Juno Race Car Launch – Taupo – 56

It’s not every day you step into the fastest race car you’ll likely ever take a ride in. Just ask NZV8 photographer Croy, who claims the Juno race car to be one of only two cars to have ever scared him.
His ride came recently, when we were invited to the launch of a truly special piece of race car engineering — the Synergy V8-powered Juno Racing vehicle. UK-derived and brought to New Zealand by UK-born Taupo resident Chris Hold, the Juno first popped up on the radar in late 2008. Originally powered by a 2.0-litre engine from late-model Honda Civics and tuned to create around 250hp, the Juno competed in a couple of local races.
However, director Chris says, “After originally wanting Hondas, I realised the Kiwi love for V8s.” Too right.
It just so happened that Chris crossed paths with Simon Longdill, a mechanical engineer who designed and built the Synergy V8 platform back in 2005. As a fellow engineer, Chris looked at the computer designs and needed no more convincing. A deal was struck, and Simon got to work piecing together the 2.4-litre Synergy V8. Built using two Kawasaki ZX-1200 motorbike heads, the Synergy produces a wild 400hp at 11000rpm. Taking into consideration that the Juno Racing chassis tips the scales at around the 600kg mark, the numbers start to get serious.
We weren’t there to be dazzled by the numbers, though. We were there to see how Juno and Synergy met in the middle.
Suffice to say, there is very limited room inside the Juno Racing vehicle for a passenger. It’s essentially designed with one occupant in mind, but a second person can fit in — even one who is 1.93 metres tall. Strapped in and sitting ready alongside Porsche racer Jono Lester — who was sharing driving duties with ex-A1GP pilot Jonny Reid — we headed out of pit lane.
We hadn’t even made it through the first corner and already the combination of Synergy V8 and Juno chassis started to show its worth — and we were still on cold tyres. Barely making it around a handful of corners, I could already tell I had been in nothing like it before, and would probalby never go in anything like it again.
As we hit the first straight and Jono really stood on the pedal, I was pinned into my seat. We hadn’t even got to the long back straight.
Heat eventually soaked through the tyres and Jono began to display the true potential of the car. Never before had I seen someone that involved in the drive. Around every corner Jono fought off slight oversteer with a centimetre or two of opposite lock, squaring up the steering to get the appropriate amount of side bite into the front tyres before getting back on the pedal and sending the car straight to the next bend. Not only was it a lesson in how the Juno went, it was a lesson in what it takes to be a top-level race car driver. Forget about my reaction times, Jono had the problem solved before I could even think about the solution.
After three laps, we rolled back into the pits and I had an appreciation (and smile) I could not shake.
Just how fast is this thing? We were recording lap times in the 1.26 range around the full Taupo Motorsport Park track and, with just two dry laps at Pukekohe Park Raceway under its belt, a 54.3-second lap has already been recorded. That’s how fast.
Possibly the most amazing part is the fact that anyone can get their hands on one of these amazing race cars — Chris has brought 10 of them into the country, with a view to setting up a series once they’re all under private ownership. While they are all currently fitted with the FD2 Honda engine, that can be easily switched to the astounding Synergy V8 platform.
The cars are available in three different options, with prices varying accordingly: outright purchase, purchase with maintenance contract, or a package where all you do is turn up to the track and your car is there waiting for you — just the thing for the lazy racer like me.

Predator – All New Powerplant, Will We See 200MPH? – 07

Do you reckon you’re into drag racing? There are a few people who live and breathe the sport, but not many I know are as dedicated as Mark Bardsley. For Mark, this is not a pastime or a hobby, it’s not even a sport, it’s his life. It’s something he puts 110 per cent into. When not at his job at Advantage Tyres he’s either racing, working on, cleaning or displaying his Camaro. Unless he’s down at Champion Dragway, doing his bit as a track official…

Mark found working on the late Murray Taylor’s Top Alcohol dragster far more interesting than school

Young Mark was doomed to be a drag racer, his future was completely out of his control. His dad worked at the same garage as Wayne Yearbury, and where Yearbury was there would be a pile of degenerate drag racer types hanging around with names like Gubb, Smith and Taylor.
Mark found working on the late Murray Taylor’s Top Alcohol dragster far more interesting than school, and spent many hours being taught lessons in life by certain Pukekohe Hot Rod Club members, a corruptive influence on the lad for sure. No one can remember exactly who’s responsible, but someone christened him Festus, a name that those who were around then still call him by today.

Infamous for the famous

Mark’s first car of note was a tidy SS Commodore. It was raced occasionally at street meets, but Mark was far more likely to be found up on the start line filling in for the legendary Plank. His next car was the famous big block Chev pushed HQ ute. Tubbed, blown, and very, very green, it ran a no traction best of 11.5. It saw regular street use, and Mark received a new nickname from his peers, one most people are more familiar with, Bars.
Next came the awesome car many associate Bars with, truly one of New Zealand’s most impressive street and strip machines, the infamous ’67 Camaro. Mark raced this car at every possible meeting, and got the ET down to a creditable 10.1 while still cruising Queen Street most Friday and Saturday nights. However, having a car most of us would kill for wasn’t enough, Bars wanted more.
He’d always admired a certain ’68 Camaro race car built by the Shadwick Brothers for BB/TS. “It looked great, had a good history and no expense was spared.” The car was up for sale in pieces, and Mark was keen. Jonah Lomu was spending lots of Friday nights down at Champion Dragway, and Mark took him for a ride in his street Camaro one night. Jonah loved it, and had to have it. Lots of South Pacific pesos changed hands, Jonah had his new Camaro, and soon after Mark had his.
This ’68 Camaro was originally built by Alan and Bruce Shadwick as their personal race car. Anyone who has ever met the twins knows perfection is the only acceptable target, and the Camaro more than makes the grade. The car was purchased as little more than a shell, and Al chopped the roof, removed the drip rails and leaned the windscreen back to aero up the package. The fibre front has a moulded-in front air dam, and the car’s boot lid was replaced by a rear wing that blends into the bubbles on the rear guards. Mark has since made the bubbles even bigger, as the Camaro’s new slicks and rims have reached jumbo proportions.

Strange things

The Shadwicks also built the chromemoly chassis and four-link rear suspension. The front wishbones were constructed using a Strange
Engineering kit, and hang off the bottom of the Strange struts. There’s a Pinto steering rack to point the rocket with, but setting up the back end of the car has more to do with where it’s gonna go… The rear end also features bulk Strange componentry. The nine-inch nodular iron centre section, 40-spline spool and floating hubs all came from its catalogue, as did the four-piston callipers and rotors. What the clever brothers did was build a showpiece car that was virtually bullet proof, ensuring the Camaro could handle whatever was placed into the engine bay. They chose a 358ci (5867cc) Rodeck with an 8-71 Supercharger and Lenco transmission, a combination that screamed its way into the 7.40 zone.

What the clever brothers did was build a showpiece car that was virtually bullet proof,

Big or small?

When Bars bought the car it was engineless, and he had planned going the blown big block route. When Murray Smith advised him he couldn’t build anything better than the Camaro’s old motor for the same money, Mark made a deal and the small block Rodeck and Camaro were reunited for a few years. At the car’s unveiling
it was hardly recognisable. Gone was the red, white and blue and in its place was a vivid green, several intimidating murals and the name ‘Predator’. With the addition of Wayne Yearbury to advise Mark on tune-up issues, the team was in business.
Mark’s first outing in the car at a street meet taught him a few things about blown alcohol doorslammers. Like how they can swap ends real quick on a slippery track, and how dancing the two-step with Mr Guardrail can ruin your whole weekend. However, those
who know Bars well knew it wouldn’t take him long to repair the ruined fibreglass and get back out there, and he was ready for the opening meeting.
To his credit these are difficult vehicles to drive and Mark was competitive from the get-go, not an easy thing to be when the car has already bitten you once.
Predator made plenty of finals, and more often than not Mark’s opponent would be Craig Brown. Given the close, almost incestuous
relationship between these guys the art of the wind-up gets more and more finessed with every encounter. Mark says, “I like racing Brownie, we always have some good close races. I quite often lose on the lights, but they’re always good fun.”

