CLIVE POLIDANO
THEY’RE intrinsically linked to drag racing, and yet there were only two cars sporting traditional Gm-style blowers at Drag Challenge this year, and one was Clive Polidano’s blue HZ Kingswood. The fullweight street car has a 383ci small-block Chev and TBS 6/71 blower topped by a pair of Edelbrock four-barrel carbs, good for 580hp on the engine dyno.
“We turned up on the Sunday and my co-pilot Chris said we look like we’ve got three heads,” laughs the Riverina mechanic. “Apart from Krankenstein we were the only blokes there with a blower through the bonnet, which was a challenge on its own. Still, it was cool cruising down the road looking at the blower and carbies.
“The car is a cruiser to drive on the street, and we take it out most weekends to get ice cream or go for a drive. My wife and kids go in it so it can’t break down, otherwise my wife might start to not like it as much.”
Preparation paid off for Clive and his mates, with a trouble-free run for the entire week, despite the full-size sedan tipping the scales at 1630kg (3600lb) in race trim.
“We made sure wiring, shifter cables, anything that could melt in the heat, was safe. In the end we didn’t touch the car! We tried to keep the overall mass down as much as possible but, with four 100kg blokes on board and the trailer, we were sitting on about three-tonne.
“We kept the water and Esky down the back with the tyres and wheels so it was easy to get to. We used one of Norm’s big Aussie Desert Cooler Burnout King radiators and it was mint.”
The boys did struggle in the Adelaide heat on Day One, with the car running half a second off its PB with an 11.94. “The air was like cheese in Adelaide on the first day, but we got to Mildura and it thinned out so everyone started going faster,” says Clive.
“We were never quick and the car was still pretty new when we turned up on the Sunday. Before we left it had done 12-14 passes and 1500km on the road. By the time we got back to Adelaide on the Friday we did 11.50, 11.54 and 11.55 in a row, with two different drivers. It still had 70 pounds of air in the air shocks, and it might have even had a wheel off the deck!”
Clive is already doing backflips with the idea of entering again. “We haven’t stopped buzzing since we got back. It’s the best event I’ve ever been involved with, and I’ve been going to Summernats for 20 years!”