DARRAN CLARK HOLDEN HQ MONARO

DARRAN Clark’s HQ was bought new by a family friend, and was fully rebuilt and kitted out in the early 1990s as a pro street beast. Personal issues saw the car fall into Darran’s hands, where it was parked up for some years. In between his earthmoving business and playing with several other hot Holdens, Darran finally found time to get it back on the road last year. The Quey runs a 350 with a 700 double-pumper, ported heads and a solid Crane cam. A 3500rpm stall converter feeds into a shift-kitted T400, through to a nineinch diff. Plenty of special fabrication was done, including the entire three-inch stainless exhaust and tidy radiator surround. “We took it right down to every nut and bolt ourselves and put it back together,” Darran says. “My dad was a panel beater, so we did all of that too.” The same Weld Draglites and Yokohama 352 radials have been living under the HQ’S arches since its initial transformation almost 30 years ago. A fibreglass scoop and full custom respray round things out. There’s just as much crushed velour as you’d expect from a car retrimmed in this era, keeping the early 90s mood alive. Darran gets his feedback via a custom gauge cluster packed with Auto Meter gauges. He says he doesn’t want to alter anything on the car. “If I go and change one thing, I’d have to change the rest of it,” he says. As they say, if it ain’t broke... To Darran, the Monaro is and always has been a tough weekend cruiser. “Drags aren’t my thing, so I’ve never looked into quarter-mile times,” he says. It’s safe to say, however, that the old Monaro still knows how to get up and shimmy when called upon. Photos: Luke Hunter