ADRIAN PORTARO
> ADELAIDE SA
THIS month we continue our trawl through Adrian Portaro’s fantastic photo collection of South Aussie streeters. The selection this time around includes quite a few Adelaide legends and a couple of once-were-strip-warriors now enjoying semiretirement as fully engineered street cars, and you’ll certainly notice that the build quality of many SA cars easily equals that of their easternstates brethren. We’ll wrap up next month with our final mix of photos chosen from Adrian’s collection of – literally – 63,000 pics!
01: THIS HJ GTS sedan was built by Adrian’s brother-in-law, David, in the early 1990s. “It was a big-dollar project for that time and was from an era when you could build an absolutely killer car for $60K,” Adrian explains. “We called it ‘Red Bull’, and it ran a very stout 600-horse small-block Chev. Even with a full load of mates on board, there was no slowing this thing down; Red Bull always had plenty of horsepower left up its sleeve and could smoke ’em and pull hard right through to 8000rpm. I later bought the car off David but had to move it on, as I just didn’t have the room to keep it at the time. Another mate, JZ, now owns it, who lives one street behind me. It’s set up more for street duties nowadays and looks cool with its GTS blackouts. And yep, I kick myself for selling it every time I see it.”
02: ADRIAN’S good friend, Bobby, owns this HK Premier that was once a regular at the strip, running a best of 9.70 on the gas. Nowadays, it also enjoys life as a fully engineered 700hp streeter. “This thing is a well-sorted old-school car that ticks all the boxes and still looks the goods,” Adrian says. “It’s powered by a 434cube small-block Chev and runs a CDS Engineering rear end set-up. It will be ready to race once the drags start up again here. Bobby’s my mechanic and occasionally gives me the HK as a loan car if he’s tight on space and working on one of my cars, so that is always a serious buzz. I love opening the garage door and seeing a big-dished Auto Drag looking back at me. I’m looking forward to cruising my red XT Falcon with this thing in a classic Ford-versus-holden battle for local street cred [laughs].”
03: JAM Moukachar’s fresh pro street HK Monaro build has smashed the stance factor out of the park. The car initially sported traditional Center Lines, but Jam has recently changed to RC Comp Series wheels to further complement the detailed and smoothed 632ci big-block. “This thing is perfection,” Adrian enthuses. “It looks insane with that colour choice and stripes mixing it with massive steamrollers on the rear; the interior trim is mint too. Honestly, though, you wouldn’t expect anything less from Jam – this HK shares garage space with his supertough, black, blown-and-injected pro street Camaro.”
04: STEVE Capaldo from Performance Head Engineering built this very tough LX Torana hatch. “It was one of the quickest streeters in Adelaide back in the 90s,” Adrian says. “It was a lightweight, gassed-up, small-block Chev-powered weapon that ran in the low 10s 30 years ago. There were prizes at street meets back then for the quickest car; Steve would drive there and only need a few runs to come out on top before taking home the prize money and bragging rights.”
05: NOS308 was another epic Adelaide build, and looks-wise, Adrian rates it as a close second to pro street king Phil Rillotta’s LC Torana. “This sedan had awesome body and paint, a great stance thanks to the John Taverna Chassis rear end, and a really nicely detailed engine bay that saw it double on both the show scene and the strip,” Adrian says. “And a 308 – let’s be honest, 308s weren’t that quick in the 90s and it looked odd that a pro streeter with massive rubber was running a ‘small’ 308. I don’t think it broke any records at the strip, but it was definitely a crowd favourite, and I reckon it would still pull admirers with its timeless pro street look 30 years on. A mate now owns it in Melbourne and it looks identical, which is great. He is very slowly building a big-block Chev for it – it will be back as NOS540.”
06: SERIOUSLY, how perfect is this – a blackover-red-trim HG Monaro with a tunnel-rammed small-block Chev that just oozes ‘tough’. “The owner, Andrew, built this HG back when everyone thought that paying $20K for a paintjob was crazy, but it is arrow-straight and I personally reckon it was worth every cent. The 600+hp engine pushed it to high 10-second timeslips, too, which is further proof that this Monaro has it all. Andrew’s a busy man, so it doesn’t get driven as much as it should and I think he spends more time cleaning it than cruising it, but it’s fair to say I do love it more than he does [laughs]. I have offered to take care of it for him but am still waiting for the call.”
07: TWO days after selling his Mustang [see Part Two last issue], Adrian purchased this XT Falcon, but he kept it under wraps until he added a few of his own personal touches. “It runs a John Sawka-built 408-cube Windsor pumping out around 680hp, which is backed by a Hughes C4 auto running a 5000rpm converter and transbrake,” he says. “It was tubbed by Walker Chassis to stuff in some decent 325 rubber on 15x10 Auto Drags, and the nine-inch they hang from is a full-floater setup. It has a ’cage and has gone 10.3, but I hope to dip it into the nines once the Tailem Bend strip starts up again next year. The XT is fully engineered, drives like a dream and is way more comfortable than the Mustang was. Yep, having this XT as an engineered, nine-second family s cruiser would do me for a while.”