NZV8 143 - Preview

YOUR ULTIMATE

BEACH HOP

SURVIVAL GUIDE

Z N N I S D LAN

APR. 2017 ISSUE 143

9

416803 510003

$9.99

MONSTER VK COMMODORE TECH: HOW TO CHOOSE THE PERFECT INTAKE MANIFOLD ’57 BEL AIR / CHEV DELIVERY / STUDEBAKER SKY HAWK

contents APRIL 2017

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THE cars

36 ALTERNATIVE FORMULA — ’CHARGED AND CAGED COMMODORE STREETER 48 RESURRECTION — ’57 BROUGHT BACK FROM THE DEAD 80 SUBTLE AND SWOOPY — SWEET STUDEBAKER CRUISER 104 THE LONG HAUL — CUSTOM SEDAN DELIVERY

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THE events

56 IHRA AUCKLAND INVASION 76 HANMER SPRINGS AUTOFEST 112 CMC ROUND FIVE

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GENUINE REPLICA

LEGIT NASCAR THAT NEVER WAS

SPECIAL features

THE other stuff

68 THE ULTIMATE BEACH HOP SURVIVAL GUIDE 86 SAFETY CAR SECRETS 92 TECH — INSIDE INTAKE MANIFOLDS 98 DREAM SHED — ELM STREET

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04 SHORT SHIFT 08 BENCH SEAT 10 NEWS 12 ONLINE THIS MONTH 14 TORQUEBACK 16 JUST QUICKLY 18 DAILY GRIND 20 IN THE BUILD 22 EVENTS 44 STRAIGHT TALK 46 SUBSCRIBE AND WIN 60 AEROFLOW RACE DIARY 62 DRAGGED UP 66 NZ’S QUICKEST 96 CONCEPT CORNER 116 CMC NEWS 118 PREMIER MOTORSPORT NEWS 120 CARGO 122 A DECADE AGO 124 THIS MONTH AT V8 126 LOCAL SPECIALISTS 128 COMING NEXT MONTH

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feature car

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1969 Ford Torino Talladega

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spec ve r a c s a a this N ms might h eat m o r f issing genuine ite driver’s sw PLIED m s g thin t the ge and the : ADAM CROY / SUP y l a n h t o a The Talladeg dama ODD WYLIE PHOTOS l e

n o a n S: T of p Tori t WORD i b a re had a

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1986 HOLDEN COMMODORE VK ENGINE: 5.7-litre GM LS1, doublerow timing chain, Melling oil pump, Comp Cams cam, upgraded valve springs, aftermarket rocker gear, Holley Hi-Ram intake manifold, Holley 105mm throttle body, Holley fuel rails, 68lb injectors, standard ECU, Vortech V-7 YSi supercharger, Gilmer belt drive, front-mount intercooler, two blow-off valves, FAST 1000hp fuel pump, two FAST fuel filters, -10 fuel line, adjustable fuel-pressure regulator, Pacemaker headers, 2½inch exhausts, three-inch tailpipe, Flowmaster mufflers, alloy radiator, two 14-inch thermo fans DRIVELINE: Tremec T56 six-speed manual, lightened flywheel, singleplate clutch, Tilton release bearing, Ford nine-inch diff, 4.33:1 gears, Commodore VN V8 axles

T

he rules of anarchy are simple: there are no rules. The rules of building a car are much the same — well, apart from those pesky warrant-of-fitness and certification laws, of course.

Similarly, just because you own a VK Commodore, it doesn’t mean it must be painted blue with a Group A bodykit and have gold Simmons wheels.

Like us, Aucklander Dan Harvey’s quick to admit that combo looks great — so great, in fact, that it was something he did himself around four years ago, albeit with black Simmons not gold. The problem is that, since then, the number of blue, gold, and bodykitted VKs has snowballed to the point at which the colour scheme has become the norm, not the standout it once was.

For many years, Dan’s car ran a stroked 304-based engine along with a six-speed, and — just to make sure his love of skids didn’t result in disaster — a nine-inch diff. After many miles, plenty of breakages, and even more rear tyres — thanks in part to the Vortech supercharger that force-fed the combo — the serial VK Commodore builder decided last year to shake things up a bit, not only changing the look of his car but also the power plant.

Although Dan’s previous engine combo was reliable, the allure of an LS was too much, and

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he gave in to the idea of the later model power plant. Being handy on the tools and with access to everything he needed, Dan sourced an LS1 from a 2001 Commodore and threw a Comp Cams cam at it, along with upgraded valve springs and rocker gear.

