Preview: NZV8 Issue No. 150

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C O L L E C T O R S

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STREET FREAK!

MUSCLE GARAGE

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BAGGED AND BOOSTED C10 + TOUGH FORD POP + NZ's craziest hot rod collection + The story of Faye grant + KAIKOURA HOP + loads more!!

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PLYMOUTH CUDA BUILT TO SHRED

$10.99

NOV 2017 ISSUE 150

contents NOVEMBER 2017

SUBLIMINAL MESSAGES PLYMOUTH CUDA PACKING HEAT!

THE cars

FACTORY CONNECTION HSV’S HERO CARS UNITED

LOW LIFE

TWO TURBOS AND LOTS OF LOW

POPULARITY CONTEST FORD POP WITH PUNCH

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THE events

80 READY TO RUMBLE KAIKOURA HOP

116 PETROLHEADS’ DELIGHT PETROLHEADS @ PORIRUA

SPECIAL features

44 LEADING THE WAY TRENDSETTING FEATURE CARS

62 THE QUEEN OF SPEED THE LIFE AND TIMES OF FAYE GRANT

90 SWITCHING SIDES

RIGHT-HAND-DRIVE CONVERSION EXPLAINED

100 DREAM SHED SHRINE TO SPEED

THE other stuff 06 SHORT SHIFT 10 BENCH SEAT 14 NEWS 18 TORQUEBACK 20 JUST QUICKLY 22 DAILY GRIND 24 IN THE BUILD 26 EVENTS 38 SUBSCRIBE AND WIN 42 STRAIGHT TALK 74 AEROFLOW RACE DIARY 76 DRAGGED UP 78 NZ’S QUICKEST 98 CONCEPT CORNER 132 CMC NEWS 136 CARGO 138 A DECADE AGO 140 THIS MONTH AT V8 142 LOCAL SPECIALISTS 144 COMING NEXT MONTH

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feature car

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1974 Plymouth Cuda

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ROY

C DAM

A TOS: E PHO

C L GRA

ONNA DS: C WOR

O E’S CIND RED M M I O J REST HILE ’L L IE. W A NICELY ND YOU SS L T ’ A N E E O R K N LI SD E P E R E BA D LATE AY LOOK LE DE T T T PU I M L THE P N CUDA, LOOK A -PER-CE PLE S 100 EXAMTHAT IT’ SEE

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special feature

The History of HSV

FACTORY CONNECTION

THIS YEAR MARKS THE END OF HSV AS WE KNOW IT. WHILE THE BRAND WILL LIKELY SOLDIER ON, WE PAY TRIBUTE TO THREE GLORIOUS DECADES OF HOLDEN-BASED HAULERS WORDS: CONNAL GRACE PHOTOS: ADAM CROY

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f you’re reading this, it is more than likely that you were exposed to Holden–Ford rivalry from a young age. If your dad or extended family didn’t hammer loyalty to one — and only one — brand into you, your schoolmates would have. The rivalry was kept alive through the intense heat of motorsport competition, spurred on by the old manufacturers’ motto of ‘win on Sunday, sell on Monday’.

Some you win, some you lose. That applied to both Holden and Ford, and the win that meant the most was the Bathurst 1000 — the 1000km race at Mount Panorama Circuit, regarded as the pinnacle of motorsport down under. Throughout the heyday of Australian motor racing, the Holden Dealer Team (HDT) — a Holden-backed race team — was one of the biggest players in the field and scored numerous on-track victories between 1969 and 1986.

Peter Brock, widely considered to be the bestever Australian racing driver, took over HDT in 1980 as Holden looked to cease its support of the team. Brock’s idea was simple: in exchange for financial backing from Holden dealers, HDT would manufacture a number of special highperformance Commodores, available only through the dealers that were backing HDT. That set the stage for Holden Special Vehicles

(HSV) — not that anyone realized it in the early ’80s. It was only around 1986, when Peter Brock began pushing some seriously crazy ideas such as his ‘Energy Polarizer’ — a box containing crystals surrounded by magnets, which he believed would enhance performance and handling by ‘aligning the molecules’ of the car — that things began to fall into place for a new performance division to come to life.

Seeking to distance itself from Brock’s controversial claims, Holden partnered with Tom Walkinshaw Racing in the late ’80s to create HSV, effectively cutting any remaining factory backing of HDT in the process.

Since then, a queue of collectors has lined up to purchase the latest and greatest HSVs as they have rolled off the production line, each generation raising performance and technology. While the HSV GTSR W1 is the most powerful and highly specced HSV ever built, it’s also the final HSV to be produced on the Holden Commodore platform as we know it.

With the HSV era ending, we set about getting together some of HSV’s biggest hitters from the years gone by. Special thanks to the HSV Owners Club, for making it possible, and to Turners Cars, Penrose, for giving us the room to pack in so many iconic machines.

