In this fresh episode of everyone’s favourite horsepower show, Carnage, Scotty puts the finishing touches on his dad’s VE Valiant ute to get it ready to race at Mopar Nationals.

Scotty inherited this fairly tidy VE ute from his father after he passed away 10 years ago. Last year, he got to work resurrecting it, fixing some nasty spots of hidden rust and building a hot 318 small-block Chrysler for it.

The build finished late last year with the car running and driving like a champion, so Scotty decided there would be no better way to properly stretch its legs than by having a crack at the racing at the annual Mopar Nationals at Heathcote Park Raceway.

But first, there were a few things to take care of to ensure the Val was race-ready. The first job on the list was fitting a tailshaft loop. They’re required in many forms of racing, and after the ute’s tailshaft mishap on an earlier dyno run (which you can watch here), Scotty felt it was a wise investment.

These kits always need a bit of massaging to fit, but after some cutting and adjusting, Scotty had it all neatly bolted onto the Valiant’s belly.

With that done, the next job was to head back to the dyno at Maxx Performance for a quick check-over and final adjustment of the tune. Unfortunately, the ute lived up to its reputation for spitting the dummy on the dyno when the copper line for the oil pressure gauge fractured, dumping all over the dyno cell floor.

After a simple but frustrating fix, the old Val returned to the rollers, and with some fettling of the carby and dizzy, it pumped out its best power run ever with 200rwkW (268rwhp).

The next episode will feature Scotty racing at Mopar Nationals, and we promise you’ll want to tune in on Friday for that one, because it’s a cracker!