With the Vortech V-7 YSi supercharger from the old engine being swapped over, the hunt began for a new lower pulley — a hunt that turned out to be far more prolonged than it should have been.

Thankfully, the Holley Hi-Ram intake manifold and 105mm throttle body combo weren’t held up in the same manner, and, before long, they were fitted, as were Holley fuel rails and 68lb injectors.

Having bought, built, and sold various VKs before, Dan was well aware that the LS conversion isn’t quite as simple as most people like to think it is.

While off-the-shelf parts are now commonly available, sometimes even those are not up to the task — the off-the-shelf LS-to-VK headers that Dan purchased being one such item, fouling on the floor, despite being purchased with engine mounts from the same company.

To avoid the same issue with the starter motor, which needed to swap sides in the conversion, Dan set about fabricating the parts himself. Instead of a spacer plate, which sandwiches between the

SUSPENSION: Owner-built coilovers, Bilstein shocks, adjustable arms, adjustable top bearing plates, Jamex springs, 18mm rear sway bar, 30mm front sway bar, Nolathane bushes, adjustable upper rear arms BRAKES: VY Commodore booster, HSV AP Racing calipers, HSV 355mm front discs, HSV 320mm rear discs WHEELS/TYRES: 20x8.5-inch and 20x10-inch Stance SF01 wheels, 225/30R20 and 255/30R20 tyres EXTERIOR: VK Group A front spoiler, VK Group A bonnet scoop, VK Group 3 boot spoiler, Formula Blue paint CHASSIS: Reshaped rear inner guards INTERIOR: Six-point roll cage, Auto Meter gauges, retrimmed Racepro front seats, retrimmed rear seats, SportLine steering wheel, Ripshift shifter, Pioneer head unit, Cerwin Vega 6½-inch front speakers, eight-inch JBL three-way rear speakers, JVC fourchannel amp PERFORMANCE: 470hp at the wheels (8psi)

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G

rant Greenville’s ’57 Chev Bel Air has had a hard life. You certainly wouldn’t know it now that it’s all deep paint and polished chrome, but there is a well of abuse beneath the veneer of beauty — stories we will never know and will never need to know.

Our story here is a slightly happier one. It begins sometime in the ’90s, as Morrinsville local Bruce Ireland gazed upon a battered ’57 Chev sitting in a used car lot in the high desert in Arizona.

With windows perforated by bullets and a body covered in scrapes, it can’t have been much to look at, but Bruce clearly liked what he saw. Before long, he’d arranged for the bucket of bolts to be shipped home to New Zealand, with help from the team at Chuck’s Restoration Supplies.

There it sat, buried within Bruce’s shed, for several years, before Bruce decided he may as well move it on. The ’57 was shown and offered to Grant Greenville, who declined, as he and his wife, Sharyn, were stuck into expanding their panel and paint business, so the old girl was fated to wait in Bruce’s shed for a while longer.

Fortunately, the next stage in its life was just around the corner. Wayne Tweedie was rather taken by the rough old Bel Air, and took ownership of it, along with enough of a plan to get things going. The 350/350 combo wasn’t enough for Wayne, who imagined a big block power plant in stark contrast to the scarred and battered body. However, retaining the layers of patina very quickly proved an

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impractical exercise, leaving Wayne little choice but to bite the bullet and go the whole hog — a full-on restoration, with nothing left untouched.

Doing the job properly meant the bruised old body would need a bit of love, and Wayne entrusted the metalwork to a fella he knew would do it properly.

Shane Latto is no bog sculptor, and his talent is the reason for those mirror-like panels you see before you now.

With the metalwork nearing completion, Wayne began to turn his attention to the original foundation for the build. His plan included a GM ZZ427 big block crate engine, TH700R4 four-speed auto, and Currie 12-bolt rear end, with half of the Classic Performance Products (CPP) catalogue invested in the brakes, suspension, and steering, meaning Bruce Ireland and Keith Sattler at Restoration Services were the next port of call.

This proved to be the right call to make, with Keith handling the majority of work, custom-fabricating parts when required, and transforming a wide variety of Wayne’s requests into reality.