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Event Report

Kaikoura Hop 2017 QUAKE DAMAGE BE DAMNED — THE ORGANIZERS OF KAIKOURA HOP MADE SURE THIS YEAR’S EVENT DEFIED THE ODDS, PUTTING ON A TRULY SPECTACULAR SHOW! WORDS AND PHOTOS: ROD DUNN

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n November last year, Kaikoura was rattled by several large earthquakes that caused widespread damage, not only within the seaside community but also north and south along State Highway 1 (SH1) and the main trunk line. Much of the highway was covered by massive slips that cut the town off for several weeks. Until the inland road was cleared, the only way in was by sea or air. With the Kaikoura Hop 2017 fast approaching, the organizers worked closely with the agencies involved in the clean-up to ensure that the roads south of the town would be open to traffic for the event. Roads north remain in a far greater mess, and they will not be opened before the end of 2017.

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C E L E B R A T I N G

I S S U E S

O F

N Z V 8

Issue No. 33

Darren Van Nes 2000 Holden VT Commodore

GM’s LS series of motors reinvented the small block, providing a whole new level of power, reliability, and accessibility to the performance world at large. However, back in the early-to-mid 2000s, aftermarket support was slim — nothing like the saturated market to which we now have access.

Darren Van Nes cared not for the lack of aftermarket support, however. As global research showed him the potential of his then-new VT Commodore wagon’s LS1 engine, he decided to unlock it. With a massive Vortech V7 supercharger, watermethanol injection, and an enormous list of performance goods that are still impressive 10 years on, that 850 rear-wheel horsepower made his sleeper wagon one of the local pioneers of LS tuning as we now know it.

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Ian Prisk

‘GUNRNR’ 1957 Chev Bel Air

Issue No. 38

These days, the name Art Morrison is synonymous with offthe-shelf bolt-in chassis. Over a decade ago, when Ian Prisk had Magoo’s Street Rods start building his ’57 Bel Air, the name had barely been heard of on this side of the planet.

The chassis, purchased complete with brakes, steering, and suspension, showed other Kiwis that there was a modern and easy way to turn your old classic into the car you’d dreamed of. We’ve lost count of how many Art Morrison chassis have been slung under cars since, but, as far as we know, Ian’s was the first.

Issue No. 36

Bruce Fuller

‘SHWTOY’ 1965 Chev Impala It’s hard to make big impact with a black car, but when you slam it hard to the ground and have the wheel arches overflowing with rim, there’s a fair chance that you’ll attract some attention. That was Bruce Fuller’s theory back in 2008, and it worked — the long and low Impala created a stir among V8 and import lovers alike due to its ground-hugging stance and 20-inch Foose wheels.

FOR MORE TRENDSETTERS CHECK OUT PAGE 96

JACK RAINBOW’S GROUND-SCRAPING C10 IS NO AVERAGE ROAD-TRIP WAGON — WITH A TWIN-TURBO SMALL BLOCK AND BAGGED ON A CUSTOM CHASSIS, IT’S A WHOLE LOT COOLER! WORDS: CONNAL GRACE PHOTOS: ADAM CROY

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1965 Chev C10

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he last time one of Jack Rainbow’s cars was featured in NZV8, the article closed with a premonitory sentence: “With the way the Rainbows build bitchin’ street machines, it probably won’t be the last time you see a Rainbow car here.”

That was no editorial gratuity, either; Jack’s bagged ’61 Impala bubbletop, powered by a tough 409ci big block, is about as cool as such a car could get — hardly surprising, given his surname; ‘cool’ is something that comes naturally to the Rainbow family.

Jack’s dad, Ian, is widely known as a mechanical wizard and fabricator extraordinaire, and his passion for the art of hot rodding has rubbed off on his son. While Jack’s Impala is undeniably cool, it’s not the kind of car you can chop up in good conscience, and he soon directed his love of car customizing towards his passion for Chev pickups.

feature car

Jack already had a ’77 Chev C10 in the garage, but the square-body wasn’t his first choice upon which to base a build. A trip to Muscle Car Madness with some of the Trouble Bound crew inspired him to find a ’65 Chev truck.

Kiwi expat Squeak Bell managed to find exactly what Jack was after in a local trade magazine. After viewing the truck in its resting place behind a shed in Bakersfield, California, Squeak emailed Jack a few pictures and was quickly given the go-ahead. Not long after that, the long-wheelbase ’65 Chev C10 was packed into a container bound for New Zealand, scheduled to arrive early in October 2011.

Jack feared for the worst after hearing news reports that a ship had run aground on the Astrolabe Reef while entering the Port of Tauranga. Fortunately, his C10 arrived safely and he parked it in the shed while he accumulated funds and researched his options for the build.

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Popularity Contest DOUG’S POP IS LIVING PROOF THAT YOU DON’T NEED OODLES OF CASH TO BUILD SOMETHING REALLY, REALLY COOL WORDS: SHANE WISHNOWSKY PHOTOS: DUNCAN ROURKE

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