MOTOREX MELBOURNE ’16

MELBOURNE TURNED ON SOME UNCHARACTERISTIC WINTER SUNSHINE SO WE COULD CHECK OUT THE COOLEST CARS IN THE LAND AT MOTOREX 2016

Motorex returns to Melbourne to put on the biggest indoor show in the country

THANKS to a year-long qualifying series, Meguiar’s Motorex brings together the finest cars in the country to duke it out for the bragging rights of being crowned Superstars Grand Master – in other words, the best of the best.

It was no great surprise that Chris and Colleen Bitmead’s XBOSS Falcon (SM, May ’16) took home the top award, but I’m guessing there were some anxious moments for those guys after Adam and Kylie Perry’s back-to-front FB, Tailspin, took home gold in three of the categories. “We weren’t planning on debuting the car at Motorex, but we wanted to make them work for it and give them a run for their money,” Adam said.

The two big drawcards were parked right next to each other at the front of the Superstars pavilion, ensuring a constant crowd around both, but there were still plenty of other great rides to see, with all of the Superstars qualifiers that could make it to Melbourne on display. Of the 16 qualifiers, the judges narrowed them down to the Super Six, with XBOSS and Tailspin joined by Peter Elliot’s SIMPLICITY tudor, Steve Hopes’s SINISTR Camaro, Mal Apps’s INTREPID-C and Graeme Urquhart’s BLOWN FORTY.

Other highlights in that pavilion were Josh Cronin’s BEARS32 deuce three-window, a stunning car with a bit of a sad back-story, having been finished off by Josh after his father passed away while building it. It was also great to

see Brown Sugar again, one of my all-time favourite hot rods, now owned by Trent Driscoll and renamed Refined Sugar after he made a few mods to the car, chucked some chromies and wide whites on it and got it licensed and cruising.

The bulk of the show was spread over four pavilions, but the brisk but gorgeous weather also brought out a swag of cars for the outdoor show ’n’ shine. It was a real mix of old-school muscle cars, some hot rods, a smattering of Euro stuff and a sprinkle of JDM – in other words, something for everyone, and no one seemed to be knocking any of the cars, just enjoying everything that was on display. Of course, my favourite would have been the tubbed ’64 Rambler Classic that rocked up on Sunday, even if it did have a 400 Chev powering it.

That’s one thing that definitely wasn’t lacking at Motorex Melbourne – variety. In one pavilion you could be looking at a chopped ’55 Chevy (Tim Fletcher), then walk a few metres and be checking out a taildragging ’36 Plymouth coupe still in the throes of being customised (Leon Davies). A few more steps might find you at a cool display of every GT Falcon from XR to XB. There was a

bunch of late-model stuff there as well, but I’ll have to admit I pretty much bypassed all of that and headed to one of my favourite cars of the show, Jimmy Jivakis’s ’32 three-window. I don’t think it won any prizes, but wow, what a car. Clean, simple and classy, but with a different take on your regular hot rod interior that just puts this car in a class of its own.

If you’re into restored muscle cars, there was a fair whack of them on display too, with Reef Green seeming to be the colour of choice amongst the GS and GT owners, although my favourite was the XB coupe of Bosko Serkinic, resplendent in Red Pepper and wearing the optional two-piece ‘Sports Road Wheels’, which is sales-speak for a set of steelies that look like mags. What was really cool was being next to Chris Bitmead when Bosko came up to him to congratulate him on how stunning XBOSS was. There probably aren’t too many GT restorers that are on our side of the fence when it comes to cutting up Falcon coupes!

All in all, Motorex 2016 was a cracker of a show. Melbourne really brought its A-game in terms of weather and crowd numbers, and with some killer cars in the build, the next couple of years are looking promising. Next year the ball is back in Sydney’s court to see if they can show those Mexicans how to put on a car show, so get cracking ladies and gentlemen, you’ve got 12 months to get your machines finished.

Leon Davies from Big L’s Chop Shop brought along his ’36 Plymouth custom, which is shaping up to be a very cool bit of gear. A 390 Caddy engine with Edelbrock Tri-power should get it moving. It’s only chopped two inches, as the Mopar products of this era already had much lower roofs than the Ford and Chevy offerings

Damien Kemp brought along Funderbolt to sit on the Australian Nostalgia Racers stand. Do a search for them on Facebook to see what the guys and gals are up to

The first car to be unveiled at Motorex this year was Craig Dixon’s HQ Monaro, a car he’d owned for 10 years before deciding to do “a bit of a tidy-up” around 12 months ago. Six weeks prior to the show the car didn’t have paint on it, so Danny Makdessi and his team at Custom Bodyworks really had their work cut out for them, and they hit it out of the ballpark. The candy green has subtle GTS stripes, while the pale green interior adds a classy touch Adam and Kylie Perry debuted their wild back-to-front Tailspin FB Holden and picked up three golds – Impact & Display, Overall Innovation and Paintwork

Jeff Watt and his ’54 F100 dubbed PHATSO made the trek from SA for the show, and we’re glad he did. It’s built around a one-tonner chassis, so it’s not too surprising that there’s a 350 Chev under the bonnet. There’s a pretty serious roof chop and plenty of other cool touches on the body, including a tailgate from a latermodel F100 that has had the Ford pressing airbrushed to look just like the wood in the tray Brand new but looking like it rocked right out of the early 50s was the ’32 Ford three-window of Jimmy Jivakis. With a chassis from Rancho Deluxe, a mildly hopped-up flathead and a Vic O’neil body, Jimmy has created one of the coolest deuce coupes we’ve seen in a long time. The interior is what really separates this one from so many other black ’32 Fords, with a patterned cloth insert on the seat looking more like an OEM offering than your more common tuck-and-roll

In case you were thinking Maskell’s Customs & Classics only work on Ridler Award contenders, think again. John Dwyer’s HQ ute is a perfect example, with a stunning metallic green paintjob that extends into the smoothed tub, but that’s not all they did. There’s also an airbagged four-link out back installed by Maskell’s. The quad 48 IDA Weber carbs on the 350 give it some attitude under the hood as well