SCOTT SEVIL
> BICHENO, TASMANIA
BACK when the world was a free place, we ventured south to Tassie Nats to see how they party on the Apple Isle. We found a number of up-and-coming local burnout heroes, including Scott Sevil and his recently finished VY SS ute. We featured his blown 408ci LS mill in the Feb ’19 issue of SM, so we caught up with him recently to see how he’d been faring in the burnout stakes.
What made you want to build a burnout car of this calibre?
I decided I wanted to have one of the biggest and baddest cars and engines in all of Tasmania, and with some of the guys down here raising the bar, I knew we’d have to build something decent. I think even now we’re still one of the top LS guys; we’re not running a Dart or big-block Chevy and still making 1200hp without any issues.
What events have you ripped up since debuting the car at the start of 2019?
We’ve been all over the country. Obviously we started at Powercruise Tasmania and then Tassie Nats that year, before going to Powerplay Sydney, Brashernats and Powercruise Queensland, where we had a pretty big fire that torched the whole back end of the car. Then we went to Summernats earlier this year for the first time.
How was the ’Nats for you?
It was a riot. Sadly, we also caught fire there on Friday during the Burnout Championship and got knocked out as a result, so we just destroyed Skid Row a few times and kicked back with some vodka slushies – it was a good time!
Any plans to hit the pad again this year?
Absolutely! We already did Tassie Nats again this year after Summernats, and right now we’re on our way up to the Burnout Masters in Sydney [now postponed to 12-13 September due to COVID-19]. We’ll be back again for Red Centrenats as well; we’ll have a pretty big convoy heading up from Tasmania with some big names, so it should be good. We’re hoping to do a lap of Australia again if we can manage it with everything going on.
Have you taken any silverware in your burnout adventures?
We had some wins at the start of 2019 at Powercruise Tasmania, and a few Best In Show awards and things like that. My main goal is to get a Masters ticket to Summernats next year, so that’s what we’ll be chasing, because I want to play with the big boys.
What’s the story behind the WIZARD plates?
Well, we originally had METHSKID on there, but my daughter was being teased at school about it because they didn’t understand what it meant. So Lynchy was winding me up about what plates to put on it, and my nickname is ‘The Wizard’ because I’m pretty handy on the tools and can fix my mates’ cars at the last minute, so my kids chose it and that’s what we went with.
What do you do for a wicket?
I own a smash repair shop down in Tassie, which is a good thing because I’ve needed to respray the whole ute about three times in the past 12 months! This time I’ve actually left the rear bumpers unpainted, so I can go a bit harder without having to worry about damaging the pearl paint.
My main goal is to get a Masters ticket to Summernats next year. I want to play with the big boys