How fast?

Those days have probably drawn to a close now. Mark has updated the Camaro yet again. Gone is the small block and the BB/TS class, now the car features 526ci (8620cc) of Alan Johnson racing engine. For those unfamiliar with the name, this man is probably the top fuel tuner on the NHRA drag circuit, and is known for being one innovative, clever dude. Before he entered the Top Fuel ranks, he raced Alcohol Dragsters and dominated with class with a Pro Stock style wedge head rather than the Hemi head most of the competition was using.

My point — Mark has one serious engine under the glass hood of his Camaro.

My point — Mark has one serious engine under the glass hood of his Camaro. It’s assembled by Murray Smith of Papakura Engine Specialists, the same guy who builds Craig Brown’s and, oh, about a 100 other racers’ engines. The monster motor features a foundation based on an alloy block, Crower crank, Brooks alloy rods and Arias pistons, just your standard run of the mill Pro Mod components. There’s a Crane cam of “we’re not telling” lift and duration.
It uses more Crane equipment to open the titanium valves that reside in the Alan Johnson cylinder heads. The intake is a work of sheet metal art, but will probably be hardly noticed under the massive 14-71 Littlefield Retro High Helix Supercharger. Mark claims he’d be happy running low sevens, but at 57 per cent overdrive I reckon he’s telling porkies. Looking for mid sixes more like… An Enderle buzzard catcher sits atop the huffer, while the engine-driven fuel pump pulls fuel out of the Sims Metalcraft fuel tank and pushes it into the complicated serious of bleed-offs, by-passes and return lines so that just the right amount of fuel gets ignited by the Mallory/MSD ignition. The fuel system is where the power is found in these engines, and this set-up is bound to receive the Yearbury tweak.

200mph!

Once burned the spent mixture is rudely shoved out the exhaust port into the beautiful HPC-coated 2.5-inch zoomie headers built by Terry’s Chassis Shoppe. “Terry has always put a lot of work into all of my cars, and he outdid himself with what he has done to this deal,” Mark says. Inside the car there’s a seat and a full complement of Auto Meter gauges, but the only thing most people notice is the Lenco four-speed. Seven seconds isn’t much time to go through four gear changes, but it’s actually a bit easier for Mark as this car used to have five forward gears.
Connecting the Lenco to the engine is the Crower 10-inch triple plate clutch, something that is almost standard in Kiwi Top Doorslammers now as everyone tries to find the perfect balance of power to traction. Finding power is the easy part for this team, it estimates the engine to have around 2500hp (1864kW). That’s a lot of horsies. Personally, I can’t wait to see this revamped machine hit the track. You should be there to check itout too, after all, how often do you get to see a 200mph (320kph) car show?

1972 Plymouth Road Runner – Coyote’s Nemesis – 29

Pontiac is widely credited with creating the first muscle car with its release of the GTO in 1964. The GTO was General Motors’ answer to its own ban on motor racing, implemented in 1963. Its Chevrolet and Pontiac marketing programmes were focused heavily on the performance youth market, using GM’s own motorsport involvement to portray a sporting image. With motor racing now off limits, Pontiac engineer Russell Gee and Pontiac chief engineer John De Lorean came up with the concept of fitting the 389ci (6375cc) V8 motor from the full-sized Catalina and Bonneville into the mid-sized Pontiac Tempest, thus retaining its all-important performance image. De Lorean thought up the GTO name, inspired by the Ferrari 250 GTO sports cars that were highly successful in motorsport competition at the time.
Fitting any motor exceeding 5408cc into a mid-sized car actually went against General Motors’ own policy, but the Pontiac GTO was purposely created as an option package to skip around this issue. Don’t you just love internal politics? With GM sales management unconvinced there would be a market for such a car, the company limited initial production to just 5000. In fact, in its first year Pontiac sold over 32,000 GTOs, and GM’s rivals soon began creating muscle cars of their own to cash in on this exciting new market.
By 1968, however, the original concept of the muscle car, a powerful, lightweight, affordable performer, was getting lost as manufacturers went crazy, adding bigger, heavier, more powerful engines, plush fittings and luxury items, turning these once sprightly tarmac shredders into lumbering battleships. Chrysler, through its Plymouth division, recognised this and set about creating a car that was true to the original concept of the muscle car.
Plymouth’s aim was to build an exciting, sporty, powerful car that could cover the quarter mile in under 14 seconds, that appealed to the youth market, but could be sold in base form for less than US$3000. For this to happen, the car would be strictly no-frills, sharing the Chrysler B-platform (as used in the Belvedere, Satellite and GTX models), raiding the parts bin, and borrowing almost everything from other Chrysler models. Standard options were kept to a minimum. Early cars didn’t even come with carpet or a centre console. This kept costs down and, just as importantly, kept weight down.
Plymouth named its back-to-basics muscle car the Road Runner, after the popular television cartoon character of the time. It paid Warner Brothers just US$50,000 to use the name and images, which appeared as decals on the car. Plymouth Road Runner cartoon advertisements were also played on television. The Road Runner was fitted as standard with a big block 383ci (6276cc) V8, rated at 335hp (250kW). However, for an extra US$714 customers could upgrade to the monstrous 426ci Hemi, boasting 425hp (6981cc, 317kW). This optional upgrade pushed the price up over the $3000 mark, but buyers didn’t seem too bothered. It was still a cheap car, and there was little on the road at the time that could touch it in a head-to-head fight. Plymouth set its Road Runner sales targets for 1968 at a modest 2000 units. By the end of the year it had sold 45,000. At the same time as Plymouth created the Road Runner, Chrysler’s sister company, Dodge, also released its own variant, dubbed the Super Bee.
A few cosmetic changes were made for ’69, along with the addition of a convertible. Another engine option was added, a 440ci (7210cc), with three two-barrel carbs. Sales went up yet again, to over 82,000 units. The next year, 1970, saw the last of the first generation Road Runners. The car again got a few cosmetic changes and the addition of an Air-Grabber bonnet scoop, which would pop up out of the bonnet if you flicked a switch under the dashboard.

