DRAGGED UP

It was his fault,” say owners Dean Sivewright and Tim Hawke simultaneously, each pointing at the other when asked why they race a 1970 Commer van. That van’s no slouch, either; despite it being as aerodynamic as a block of flats, the pair have run a PB to date of 10.80 at 112mph. That pass was with long-time drag racer Tim behind the wheel, while Dean, who’s new to driving on the strip, has run a best that’s a few fractions behind at 121mph. With Dean having helped out on Tim’s well-known KE20 Corolla drag car for many years, it made sense for Tim to come on board as the brains behind the project — a project that started with a simple conversation and spiralled rapidly. “Starlets are too expensive, Vivas and Ford Pops have been done, and we couldn’t afford a Torana,” recalls Dean. “One day, for a laugh, Tim sent me a link to the Trade Me listing for the van barn-find — then it was all on.” A travelling salesman, Dean was in the far north for work, so he popped in to have a look at the Commer. “I told the guy he was asking too much, and eventually he came back to me with a decent price,” says Dean. Even on the trailer, the vehicle gets a lot of comments from people, remembering when their parents, neighbours, or someone they knew had one, but, once the Commer hits the strip, the comments are a whole lot different — especially when it busts out 10-second passes. The power behind those passes comes from a single-turbo Lexus V8 engine that propelled Tim’s Corolla to a best of 9.30 at 142mph, although the boost has been dialled back a lot in the van. The engine itself is relatively stock, with lowcompression ACL pistons, ACL Race rod and main bearings, LS1 ARP rod bolts, and Cometic head gaskets being the only internal work. A Garrett GT35R on owner-made manifolds provides the boost, a Link G4 takes care of the engine management, and the combo runs on E85 through 1000cc injectors and a Bosch pump. Backing this up is a Trade Me–sourced Powerglide that was freshened by Kevin at Auto Trans, with a high-stall converter and trans brake added. With the engine sitting behind the driver, there’s plenty of room — although mounting the radiator proved to be the hardest part. The whole point is just to have a laugh and spend no money, explains Dean — which is why there have been plenty of Pick-A-Part searches for bits. The Hilux rear diff was $75, while the space-saver front wheels were $10 each — sure, they’ve been modified since, but Tim and Dean themselves have taken care of all the welding requirements on the vehicle, with mate Smudge helping out with the sheet-metal side of things. Included in the fab work was grafting a narrowed Mitsubishi L300

front end into the van, complete with brakes and steering. Not only did this modernize the handling and brakes, but it also saved a bunch of weight at the same time. Out the back is a ladder-bar arrangement — of which, Dean jokes, “we guessed at how to set it up, but, the first time we hit the track, it just worked, so we’ve not adjusted it since”. That comment sums up Dean and Tim’s approach to racing — they’d much rather watch the other cars run than be thrashing away on maintenance between rounds. It’s this desire that’s seen the pair keep the boost low too, although there is a slight temptation to see if they can get the van to run a nine-second pass. The goal from the outset was to run a 12, which Tim did on its first run, followed by Dean running a high 11 on his first turn in the hot seat. Since then, the times have tumbled as the pair have got used to the van. “It always goes dead straight,” Dean reveals, “not that I’d like to get it sideways, but its slabsidedness may actually help with that, as the wind wants to correct it, despite it being somewhat aerodynamically challenged from the front.” While they have had comments that they should paint the van, that would mean removing the chicken shit that’s still on it from all the years in the barn — not to mention spending money, which simply isn’t going to happen. “We have talked about maybe doing some burnout competitions in it, but there’s a high chance it would flop onto its side, so we’re not too sure about that,” Dean laughs. For now, the pair will keep on racing the Commer, having as much fun as they can while spending as little money to do so as possible. It’s been an interesting learning experience for Dean, who was always into circuit racing and previously thought that drag racing was just simple. He’s now well aware that there’s a lot more to it than that, and that’s resulted in a whole lot more fun than expected too. With the Commer being such an unusual vehicle, there’s always a decent crowd around it at the track, which is also something that the pair weren’t expecting. “It’s hilarious,” remarks Dean. Yes, yes, it is.