MARK PARSONS
RIPLEY, QUEENSLAND
THE Mark Parsons action keeps coming thick and fast! For part four in this epic series, we join Mark for a walk through the 1990s, where he dabbled with everything from show winners and tough strip runners through to hot rods and everyday drivers. Mark was never short of a car or three, and managed to juggle ever-increasing family and business commitments while fulfilling his need for speed.
01: MARK’S wife Sonja loved her Commodores and progressed from a VB SL/E and VK sedan in the 1980s to this Atlas Grey VN SS in 1990. “It was an October 1989 model – hence the SS1089 number plates – and was brought to our detailing business for a freshen-up from one of the car yards we serviced,” Mark says. “I fell in love with it immediately. It was Hsv-enhanced, so the injected 304 had been tinkered from 165kw to 200kw, which, backed by a fivespeed, made it fun to drive. The HSV grille and colour-coded Walkinshaw wheels were that little bit different, and the combination leather and velour interior was immaculate. It was only the second car we’d gone into hock for as a couple, and the high interest rates at the time on its nearnew purchase price meant big repayments. We sold it to a Wollongong policeman a year later and replaced it with a Gemini station wagon. Poor Sonja; that Gemini was such a backwards step!”
02: ORIGINALLY painted white and built on a budget by Phil Grainger, this HK Monaro drag car was a regular Oran Park short-strip runner in the years between Castlereagh’s closure and Eastern Creek’s opening. Mark bought the Monaro as a roller in 1992 and slotted in an Enderle-injected 302-cube small-block Chev backed by a Powerglide. Its full-steel body with lift-off ’glass front was campaigned by Mark in Super Sedan at Eastern Creek for consistent 10s at around 130mph. “The HK was built on a box-tube chassis with a strut front end and solidmounted nine-inch rear – yep, no suspension – very similar to an altered. I changed its look using whatever acrylic I had lying around at the time, which is how it ended up being blue with a maroon stripe. I never got around to naming it, which is why the sides stayed blank. I raced it for a year, then sold it as a roller for $7K, while the engine went to a mate for his own race project.”
03: MARK’S friend David Pagano, who runs the Merlin-powered hydro-hull race boat, Aggressor, had this 1964 Rambler American sitting on his bush property. “It had lots of rust and was destined for the tip, but $100 got it bought and gave it a stay of execution,” Mark says. “I got the AMC six-cylinder up and running, then treated the car to a tidy-up before selling it on for $700 a couple of weeks later. It was a cool thing and reasonably common here in Australia back when they were new. How cool was the fluffy dash pad?”
04: MARK had a friend with an XY who bought this flat-black XW Falcon to use for parts, but later decided it was too good a car to tear apart. Mark drove it home for $700, which represented good buying as it had a 302 Cleveland, C4 transmission, chrome 12-slots and bucket seats already in situ. “It was being stored at our detailing business, which was in a factory unit complex. One morning Sonja moved it out to the car park but didn’t realise she’d left the ignition in the ‘on’ position. A couple of hours later we heard this almighty bang and I walked out the front to see what was going on. A guy from the wetsuit factory across the drive came out juggling half of a boiling-hot GT40 ignition coil! It had literally blown apart from the ignition being left on and shot part of it clean through the radiator core and mint grille centre. Luckily there were no people or cars in front of it when it let go. A new grille and radiator got it fixed, before a bloke wandered in one day chasing the car to build a GT clone. We agreed on $2500, which netted a tidy profit.”
05: MARK was at the very first Summernats, where George Anthony debuted his yellow XB Falcon pro streeter. “It was the fattest car I had ever seen, and I said immediately, “I am going to own that car one day,’” he says. Seven years later, Mark spied the XB for sale in Unique Cars magazine. It was now owned by Mark Crane, who had bought it from George as a roller, fitted a fresh 351 Clevo, updated its look to better suit the 1990s trends, and continued with the car’s show-winning ways. Mark jumped on a plane to Brisbane, where he bought the running and driving XB for its $11K asking price. “I had it trucked back to Sydney and got busy,” he says. “The Algon mechanical injection made it a pain in the arse to start – you needed a can of Aerostart to get it fired up – so I swapped that out for a simpler Torker intake with an 850 Holley, and fitted a fibreglass GS bonnet. The left rear quarter was pretty rough and the paint there was shot, so I stripped it back and resprayed it in a custom-mix Sunrise Yellow. Paul Bennett did the original paint and graphics for George, and the plan was to get Paul to redo the graphics before Summernats 9. We ran out of time, so towed the car to Canberra with plain paint. We got messed around by the motel where we had booked in to stay, so we towed into Natex in the early hours; Sonja and the kids slept in our Hilux and I slept in the XB. I woke up to people standing on the trailer and checking the car out! Owen Webb collared me and recognised the car straight away, commenting on how up-to-date it looked. We made the Top 80 and got to go in the Supercruise, which was awesome. Back in Sydney, I won a heap of other awards at local shows before eventually running it at the drags. I ran a 12.50 but blew the motor; it turned out to be a real pig with stock heads and the like. I later sold it minus running gear to my friend Chris to build a drag car.”
06: FOR the duration of the 1990s, Mark was crewing on the late Mal Gower’s ‘Swamp Rat’ Austin A40 ute, which was running 9.20s at 145mph at the time with an Enderle-injected small-block. “I loved that car, and it inspired me to build one of my own,” Mark says. “I bought back the A40 front clip I sold to Bluey Boxsall years earlier (Snap Shots, SM, Jun ’21); it was attached to a ute cab and sitting on a chassis with a Torana front end already fitted. A mate and I narrowed the rear rails and fitted up the wheels, fully chromed diff, ladder bars and coil-overs out of the yellow XB, along with the XB’S transmission, Clevo and injection. Another friend, Mark Flowers, was racing the ex-‘goodall’s Gasser’ A40 with a blown and injected small-block Chev, but crashed it bigtime at Eastern Creek, rolling it and writing it off. Mark approached me about selling him the cab and doors to rebuild his, and it went on to become his replacement purple A40 race car. I sold the complete chromed rear end and gearbox to my mate Chris, who slotted them straight back under the yellow XB he’d already bought from me.” The XB’S polished Center Lines went to Mark’s friend, the late Mario Colalillo, and still reside on Mario’s black ’39 Plymouth today.
07: LIKE many of us, Mark grew up on a steady diet of American Graffiti and dreamed of building a replica John Milner deuce coupe. A fibreglass chopped five-window body was bought from Deuce Customs and mounted to a Rod City Repros chassis, with Mark collecting the chrome reverse rims, small-block Chev and Muncie in preparation for the build. The projected paint colour was sort of a cross between piss yellow and puke green. The project was well underway, but Mark and Sonja decided that after 10 years it was time to sell their detailing business and chase their one true passion – their very own speed shop. The coupe was sold to help fund a new business venture called the Hot Rod Store, which they established in Penrith, NSW.