio LSD head, would have no trouble turning this all into forward momentum. So, there you have it — an HQ-lover’s take on what constitutes the ultimate family wagon. Not bad, huh?