HAMMER TIME
TWIN-TURBO DANIEL SZABOLICS’S BIG-BLOCK HQ MONARO POTENTIAL AND PACKS SIX-SECOND POWER DOORSLAMMER-LEVEL
Daniel Szabolics is gunning for the first six-second pass at Drag Challenge in his head-kicking HQ
DIVERSITY is a key part of what keeps the car scene interesting. Some people like Flash Harry show cars; others like the streeters seen at local car-park meets. Then there are the sleeper fans who dig cars that hide their 200mph potential. What makes Daniel Szabolics’s HQ Monaro such an unbelievable piece of work is that it walks all those paths.
“The whole idea behind the build was that I didn’t want it to look like a race car,” explains Daniel. “I wanted it to look like a tough streeter. It has original carpet, roof lining and door cards, and the rear end hasn’t been hacked up on it.”
While it may look mild, the spice the Monaro packs is Carolina Reaper-hot thanks to a Dandy Engines-built, twin-turbo 632ci bigblock packing 4000hp potential. However, focussing just on power figures sells this car’s true worth short.
Built at home in his shed with mates, Daniel and the boys spent nearly a decade thinking about how to make this seven-second weapon work just as reliably as a new car. And it all started with the purchase of a crusty, kicked-in shell.
“It was a car that had been sitting around for a long time, completely stripped,” Daniel sighs. “I think it was an LS originally, and only 50 per cent of it was there, so I had to source lots of other bits and pieces over time.
“Brian Jarrott, Dean Soderblom and I spent a lot of time cutting and fixing the shell. One quarter was completely caved in. I put two or three floorpans in it, plus a sill and the boot floor. She was a big job, but I didn’t pay much for the car and they’re hard to find, so I didn’t mind spending the time fixing it.”
Once the three amigos had the shell straight, it was into primer and off for the first round of fabrication to suit a different combo that Daniel initially had in mind.
“Originally the car was going to have an F3 Procharged big-block and small slick tyre, so RC Metalcraft set the suspension up to suit that combo and did a ’cage as well,” Daniel explains.
Once the HQ was done at RC, it was time for duco. As the song goes, everybody needs good neighbours, and one of Daniel’s, Rodney Spinks, handled final paint prep before squirting the smooth Sikkens metallic silver on. Daniel then dragged the coupe home and started the fit-up in his shed, where he ran into some problems.
“As the build went on, we discovered it was hard to fit the Procharger,” Daniel says. “I didn’t want bulges in the bonnet and there was no room in the front, plus it made it all cluttered, which I hate.
MY BACKGROUND IS IN EARTHMOVING, WHERE WE MAKE OR MODIFY THINGS TO MAKE OUR PROCESSES EASIER. I HATE WHEN CARS AREN’T SERVICEABLE TO WORK ON
“My background is in earthmoving, where we make or modify things to make our processes easier. I hate when cars aren’t serviceable to work on, so the boys and I were always looking at the HQ, thinking about how to mount parts and collaborating on ideas to make it easier to work on – and we also did a few things twice,” he laughs.
Daniel called up Dandy Engines to have a chat to Frank Marchese, which is when the HQ’S build took a quick right turn away from
the crank-driven pump and small slick tyre towards turbos and 275 radials.
“I have been watching the Dandy XW and Steve Bezzina’s XW run on radials, and they are so impressive,” says Daniel. “I had bought all the engine parts years ago and Frank told me to send him the list of parts I had to suss out what we could and couldn’t use. I told him I didn’t care if I had to sell parts to suit what he wanted to do, but what really impressed me was that he told me he didn’t want me spending money if I don’t have to, and he used everything I had.”
Dandy Engines put together a dead-set monster of a mill, based off a 4.6in-bore, talldeck Dart Big M block. It was stuffed with all the good gear, including a 4.75in-stroke Callies billet crank, Diamond pistons and Oliver rods, while the AFR 385cc heads use Speed Pro 2.4in intake and 1.9in exhaust valves, PAC springs and T&D 1.75-ratio rockers. A Peterson belt-driven R4 oil pump and a Moroso Race sump handle the black gold, while Daniel opted for a Jesel belt drive on the 248/252-duration Bullet cam instead of a timing chain.
A pair of giant 94mm Precision Pro Mod turbos feed boost into a Plazmaman intake manifold that wears two sets of injectors: eight 80lb Siemens squirters are used when cruising the street on pump gas, while eight 700lb Billet Atomizer firehoses are used to force-feed methanol at the track.
So far the HQ has made 2513hp at the hubs running on only one set of injectors and at what Daniel describes as “relatively low boost”.
“We ran out of injectors on the dyno at 28psi, so the car can make heaps more,” he says. “With the big injectors, eventually I would like to shoot for 40psi.”
Such an epic engine needs a nuclear-grade drivetrain, so an M&M bolt-together converter and TH400 auto live behind the 10-litre donk, while a sheet-metal nine-inch built by RC Metalcraft with full-floater 35-spline axles handles the grip out back, and the rear trailing arms have been swapped to rose-jointed tube items.
With the change in tyre style, Daniel recognised the car’s set-up needed to be altered, so Shane Marshall from Marshall Speed Shop got the nod to modify the sixpoint rollcage and change the rear suspension.
DANIEL SPENT NEARLY A DECADE THINKING ABOUT HOW TO MAKE THIS SEVEN-SECOND WEAPON WORK JUST AS RELIABLY AS A NEW CAR
It now runs Santhuff coil-overs out back for more rear travel, along with a Gazzard Brothers anti-roll bar in the boot, while the ’cage now ties into the under-car chrome-moly bracing and suspension pick-up points.
“The car was all painted and built, and then Matt Snell, Simon Borella, Corey Edwards and I mounted the turbos and built the headers and dump pipes in my shed at home,” says Daniel. “It took ages to sort out how to make things
work in the ’bay. For instance, when we started making the turbo headers it took us six hours to make one primary that did what we wanted.”
While some people talk a big game, Daniel isn’t a member of Gunna Motorsports. On its first full lap of a track at this year’s Brisbane Jamboree at Willowbank, the fat-hipped coupe set the stands on fire with an epic 7.37@193mph on just 20psi.
“I always wanted to run a high seven, and when I said that to Frank, he laughed and told me he’d do it with a plug lead off,” laughs
Daniel. “That was my first trip down a race track. I had the flu and was crook as a dog, but when I pulled the ’chute I was hitting the dash and going off because I knew it was fast. The minute it ran the 7.37 I was happy, but ultimately we haven’t even scratched the surface of what the car can do.”
He and Frank will get a far better idea of the HQ’S potential when they run at Drag Challenge 2019, which will be almost wrapped up by the time this issue hits the stands. They’re in with a real shot of being the event’s first six-second entrant.
“I’d just be happy to get through the week, and it’ll be a bonus if the car runs some quick passes,” says Daniel. “It’s a massive achievement to get through that week and I don’t feel under any pressure, as I just want to have some fun.
ON ITS FIRST FULL LAP OF A TRACK, THE FAT-HIPPED COUPE SET THE STANDS ON FIRE WITH AN EPIC 7.37@193MPH ON JUST 20PSI
“It drives better than some of my other cruisers. It’s quiet and is effortless on the road for what it is. It doesn’t have a sound system, but who needs a stereo when you have that monster up front?”