Over the years, Adrian Cuthbertson has built elite-level show cars and tyre-frying burnout cars, but this time around, he’s combined the two to create a burnout monster that can hold its own in any show hall.

First published in the July 2026 issue of Street Machine

If Adrian’s name sounds familiar, you might remember his blown VR GTS Commodore, 2DSIRE, which appeared in plenty of magazines and shows back in the early 2000s. But he’s probably more famous these days for his blown and injected Mitsubishi Sigma burnout car, SKIDMA, which won Brashernats 2014, among many other trophies, and has most recently been on an extended tour of the USA (see breakout).

His newest creation, this VE SS ute, combines the best of both worlds, and embodies the age-old story of the build that expanded way beyond what was originally envisioned.

“Yeah, it got a little bit out of hand,” Adrian laughs. “It wasn’t meant to be as nice as it is.”

Adrian purchased the ute from Narrandera and brought it home to get cracking on a build that would ultimately take around seven years.

New rails were grafted in to connect to the new rear clip, which supports a fabricated four-link and a sheet-metal nine-inch. The latter was built by The Diff Doctor in Canberra, and runs a Strange centre with 3.0:1 gears, a full spool, and 35-spline axles. All that’s missing out back are brakes – because, you know, burnout car.

The massive 20x20in Intro billet rear wheels were a huge focal point of the build, with the whole rear end built around them. “I think they’re one of four sets in the world,” says Adrian of the gargantuan rollers. “They don’t actually make the tyres for them anymore, because they’re not that popular.”

To accommodate the 33in-tall, 22in-wide Mickey Thompson treads, the fabricated tubs take up most of the real estate in the ute’s tray, and we reckon that’s when things started to really snowball. “We’d just started welding it up, and then someone would say something like, ‘Oh yeah, that’ll look good’, and then you just keep adding to it, and that was when it got ridiculous,” Adrian says.

For instance, with the rear end looking so smooth, the engine bay now had to follow suit, so the inner guards were given the same treatment as the tubs, and a flat firewall was welded into place. Note the lack of master cylinder and booster in the bay; they’re tucked up under the dash thanks to a kit from Australian Rod & Custom. Rather than also tubbing the steering end to handle the stupidly wide billet front rollers, Adrian took a different approach and had the front wheels narrowed to seven inches wide to give them more steering room on the burnout pad.

Trims by Shaun went to town on the VE’s interior, with the factory seats reupholstered in black leather with orange stitching. Look closely and you’ll see the same treatment on the dash and steering wheel, and even on the fuel tank cover in the tray. Every surface that isn’t wrapped in leather is covered by black suede. Gone are the screens, stereo and dual-zone climate controls that fill the dashboards of today’s modern cars. Instead, there’s a Haltech IQ3 dash and a TCI Outlaw shifter, and that’s it – any and all buttons have been relegated to the centre console, under the lid, and the only sound system Adrian needs is sitting just forward of the windscreen, ready to sing a song of fire and frying rubber.

The mill in question is a fairly mild, 6.0-litre alloy LS2, topped by a sheet-metal intake from BG Engines, a Blower Shop 8/71, and a JBR carbonfibre injector hat. That’s how the ute was debuted in the Elite Hall at Street Machine Summernats 38, but it’ll get something more serious before it hits the pad. Right now, the plans are for BG Engines to build a cast-iron 408ci with the goal of around 1000hp at the crank. With a TCE 2800rpm converter and an Al’s Race Glides-prepped reverse-pattern Turbo 400, you’re looking at a very promising package.

But if you’re done staring at the tower of power protruding upwards through the front sheet metal, take a closer look at that bonnet. It’s around 180mm longer than stock, according to Adrian. It not only provides a neater and cleaner-looking transition to the windscreen, but it also allowed the sheet metal to be wrapped around the blower, creating a stiffer bonnet – and it took two weeks to get right.

Of course, the metalwork is only one part of the equation; finishing it off and laying on some paint is just as hard. Some might even say it’s harder, and maybe they’re correct, because it took a couple of tries before Adrian was happy with the result. Initially, he sent the car off for paint with a guy in Canberra, but when that didn’t work out the way he wanted, the ute was shipped north to Paul Cundy in Armidale to get it done right. Eight layers of DNA Candy Gold were flowed over the smoothed sheet metal and polished to a shine, and there’s no arguing with the result.

The judges certainly agreed at Summernats 38, as the golden ute scored the Elite – High Impact award. Adrian reckons it took the guys five days to buff the ute, but it was definitely worth it.

So, what’s the plan from here? More shows, Adrian reckons, but once the ute is done with the trophy circuit and it receives its new donk, we’re sure to see this shiny hay-hauler melting tyres from coast to coast. In fact, Adrian has had some custom 22-inch steel wheels made just for this purpose, so that when he pops a tyre, the ute doesn’t end up beached on its own sills.

“We’ll end up running those 285 SUV tyres,” he confirms. “I forget what size they are – 285/50R22 I think, like they run on BMWs and stuff. It’s the only way we can keep the stance.” And what a beautiful stance it is!  

BURN THE WORLD!

ADRIAN’S other burnout car, his now-veteran SKIDMA Sigma, has been seeing more of the world of late thanks a sojourn in the US, where the blown beast has been showing the Americans how it’s done. 

“It’s been there for two years; I think it’s probably done 18 events,” Adrian says. “We did Powercruise, Ice Cream Cruise [pictured left], and we also did SEMA the first year. We also went to Summernats USA, but we didn’t compete, because the car broke a timing chain last September.”

Travelling the US to do burnouts at some of the country’s biggest events has been a dream experience for Adrian, but it’s a very costly exercise, and things have become even more expensive over the past year or so. 

“Nothing’s cheap over there, like tyres and fuel and all that sort of jazz,” Adrian says. “This last time I went over, fuel was $5.60 a gallon! We’re trying to get the car back right now, but we don’t know how long it’s going to take, because you’re in line in the docks at the moment with the war.”

ADRIAN CUTHBERTSON

2010 HOLDEN VE SERIES II UTE

THANKS
BG Engines; Al’s Race Glides; Trims by Shaun; Jacko; Paul Cundy; Jason; Mitchell; Tom; Adrian; Brock; Dave Athans; Jake and Mia