Nzv8 156 20180409 preview

THE BEST OF REPCO BEACH HOP 18

THE PEOPLE, THE CARS, THE ACTION

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Big block, bagged, and race-engineered camaro

MAY 2018 ISSUE 156

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$10.99

DAILY-DRIVEN

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’40 FORD D A Y S

FANGA DAN’S

MUSCLE GARAGE

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900HP MUSTANG

contents MAY 2018

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SONIC BOOM FULLY LOADED ’67 CAMARO

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THE cars

32 DUTY READY — DAILY-DRIVEN ’40 FORD

54 QUANTUM LEAP — 900HP MUSTANG WAR MACHINE 74 LESS IS MORE — BLOWN CHEV BISCAYNE 108 CULT HIT — A REAL HEMI VALIANT

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THE events

44 LIFE’S A BEACH — REPCO BEACH HOP 18

68 GETTIN’ DOWN

— IHRA NEW ZEALAND NATIONALS

82 SCHOOL-YARD DREAMS — GEAR JAMMERS ALL FIRED UP SHOW 114 SETTING STANDARDS — AUTOFEST 2018

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THE other stuff

SPECIAL features

86 THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY — TOM MORLAND PART TWO 90 THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED — WHO IS CHRIS SLEE? 102 DREAM SHED — RETIREMENT RETREAT 120 THE FORGOTTEN KIWIS — NEW ZEALAND–BUILT SUPERCARS

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02 SHORT SHIFT 06 BENCH SEAT 08 NEWS 10 TORQUEBACK 12 JUST QUICKLY 14 ONLINE THIS MONTH 16 DAILY GRIND 18 IN THE BUILD 20 EVENTS 40 SUBSCRIBE AND WIN 42 STRAIGHT TALK 62 AEROFLOW RACE DIARY 64 DRAGGED UP 66 NZ’S QUICKEST 98 SOCIAL SCENE 100 CONCEPT CORNER 126 CMC NEWS 128 CARGO 130 A DECADE AGO 132 THIS MONTH AT V8 134 LOCAL SPECIALISTS 136 COMING NEXT MONTH

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feature car

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1967 Chev Camaro RS/SS

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WE’VE ALL SEEN A ’67 CAMARO BEFORE BUT NEVER ONE LIKE THIS!

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here’s a saying out there along the lines of, ‘It’s hard to soar like an eagle when you’re surrounded by turkeys’, and a few others that go vaguely along the lines of, ‘you are who you surround yourself with’. The moral of the story is that if you’re surrounded by idiots, chances are, you’ll be one, or, conversely, if you surround yourself with the best, then that’s more likely where you’ll position yourself.

I can’t say for sure whether Christian Hillary, the owner of this stunning pro-touring Camaro, has aligned his life with such adages, but he’s

WORDS: TODD WYLIE PHOTOS: ADAM CROY

certainly been hanging out with the right people to build some killer cars.

The build of this Camaro, which is by no means his first trip down the rabbit hole, was initially brought about through him being good mates with well-known racer Paul Manuell.

“I met Mike ‘Bic’ Anderson through Paul. Bic had just returned back from the States, where he was crew chief on an IndyCar team and had taken charge of Paul’s NZV8 race team in Auckland,” says Christian.

At the time, Christian was crewing for Paul — not

just to help a mate out in the quest for podium positions, but also to help increase his own levels of experience in the never-ending quest for knowledge. It was during the traditional beerand-bullshit session after a race meet that Bic mentioned that he’d brought back from the States a ’67 Camaro RS/SS, which was sitting in the shed.

“Bic had hoped one day to get some time to put it on the road. That night, I asked him to give me first choice if he ever parted with it. His reply was, ‘Don’t worry; that won’t be happening!’”

Christian recalls.

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feature car

1940 Ford pickup

UILT LY B ’S S S E ART AWL A FLVE POLWCE OF E K I FOR YLE OK L T DA Y LOCAR, BU OUR DE TAGE ST IES A M T T IT U A W VIN SHO FORD IS H AND RIVING D C D E 0 T ’4 YERN DAIL ACE L GR MODILT FOR NNA CROY O C : U M DS B DA WOR OS: A T PHO

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feature car

1964 Chev Biscayne

ENT PREDICAM AVE IT. E H T LY T C H O XA UST HAD T D THAT’S E TO BE, AN 64 BISCAYNE — HE J T N A E M ’S D THIS 19 T TO BE, IT IT’S MEANELF IN WHEN HE SPIE N k SKY E H W , N nt some wor E WISHNOW S OFTE ious life mea OTOS: SHAN FOUND HIM S h into. A prev M with most RDS AND PH et O A as te s W t, D hi bu A , of E STEV e taken care els ar the base mod ten than not, of e sing an or M oo ch n it comes to cousin of the ing the poor t attracted erlooked whe be ha ov r w fo st d ju ne as ed w enow car, but that ten more desir of an d ic er an ayne that sc ed Am Bi cc e higher-spe the 1964 Chev to ne Impala, th s -li he am -t Ad of e on our pto Stev rage. It arrived uarely Bel Air or the sides in his ga was aimed sq re ne John Key at w ay by no isc d t B rte Chevrole , freshly impo t. Generally 09 ke ar 20 m in e es cl to it until hi or sh d of the ve ecial, , who held on at the fleet en a sales-rep sp erica Shipping m an sale sign in th s A re an fo or Tr a m d g ie thin the inside when Steve sp on is regarded as no rts ch fo hi m w , co 13 20 of creature scayne due to its lack t to sink outside, the Bi its window. e perfect projec y stuff on the or in m sh its of of ck e la os oked like the th lo and it an e, th ev le St ab To n less desir badge is ofte . es tiv la re y flash