Plymouth would also base its homologation special Superbird on the ’70 Road Runner. The Superbird was Plymouth’s variant of the Dodge Daytona, built in small numbers with a long pointed nose that added an extra 483mm to the length of the car, plus a tall rear spoiler that sat a full 914mm above the boot lid. The Superbird and Daytona were created for Nascar stock car racing, and aerodynamically designed for the high-speed Nascar super speedways.
The first major change for the Road Runner occurred in 1971, with the release of the second generation of the model. It was still based on Chrysler’s B-platform, but with a completely new, lightweight, but more rigid body style. Arguably, the second generation Road Runners were some of the best-looking flamboyant cars to come out of America.
The wheelbase was now actually 25mm shorter than first generation’s, but the track was widened by 75mm. The car featured plenty of frontal overhang, with a pointed nose housing twin headlights and wrapped in a slab of chrome. The A-pillars were heavily raked, as were the C-pillars which, as per the popular design trend of the time, were nearly horizontal.
The wheel arches were flared and framed, which added to the sleek styling. The second generation Road Runner could never be mistaken for something from any other period than the early ’70s!
Sadly, although the second-gen Road Runner featured fantastic new styling, its release coincided with strict new government-enforced emissions regulations that slowly choked the life out of the entire American performance car market over the next few years.
For the first time the Road Runner was offered with a small block 340ci (5572cc) engine, while the standard 383 of previous models was replaced with a 400ci (6555cc) big block. Also for the first time, a 440ci (7210cc) was offered with a single four-barrel carb. For ’72, the 426 Hemi was dropped. Power figures on all engines were reduced as emissions regulations took hold.
The second generation Road Runner continued on through 1973 and ’74 with annual cosmetic changes, while the base engine was now the 318ci (5211cc) small block, and the largest upgrade option was the 400ci big block.
The third generation Road Runner was released in 1976, with another complete styling overhaul. Its stodgy look and anaemic engine summed up the demise of the American muscle car industry. The third-gen Road Runner, based on the uninspiring Volare, was fitted with a 318ci V8, and with the bottom falling out of the performance car market, most of the upgrades were borrowed from the Chrysler police package.

By 1979, the Road Runner name had hit a low, with a slant-six engine being offered as standard equipment; a year later the model was dropped altogether. The once mighty US muscle car industry had died a slow death, thanks mainly to government emissions regulations, the mid-’70s fuel crisis and rising insurance costs.
Fortunately, as first-generation Road Runners were manufactured in high numbers, there have been plenty of survivors. The same can’t be said for second generation cars. In 1971 just 14,218 cars were produced, with that number halved the following year, which made them extremely rare, even when new. The old Dukes Of Hazzard TV series featured a second-generation Road Runner as Daisy Duke’s car, but finding enough similar cars to keep up with the furious filming schedule was a major headache, one the scriptwriters eventually overcame by simply writing the car out of the storyline by pushing it off a cliff and replacing it with a Jeep.
Long-time drag racer and muscle car enthusiast Steve Zahorodny is lucky enough to own a second-generation Road Runner, a very rare ’72 model. Steve has owned and raced a number of Top Fuel drag cars, and even a Jet Car, and owns a third of the Taupo drag strip. His wife Lynda is an equally keen racer, pedalling with great success the familiar Erotica-backed Torana Super Gas car, which Steve built.
The Road Runner wasn’t a car Steve had ever had any desire to own, but when he stumbled upon this one he was so taken by its striking styling, he had to own it. “I was driving down a main street and saw it parked in a guy’s driveway,” Steve recalls. “I thought, ‘Holy Shit, I like that’, and it really turned my head, so I turned around and went back and looked at it again, got the rego number, and went from there.” The car wasn’t for sale, but the owner set down a price ” one he wouldn’t budge on ” and Steve coughed up.
Steve’s Road Runner originally left the factory fitted with a 400ci big block, but it’s now fitted with a 440. “It’s the only genuine ’72 four-speed big block Road Runner that I know of in NZ,” Steve says. It has spent most of its life in New Zealand, and was repainted at least once before Steve came to own it.
While it was in very good condition when he bought it, Steve has impeccably high standards when it comes to the presentation of his cars, and it wasn’t long before the Road Runner received a full nut and bolt rebuild. “When I got it, it had had a really nice paint job done to it, but when it was painted, it was ‘bare metalled’ and left overnight, and when you bare metal a car you can’t do that, it’s got to be primered right there and then. What happened was humidity blisters started coming up under the paint, and although they were only slight, I’m so fussy that things like that really get to me. I looked at it and looked at it, and I couldn’t stand it. About two months after I’d bought the car I said ‘right, that’s it’, and I took it into the workshop, jacked it up, went underneath, pulled the diff, pulled all the suspension out, and had everything blasted and sanded back. Then I had it all painted, and then went onto the body.

“I stripped all the seats out, bonnet, boot, mudguards ” everything came off the car and I had it all plastic-ball blasted, because with sandblasting, if it gets in the wrong area and gets damp, it can cause rust. When we peeled all the paint off the body only had two little patches of rust in it, one in the door and one in the sill, and they were maybe the size of three fingers, but the affected areas were cut out and hammer and filed, so there is absolutely no bog in it. And that was done maybe 10 or 12 years ago, and the paint is still just as good.”
Amazingly, Steve’s Road Runner has travelled only 136,790km from new. Steve doesn’t drive it much ” he estimates he’s only clocked up 1000 or 1500km in it during the 12 years he has owned it, and it’s never driven in the wet. It’s kept in a garage with a dehumidifier that comes on whenever the weather gets damp outside, which has preserved the body perfectly. This is one of the nicest Road Runners you will find anywhere.
Steve has owned plenty of cars in his time but the Road Runner has remained while others have come and gone. So, is it a keeper? “Yeah,” says Steve, “I think so, and it’s really an investment as well. But it is pretty special to me. The other thing is, when my mother died, and this was years ago, when I was about 15 or 16, they didn’t leave me a lot of money ” it was just a little bit of money and I put that away. Then this car came up and I desperately wanted it, but didn’t have the money to buy it, so I used the money my mother gave me. I poured all my inheritance and bought the car. So it is a bit special to me.”

