GRAYSONLINE MEET-UP

WE HELD WHAT WAS INTENDED TO BE A SMALL GATHERING TO CELEBRATE CRACKING 100,000 YOUTUBE SUBSCRIBERS, AND WERE COMPLETELY BLOWN AWAY AT THE TURNOUT

We celebrate 100,000 subscribers to the SM Youtube channel with a shindig at Graysonline

WE HUMANS have always made a big deal about celebrating milestones. Whether it’s a 30th birthday, an AFL player kicking 100 goals or a madman cracking 1000hp – we love to make a big deal about numbers. So naturally, when our Street Machine Youtube channel ticked over the 100,000 mark for subscribers, it gave us the perfect excuse to host a little cars & coffee-style meet to celebrate. The choice of venue was simple. The Graysonline auction house is not only a generous sponsor of our Carnage web show, but is also the chief place we find raw material for the show. MX5.7, Mr Dodgey and our $2K Challenge cars have all found their way to us via Grays auctions, so the Dandenong branch feels like a second home.

The facility down there is huge, and the Graysonline team offered us the use of a massive warehouse that is usually reserved for storage of their monthly classic car auction goodies. This meant we’d have a large, dry display area in case the weather turned sour – and a large outdoor space if the skies were blue. Perfect!

Melbourne Old School Cruisers took care of the logistics, and they crushed it! We initially thought we might see 300 cars turn up, but when the Grays

warehouse and outside car park were chockers an hour before the event had even kicked off, we knew we were going to be in for a huge day! With some unseasonably beautiful weather on our side, we had an estimated 5000 people rock up and maybe 500 cars, transforming a quiet industrial estate into a sprawling car show.

All kinds of unique shapes and sizes rolled up to be part of the event, from classic Aussie metal, modern-day heroes, Yank tanks and JDM stalwarts, making for one hell of a feast for the eyes and the ears. We brought all of our Carnage projects that are currently in one piece, namely Turbo Taxi, MX5.7, Broads’s Torana, the AU XR6 and the VT Calais. That’s not to say they are all running, but they were there.

In addition to our own bangers, the Street Machine stand was decorated by last month’s cover car – Angelo Furfaro’s twin-turbo VC Valiant – and Bubba Medlyn’s monstrous VH Commodore.

Thanks to Graysonline and Melbourne Old School Cruisers for putting on an absolute ripper of a show. After the huge success of this year’s event, we almost feel obligated to make this an annual affair – so make sure you help us out in reaching that 200K milestone!

1: Ashley Pearce has owned his super-neat VL for 23 years now, and although it’s an original Calais Turbo, it’s a far cry from the 150kw cruiser it was intended to be. With a built RB30 and threespeed auto, it now cranks out 530rwkw thanks to the boys at Quickbitz, and with the rollcage on board he plans on hitting the track soon to test the limits of the 235 radials 2: Mark Delahoy’s VR Commodore was one of the few cars to be trailered to the show, but with good reason. This is a genuine Gibson Motorsport-built V8 Supercar, which Mark Skaife used to win the Australia Touring Car title in 1994. While the car technically started life as a VP, Mark has it presented in its 1995 Sandown 500 VR bodywork and livery 4: James Mackie made the trip down with his one-ofa-kind XY Falcon drift car. Some people may find it controversial to enter a Falcon of this vintage in slideways competitions, but with a Harrop-blown LS under the bonnet, it was never James’s intention to appease the purists 2 1 4

3: There were plenty of appetising cars being offered for auction for fans to check out, headlined by this stunning Camaro. With a twin-turbo, 1600hp blow-through carby set-up, this former Street Machine cover car was a fan favourite and will certainly keep the punters busy come auction day 3

6

5

CLASSIC AUSSIE METAL, MODERN-DAY HEROES, YANK TANKS AND JDM STALWARTS MADE FOR ONE HELL OF A FEAST FOR THE EYES

2: Shane Crowther’s VZ Lumina was another of the oddball street-driven drifters to make its way down to the meet with good mate James Mackie. Under the artistically decorated bonnet sits an LS2 and a Vortech supercharger boosting the power to 460rwkw and endless smiles 2

1 1: Graeme Carter’s VE Valiant graced the pages of SM a few years ago in basically the same guise as it presents now, with a 530hp 440ci Mopar. Graeme plans on throwing in a new 512ci big-block soon to sink his PB from 11.7 to a 10, but said the main point of the beast is to haul him on the street to events just like this