UPPER CLASS

IT WAS ALL KILLER AND NO FILLER IN THE ELITE HALL THIS YEAR

THE Elite Hall was definitely the place to be at Summernats this year, and not just to get some respite from the heat and smoke. The quality and variety of the dozen vehicles in the Meguiar’s Great Uncover was sensational, and the Top 60 was genuinely a Top 60 thanks to requirements to keep the walkways a bit wider than usual. It was definitely noticeable as you moved around the show, as unlike previous years, you didn’t have to squeeze through narrow gaps and try not to fall over, step on or damage the display areas.

There were still shoulder-to-shoulder crowds around all of the unveilings, and while most were the usual killer street machines and hot rods, Owen Webb also secured a couple of much larger attractions.

Team Army’s Project Matilda – a MercedesBenz G-wagen burnout car – was the first to have the covers pulled off, and I have to say, it’s a pretty impressive bit of machinery. The wild colour was actually a wrap that looked like your basic army green until some light hit it and the gold metallic popped out.

Things got even bigger with the next unveiling, as the Burnout Bullet had its massive covers removed. Laurie Williams has taken the legendary Bandag Bullet and rebodied it with a Western Star cab, but left the well-proven, quad-turbo, twin-blown engines the same. You’ll be glad to know it still does killer skids.

The rest of the unveilings ranged from wild (the Proflo Performance-built LJ Torana stuffed full of 940 cubes of Sonny Leonard goodness) to mild (the new Deluxe Rod Shop work ute, an XR Falcon that is essentially restored except for the 347 Windsor and beefed-up driveline). Other highlights for me included Dom Luci’s

CHARLES HARLEY

1957 CHEVROLET BEL AIR SPORTS COUPE

CHARLES Harley’s ’57 is a stunning combination of old and new, with a host of custom touches to the body combined with a thoroughly modern interior and more electronic trickery than you can poke a stick at, with everything controllable from a smartphone. But don’t worry; there’s a big-block Chev under the bonnet to keep things old school. With its mile-deep metallic blue paint and blacked-out bumpers and trim, it definitely doesn’t jump out at you, but it sure stands out in a crowd.

MILAN

BLACK 1972 HOLDEN

T O R A NA C O U P E

TALK about building a car around a motor! The monstrous Sonny Leonard engine in Milan’s Torana is massive, measuring up at 940ci and good for 1630hp on pump gas – and that’s before the 500shot of nitrous goes on top! With a rollcage built to the same specs as a Group 1 race car, hopefully we’ll see this beast hit the strip after its show duties are over. Those massive 24x15 billets will get changed out for something with a bit more grip, too. Check out our cover story on page 36 for the full lowdown on this beast!

VK Commodore, which was inspired by all of his favourite Brocky touches (although I don’t remember any of them having 950hp blown LS engines in them) and Kevin Mantach’s chopped ’50 Chev, arguably the coolest body style and most radically engineered burnout car ever built.

It wasn’t just the unveiled cars that stood out. Scattered through the rest of the hall were trophywinners and cars that were just plain cool. Parked alongside the far wall, with no special display, was a pearl-white ’67 Camaro. At first glance you might think it was a pretty clean-looking car, but on closer inspection – wow! Built by Weavers Autobody Restorations for Mark Stockwell, it took home three trophies and a Top 10 plate.

Parked just ahead of Mark’s first-gen Camaro was the second-gen ‘split-bumper’ of Lee Payne, a stunning home-built car with custom blue/ green paint and tough as hell with its 800hp bigblock Chev.

I might be showing my bias here, being a West Aussie, but how could you not like Nigel Warr’s bright orange HQ ute, stuffed full of 615ci Shafiroff big-block? It not only looked good but also ran some serious numbers on the dyno. Rohan Hawley’s Panama Green LH Torana was another car that stood out in the crowd thanks to its in-yer-face colour, and it almost took out Grand Champion, finishing in the Top 3 alongside Dom Luci’s VK Commodore and the eventual Grand

Champ Todd Sorensen and his ’67 Chevy Impala.

While there weren’t any wildly over-the-top builds this year along the lines of Rob Zahabi’s ‘Havoc’ Challenger, the trend towards more streetable and useable cars was quite obvious, and became even more evident when it came time to duke it out for the Grand Champion sword. Fifteen cars rolled out of the Elite Hall on Sunday morning to have a crack, and every single one of them performed flawlessly. And unlike in some previous years, they were all capable of smoking the tyres. While I love an outrageous show car to look at and admire the quality of workmanship, it is great to see top-level cars being used as intended: smashing tyres and turning heads.

JASON BE H AN

1969 CHRYSLER VALIANT VG HARDTOP

IF YOU thought there were similarities between Charles Harley’s ’57 Chev and this car, that’s because BMV Engineering had a huge hand in both. Jason’s VG hardtop also features plenty of custom bodywork and an interior that seamlessly blends modern features into the classic 60s body style. The 520ci big-block Mopar gets the car moving, while coilovers front and rear and massive Wilwood brakes make sure she turns and stops as well.

TONY WILSON

1932 FORD TUDOR CHOODA has been hitting the show scene for a number of years now, but it keeps coming back and keeps getting better. The contemporary Kona Brown paint works beautifully with the classic lines of the tudor – two-door, get it? The prize-winning interior is also thoroughly modern, but you can’t get more hot rod than a stack-injected small-block under the hood. Even the modern billets tip the hat to hot rod history with a similar look to coated magnesium.