LHD Importation Rules – What You Need to Know – 62

If you’re thinking about importing a late-model left-hand-drive vehicle, here’s some essential information to help with your decision.
NZV8 readers may recall hearing about moves to ease the restrictions on importing late-model left-hand-drive (LHD) cars. After six years of campaigning by enthusiasts, those rules have changed at last. The result is that it is now a lot easier for lovers of modern American muscle cars and the like to import them.
The change is part of an amended Steering Systems Rule, which previously required people to either own the car overseas for 90 days or convert it to right-hand-drive (RHD). Those rules have now gone, and in their place are new criteria tailored specifically for car enthusiasts.
The new criteria come under the definition of Special Interest Vehicle (SIV), a vehicle category first introduced by the NZ Transport Agency in 2008. For most people the changes mean they no longer have to contemplate spending time overseas or an expensive conversion to RHD.
The creation of the SIV category is a windfall for those of us who cherish modern enthusiast, sports or unusual cars, and a major win for industry groups like the Left Hand Drive Enthusiasts Federation, Federation of Motoring Clubs, and others who have lobbied long and hard for it.
A prohibition on enthusiast vehicles?
Most people will be aware that to import a late-model vehicle, it has to comply with a number of Land Transport Rules, including frontal impact safety, steering, and emissions. These rules have been in place for years, since 1998 in the case of the Frontal Impact Rule. Since then, no one has been able to import a car unless it complied with international frontal impact standards. Similarly, no one was able to import an LHD vehicle except through the 90-day overseas ownership, returning citizen or immigrants’ exemptions.
However, imported vehicles older than 20 years are automatically exempt from these rules (or cars manufactured before January 1990 in the case of the Emissions Rule), on the assumption that a vehicle that old is an enthusiast vehicle and would not therefore be imported in large numbers or used as a daily driver, and so shouldn’t have to meet modern safety and emissions standards.
But in a classic case of unintended consequences, in one fell swoop these new rules also prohibited the import of similar specialist vehicles less than 20 years old, like Morgans or TVRs. Why? Because they’re produced in such limited numbers that they aren’t built to modern frontal impact standards.
Then you have the case of new LHD muscle cars, produced in larger volumes — and frontal impact compliant — but not available in RHD and thus not permitted under the Steering Systems Rule. Unless, of course, the owner chooses to convert them, which, besides costing heaps, may not be feasible, could compromise frontal impact safety, or is simply unacceptable to purists.
Thus we had a problem. Suddenly all these newer specialist vehicles disappeared off the market. It’s been that way for more than 10 years — when was the last time you saw a new Morgan or LHD Mustang?
Enthusiasts to the rescue
In fact, that’s how the SIV definition originally came about, with a group of owners of muscle cars and other LHD vehicles like Mustangs, Corvettes, Ferraris and BMWs frustrated that they couldn’t register new or late-model examples unless they converted them or spent time overseas. These people banded together to form the Left Hand Drive Enthusiasts Federation to lobby for a change in the rules, and the SIV definition was the result.
LHDEF co-founder and Federation of Motoring Clubs vice-president Jeff Tobin explained that he became aware of a pending review of the Steering Systems Rule, and felt this would be an opportunity to make some positive changes.
Jeff, already the owner of a 1969 Mach 1, had imported a new Mach 1 Mustang in 2003.
“It didn’t make any sense to have to convert the new ’Stang to right-hand-drive just because I hadn’t been exiled overseas for 90-odd days. Seems a lot of other left-hook enthusiasts shared the same view,” he said.
“What a lot of people don’t realise is that when a rule is reviewed, every part is up for consideration and there was no guarantee that we’d be able to import any left-hand-drive cars in future. Interestingly, the immigrants’ and 90-day rules have subsequently been replaced with a 21-month overseas ownership rule. It’s fair to say that in the absence of lobbying to establish the new SIV criteria, there would be no other way for a late-model left-hand-drive vehicle to be registered in New Zealand.”
The LHDEF developed ideas for an exemption process for what became known as SIVs, and then began lobbying MPs and Ministry of Transport and NZTA advisors, and engaging other influential groups like the Federation of Motoring Clubs in support of its proposals.
The FOMC, which represents more than 120 car and other vehicle clubs covering over 43,000 individual members, was formed in 1994 to lobby on behalf of the wider enthusiast sector against these very rules, which threaten Kiwis’ ability to enjoy their hobby.
FOMC President Ross Hopkins says the Federation “realised that neither the then Land Transport New Zealand nor the Ministry of Transport had issue with people wanting to import and register enthusiast vehicles aged over 20 years. Therefore, it made sense that non-compliant enthusiast vehicles aged under 20 years could also be exempted on similar grounds.
“Credit must go to the owners of left-hand-drive performance cars who lobbied for this positive outcome on behalf of enthusiasts,” Hopkins added. “The work of people like Jeff and groups like the Federation has boosted the options for muscle car fans in this country.”
Initially, the SIV definition exempted certain specialist cars from complying with the Frontal Impact Rule — the standard that all used imports under 20 years of age must meet before they can be registered here. That meant low-volume enthusiast vehicles like Morgans and TVRs were now able to be imported and registered, but it was always envisaged that the SIV category would extend to exempting LHD enthusiast vehicles from complying with the Steering Systems Rule, which requires passenger vehicles to be RHD.
Show me the money
Just what is a Special Interest Vehicle? SIV refers to those cars — aged under 20 years — which otherwise could not be registered because they don’t meet certain regulations, like frontal impact and steering systems, as well as the Emissions Rule.
But just as those rules have always provided a blanket exemption for any car aged over 20 years (on the assumption it was likely to be an enthusiast vehicle), so are the SIV criteria only intended for enthusiast vehicles and not just any late-model LHD or non-frontal impact-compliant car. So specialist muscle cars like Mustang Machs, Corvette ZR1s and Dodge Vipers will be exempt, but not mainstream variants like the entry-level Mustang V6, Chev Malibu or Dodge Ram truck.
In order to qualify for an LHD Special Interest Vehicle permit, the car must not have been produced in RHD, and must meet three of the following four requirements:

• The vehicle (or make, model and sub-model) is identified as a collector’s item in a commercially produced motoring publication.
• The vehicle’s make, model and sub-model was manufactured in annual volumes of 20,000 or less.
• The vehicle is, and was manufactured as, a coupe or convertible.
• The vehicle is, and was manufactured as, a high-performance vehicle.

The owner of an SIV must also meet certain conditions, including not having obtained another SIV permit in the last two years, and not selling the car within four years of first registration here. The car in question must also comply with all other applicable rules such as lighting, seatbelts and tyres, which are not exempted under the SIV criteria.
So the SIV rules make it easier to import two-door sports-style cars, but what about specialist vehicles with other body styles? Fair question. When the criteria were originally consulted on, the FOMC and others took a pragmatic approach to our submissions. Most of these late-model, non-compliant vehicles are of the sports car variety. They are easy to identify and make enforcing the SIV criteria straightforward.
“Prior to the SIV category, no one could import any left-hand-drive car unless they met even stricter criteria,” Hopkins says. “We took the view that ‘some’ was better than ‘none’. For people wanting to import other types of LHD vehicles, like light trucks, they still have the option of converting them to right-hand-drive as before.”
Up to 500 LHD permits can be issued each year and 200 permits under the Frontal Impact exemption. For some cars, owners may need to apply for both permits — for example a Ferrari Enzo, which was only built in LHD and in such limited numbers that it didn’t need to be crash tested for safety compliance.
SIV permit application forms can be obtained from vehicle entry certifiers like the AA, Vehicle Inspection NZ and Vehicle Testing NZ.
An important point to note is that any LHD vehicle more than 20 years of age (in New Zealand or not), or any younger LHD vehicle already registered in New Zealand, need not apply for an SIV permit.
Owners are, however, urged to do their homework before importing a car, and check all the rules it must comply with.
“Not all performance cars may meet the SIV criteria,” Tobin notes, “and not all cars over 20 years can be imported as the Emissions Rule applies to vehicles built from January 1990 onwards unless they meet the SIV criteria.”

Fast Family – Sinclair, Urqhart, Butcher – 63

Five members of an extended family racing in one competitive class makes for serious rivalry – and some damn good fun!
A driver being supported by his or her family is a common sight at race meetings. The partner and kids in the pit area between races or sitting in the grandstand while the drivers are out strutting their stuff on the track. But a much less common sight is when several members of a family all go racing together, in their own cars, in the same class.
Back in 2004, just prior to what would be the second season of Central Muscle Cars, I got an email from Andrew Sinclair. Andrew and his brother-in-law Paul Urquhart wanted to come and do a bit of racing with CMC. They’d both been involved with the Production Muscle Car series, based in Pukekohe, but wanted to race on a few different tracks south of the Bombays.
Andrew was racing a VK Commodore at the time, painted to look like the 1986 Mobil car of Peter Brock, while Urquhart had a green XE Falcon, which carried a colour scheme replicating Dick Johnson’s infamous Bathurst livery of 1983, which blasted its way through the scenery in that year’s Top Ten Shootout.
Both Andrew’s and Paul’s cars fitted the CMC Group 2 regulations, and the 2004/’05 CMC Group 2 championship turned into a battle between these two, with Paul eventually coming out on top.
The following season Mandy Sinclair — Andrew’s wife and Paul Urquhart’s younger sister — joined CMC in a Group 2 Commodore. Also joining the CMC ranks that same year was Paul Sinclair, Andrew’s younger brother, in yet another Commodore.
Then to complete the set, Justin Butcher — husband to Kelley Sinclair, Andrew and Paul’s younger sister — arrived in the CMC paddock for the 2006/’07 season with Paul Urquhart’s XE Falcon, when Paul decided to build a new XA Falcon hardtop.
It reached the point where the extended Sinclair/Urquhart/Butcher family often made up a good portion of the grid at CMC events, with up to five cars competing between them.
But it wasn’t just on-track where they assisted the growth of CMC. Behind the scenes they helped establish CMC as the high-profile category it is today. They stepped in as an associate sponsor to GDM Group in the early years, through the Sinclairs’ family business, Wilco Pre-cast, and along with Paul Urquhart, Dave Sturrock and Greg Clarke did all the work organising the Kiwi Invasion trip to Australia in 2007, then again in 2009. They were also instrumental in getting Aussie hard-charger Paul Stubber out to New Zealand in 2008, then again this last season. Except for CMC founder Steve Hildred, the extended family has probably contributed more to the group than anyone.
As with any family there are rivalries, and in the case of this lot, it’s all about branding. Andrew and Paul Sinclair come from a long line of GM supporters, while the Urquharts, Paul and Mandy, are cemented firmly in the Ford camp. Mandy races a Commodore, but would gladly switch brands, and I was there at Taupo the day Paul Sinclair suggested to brother Andrew he planned to sell his Commodore and buy a Mustang. The look of total disappointment on Andrew’s face said it all.
The two families met through offshore powerboat racing. Peter Urquhart (Mandy and Paul’s father) and brother Glen ran some hell-scary race boats back in the ’60s, including Miss Coventry, a fire-breathing 7.0-litre Galaxie-powered monster. Glen even went on to win a world offshore title. Andrew and Paul Sinclair’s father Keith raced circuit boats a few years prior, and also offshore.
The brothers followed in their father’s footsteps, both taking up powerboat racing, and Mandy’s and Andrew’s paths crossed officially for the first time when Mandy’s brother Paul and cousin Michael borrowed and raced Andrew’s offshore boat. Mandy, despite being a highly intelligent person, took a liking to Andrew, and the pair eventually married.

