STREET Machine Summernats is all about big, bad, mean cars, and Brett Hewerdine’s HT Monaro has to be one of the biggest and baddest to hit the tarmac at this year’s ’Nats, taking out 2nd Best Pro Tuff in the Tuff Street judging on debut.

Built as a tribute to a fallen mate, Brett and the boys from ProFlo Performance worked their butts off to get the car done in time for Summernats, only firing up the engine just days out from Christmas.

Speaking of the donk, it’s a 510ci Donovan big-block Chev, topped off with a 14/71 blower. In previous guises it’s rumoured to have made in the realm of 2000hp, but with the smaller blower and a conversion from methanol to a more sensible E85 it now makes 740rwhp – still more than enough to blow your pants off. Backing up the monster mill is a fully manualised Turbo 400 and a nine-inch out back with 3.55:1 gears.

While it may just look like a show car, Brett has actually taken the HT out on the road a fair bit since it was finished and loves driving it. “It drives really straight,” he says. “It’s got a Rod Shop front end in it that we modified slightly to get the right look for the front wheels, and it goes down the road straighter than some of my Mercedes.”

With 740hp on tap, it’s a pretty wild beast to tame, so much so that Brett has to be careful with how he drives it: “I have to start off in second gear because in first it just wants to spin; with the cam in it it’ll chirp just driving around normally.”

There’s no doubt there’ll be more stories and coverage on this car to come in a future issue of Street Machine, but for now enjoy the gallery of the car’s debut at Summernats 32.