Last night we brought you a ton of new metal in the Street Machine Summernats 35 elite hall, but that was just the beginning.

With a huge 24 cars unveiled during the Meguiar’s Great Uncover, there’s really something for everybody, from ballistic Toranas and stonking Falcons to some weird and loveable oddities.

DAVE STRATTON

CHEVY C10

Dave Stratton’s ’76 square-body C10 has been seven years in the making. What started out as a stocko 454-powered farm truck has been transformed, with the body now extended down to the rockers. It’s slammed with AirRide suspension and Rally Intro wheels, which measure up at a whopping 24×16 in the rear under the raised bed floor. Inside is a completely new and heavily customised interior with a conversion to right-hook. Motivation comes from a PowerHouse engines-built 540-cuber, kept old-school with a carby and nitrous kit and punched through a Turbo 400 and 9in diff.

ELLIS DICKSON
SUZUKI MIGHTY BOY

Canberra local Ellis ‘Spike’ Dickson built his little Mighty Boy in just eight months for its unveil at SN35, the Kawasaki Ninja paint hitting the body just two days out from the unveil. Spike turned the Mighty Boy shell into a full-chassis car, mostly to fit the unbelievably massive 335 rear tyres. Power itself comes from an aspirated 13B, with “the biggest bridge possible” according to Spike. It’s rowed through a five-speed Mazda ‘box, which required a whole new tunnel to convert the ute to rear-wheel-drive.

ANTHONY SAFAR

VK COMMODORE

Anthony’s VK Commodore is a wild take on a Blue Meanie replica, its biggest eye-grabber being the gold dipped 22in Simmons spinners. Poking its head through the bonnet is a V7 supercharger, mounted to the front of a Warspeed-built 400-cube Dart LS. Anthony says once the fab work was done the car was turned around in just nine weeks to make it to the debut at ‘Nats, including a second respray of the candy blue paint to get it to his standard.

And check out the lowrider style engraving on various items under the bonnet.

AL MAGRITZER

MORRIS MINOR

This Southern Rod & Custom build saw owner Al pitching in heaps of his own work. It packs a BMC A-series four-pot, with custom rods and pistons to survive 18psi of boost. “The motor is the duck’s guts,” Al enthuses. “It’s making 217hp at 8500rpm, it’s a very, very stout little car. We stuck with the MOWOG gearbox; the only thing we changed was the diff, because the British Motor Corporation didn’t make a diff that was strong in anything, so it’s got a pretty solid Escort rally diff” The colour is a factory deal, with a custom Continental spare wheel kit. “Everybody’s over HK-T-Gs, XYs and Commodores, and I just wanted something different,” Al says. “Everybody knows somebody that’s had one.”

JOEY

HJ MONARO

Joey and mate Ivan Han (of MR HYDE Torana fame) managed this tough-as-nails HJ Monaro as a five-year shed build. There’s an LSX up front good for about 750hp at the meats, running through a Turbo 400 and sheet-metal 9in, with Brembos all-’round. “I owned one when I was 16 years old, and just decided to buy another one,” Joey explains. It’s the Wollongong bloke’s first time having a car in the hall.

BRETT HEWERDINE

‘49 FORD COUPE

Built by Paul Sant of ProFlo, Brett’s gorgeous single-spinner runs a 600-cube, Littlefield 14/71-blown big-block Chev, and a manualised TH400 and fabbed 9in rear. Hydroshox coilovers fill out all four corners, and Schotts 22×12 and 20×6 hoops cover Wilwood stopping gear. Andrew and Marty Ash laid down the Hellbent Red duco.

This isn’t Brett’s first rodeo, his 1FATHT Monaro melted minds at Nats 32.

AARON GAUCI
LJ TORANA

Aaron Gauci’s LJ coupe is the culmination of his childhood dream, as a usable street and strip machine that can still hold its own against the best on the show floor. He kept this LJ simple, which is painted in Marina Bay Blue and powered by an aspirated 600hp iron lion with Haltech management. Mini tubs have made room for the 275-wide rear rubber, and a peek inside shows nice Recaro seats and a Momo wheel to politely match the black LJ interior.

SIMON WAUGH
XY FALCON

Ford nut Simon Waugh wanted an XY Falcon GT with proper grunt, and this black-on-black example is the end result of three years of hard work. Giving the XY its biggest distinction is a 480rwhp 4V 351 Cleveland, paired with a toploader manual ‘box. Brand new GT spoilers and black stripes top off the exterior, and Simon ensured the interior was also black and as true to a standard GT as possible. The car sits pretty on a wider-than-original set of Globe alloys, and the underpinnings have been modernised with upgraded suspension and steering.