Andrew Sinclair

Andrew Sinclair arrived on the CMC scene with a Group 2 Commodore. This car helped him win the Group 2 championship in 2006, before he debuted his new silver Group 1 machine, built by Mike Anderson at Sonic Race & Machine. The car was featured in NZV8 issue 36.
The new car was not without its gremlins early on, and Andrew had to revert to ‘old faithful’, his Group 2 car, when the engine in the silver bullet spat the dummy early in the 2006/’07 season. But an off-season rebuild saw the car return in full force in September 2007 in Australia, where Andrew was in the top four all weekend. His 2007/’08 campaign got off to a slow start, as he and Mandy missed the first round of the season to take in the (ill-fated) Rugby World Cup, but he quickly set about making up ground on his return.
He took round wins twice in the season, and finished fourth on points in Group 1. But he was carrying plenty of momentum heading into the 2008/’09 season, and was leading the points with two rounds remaining when he lost control of the car at Pukekohe’s daunting turn one, clipped a dirt mound on the outside of the track, and end-over-ended the once pristine Commodore into a metal ball.
Since then Andrew has taken on the role of administrator at CMC rounds, a thankless job, but one which has to be done for the class to function. The Commodore is slowly being rebuilt, but will likely have a small block Chevy fitted in place of the temperamental Holden donk, so Andrew can do some endurance racing.

Paul Urquhart

Paul’s driving style appeared already set in stone when he arrived on the CMC scene in his green Falcon. He’d never done any speedway racing, but his sideways driving style suggested otherwise. The XE Falcon was a car he’d purchased already built from Clive Shewiery, and it ran hard. Paul ended the 2004/’05 season, his first with CMC, as Group 2 champion. He followed that up the next season by claiming runner-up spot behind Andrew Sinclair.
Paul sold the Falcon to Justin Butcher, and began building a new XA Falcon hardtop, which debuted at the 2007 Australian Muscle Car Masters. The magnificent Falcon was built as a replica of Allan Moffat’s 1973 Ford works machine, which won Bathurst that year and no longer exists.
Paul may have done an amazing job with his Moffat replica, and Aussie soil seemed the most appropriate place for the car to debut, but the weekend was a miserable one for Paul and his crew. Over the course of the weekend the Falcon suffered clutch failure, a broken bellhousing, and a broken driveshaft that punched a hole in the floor, knocked off the fire extinguisher, burned out all the dash switches and broke the gearbox in half. Finally, the oil-pump drive snapped. Paul got in just one race.
However, his season came good after the Aussie nightmare, and despite being moved up into Group 1 due to a rule change that deemed his new rear wheels too wide for Group 2, the big Falcon ran hard all season. The 2009 season was even better. With new narrower rear wheels to fit the Group 2 maximum, Paul finished the season second behind the flying Bruce Kett Commodore, topping the points at two rounds.

Justin Butcher

Justin is the most recent of the Sinclair/ Urquhart/Butcher clan to go motor racing. He purchased the very quick and well-developed XE Falcon off Paul Urquhart, and hit the ground running in his debut season, 2006/’07. In fact, such a natural talent was he behind the wheel that Justin almost beat Billy Dunn’s ’68 Camaro to the Group 2 championship in his first season. After six rounds, and with one remaining, he led the Group 2 championship by one point, and had won three rounds. The battle between he and Billy went down to the wire, with the Camaro driver just scraping through, winning the title by two points.
The much anticipated rematch in 2007/’08 never eventuated; Justin suffered a series of mechanical problems stemming from a new, more powerful engine, and he wound up back in eighth, while Billy skipped away to a second consecutive title.
Despite getting his 2008/’09 campaign off to a storming start, Justin parked the Falcon after the first two rounds and took the rest of the season off. When he returned, he did so with the exciting Northern Muscle Car series, and went on to win this last season against some tough opposition.

Mandy Sinclair

Mandy Sinclair began racing the same year as brother-in-law Paul Sinclair. Mandy runs a VK Commodore in Group 2, which she purchased from Bruce Miller. Her approach to racing was somewhat less alarming than Paul’s. She’d take her time to learn each track, then progressively build up speed as her confidence and familiarity with car and circuit grew. She generously loaned her car to husband Andrew at the Ruapuna round of the CMC series back in 2005/’06 when his own car failed, and he was able to win the Group 2 Championship as a result.
Mandy gave the Commodore a make-over prior to the 2007 Muscle Car Masters, when it was stickered in a replica colour scheme of the Alan Grice/Graeme Bailey Chickadee Commodore that famously won Bathurst in 1986. The new colour scheme proved a huge hit with the Aussies, and Mandy took out the Group 2 points at Eastern Creek. She followed up Australia with an impressive 2007/’08 season in which she finished third in the Group 2 championship, winning two rounds. She took a year out the following season before returning in 2009 at the Muscle Car Masters, though she probably wishes she hadn’t, as she was one of the victims of the big race two pile-up which destroyed her car, along with Shane Johnson’s Mustang and Bruce Kett’s brand new ’68 Camaro.
However, thanks to some unbelievable generosity from Moselle Panel & Paint, which repaired the Commodore free of charge, Mandy was back in action for round one of the 2010 CMC season. Despite the car suffering a hangover from its Eastern Creek shunt, which caused some reliability issues during the season, she rounded out 2009/’10 third in Group 2 points.