As the build progressed, so, too, did Wayne’s relationship with Grant, and the spray-gun wizard became the obvious choice to apply the black-onblack finish Wayne envisaged for the ’57. Sadly, while the build pushed on and approached a stage nearing completion, Wayne passed away, never getting to hear that 427 of his fire into life. It was a shock to the boys involved in the build, whose friendship had evolved into something more like brotherhood,

1957 CHEV BEL AIR

ENGINE: 427ci big block Chev, GM ZZ427 crate engine, cast-iron block, four-bolt mains, forged rods, forged dome-top pistons, 10:1 compression, oval-port aluminium heads, 2.19inch stainless-steel intake valves, 1.88-inch stainless-steel exhaust valves, GM aluminium dual-plane intake manifold, 750cfm Holley carburettor, Holley electric fuel pump, Holley fuel filter, Holley fuel-pressure regulator, MSD high-energy ignition (HEI) distributor, MSD ignition leads, twin three-inch exhaust, twin Flowmaster mufflers, custom exhaust tips, custom radiator, modified sump, remote oil cooler DRIVELINE: GM TH700R4 four-speed auto, TCI torque converter, Currie 12-bolt diff, LSD head, custom driveshaft SUSPENSION: Standard front suspension, CPP front sway bar, gas shocks, semi-elliptic rear leaf springs, CPP rear sway bar, rubber bushes, custom rear shock mounts, CPP 500 steering box BRAKES: Standard pedal, CPP chrome brake booster, CPP chrome master cylinder, CPP front calipers, CPP front discs, Currie rear calipers, Currie rear discs WHEELS/TYRES: 18x8-inch and 18x10-inch Ridler wheels; 245/50R18 Bridgestone front tyres, 265/40R18 Bridgestone rear tyres EXTERIOR: Widened rear dog-legs, custom firewall, modified inner guards, smoothed inner guards, modified radiator support, PPG Delfleet black paint, PPG Delfleet clear CHASSIS: Modified transmission cross member, integrated driveshaft loop INTERIOR: Black leather upholstery, Grant steering wheel, B&M shifter, original instrument cluster, Auto Meter gauges, Auto Meter dashmounted rev counter, Infinity front component speakers, Infinity two-way rear speakers, Infinity 12-inch subwoofers, Infinity fourchannel amplifier (speakers), JBL two-channel amplifier (subwoofers), Clarion preamp, fibreglass front audio enclosure, custom rear speaker panel, custom subwoofer enclosure

and who had put so much into seeing the project through to completion. Without Wayne to push the build on, the ’57 was rolled back into storage.

A year passed before Grant was unexpectedly contacted by a relative of Wayne’s, who knew how much Grant had admired the ’57. Grant was offered the chance to purchase it. With no reason not to do so this time around, Grant accepted

the offer and so began the final chapter in the old Bel Air’s story to date.

As the firewall, inner guards, and majority of the engine-bay metalwork had been modified and smoothed, Grant knew the rest of the car had to be finished to an appropriately high standard.

His choice of a set of 18x8-inch and 18x9.5-inch Ridler wheels tied into the car’s consistent black

WITH WINDOWS PERFORATED

BY BULLETS AND A BODY COVERED IN SCRAPES, IT CAN’T HAVE BEEN MUCH TO LOOK AT

PERFORMANCE: Enough

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ZACH’S DOING IT WITH HAND CONTROLS AND IS USUALLY IN A WHEELCHAIR! When asked what he’d changed to for the Holden to be launching like that, Dean mentioned that the stall converter had been tightened up and some new slicks fitted. All going to plan, the car’ll be fixed and fitted with wheelie bars before the NZDRA Nationals at Masterton in mid March.

While not producing quite such an impressive performance as Dean Scott, Wairarapa local Zach Sayer has been making progress all season in his RB-powered Nissan Cefiro, running in

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Super Sedan, and it’s now knocking on the door of a nine-second pass. What most people don’t realize is that Zach’s doing it all with hand controls and is usually in a wheelchair! He’s now keen to wind the boost up a bit more to see if he can run a nine at the next meet. His effort this time wasn’t enough to get him through the elimination rounds, though, with Dutchie Wijdeven taking the win.

Another Wairarapa local, Steve Carlsen, who seems to have run a new PB at every event recently, was

knocked out early on, but he was happy with the weekend, dropping his PB to an 8.36 at 160.69mph and securing himself a spot on NZV8’s NZ’s 100 Quickest V8 Drag Racers list in the process.

Other happy drivers included newcomer to the track Jordan Robertson, who made a great impression in Modified class in his supercharged 350-powered, 235-inch rear-engine dragster.

The car’s powered by a 350 Chev with a 6-71 supercharger stuck on top, which pushed him to an 8.44 at 164mph. The win in Modified went to Taranaki’s Bruce Riddick, who edged out Gerry Rose’s altered to take the win with an 8.453 on an 8.45 dial-in — a feat that would be very hard to beat!