LEO MORTAKIS

LX TORANA

This yellow-doused Torrie is the product of a decade-long project shared by Leo and his dad. “We both had our own visions,” Leo recounts. “He wanted more of a classic 80s muscle car, but I’m more about the detailed pro street look. We clashed a bit while building it, but we merged our two styles together.” The end result involves a 408 Chev, a Tremec TKO manual and a 9in with street-friendly 3.5 gears. “It’s nothing crazy, it has a nice exhaust and just sounds good,” Leo says. The Jasmine Yellow is from PPG, while the black is Leo’s own mix with metallic pearl. “It’s old-school, but still fresh.”

MIKE DAVIDSON

’54 BEL AIR

Mike has owned his Bel Air for 13 years and been building it for six. The car is powered by a Weber-fed 406 Dart blocked Chev and TH400 auto with Mike – a mechanical engineer and general manager of Lovells Suspension – doing most of the mechanical work himself. Under that flowing Glasurit Blue Moon Candy paint he’s installed an HT Holden front end with a Flaming River rack and McDonald Bros arms. The body and paint is the responsibility of Pat’s Pro Restorations in Beaudesert, Qld. “I built this with all the stuff that I ‘dig’!’ grinned the Queenslander.

NATHAN SHEPHERD

VB COMMODORE

Nathan scored this 1979 VB Commodore wagon as a Tassie shed find a little over a year ago. Built to an HDT theme, these days the ’79 VB carries a 355 cranked, Pavtek-headed EFI V8 and a TH400 three-speed auto. Painted in Flamenco Red, Nathan has fitted a set of old-school side pipes. “It’s an homage to an original HDT but with a lot of personal touches,” says Nathan, who after showing it for most of this year, plans to answer the ‘what does it do?’ question at Heathcote Park before he commits it to street cruising duty.

SIMON ANDRUS

XB FALCON

Geelong based Simon says he was inspired to build his GT look-a-like Falcon by plenty of cool cars from the 1980s street machine pioneer era. “I come from a Ford family and this is plain and simple early Pro Street,” he says. “Those Center Lines are bit of a Geelong ‘thing’!” Under the Apollo Blue paint is a 620-hose 393ci Ford Cleveland V8 – presented in beautifully simple silver and black – and C10 auto. Yes, those 10-inch rear Center Lines live in tubbed-to-the-rail arches on a narrowed four-link nine inch.

ROCKY SARKIS

LH TORANA

Bought 10 years ago as a six-pot pop-pack, Blood Candy is the colour on this terrific Torana, built and striped with a nod to Holden’s hot ‘70s SL/Rs. But no 70s track-pack Torrie ever had a Dart iron blocked, 388ci LS V8 with a turbo. “It’s the biggest BorgWarner turbo we could fit,” laughs Rocky of the Paul Sant/ProFlo Performance mechanical layout that includes squeezing in those 20×10 inch rear Simmons and big Wilwoods. Inside, the front buckets are matched by two individually sculpted rear seats.

ROBERT PETERS

’68 CAMARO

“I went to the USA to buy a car so I could see it and not get stung,” says Robert of his Camaro SS purchase. “But I still got stung!” The ‘sting’ was a very convincing resto of rusty rubbish. Once the Camaro shell was lifted from the acid tank in Oz, only one front guard, a door and the turret were able to be saved. Fixed with all new metal, the Camaro now wears a coat of gorgeous Mazda Storm Blue around a ProCharged and intercooled 572 blown-through big block.

CAROLYN HAYES

LH TORANA

The DC racer’s new whip runs 415ci small-block Chev with a nitrous plate, good for a “pretty easy” 900hp. It’s comparatively restrained on the outside but super-neat and gapped to perfection, with a custom front spoiler fabbed in metal and then fibreglass cast. “Torana engine bays aren’t the prettiest thing, but I still wanted it to look like a Torana,” Carolyn says of the factory inner guards. The race-ready interior features side-hugging buckets, a Momo tiller and ‘cage, emphasising practicality. “It’s gotta be functional, because I’m gonna drive it everywhere,” she grins. Keep an eye out for the epic Torrie at a future DC!

PAT MCCARTER

XB FALCON

Spokesperson for his family’s Western Street and Custom business, Pat tells us this Red Pepper hardtop’s bonnet skin, roof and quarters were unstitched to repair rust as the car was rebuilt to a ‘super-factory’ standard, with super-tight body gaps, for his uncle Manuel. The rebuild included replicating and highlighting all the factory detailing, right down to the tailshaft’s painted part numbers. The interior is also a lesson in showroom excellence. The awesome Aussie coupe is powered by a 4V 351 Cleveland and the red-wall tyres are the perfect traditional touch.