Paul Sinclair

Paul Sinclair arrived on the scene in 2005. Like brother Andrew, he came from an offshore powerboat racing background, and appeared completely fearless. His ride was a VK Commodore. The Holden had a bit of history to it, being built by Bruce Robb as a back-up for the late Ashley Stitchbury’s main steed in the NZV8 Touring Car championship (or TraNZam Lites, as it was known at the time).
The pristine blue Commodore ran in CMC Group 1, although Paul also did double-duty in the Northern Muscle Car series. His no-holds-barred approach to car racing saw the Commodore take to the scenery on several occasions, but behind the assassin-style driving, this former boat racer possessed some talent. Paul was one of the leading runners throughout the 2006/’07 season, and proved a real contender at the 2007 Australian Muscle Car Masters, where he was really only outpaced by brother Andrew, and Richard Gatward’s flying Mustang.
Back home, Paul became the driver to beat at many rounds throughout the 2007/’08 season, but the Holden’s Achilles heel was its stock engine block, which would crack with alarming regularity. With Mike Anderson at Sonic Race & Machine fettling the Commodore, Paul won the 2008/’09 Northern Muscle Car Championship, taking a season away from CMC. He returned to Central this last season, and was one of only a handful of drivers capable of taking it to the Paul Stubber steamroller that won the championship in 2010.
Where to now?
These folks all know how to have fun on and off the track. Their big red transporter has provided the backdrop to many a hard night on the turps at races over the years, with many a hangover the next morning. Sadly this season will see less of the Sinclair/Urquhart/Butcher show at CMC events.
Paul Sinclair has his Commodore for sale, as does Mandy, while Justin looks likely to run another season with Northern Muscle Cars, where he’s enjoying his racing.
There are future racing plans in store, but for now, more time will be spent with family.
These racers couldn’t have done it without the backing of their sponsors, so thanks go to Reid Construction Systems, Reoco Reinforcing, Machinery Movers, Bridgeman Concrete, The Bog Irish bar, Albany Timber, and Coventry Motors.
Central Muscle Cars has been fortunate to have had the family in its camp for the last seven years. Most classes would kill for this kind of support.

1967 Pontiac Firebird – A Shark’s Tale – 35

Trying to make your car look like a shark is an interesting approach to building a vehicle. Maybe I should clarify a bit more. The owner of this stunning 1967 Firebird is Geoff Brittain, who just happens to be the owner of a Motueka custom paint shop that goes by the name of Kustom Kolors. When I say he wanted the car to look like a shark, I wasn’t referring to some parade float fibreglass monstrosity, but more that he had a theme in mind for the build.
Although Kustom Kolors does quite a bit of custom car body and paint work, its main business is building and painting custom motorbikes. On looking round the rural workshop it’s obvious Geoff has an eye for style, and likes adding comprehensive themes to the machines he works on.
After many years of building both bikes and cars for customers, Geoff purchased the Pontiac as a fresh import he could build up to his own tastes. When the vehicle arrived in Motueka it wasn’t in a bad overall condition, although it had been stripped to a shell and many parts were missing. Besides the missing bits and pieces, the body was in need of a decent tidy-up after sitting in the California sun for many years. Over the next eight months, Geoff would strip the shell of every nut and bolt and take the body back to bare metal. Panel by panel the dings and scrapes were removed, leaving a remarkably straight body as the finished product.
During the rebuild the subframes were removed from the body and painted up in gloss black. With the body shell stripped bare, it was sat on a jig and rolled into the Kustom Kolors paint booth, where Geoff could work his magic.
Although it shares the basic body shell with Chevrolet’s Camaro, it’s the Pontiac’s nose cone that creates the vehicle’s love it or hate it shape. In Geoff’s mind the nose cone, coupled with the vented rear guards, give the car a shark-like appearance. Not being an arty type myself, I never noticed it, but ever since it was pointed out to me I’ve had to agree.
I guess if you want to be all spiritual about things you could almost say the car told Geoff what colour it should be painted. With this in mind, Geoff mixed colours until he came up with the Shark Grey mix he finally settled upon. After flawlessly applying the custom hue to the shell, Geoff felt something was still missing, so he decided to add the black racing stripes. The stripes themselves have been accentuated with custom blue and black pinstripes.

More Than Just Paint

With the bodywork well and truly sorted, Geoff set about giving the car some motivation. The motor was among the missing parts for the vehicle. Not one to be phased by such trivial matters, Geoff tracked down a healthy replacement. Charlton Auto Imports, which is based down the West Coast in Gore, happened to have in stock a remanufactured block built with 9.1:1 compression ratio internals.
To extract a few more ponies from the 261kW (350hp) motor, Geoff fitted an Edelbrock high-rise intake manifold and a 600cfm Holley carb. One of the things that impressed Geoff the most during the build was the American Autowire replacement loom he purchased. “I’m no auto sparky but it was child’s play to wire up. For $800 it was well worth it just to not have problems with shitty old wiring,” Geoff says.
At the engine end of that new wiring is an Accel electronic ignition which, along with an MSD coil and Accel leads, fires the package into a
beautiful cacophony.
To allow the car to stay cool in the hot Motueka sun, a large alloy radiator has been fitted, along with an electric fan. Thanks to this setup the aftermarket water temp gauge is yet to hit halfway. Mounted with the water temp gauge just in front of the B&M shifter is a small tacho and matching oil
pressure gauge.
The TH400 transmission that came with the motor has no trouble putting the estimated 300kW (400hp) through to the limited slip rear end. Well-known hot rod builder and Motueka local Chris Webby created the short custom driveshaft for the vehicle between fitting Viper V10s to rat rods and other similarly crazy projects.

Always The Bargain Hunter

With no front seats in the car when it was purchased, Geoff had to think outside the square. While searching for suitable replacements he stumbled on some leather-clad buckets from a late-model Mazda. Instead of grabbing just them, he also decided to purchase the matching rear seat. There was no chance the seat itself would be fitted, but it was easily unpicked and the leather was used to re-cover the Pontiac bench. A few other trips to the wrecker’s also paid off, including one that unearthed a suitable set of front brakes. After a bit of scouring around, some VT Commodore callipers were stumbled upon. Rather than purchasing Holden rotors and running into stud pattern problems, Geoff turned to the opposition and purchased BA Falcon 300mm drilled and slotted rotors. With the Falcon stud pattern Geoff could fit the 17 x 8- and 17 x 9-inch rims that came from Charlton. To bring the 225 and 255-wide rubber closer to the guards, Geoff has invested in a decent suspension setup. Up front are now KYB gas adjustable gas shocks and aftermarket springs, along with an Energy Suspension bushing kit. The stock rear multi-leaf arrangement has been replaced by a King single leaf.
While not ultra low, the new suspension gives the car a great profile and a purposeful stance on the road. It’s not just looks though, as we found out on our spin around the roads of Motueka ” the car also handles far better than the factory could ever have imagined.
With a layer of Dynamat soundproofing below the carpet and boot floor, the comprehensive sound system Geoff installed was actually quite audible, even above the stunning tone of the 400 coming out through the Flowmaster mufflers and Flowtech headers.

A Better Place

Although Geoff wanted the car for himself, he was also building it up to sell off as a billboard for his work. Not too long after our photoshoot a lucky punter from Nelson took the keys. While the car was in Geoff’s possession, though, he wasn’t afraid to clock up the kms on it. The vehicle’s run-in drive was up to Palmerston North for the NSRA Street Rod Nationals, which is no short drive and includes a pretty expensive ferry trip. Sure, riding a shark he could have tried to make the trip without the boat, but somehow I don’t think that would have worked in his favour.
With the Pontiac now gone from the workshop, it’s time to start looking for a new project. Being capable of performing the entire build himself means Geoff’s options are wide open. One thing’s for sure though: judging by the quality of the Pontiac, whatever he decides to build will be stunning.