Supercharged Outlaws was another heavily contested class, the finals coming down to

Auckland’s Steve Milliken in his altered, with a 7.69 at 171.23mph, ahead of Motueka’s Craig Griffiths’ 7.01 at 184.82. Griffiths did, however, manage a new PB of 6.98 at 187.69mph.

At the other end of the happy scale was Whanganui’s Aaron Jackson, whose nitrous-fed nine-second street-legal Torana threw a rod through the block near the finish line, ending not only his event in spectacular fashion but also his season — just weeks before he was planning to make an impression in front of his home crowd at the Wanganui Road Rodders Street Drags.

The trip south — or north, for those who crossed Cook Strait — was well worth the journey, as a great weekend of racing and socializing was had by all.

For most, the next big event on the calendar is the IHRA Nationals at Meremere on March 11 and 12.

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Special Feature Beach Hop Survival Guide

DAY ONE WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22 W WORDS: NZV8 PHOTOS: NZV8 ARCHIVE

hile many people are in Whangamata long before the event officially kicks off and get to enjoy the short cruise to Waihi, many others head directly from home to the iconic gold-mining town. Originally the Go Waihi Warm Up Party was exactly that — a slower paced warm-up; however, it’s now just as integral to the event as the following days are.

There’s a big difference between just attending Beach Hop and truly experiencing all it has to offer. Here’s our hints to make the most of Repco Beach Hop 17!

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ith more than 100,000 people now in regular attendance at Beach Hop, it can be an overwhelming experience for newbies. There are so many people and so many things to do that

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it’s also easy to get lost — or, to be more exact, miss out on seeing things that you’ll wish you had seen. Here’s our guide to making the most of Repco Beach Hop 17, which is now less than a month away.

NODDY SA Don’t YS f

drag r orget the the R ace outsid ob R e 12.30 oy Hotel at pm — it’s a hoot !

TOP TIP - WORTH THE WALK

TOP EATS

Make sure you head up the hill to the Cornish Pumphouse — the big concrete structure that overshadows the town. When you get there, make the effort to walk the few extra metres up the hill to look out over OceanaGold’s impressive opencast mine. Tim and The Rockets perform inside the pump house, which has fantastic acoustics, and you can look right down on the band.

Insider tip: the pump house, which housed a pump to remove water from the mine before electricity was commonplace, wasn’t originally sited where it is today. It was moved 300m in 2006!

Historically, the number of people in town has simply overwhelmed the local eateries, so, rather than suggesting any particular food joints, our main advice would be to get in early, or all you’ll find is empty shelves. In saying that, if your planning skills aren’t too hot, there’s a New World and a BP Wild Bean Cafe just a short walk away,

TOP TIP - BEST LOO The best public toilets in town can be found downstairs at the information centre over the road from the pump house.

CAUTION Last year, the road surface just south of Whangamata — on the way from Waihi — had a large dip in it that caused damage to the sumps of multiple low vehicles. Later in the day, it was well marked, but take care, as the roads are winding and often have trucks on them.

DAY TWO - THURSDAY, MARCH 23 F

or Repco Beach Hop 17, things are set to be a bit different from the last few years. Traditionally, day two sees the road show travel in convoy to Tairua, a distance of around 35km. This year, however, it will take on the winding roads of the Coromandel, heading around 75km north to Whitianga.

The route includes four one-way bridges, which will be marshalled by traffic management, but expect a few delays along the way. Those in larger American cars may experience a bit of seasickness, as the route gets quite windy in places — but the stunning views of the coast are worth it!

TOP TIP - PACK A LUNCH DY NODAYS heck S you c ked

ure rs par — the ke s Ma the ca arina Also, ! out y the m nning rag n b is stu rew D v. w o C d he op the sC kdr s rsu ear. bac ’t mis e v y d don e: For n last Rac rd wo Fo

Like Waihi, Whitianga is bound to get overrun by the sheer volume of people. From previous experience, our suggestion would be to take lunch with you — or at least take some water, as there’s not much shade where the cars are set to park.

TOP TIP - AVOID THE GRAVEL If you’re planning on heading from out of town straight to Whiti, don’t think about avoiding traffic by heading up the other side of the Coromandel Peninsula, cutting through the 309 Road, as your GPS will suggest — it’s one lane and gravel a lot of the way! Instead, take the Kopu– Hikuai road as if you were going to Whangamata, and just keep heading north past the Whanga turnoff.

TOP TIP - GAS UP Make sure to fill up with gas for the return trip to Whangamata to avoid congestion at the sole service station in Whangamata. There’s a handy service station just on the turnoff to Pauanui, about 23km before Whanga itself, although the further north you go, the dearer gas gets.

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