WHERE IS IT NOW?

Back in 2006, when we featured what was, at the time, the wildest late-model Monaro in the country, the article ended with a note saying that the owner, Steve Petrowski, might be keen to sell the car. Fellow fan and Hawke’s Bay resident Levi Waihape saw that mention, and knew the Monaro could be just the thing to fill his horsepower dreams. The car was originally built by highly regarded Australian workshop Starr Performance as its very own demo car, before being purchased by Steve and shipped to Napier. As if the car wasn’t already highly enough specced, it then had plenty of further enhancements by Auckland’s Torque Performance. The result was a massive 420kW at the tyres, or about 560hp if you like your performance measured in ponies. With that much performance on tap, and such a high build quality, Levi has left the car untouched ever since, apart from clocking up plenty more miles on it. While he’s had people try to buy it off him, he’s determined to hold on to it for good — even though it hasn’t been out and about very often in recent times due to other, more family friendly, vehicles taking priority. It just goes to show, if you build a car right to start with, it’ll stand the test of time, in terms of both looks and performance.