Pontiac GTO – Quarter Mile Pinocchio – 48

Part drag car, part show car, Heat Treatments Racing’s new Pontiac GTO is without doubt the best-prepared car to ever hit a New Zealand drag strip.
Nope, this isn’t the story about a lonely old carpenter who carves himself a race car out of pinus radiata that wouIdn’t go until a fairy granted a wish, and which turned into a rotten little sod whose nose kept growing every time it told a whopper about how quick it could go. Nope, this here story might be told in a Mickey Mouse fashion, but there are very few magic kingdoms, fairies or singing crickets in this yarn. It’s more a tale of drag racing dedication, careful planning and an investment in drag racing that beggars belief almost as much as that story of the little wooden boy.
The Heat Treatments team is serious about the sport, that’s for sure. This stunning, Jerry Bickel-constructed Pontiac GTO is Kevin McGregor’s third straight-line time machine, and each one has been a technological leap forward from its predecessor. The 2000 Camaro previously run by the team was an incredibly trick piece of kit, originally constructed for Super Stock competition. But it never ran in the class, as some racers feared it would dominate and threw up as many objections to the car as they could come up with. Not wishing to make waves, the team directed its efforts elsewhere. Ironically, Super Stock died through lack of participation.
Oddly enough, Pinocchio here has stirred up a bit of conflict over in the wide-open world of Kiwi Top Doorslammer, but more on that a bit later.
When Kevin decided to step up to New Zealand’s ultimate doorslammer class, he knew a car specifically built for the rigours of 2000-plus horsepower was the only way to go. He also knew he wanted a Bickel-built car, and that the GTO was the body shape he wanted. “Just had to have one,” Kevin explains. “They have the look, and Bickel cars are designed well and they work. I just picked what items we wanted from the option list and it was ready nine months from when we first ordered it, then it’s on a boat; took six weeks shipping from the US.”
The Pontiac body shell is in fact a left-hook Monaro tarted up for the American market, although if you parked Holden’s sporty two-door coupe next to this rocket you’d be hard pressed to find a single panel that looked the same as the production version. This is not so much Pontiac’s doing, as Bickel’s US chassis builders, who are masters at tweaking body shells in such a way that they look exactly like they are supposed to, still fit a factory template, yet are far sleeker than any production line automobile, no matter how much money the factory spent on wind tunnel testing.
There is another major difference between the trans-Pacific GM siblings: front sheet metal. While most would agree the GTO front clip is far more aggressive-looking than the Holden version, it’s the length of the thing, specifically in front of the wheels, that has wound up a couple of racers.
The reason is the way a drag race is timed. Every ET clock in drag racing is started by the race car’s front wheels, but tube frame cars running big speeds use a combination of rear slick growth and aerodynamic down force to use the front spoiler to trigger the finish line light. No, it’s not cheating, they all do it, but obviously the longer the nose, well, it’s like shortening the race track. Sanctioning bodies realised this a decade or two ago and instituted a maximum of 45 inches, or 1143mm, which is the standard measurement for a 1999 TransAm. Since then, every Pro Stock or Pro Mod built in the US has been built to that dimension, and NZDRA, which previously had no limit at all, decided to follow the accepted standard. At 200mph this advantage measures in thousandths of a second, but that’s necessary in the cutthroat world of US drag racing. And it’s a very good example of just how trick this thing is.
The chassis is just your run of the mill JBRC chromoly metal masterpiece, clothed in a candy-painted carbon fibre shell. There’s not much more to say, just cast your eye over it and try not to drool. Bickel used a lot of Mark Williams driveline components through the car, check out the tech sheet and see how everything in the diff is top-of-the-line ultimate strength, lightest possible weight stuff. In short these are the best components money can buy.
The MW-equipped third member is attached to the car using a JBRC four-link and anti-twist torsion bar, while computer-controlled shocks control rebound and help keep the big fat Goodyears planted onto the track.
The transmission used is different from every other car in Doorslammer racing in New Zealand, while the air-shifted three-speed CS-2 Lenco is not that big a deal. In front of it is not the usual triple-plate clutch requiring constant between-rounds adjustment but a torque converter. “Our Bruno’s Racing Transmission is a great bit of gear,” Kevin claims. “They’re capable of harnessing upwards of 3000hp, and it allows our team to consistently manipulate less than ideal race tracks with zero between-round maintenance. These units have an air transbrake that never slips, which I control off a button on the steering wheel.” Currently using a converter stall speed of around 7000rpm, this is one area the team feels it needs to experiment with more.
Patriarch Keith McGregor obviously really enjoys the technological part of the sport and learning how to apply it. He’s always been into making motors create power, and had a hand in almost every aspect of the car. “Everything we fitted or built on the car, Keith and I talked about it in detail, made a few design drawings, picked the best and then did it; most things were done only once,” Kevin says. “I spent a week and a half on the black alloy water system. Keith machined a lot of parts from hose fittings to spacers and brackets as we wanted the custom look on this car. We remade the engine plate, redesigned the top of the radiator, welded the O2 bosses into the headers and welded the header flanges on to the pipes. We also fitted the complete Racepak data logger/computer and dash to the car.
“When the car arrived we stripped it and checked everything for safety and peace of mind. You wouldn’t want the guy who built the diff to have had a bad day the day he put your diff together, and find out in a race.”
Keith’s the engine builder as well ” there’s some trick gear in this mother of a motivator. Or should that be motorvator?
As with every aspect of the car, this 1300 horsie, normally aspirated monster contains only the best gear and will suffice until the team decides to take the next step up in trouser-soiling power production.
But what form will that take?
The drag racing rumour mill has been working overtime. Every possible combination, from normally aspirated mountain motor to nitrous oxide, blown alcohol and twin turbos have been mentioned, and Kev’s doing nothing to dispel the stories. “That’s in the future; I’ve barely driven the thing. So far things are going well, every run we have we are trying new things and learning about the car. But I’m very happy with it and it’s great to drive. With the help of Castrol EDGE, we have just imported a new twin stacker triple axle trailer from the USA. It had to be custom-built, as in the US they have wider trailers. It’s four tons, 36 feet long [11 metres] and maximum legal height for the New Zealand bridges. We couldn’t travel with our old trailer and setup, it was like a circus when we headed to the track with all the vehicles we had to take. We are looking forward to travelling around the country to race.”
And there will be a lot of fans who will be glad to see the Heat Treatments team do so. This machine is something to behold ” even without a singing, dancing cricket.