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en a heap had already be d stalled and ects, things ha oj pr m n-complied no e long-ter Th g. in need of finish r of stuff was in just asking fo two-door was ed N VI things — non p and no am st al on put their pers someone to . ct rfe yet to be it was pe 327 that had with a rebuilt e, it was sid In x.

The car came four-speed bo w na gi Sa a d rpet, no fired an hing — no ca void of everyt completely de

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feature car

2017 Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-D

YOU’RE LOOKING AT ONE OF THE MOST DEVELOPED MUSTANGS IN THE WORLD, WHICH ALSO HAPPENS TO BE THE LATEST ADDITION TO ‘FANGA’ DAN WOOLHOUSE’S WEAPONS-GRADE ARSENAL WORDS: CONNAL GRACE PHOTOS: ADAM CROY / DANNY WOOD

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ake your pick of whatever motorsport discipline gets your blood pumping.

Imagine being handed the keys to whatever constitutes the most extreme vehicle permissible in competition anywhere in the world. Now realize that, for people like us, the possibility of that happening is almost certain to remain nothing more than a far-off dream.

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For Whangarei man ‘Fanga’ Dan Woolhouse, though, things are a little different. A humble sales manager by trade, Fanga is very much a regular guy, with a day job and a family to look after — albeit one with a difference. Through nothing more than sheer hard graft, relentless passion for his chosen motorsport discipline of drifting, and being an all-round good bloke, he’s become a local

figurehead for the sport, and a name recognized throughout New Zealand and beyond.

So, how does a regular guy like Fanga end up in possession of a money-can’t-buy competition car like the 2017 Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-D you see here? If you ask him, it’s a case of the old ‘right place, right time, right people’.

As he explains it, “I’d been looking at getting into a

new Ford Mustang, but I didn’t want to have to fab up custom arms and spend ages dialling it in, like with the Commodore.”

With more than 15 years in professional drifting, Fanga had reached the peak of what was realistically achievable for him, his FDC Motorsport team, and handful of dedicated sponsors.

However, as someone who is always looking to push himself, he hoped to step his game up even further, and that meant factory backing — far easier said than done.

What better time for Sam Bakalich and the team at CTB Performance to suddenly enter the frame?

The Auckland-based Ford specialists had been looking at becoming New Zealand agents for RTR, and Fanga was looking for a new platform to go racing in.

Now, RTR — which stands for ‘Ready to Rock’ — is the brand associated with top American drifter Vaughn Gittin Jr, whose radical Mustangs have carved up both the Formula Drift championship and the internet alike, thanks to his loose, tyreshredding shenanigans. Vaughn’s Formula Drift comp cars have been built and developed by expat-Kiwi Ian Stewart’s North Carolina– based Autosport Dynamics (ASD) — which you may recognize as the builders of Ken Block’s ‘Hoonicorn’ Mustang — and the laid-back fella from Whangarei found himself on a fast-track into this realm of elite-level motorsport.

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“Sam got on the phone to Ford Performance in the USA, and told them what we were planning on doing, and Ford Performance got on the phone to Ian Stewart,” Fanga explains. “Sam had been wanting to be the RTR agent for New Zealand for a number of years, and, next minute, Ian Stewart is giving him a call and saying, ‘Hey, I heard you guys are doing this and that — looks like I need to make a trip’. I guess the best way to explain it is that FDC just did a quantum leap!”

That quantum leap began with the acquisition of a brand-new 2017 Ford Mustang GT, which was driven to CTB Performance, pulled apart, and, in just eight weeks, rebuilt into a fire-breathing monster filled with Ford Performance go-fast goods — and that’s just the baby car.

While it packs nearly 670hp thanks to its supercharged Coyote mill, that ‘activation car’ is mainly to be used for a few events here and there,

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and loads of practice days, fan rides, and sponsor days — basically to give back to those who support him; Fanga’s an expert at putting his fans and sponsors first.

However, it’s where the actual competition side of things is concerned that the real quantum leap has been made. Ian Stewart’s involvement saw an ASD-built 2017 Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-D make its way to New Zealand — more specifically, the actual three-wheeling comp machine piloted by Vaughn Gittin Jr in the Formula Drift series.

Very little remains of the 2017 Ford Mustang shell beneath it all; it now wears a full suit of easily replaced RTR Spec 5-D carbon-fibre armour. If you think the carbon-clad exterior is wild, just you wait to see what’s beneath it.

Power — almost 900hp worth of it — comes from an all-alloy Roush Yates