ZORAN KRSTEVSKI

1982 FORD XE SEDAN

UNVEILED at Summernats 32 to many oohs and aahs, Zoran’s tough-as-nails XE has gone from a Top 20 to a Top 10 car thanks to a host of small changes to finesse things. Zoran admits he was a bit rushed last year to meet the unveiling deadline, so the past 12 months gave him time to really detail the undercarriage and engine bay. Finishing in the Magnificent Seven for the Grand Champ award topped off a great event for Zoran.

TODD SORENSEN

1967 CHEVROLET

IMPALA COUPE

RETURNING after being unveiled at Summernats 32, Todd Sorensen’s big and beautiful Impala looked as good as ever and was going to have a serious crack at the Grand Champ driving events thanks to 12 months of testing and road tuning. Having 750hp pumping out of a 528ci big-block Chev helps overcome the sheer mass of the Cool Vanilla coupe, and Todd has got the big girl handling a lot better than standard, that’s for sure – enough to win 2020 Summernats Grand Champion!

DAVE DORM AN1932 FORD CABRIOLET

FORD never made a cabriolet that looked this flash, but Pete Osborne from NZ designed and built these versions with three-window-style doors and raked-back windscreen. Dave filled his with a 350 Chev topped with TPI injection, Turbo 700R4 trans and a Jag diff, before painting it in PPG Lamborghini Giallo Maggio – which translates to ‘Yellow May’ if you’re not up to speed with your Italian. Foose Knuckle wheels measuring up at 17x7 and 20x9 round off the super-smooth hot rod.

Jeff Mccarter from Western Street & Custom has spent two years turning a stock ’68 XT Falcon sedan into a stroked monster ready to terrorise Sydney streets (and Dragway) for owner David Baldacchino. “It is more of a pro streetstyle car, with a Dart-based 435ci smallblock Ford, tubs, chassis connectors, adjustable parallel four-link rear end, sheet-metal diff, parachute system, new floors and trans tunnel, plus a full rollcage,” Jeff said

David Galea’s HT Monaro is full of neat little hidden tricks, like the heater hoses plumbed into the bottom of the radiator and run through the inner guard for a very clean engine bay. There are plenty of 3D-printed parts in the console and interior, too. The 406ci Motown engine makes 650hp and should be good for high 10s

Dom Luci unveiled a VK Commodore streeter at ’Nats 33 that placed in the Top 20. Russo Performance built the Harrop 2650-blown LS, looking for up to 950hp at the motor on E85. “It has chassis connectors, the Panhard bar was removed for a Watt’s link, and it runs a tube K-frame up front,” Dom explained. “I’m looking to go 235 Radial racing, so it doesn’t really look like a race car”

“I had a car like this 20 years ago and I sold it when I started my business. I said I’d buy another one,” laughed Bill Kaglatzis of BK Race Engines of his genuine Red Pepper XA GT Falcon sedan. “It needed a little bit of love, but it just snowballed into a full restoration.” Impressively, Bill has hidden a 670hp roller-cammed 408ci Cleveland inside what appears like a dead-stock car. “I want to go cruising with my kids. It’s a tough Falcon that I hope goes 10.50s without too much trouble”

“After bringing 10 different customer cars to Summernats in 10 years, it’s my turn now,” said Deluxe Rod Shop’s Steve Alldrick of the XR Falcon ute he unveiled at Summernats 33. Packing a 347ci stroker Windsor with a topend and cam package from Pavtek Performance, the PPG Vista Green ute looks factory fresh but has subtle nods to Ford’s legendary Total Performance era from the 1960s, like a teardrop bonnet scoop. The car won Top Ute, and Steve himself was awarded the prestigious John Taverna Sr Memorial Master Craftsman gong Rob Downing’s Fiat Topolinobodied show rod is definitely memorable. Customised by Little Mick for the previous owner, the body has been chopped 17in and widened 22in. The driveline is your basic 350/350 combo, but it’s been painted to match the white of the body. The trick thing with the paint is that the active ingredients (the metallics and pearls) from House Of Kolor’s Antifreeze green paint were added to the white A last-minute addition to the Meguiar’s Great Uncover was this wild bare-metal ’32 roadster being built by Western Street & Custom. The Brookville body has been sliced and diced to follow the profile of the massive rear wheels and tyres, while the tail-lights and number plate are hidden until the ignition turns on. A hydraulic system adjusts the ride height in the rear on ignition, too. That wild zoomieequipped engine is a waterjacketed billet Noonan LS Edge

Rob Guljas managed to put this HSV GTO together in a little over seven months. He’s sprayed it a custom-mix grey with a very fine crystal pearl through it, then powered it with a 408ci LQ9 topped with a 6/71 and one of Joe Blo’s low-profile hats. It’s also ’bagged in the rear to get the car right down over the massive Simmons rims Kevin Mantach’s astounding 1950 Chev coupe nailed the Top Engineered gong. “I bought it as a roller after it had the 4in chop and had been blasted and was in primer, but things got a little out of control and it ended up with a full tube chassis!” Kevin said. Powered by a Littlefield 8/71blown, 400ci Chev small-block with mechanical injection and dry sump, the combo is reportedly good for 1300-1400hp. The amazing fab work was done by Black Magic Race Cars