HIT FOR SIX

MARIA PASSOS’S SEVEN-SECOND BARRA BEAT A BUNCH OF TURBO V8s TO WIN HALTECH HORSEPOWER HEROES FOR 2020

BRUTAL heat and thick bushfire smoke didn’t stop records being obliterated in the Haltech Horsepower Heroes dyno comp at Summernats 33. Maria Passos’s XR6 Turbo Falcon blew the crowd in the MPW Performance dyno hall away with the very first run of the competition, running 2048rwhp from the 3.7-litre turbo Barra to break Michael Daniels’s 1131rwhp ForcedInduction Six-cylinder class record from Summernats 27.

Maria backed it up on Sunday with a 2202rwhp run, pushing 57psi through the little big-six to not only take the FI six-pot class win but also the outright Haltech Horsepower Heroes award.

“The goal for the weekend was to make over 2000hp at the wheels, and we did that on the first day,” Maria said. “This car is my life, and the ultimate goal is to eventually run a 6.99@218mph.”

The 3.7-litre de-stroked Barra is a monster piece of work, and the car has run a PB of 7.71@188mph despite a portly 4180lb mass and stock IRS cradle set-up in the rear end. The internals are all Dyno-mite Performance equipment, including a billet crank, with a billet intake manifold being added before the ’Nats.

A Haltech ECU controls the 57psi worth of hurt being fed into a 110mm Precision turbo, with methanol fuelling the fullweight street machine. A Rossler trans bangs gears, while the independent rear end has copped billet axles and 3.7:1 gears from a Territory.

Runner-up in the FI six-banger class, Benny Neal, was nearly 1000hp behind Maria’s RIPSS Falcon, with a 1265rwhp run in his eight-second Barra-powered Toyota Cresta enough to

HIGH ROLLERS

THE MPW Performance crew not only ran the dyno hall all weekend, but brought three killer cars to compete. Luke Foley’s blue VH was fresh from a top five overall placing at Drag Challenge and spat out 1508rwhp. Riccardo Pontonio’s VK Commodore won his entry to Summernats 33 by taking out the blown class at Meguiar’s Motorex. By the time the ’Nats rolled around, the 6.2L LSA had been replaced by a 7.2L twinturbo LSX. While it has been built to take up to 40psi, Rick only needed 28psi to win the Forced-induction Eight-cylinder class at Summernats, recording 1651rwhp.

Chris Cutajar’s TUFZOP VE ute made 1525rwhp on Sunday. It packs a 440ci LS up front, but the real sauce comes from a couple of Borgwarner SXE369 turbos mounted under the tray. Sucking E85, the silver brute runs a stock Siemens ECU, and even smoked out Skid Row over the weekend.

leave Steve Farrelly’s 1225rwhp Barra VL Calais in third.

Unfortunately for Steve, the weekend ended on something of a low point after his forged 4.0-litre developed a rattle from the bottom end during his third power run on the 3000hp Mainline Prohub dyno.

Top of the forced-induction V8s was Riccardo Pontonio’s MPW Performance-built VK Commodore, running 1651rwhp. He led home a trio of Mpw-built turbo big-inch LS combos, with Chris Cutajar’s VE ute making 1525rwhp and Luke Foley’s seven-second VH rolling 1508rwhp.

Top qualifier in the NA V8 class, Nigel Warr, didn’t bring his stunning 615ci HQ ute back on Sunday for the class finals, leaving Michael Rattey’s 598ci big-block HX Sandman clear to win the class with a stout 536rwhp. The aspirated six-pot class was taken out by Rick Yates’s 235ci red motor-powered LJ Torana, with 192rwhp.

Ben Stockdale was the only forced-induction four-banger to turn up, and his Nissan Ca18det-powered ’78 KE30 Corolla stomped out a healthy 399rwhp on Sunday morning to take home the class trophy. Travis Stork brought his 944 Porsche back, with the 2.7-litre four rolling 163rwhp to take his third Naturally Aspirated Four-cylinder Horsepower Heroes win.

Only two rotors ran during the weekend, with Jaidyn Reed’s Mazda RX-8 rolling a respectable 189rwhp and Cam Borserio’s turbo 13B-powered 1970 Hilux pulling 461rwhp.

In the exhibition class, the Castle Hill Performance VT Commodore made 3470rwhp to break its own record for the most power ever seen on the dyno at Summernats. The Castle Hill crew had upgraded the fuel pump and were running a new set of Garrett 98mm turbos, which squeezed over 60psi into the iron big-block Chev on Sunday.

“I wanted 3500rwhp, and it could make more power, but I’m not going to worry about that because it didn’t throw the rods out,” said Castle Hill’s Dale Heiler, who finished off the weekend by driving the methanol-fuelled machine around the cruise route to pump a set down Skid Row.

Ben Neal’s Cresta was sporting a fresh Empire Mechanical-built Barra, featuring a heat-treated stock crank, Spool Drag Pro rods and 9.2:1 Spoolspec CP pistons. The head has been ported with 1mm-oversize valves, and the mill also features Kelford 280-degree cams and Hypertune intake and exhaust manifolds. A Garrett G42 turbo pushes approximately 35psi into the Ford six Maria Passos’s XR6 Turbo was already the quickest street Barra in the land; now it is a Horsepower Heroes winner! BELOW: Arby brought POR440 out for a play and stomped out a best of 917rwhp. The engine is a cammed, alloy 5.3L L33 with a S485 huffer BOTTOM: Ben Stockdale’s Nissan Ca18det-powered KE30 Corolla won the Forced-induction FourCylinder class with a best of 399rwhp

Scotty and Kian brought two Carnage projects past the dyno, with the now Barra-fied MX-5 rolling 562rwhp on Friday and the 1Jz-powered Trolvo making 491rwhp BELOW: Michael Rattey’s sweet 598ci HX Sandman walked away with the aspirated bent-eight title to the tune of 536hp at the hubs

Rick Yates’s Strike Me Pink LJ Torana took out the NA sixbanger class with 192rwhp from his triple Weber-fed 235ci red six. “I saw a pink one at the ’89 ’Nats and knew I had to have one,” Rick said. “This actually started off as a factory 173ci LC GTR, but I prefer the LJ front and know I’ll never sell it. I’m not scared to use it!” Mark Raso bought his clean VL Calais mock-up off his cousin, who’d almost finished the build before passing it on. An RB30 wearing a RB25DET twincam head lives up front, with a Maatouks 800hp package, GTX42 turbo and Microtech LT16 ECU. After making 552rwhp, the angry RB unfortunately threw an accessory belt

Cam Borserio’s ’70 Hilux was the only turbo rotary at Horsepower Heroes this year. The tidy trayback has been in Cam’s possession for just six months, and packs Series IV RX-7 rotors in Series V housings. The Garrett T04Zinflated 13B made 461rwhp on Sunday to win the FI Rotary class

Mainline once again provided dynos for Summernats to use in the MPW Performance dyno hall. Haltech Horsepower Heroes was run on a portable 3000hp-rated Prohub, while the Castle Hill Performance Commodore was run on a 6000hp-rated bolt-down unit. “The highest power figure we’ve seen on one of our dynos was 5235rwhp by a Radial vs The World Corvette in the USA,” Mainline’s Todd Lewis said One of the neatest cars to run on the dyno was Nigel Warr’s HQ ute. The pump fuel-guzzling 615ci Shafiroff bigblock made 686rwhp on Friday to topqualify for the Aspirated Eight-cylinder class, but wasn’t able to come back on Sunday. Featuring full undercarriage detailing, the West Aussie ute was as clean underneath as it was up top, and made 926hp at the crank