2007 Pontiac GTO Pro-mod/Doorslammer – Specifications

Engine: DRCE 07 Pro Stock engine designed by LSM USA, custom block/heads, etc, based on an Olds Merlin block, built by Keith McGregor, Bryant crank, alloy rods, MGP pistons, 15:1 compression, six-bolt main caps, ARP head studs, HRD-Hogan Heads, Pro Stock casting, CNC ported, Jesel roller rockers, Jesel roller followers, triple micro polished valve spring by PSI or LSM, they are 380psi at the installed height (that’s without any rocker weight on them), more than 1000psi at one inch (with the rocker at its lowest position). Large-diameter thin-stemmed titanium valves, keepers, lash caps and retainers, HRD-Hogan fabricated sheet alloy tunnel ram, port matched with the heads, flow tested with Bob Book 1150cfm carburettors, the linkage is fitted with a throttle position sensor and the fuel bowl is fitted with a fuel pressure sensor, this info gets relayed to the Racepak Vnet computer, 10-litre Jaz plastic fuel cell, Magnaflow fuel pump, in-line filter, BG 4 port regulator, MSD Digital 7, MSD high-output coil, MSD 8mm leads, custom-made exhaust, thin wall s/s fender well headers, five-inch collectors which exit the fenders, alloy radiator with built-in water pump, custom-made alloy pipe system. Racepak Vnet 3000 fitted with eight O2 sensors plus fuel, oil, driveshaft, g-force, vacuum and throttle sensors, and for viewing this info live there is a Racepak dash. Info is downloaded to an SD card or cable to a laptop for viewing. “A crew member will push a button on the back corner of the car’s bumper just before staging into the final lights. The driver then switches off this computer from inside the car as it is slowing down. It’s the best way to get a clean data run of what is going on with the car and engine.”
Driveline: CS2 Lenco, fitted with three speeds that are air-shifted via buttons on the shifter post, 7000 rpm stall, BRT Converter Drive, Mark Williams 40-spline axles, gun drilled for weight and strength, MW 9.5-inch alloy head, MW moly third member, four-link design, JBRC HD steel drive shaft and crosses, quick-release u-clamps for changing diff centres
Suspension: JBRC four-link setup and torsion bar, computer-controlled Koni shocks, Koni springs
Brakes: Mark Williams rotors and callipers
Wheels and tyres: 15×4- and 17×16-inch American Racing Superlight rims, Goodyear tyres
Exterior: Full carbon fibre body, panel and paint: JBRC did the paint and air-brushing work. White two-pack pearl, candy red and silver stripes
Chassis: JBRC chassis and carbon fibre work
Interior: Carbon seat, six-point harness, JBRC steering wheel, Lenco air shifter post, Racepak dash, Auto Meter oil and brake pressure gauge, carbon two-piece dash for easy removal to work on the gearbox
Performance: Dyno power — 1300hp (969kW), 0-400m — 7.38 at 187mph

Kevin McGregor – Owner Profile

Age: 36
Occupation: Engineer, fabricator
Previously owned cars: Tunnel rammed VK Commodore, supercharged VS Clubby, ’03 HSV with 325kW, LH Torana with 880hp, Z28 Camaro with 1200hp
Dream car: I feel I have it now
Kevin thanks: “First up, I would thank Keith and Carole McGregor for their support and effort, without them this wouldn’t happen. Keith’s vision for taking this step and importing two of these style cars, my brother Reece for being a mate and helping me on the build, Arnie for being the best crew and back-up guy, plus for the great alloy welding work he has done, Ronny Lim for his alloy welding work on the car towards the final weeks of start up. Lindsay Thomas for his machining and turning skills, Anthony Reeder and Bob Bateman for their help with painting, cleaning and all-round odd jobs they took on, but most of all my wife Jess and son Sam for being there and putting up with me when I was piecing this car together.”
Sponsors: Special sponsorship thanks to Heat Treatments Ltd, Jayne at Castrol Edge Oils, Andre, Bonnie and the lads at STM, HPC and Ronnie from RSL Racing

1968 Pontiac Firebird – Big Block Bird – 88

I’m pretty sure we all know that sinking feeling of regret. When you know you’ve done something stupid, that just can’t be undone. Maybe it’s crashing a car, maybe it’s walking in on your parents, or maybe it’s selling your pride and joy. In some situations the feeling kicks in straight away, while in others, it takes much longer to rear its ugly, unwanted head. For Daniel Vincent, it was the latter — the long, slow increasing feeling of regret about selling his dream car.
Sure, he replaced it with other cars, plenty of them in fact, but nothing could ever match the feeling that he got when he was behind the wheel of his ’67 Camaro. Like most custom car owners though, Daniel always likes to be a bit different, and prefers not have a car the same as anyone else’s. So what do you do when you’re in this situation? The more he thought about it, the more the idea of building a Pontiac Firebird grew on him. They rolled off the same production line at the same time as the Camaros and shared the majority of their parts. Despite this, the angular-nosed Pontiacs are few and far between these days, especially compared to the much more common Camaros.
In early 2010, Daniel bit the bullet and made the purchase of a Firebird. He decided on a ’68 model, and it wasn’t until it landed in New Zealand in April of that year that he finally got to see it in the flesh.
Having previously had Jason Skinner at Scatpack Restorations help him out on various cars, he would once again turn to Jason for help with the Pontiac. What started as a simple task to get the car domestically legal soon spiralled into an all-out build that would take another 18 months to complete.
As anyone who’s built a car will tell you, picking a colour is one of the hardest parts of the process, and for Daniel and the Pontiac, it was no different. “Trying to pick a colour was hard — orange, blue or purple. Jason had a Dodge Charger door painted Plum Crazy Purple so I picked that and told him to get the paint before I changed my mind,” says Daniel.
“The next day I was in Hamilton and saw a new VE Commodore in Morpheus (purple) and in the sunlight it looked pink. The original colour of the ’bird was a special order colour in pink, which apparently makes it quite valuable. So Morpheus it was. I had to let Jason know before he bought the Plum Crazy. I think the colour has been the making of the car with a great job achieved by Jason,” he says, and we couldn’t agree more.
While Jason was seeing to the body side of things, Daniel was hatching an evil plan for the motor side of the build, and to help with that he turned to Jim Carlyle at Cambridge Engine Services.
Jim was responsible for freshening up the Camaro-sourced big block, and bumping capacity out from 454 to 468ci. As if an engine that size wasn’t enough on its own, he took things a few steps further by adding a Weiand 6-71 blower to the top of it. With roller rockers, big valves, MSD ignition components, and a pair of 660cfm centre squirter carbs, it’s an impressive package. As it’s never been on a dyno, Daniel’s not sure exactly how much power it’s making, but it’s fair to say it’s probably somewhere between plenty and far too much.
Phil Dove from Automotive Engineering Services in Cambridge performed some magic on the cross member to allow a Turbo 400 trans and high-stall converter to be fitted to the back of the motor. The weak link of the whole package is the stock 10-bolt diff, which at this stage has been left untouched. Despite it holding up to the job so far, with that much power up front, Daniel is well aware that it’s only a matter of time before it implodes into a pile of shrapnel.
With the car on the road and the build nearing completion, Daniel turned his attention to making it nicer to drive. This was achieved by adding both newer, more supportive (and far better looking) seats, and aftermarket discs and calipers to the front end. With a CPP booster fitted, the car now stops just as well as it goes, and Daniel couldn’t be happier with how it is to drive.
Of course, it wasn’t plain sailing, and there were plenty of dramas along the way — such as the rear tyre hooking the guard during a brake test and ripping the side out of a brand-new $500 tyre; or all the dramas involved in getting the twin exhaust system to pass the certification process, which eventually it did when toned down to an impressive 97dB.
With the car now complete though, Daniel is safe in the knowledge that there’s not another Firebird on the road remotely like his. It’s got plenty of power, awesome looks and a high-quality finish. What more could you ask for to help you overcome the regret of selling a car you once loved?
This article is from NZV8 issue 88. Get your copy

1968 Pontiac Firebird – Specifications

Engine: 468ci big block Chev, 454 block, roller rockers, big valves, twin 660cfm centre squirters, 6-71 Weiand supercharger, 120gph mechanical fuel pump, -10 fuel lines, MSD ignition, Hooker two-inch headers, three-inch twin exhaust, SRP alloy radiator
Driveline: Turbo 400 transmission, high-stall converter, stock 10-bolt diff
Suspension: Koni shocks, replacement bushes, stock springs
Brakes: Aftermarket discs and calipers, CPP booster, drum rear
Wheels/Tyres: 17×8- and 17×10-inch Boyd Coddington Smoothie II rims, 245/40R17 and 275/40R17 Goodyear Eagle tyres
Exterior: VE Commodore Morpheus Purple
Interior: Aftermarket seats, B&M Hammer shifter, SAAS steering wheel, aftermarket gauges
Performance: Untested