Street Machine

G’DAY and thanks for picking up the mag! Whether this is your first or 387th issue, we hope you get a stack of entertainment, info and relaxation for your hard-earned. If this is indeed the first Street Machine you’ve seen, then you should know that

STREET Machine magazine has a long and storied history, chronicling the vibrant Australian modified car scene for the better part of four decades. With a vast archive of historic images and information at our disposal detailing the most influential A

FUEL altereds and gassers go together like nitromethane and methanol, and you’ll be able to get a massive dose of both at the Aeroflow World Fuel Altered Challenge when it hits Sydney Dragway on 21 September. It’ll be a massive day of drag racing ful

WE SPOTTED Mick Jurenec's rather cool-looking HR ute at the inaugural Unique Cars Rolling 30 event at Sydney Motorsport Park, and couldn't help but wonder why it was making such strange noises. Once Mick was back in the pits and the H R's bonnet was

WITH just enough time to grow his hair long following his now-legendary role as John Milner in the 1973 classic, American Graffiti, Paul Le Mat slid back behind the wheel of a toughie to play young Los Angeles mechanic Bobby in 1975’s Aloha, Bobby an

MOST kids in the late 70s read fairytale books, whereas my preferred brand of childhood fantasy and excitement was found in my dad Russell Parker’s personal drag-racing photo albums, chronicling his quarter-mile exploits in 1960s and 70s South Austra

I’M NOT normally a fan of blacked-out chrome, but that 15NUTZ LJ Torana (SM, Jul ’19) looks fantastic! The black really works against the crazy flaked red colour, the interior is a great contrast and the tunnel ram really sets it off. But unfortunate

THE new-generation C8 Corvette has finally been announced, and as well as being the first-ever mid-engined ’Vette, this is the first time the car will leave the assembly line in a right-hand-drive configuration to be made available to us Aussie battl

THIS modern, European-influenced vision of a VH Valiant Charger may well be one of the most well-thought-out street machines ever built in this country. It might not be the most visually modified or have Ridler Award-winning detail, but in terms of b

STREET cars have never been quicker than what we’re seeing today, with six- and seven-second monsters blowing away records. But we’re also seeing people building these incredibly swift pieces of engineering to an Elite level, blurring the lines betwe

THE opportunity to settle bench-racing matches at the track doesn’t often happen, which explains why racers have jumped on board to support the Grudge Kings event. Held at Sydney Dragway, it is a melting pot of car classes and racers of all manner of

THERE might be faster XYs, there might be finer XYs, but there are few tougher than this one! I know that’s a bold statement, but the guttural howl of the 8/71 huffer and whining Gilmer blower drive, combined with the thunderous bellow of nearly 1000

MIKE Bowden’s 1949 Ford Customline pick-up first punched into the scene way back in 1993, featuring in the Jan-Feb 1994 issue of Street Machine, and was later a Street Machine Of The Year contender. Mike’s Cusso, known as SPINNA, competed at Summerna

WHEN it comes to holding an annual award for the best modified car in our fair wide brown land, the Valvoline Street Machine Of The Year gong stands tall. Last year saw the biggest shake-up in the award’s history, as readers were responsible for not

IT IS a shame we don’t see more tough VC Valiants cruising Aussie roads, as Angelo Furfaro’s proves how cool they can be. Under the bonnet is a Dodge R5P7 NASCAR motor wearing twin turbochargers and making 750hp on just 6psi. While the arrow-straight

THE number plate TEXAS PIG on Greg Freeman’s ’69 Camaro pretty much sums up the humble beginnings of this pro touring masterpiece – it was imported from Texas, and it was an absolute pig. “It was rooted. I blasted it and there was nothing left of it,

BUILDING a classic car, whether modified or stock, takes a huge commitment of time and money, and Jason Pellett knows this all too well after building his super-smooth HT Kingswood. An eight-year odyssey, Jason did the whole lot, start to finish, in

TOURING England can be a wasteland for an Aussie car enthusiast. The roads are filled with grim, soulless hatchbacks, lacking in real estate and powered by diesel. As spring turns to summer, older ‘motors’ gradually filter onto the busy, moist roads.

GARY Taylor is one of those car lovers who was born into it. “When I was born, I came home from the hospital in an XR Fairmont, and Mum used to drop me off at school in an XC Cobra,” he says. “We had a couple of Holdens, but Mum was always a Ford per

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 ch

WHILE many turn their nose up at Holden’s 253ci V8 in favour of offerings with more cubes, Shannon Heraud has history with GM-H’s baby V8, having used and abused them in his ex-burnout Torana sedan. During the planning stages of the build of his kill

MIG (Metal Inert Gas) and TIG (Tungsten Inert Gas) are the two most common types of welding practised in automotive applications. This month’s column will serve as an introduction to both types, for anyone wanting to jump in and have a crack themselv

WHEN engineers talk about depth of section, we are referring to the ‘cut-through’ view or section view of a particular shape or style of material being used in a construction; the depth of the section is the longest axis or side of that shape. If you

YOUNG fella Jayden Zahra has almost finished his mechanical apprenticeship with the family business, Spimar Car Repairs. All the while, he’s been toiling away in the background building his dream car. Looking around the workshop, it’s clear your fam

ZANE Heath is the mastermind behind Maxx Performance, one of the leading specialists for all things Ford and Barra. While the Maxx crew is capable of taking on just about any project and engine, turbo Barras are their bread and butter; they offer bol

THIS year we decided to shake up our Drag Challenge events by adding a bunch of new classes, one of those being Tuff Mounts 235 Blown. The small-tyre power-adder class proved to be a big hit when we rolled it out for the first time at Drag Challenge

DOOMED, I was. Doomed to die slowly in agonising pain, trapped by the vice-like grip of a car-door window frame. And there was no nearby help, no friendly face to get me out of this hell. I was stuck there, half in and half out of a mongrel metal car

LEEANNE MacDonald must have shares in a chiropractic clinic with all of the neck-snapping she does trying to catch a glimpse of any V8 she hears nearby. So in a bid to curb her insatiable appetite, she’s now cruising her own loud and healthy bent-eig

BACK in the April issue, I wrote about the SFG 500 meeting that was to be held at US131 Motorsports Park in Michigan, where the promoters guaranteed US$500,000 to the winner, making it the largest payday in drag history. At the time I had a couple of

OIL is a fundamental part of any car, whether it’s a daily banger or the beast that gets more attention than your better half, and Castrol’s range of EDGE oils is some of the best stuff you’ll be able to grab off of the shelf. The EDGE range claims a

THE decision to postpone the Sydney Grudge Kings meeting due to bad weather was not well received by certain keyboard warriors. We get it; people take time off work, make travel plans, organise crew and a hundred other things. But postponing an event

“I HAD to give up work at age 50 due to serious illness. When one doctor tells you: ‘If you keep working, you will be dead soon,’ and another one says: ‘If you have any retirement plans, bring them forward,’ it rocks you a bit. So I gave up work and

A MAN is eating soup at a restaurant when he drops his spoon. The restaurant is particularly busy, so the man thinks: “Great, by the time I get another spoon, my soup will be cold.” Nevertheless, he flags down his waiter and tells him that he dropped

I LOVE naturally aspirated street cars that run quick, and Robert Valastro’s VL Commodore is an outstanding example. Bobby made the first eight-second pass for a street-driven, factory-Holden-block V8 at Willowbank in May, when it went 8.97@148mph on

THE vast majority of big-power LS engines rely on some form of artificial aspiration to make grunt, so it’s easy to forget that these mills can be pretty handy in all-motor trim. This example was pieced together by Troy from Warspeed, and it’s essent