COMMERCIAL APPEAL
Mark Attard applies some old-school mods to a new-school HSV Maloo
IT TAKES guts to chop into an expensive late-model car, though it’s perhaps slightly less intimidating than taking a grinder to a traditional old-school rig. But when it comes to the ‘early-girl versus plasticfantastic’ debate, Victorian Mark Attard has a foot in both camps. He was brought up on old-school street machines, and he’s now putting those traditional skills and style into his millennial-era HSV VE Maloo.
“I’ve had a few cars. When I was about 16, I went for spin in an XA Falcon GT. It was a low11s car, and I was hooked!” Mark explains. “I had a little LJ Torana; that was the one that got me started into cars, but it was nothing too crazy. My first real tough streeter was an HJ Premier. I raced it at Calder. So I love my oldschool cars, but the Maloo was never meant to be like this.”
The ute actually started off as a daily driver, bought as a late-model second-hander that was driven to work, but it didn’t stay standard for long. “It had an LS3 that we twinturbocharged,” Mark says. “But the motor got hurt, so in went a Procharged 427, and then that broke, so things got serious. It was just supposed to be a tidy-up, but you know how it happens: a few drinks in the garage with the boys and now we have this! It just gets out of control.”
Having been involved with plenty of cool oldschool rides, Mark has an eye for traditional street machine detailing, so he knew what had to be done to make the Maloo a standout. But it took some convincing before he was willing to go all-out.
“My mate Adam Pritchard is my painter, and he talked me into it,” says Mark. “I was happy to give it a blow-over in the original colour to simply tidy it up, but he started showing me colour swatches. I was saying: ‘Nah, I don’t want to go that crazy,’ and he kept baiting me with: ‘Trust me, it will look awesome!’”
The result is the lovely fizzy orange you see on the pages before you. But before it was squirted on, Mark got in and tidied up the ute’s bodywork, especially in the engine bay. For one thing, the VE architecture has open skirts in the engine bay, missing the full steel strut towers of earlier cars. Mark saw this as an ideal opportunity to smooth the bay, and had Geoff at Street Tech Fabrications sheet these out for a cleaner appearance, just like the good ol’ days.
The radiator cowl has also been hidden, the brake lines have been relocated out of sight, and John at JSR High Performance Auto Electrics hid most of the engine bay electrics in the cabin, tucked behind the seats. Adam then did the body prep and paint, which took a total of five months.
When sorting out the engine bay, the lads left plenty of clearance for Darcy Stafford at
IT WAS JUST SUPPOSED TO BE A TIDY-UP, BUT YOU KNOW HOW IT HAPPENS: A FEW DRINKS IN THE GARAGE WITH THE BOYS AND NOW WE HAVE THIS! IT JUST GETS OUT OF CONTROL
SUSPENSION: The good thing about modifying a late-model car is that you can source plenty of easy ways to get a killer stance. Mark’s VE rocks a set of adjustable XYZ coil-overs hidden behind black 22x9in Simmons FR wheels
ENGINE BAY: It’s amazing how much a smooth engine bay can lift a car’s appeal. The steeledout strut towers and radiator cowl, combined with hidden wiring, make for three traditional mods well applied to the Maloo. The power steering pump is gone, too, replaced by an Astra electric pump working the stock Holden steering rack
MARK ATTARD
2008 VE HSV MALOO R8
Paint: Custom orange
ENGINE
Engine: Dart LS Next cast-iron ECU: Haltech
Turbo: 88mm Comp Turbo Heads: Higgins-prepped Brodix BR7 Intake: Plazmaman manifold, Nick Williams 102mm throttlebody
Camshaft: Lil John’s Motorsport Conrods: Oliver
Pistons: Diamond
Crank: Callies Dragonslayer Oil pump: Melling
Fuel system: Twin Holley pumps, 2250cc Precision injectors
Cooling: PWR with Spal fans
Exhaust: Killaboost manifolds Ignition: Haltech coils
TRANSMISSION
Gearbox: Modified TH400 auto Converter: TCE 4500rpm Diff: VF HSV GTS 9.9in
SUSPENSION & BRAKES
Front: XYZ coil-overs
Rear: XYZ coil-overs
Brakes: HSV VF GTS six-pot calipers & discs (f), HSV VF GTS four-pot (r)
Master cylinder: Lowe Fabrications billet
WHEELS & TYRES
Rims: Simmons FR 22x9 (f & r) Rubber: 255/30/22 (f & r)
THANKS
My beautiful wife Alison and my three kids Aden, Clarissa and Lexis for letting me live out my dreams; Ali at Ali’s Race Engines; Luke at Hasty Auto-trans;
Adam Pritchard for the metal magic; John at JSR High Performance Auto Electrics; Jarrod at
Incharge Automotive; Frank at Allsparks Automotive; Andrew at Werribee Brake & Clutch; Darcy at Killaboost; Geoff at Street
Tech; John Ricca and Michael at Race Parts Melbourne; Adrian and Richard at VPW; special thanks to Michael Camilleri for helping me build the car from start to finish
Killaboost Manifolds to package the huge single 88mm Comp Turbo snail and plumbing. It’s pushing compressed air into an iron Dart LS Next block built up by Ali’s Race Engines, swinging a Callies Dragonslayer crank, Oliver rods, Diamond pistons, and a boost-friendly Lil John’s Motorsport Solutions cam.
The Brodix BR7 heads were prepared by Nathan Higgins, with boost swallowed by a Plazmaman intake and intercooler, and a 102mm Nick Williams throttlebody. Engine management is handled by a Haltech ECU, with two Holley fuel pumps feeding the eight Precision 2250cc injectors a diet of E85. Right now, all that is worth 1150hp at the treads on 20psi boost.
Copping the grunt is a classic TH400 three-speed auto, built by Hasty Auto-trans to handle far more grunt than the stock sixspeed auto could cop, and it’s more driveable than the Oe-spec Tremec manual. The torque converter is a TCE unit, while a PWR cooler helps manage transmission temperatures.
For now, the Maloo retains its standard multi-link independent rear suspension layout that was a feature of Holden’s VE platform, but the Maloo-spec parts were shelved in favour of the huge 9.9-inch VF GTS diff centre. Mark knows the IRS geometry is not the best for keeping a car with this much power going straight, so it will likely be replaced with a nine-inch later on.
“I finished the car the night before Summernats 32,” says Mark. “All my life, I’ve read the stories in Street Machine about people rushing to get the car completed, and it happened to me too! The water pump shat itself at 1:30am while I was loading the car onto the trailer. I thought: ‘That’s it; our dreams are over.’ And then I remembered I had a spare water pump sitting here, so we got to Summernats.”
It was a good trip, too, with Mark’s ute being invited into the Top 60 Elite Hall and awarded Top Super-tech. But there was one drawback to being lined up with all the shiny cars: it didn’t get to the dyno as planned. “The plan was to run it in the Summernats Horsepower Heroes, but it ended up doing well in judging,” Mark says. “But I plan to turn it up soon and it should provide about 1500hp at the tyres.”
Mark has plenty of other toys on the go, too. “Right now I’m building a pro street HK Monaro GTS, there’s an LJ that’s getting a 565ci bigblock, and there’s an HSV GTO coupe here, too.” Between those and this kick-arse Maloo, he’s definitely got his hands full!
ALL MY LIFE, I’VE READ THE STORIES IN STREET MACHINE ABOUT PEOPLE RUSHING TO GET THE CAR COMPLETED FOR SUMMERNATS, AND IT HAPPENED TO ME TOO!