Higher ’Plane

GUS Cooper, John Harvey and Darren Banks all work different shifts on the mines, so they passed the baton over nine months on the non-stop build of this 1936 Hudson Terraplane. Starting with someone else’s half-built hot rod, the boys treated the Hudson to a bitching roof chop and a million other mods to make it fast and safe. It’s a kind of gospel in landspeed racing that you run things a little rich, because if any oxygen makes it to the exhaust valve it’s gonna take some piston with it. Sure enough, after reaching the 150mph mark without any trouble, the 406-cube Chev said goodnight. But of course, the boys will be back, bigger and better next year.

The Hudson took out the Race Director’s Pick award, and you can see why when you have a close look at how the car was built. Under the back is a complete VE IRS rear end, with an HG Holden front The mill is a 406ci small-block Chev making 520hp, with a...