NATHAN PETERS

VC VALIANT

NATHAN Peters built his purple Barra-powered VC Valiant (SM, Oct ’19) alongside his late father Peter, and debuted it at Mopar Sunday 2019. This year Nathan and the VC went hard from start to finish, running a PB of 9.8@135mph and pissing off a few Hemi-heads with the sacrilegious Ford six.

Can I address the elephant in the room: why a Barra in a Valiant?

It made sense! We got our hands on a new FG F6 Barra through a mate and it was just a good option for what we wanted to do. All we really had to do to the motor is valve springs, head studs and it’s just got a little snail on there. Then it has a manualised TH400 gearbox with a converter and a 9in. It makes about 700hp and it runs consistent 9.90s, but I wound a few more pounds in today to see what it could do.

And I hear you set a PB, right?

It went 9.80@135mph! We’ll see what we can do, but we’re sort of at the limit of that turbo for now.

What’s the journey been like for this immaculate Valiant?

I’ve owned the car for 23 years and it was originally purple, too, which is why we repainted it with the build. and it’s come up a treat. Jared from Matheson Street Panel & Paint redid the whole thing, Johnny Monro of Monro Racecars did all the fab work, and Lee Bloom from Real Dyno does all the tuning for me. We’re getting on top of it, and aside from putting a few more psi into it yet, it’s really well-sorted.