BRADEN SMITH – VF COMMODORE

IF THERE was a Hard Luck award to be dealt, Braden Smith would be a walk-up winner with his HAUNT U wagon. He faced weekend-ending dramas before making a single skid, and spent three days chasing the problem to no avail.

Sorry to hear you’ve had some dramas, mate. It hasn’t been a smooth-sailing trip, that’s for sure! First we found the battery was dead-flat and the key was on for some reason; then we worked out the alternator had shat itself. When we finally made it to the pad, we were rained off, and then cruising back, we lost the ignition. It is what it is – cars give you a headache at the best of times! Have you been here before?

Last time I came to Aussie was for Summernats 30, and I pretty much built the car for that. I was going good until I hit the wall! I took it back home and lunched the motor soon after. It’s pretty much been in the shed for the five years while I chipped away at the motor. It’s a 509ci Dart big-block with all the goodies in it, and it revs to nine grand.

A VF is a pretty speccy base for a burnout car. Did you have something else beforehand?

I had an HQ Kingswood, and it was a full streetlegal certified car with a blown big-block. Parts were just too hard to get for the old girls, and I didn’t want to crash it, so I went to the local wrecker and they had all the new stuff sitting there. I picked the wagon because for doing events like Powercruise in NZ and Azhar’s stuff, I thought it would be cool to have more seats for cruising on the race track. It was only a year old when I bought it; it just had the front left smashed in.