RESTO PRO – HAKON

UNCLE PHIL’S FAVOURITE TOY GETS STRAIGHTENED OUT

FINESSING PHIL’S HOT TORRIE

IT WAS UNCLE Phil who led us down this road. Famous for being the world’s f ussiest man, he was grizzling about t he handling in his stunning Torana A9X t ribute. Ty pica lly for him, we’re ta lk ing about an ubertidy car – even dust wasn’t game to land on it.

Any way, something wasn’t quite right. It drove okay, but it wasn’t as sharp as it should be. He’d heard good things about a mob in Melbourne ca lled Hakon, run by Reade Clouston. With a background in t he trade, particula rly on t he steering and suspension side of things Reade decided to branch out on his own.

“The goal was to create something t hat was a litt le dif ferent,” he explains, “not your average churn and burn workshop.” If there was a target group, it was people who were dedicated car nuts – rather than someone for whom the car was a grudge purchase and just a means of getting from home to the sa lt mine and back.

Over time, Reade has built up an eclectic clientele, ranging from classic car folk who want their Mustang or whatever to point properly, t hrough to drivers of modern performance gear and track toys.

He reckons it’s of ten drivers of older machiner y who get the most out of what he does. “I rea lly enjoy watching when someone gets something out of what we do and rea lises t hat t hey don’t have to put up with poor handling just because it’s an old car.

“Often it’s just a decent wheel alignment and eliminating some play out of t he steering. That can drastica lly change how a car drives.” Reade adds t hat a key element to t his is hav ing t he correct a lignment specs. His belief is t hat workshops often don’t have t hem, or properly understand what’s required.

Next on t he list of favourite jobs is play ing wit h track cars. Reade explains that their method is to set up t he car wit h a known baseline and then f ine-tune t he car according to t he driver’s feedback. “A lot of people t hink t here’s a set magic formula,” he says, “But t hat’s not t he case. You need to ta ke t he driv ing st yle into account and adjust it from t here.”

The crew a lso ta kes on a variet y of modification and one-of f fabrication work, such as a recent coil-over conversion for a Mustang Eleanor replica.

And Uncle Phil’s Torana? It turns out a lower arm bush in the front end was tr y ing to escape. Apparently t hat’s common, as t he steel brackets holding them can stretch over time. Hakon eventua lly replaced t he bush and dia lled in t he a lignment – problem solved. Phil is once again a happy man, so we can a ll rela x…