WE HUMANS have always made a big deal about celebrating milestones. Whether it’s a 30th birthday, an AFL player kicking 100 goals or a madman cracking 1000hp – we love to make a big deal about numbers. So naturally, when our Street Machine YouTube channel ticked over the 100,000 mark for subscribers, it gave us the perfect excuse to host a little cars & coffee-style meet to celebrate.

The choice of venue was simple. The GraysOnline auction house is not only a generous sponsor of our Carnage web show, but is also the chief place we find raw material for the show. MX5.7, Mr Dodgey and our $2K Challenge cars have all found their way to us via Grays auctions, so the Dandenong branch feels like a second home.

The facility down there is huge, and the GraysOnline team offered us the use of a massive warehouse that is usually reserved for storage for their monthly classic car auction goodies. This meant we’d have a large, dry display area in case the weather turned sour – and a large outdoor space if the skies were blue. Perfect!

Melbourne Old School Cruisers took care of the logistics, and they crushed it! We initially thought we might see 300 cars turn up, but when the Grays warehouse and outside car park were chockers an hour before the event had even kicked off, we knew we were going to be in for a huge day! With some unseasonably beautiful weather on our side, we had an estimated 5000 people rock up and maybe 1000 cars, transforming a quiet industrial estate into a sprawling car show.

All kinds of unique shapes and sizes rolled up to be part of the event, from classic Aussie metal, modern-day heroes, Yank tanks and JDM stalwarts, making for one hell of a feast for the eyes and the ears. We brought all of our Carnage projects that are currently in one piece, namely Turbo Taxi, MX5.7, Broads’s Torana, the AU XR6 and the VT Calais. That’s not to say they are all running, but they were there.

In addition to our own bangers, the Street Machine stand was decorated by last month’s cover car – Angelo Furfaro’s twin-turbo VC Valiant – and Bubba Medlyn’s monstrous VH Commodore.

Thanks to GraysOnline and Melbourne Old School Cruisers for putting on an absolute ripper of a show. After the huge success of this year’s event, we almost feel obligated to make this an annual affair – so make sure you help us out in reaching that 200K milestone!

HIGHLIGHTS:

James Mackie made the trip down with his one-of-a-kind XY Falcon drift car. Some people may find it controversial to enter a Falcon of this vintage in slideways competitions, but with a Harrop-blown LS under the bonnet, it was never James’s intention to appease the purists.

Mark Delahoy’s VR Commodore was one of the few cars to be trailered to the show, but with good reason. This is a genuine Gibson Motorsport-built V8 Supercar, which Mark Skaife used to win the Australia Touring Car title in 1994. While the car technically started life as a VP, Mark has it presented in its 1995 Sandown 500 VR bodywork and livery.

Shane Crowther’s VZ Lumina was another of the oddball street-driven drifters to make its way down to the meet with good mate James Mackie. Under the artistically decorated bonnet sits an LS2 and a Vortech supercharger boosting the power to 460rwkW and endless smiles.

Ashley Pearce has owned his super-neat VL for 23 years now, and although it’s an original Calais Turbo, it’s a far cry from the 150kW cruiser it was intended to be. With a built RB30 and three-speed auto, it now cranks out 530rwkW thanks to the boys at QuickBitz, and with the rollcage on board he plans on hitting the track soon to test the limit of the 235 radials.

Graeme Carter’s VE wagon graced the pages of this very publication a few years ago in basically the same guise it presents now, with a 530hp 440ci Mopar. Graeme plans on throwing in a new 512ci big-block soon to sink his PB from 11.7 to a 10, but said the main point of the beast is to haul him on the street to events just like this one.

Kenny Perry has owned his genuine XY Fairmont GS for nearly 30 years, turning it into one properly stout streeter. The all-motor 393ci Cleveland is pumping out 710hp, built and tuned by good friend Danko Knezevic from Adicted Performance. “I try to get it out on the street as much as I can; that’s really what it’s for,” Kenny said.

A number of Drag Challenge combatants proved that their street credentials are not just reserved for one week a year, including Brendan Cherry’s 8sec, big block-powered, 1400hp VL Commodore.

Brenden ‘Bubba’ Medlyn – pictured here with his mum and dad – spent the bulk of his weekend thrashing on his 2400hp VH Commodore so he could drive it to the event. In true Bubba form, he did make it, but also didn’t bring enough methanol to drive it home. Milan Dokic came to the rescue with some spare fuel from his ’41 Wild Willy, only for Bubba to break an input shaft on the way home!

Milan Dokic is best known for his monster 1968 Camaro, MENTLE, but this time it was his ’41 Willys, ‘Wild Willy’, that wowed the crowds in the warehouse, leaving eardrums broken and hearts racing with a few quick braps on the loud pedal during a pair of fire-up demonstrations.

There was a smorgasbord of appetising cars being offered for auction for fans to check out, headlined by this stunning Camaro. With a twin-turbo, 1600hp blow-through carby set-up, this former Street Machine cover car was a fan favourite and will certainly keep the punters busy come auction day.

Leigh Deakins’ 1964 Galaxie wagon still sports the humble 289 V8, but is now force-fed by a blower to give the big machine some extra up-and-go when needed. The car is fully engineered with the supercharger and the airbags, and Leigh admitted that while the patina look isn’t 100 per cent what he wanted, it does have its advantages: “I can park it wherever I want, because if I get another dent on it I wouldn’t even notice!”