Eleven years ago, we couldn’t have imagined that the first Street Machine Drag Challenge, with its meagre 18 entrants, would go on to change the Aussie street car scene. In 2026, we’ve got people building all manner of mild to wild machinery just to see how far they can push themselves and their cars at our event. For the biggest guns taking part, seven-second timeslips have become the norm rather than the exception.

First published in the July 2026 issue of Street Machine

Jayden Grimshaw’s surgically clean HQ Holden ute is a great example of the new Drag Challenge apex predator: ferociously tough hardware cloaked in finely detailed, beautifully finished skin. Jayden had originally set out to build a different style of car, though.

“I bought the ute in Cobram, completely stock. Then I lowered it, put some stock wheels with whitewalls on it, and drove it for a short amount of time before I got bored,” laughs Jayden. “Driving slow old cars has never really tickled my bits, so I started to strip everything and get it ready for the four-link, tubs and a rollcage. The idea was to have a car I could do events like Drag Challenge in rather than messing with my LS-swapped HT sedan, which is more of a cruiser.”

Plans changed with the sudden passing of Jayden’s dad Darryl, who had sparked his son’s interest in cars in the first place. Darryl had been part-way through a huge rebuild of his own HQ ute, so, following some sage advice from friends, Jayden decided to level-up his vision for the Quey. 

“Initially, my idea was just to leave the ute looking ratty on the outside, but then I talked with Chris at Racewires,” he recalls. “He recommended doing the bodywork and painting it all in one go rather than pulling it down again later once it was wired and plumbed. I decided to combine the few bits I could from Dad’s ute with mine, and build something pretty nice.”

With single-digit ETs in mind, Jayden knew the factory rear end had a date with the dumpster, and it was replaced with a set-up that could pack some serious meats. The addition of a triangulated four-link with Viking coil-over struts and a built nine-inch allowed room for the 15×12-inch rear Weld rims, while the front end copped a set of Magnum tube arms, two-inch drop spindles and QA1 coil-overs.

Once the chassis work was done and covered with new, far larger tubs, the sheet metal needed to be smoothed and slicked. This involved moving the fuel filler to the smoothed-out tub, modifying the nosecone to hide the bottom of the radiator, shaving the side indicator repeaters, and raising the trans tunnel to allow for the ute’s now worm-burning ride height. “You can’t have a car too low,” Jayden laughs, “but the ute isn’t actually bad for ground clearance.”

One decision that Jayden wasn’t expecting to be so difficult was what colour to paint his HQ. “Originally I was thinking of metallic Seamist Green, and then went I down the blue path,” he recalls. “The colour I ended up choosing was the first spray-out we did, and I’d hated it then.”

The striking custom DeBeer Hope Blue was applied by Justin Zane at JZ Paintworks. “It looks pretty era-correct, and I wanted to keep a simple, clean look for the ute.” 

NOHQPE might look like a stocker rolling on some pro street rims, but it definitely doesn’t go like one. Packing a pair of G35 Garrett turbos, the built 427ci LS that now resides in the engine bay made 1404hp at the hubs on 20psi and only turning to just over 7000rpm. It’s the hard work of Glenn Arundel and the North Vic Engines team.

“Even before I bought the ute, I bought the Dart block, HQ engine mounts and sump from a guy who ended up going big-block,” says Jayden. “I took it over to North Vic Engines to build it, because they’re familiar with the LS platform.”

The Dart LS Next block is chockers with good gear, like a Dart billet four-inch crank, BoostLine rods and CP Bullet slugs, while a custom Crow hydraulic-roller cam spins 224°/252° onto the Johnson lifters and Crow ³/₈-inch pushrods. The North Vic six-bolt heads are filled with Ferrea valves and PAC springs. 

Topping the whole affair is a Plazmaman billet intake plenum wearing a Nick Williams 103mm drive-by-wire throttlebody to swallow all the boost the turbos can muster. As the Quey is tuned for flex-fuel, a trio of Walbro 460 pumps sends Jayden’s choice of go-juice to the 2500cc Siemens injectors plugged into the business end, and the whole shebang is controlled by a Haltech Nexus R5 computer. 

With the car complete, Jayden wasted no time in hitting the road with it. “I’ve done thousands of kays in it now, with lots of trips to pubs for lunch and different car events, and now Drag Challenge,” he says.

That’s right, Jayden’s Quey took on Australia’s toughest street-car torture test, Street Machine Drag Challenge 2025, and from the get-go, it was clear it meant business, running an 8.74@159mph straight off the trailer on Day One. The ute finished the punishing week in 10th place in the highly competitive Hare & Forbes Machineryhouse Radial Blown class.

But while it was built to run numbers and clock road miles, it’s been the ute’s reception at shows that has most surprised Jayden. “Dad and I had always spoken about how cool it would be to get a car in a magazine one day, so he became my motivation, but I never expected the amount of attention it would actually get.” 

In fact, the ute has taken tinware at all three shows Jayden has entered it in so far. “It won Top Ute in the Street class at Summernats 37, the show ’n’ shine at Powercruise Sydney 2025, and Best Ute and Best Engine Bay at Rutherglen Rumble,” Jayden says.

With four-digit power figures, eight-second ETs, and presentation clean enough to win gongs at Summernats, we reckon the attention this Quey’s received is well-deserved. 

JAYDEN GRIMSHAW
1974 HQ HOLDEN UTE

THANKS

My dad Darryl – without him I would have never got into cars or had any knowledge about working on them; Justin Zane at JZ Paintworks for his huge effort throughout the build; Steve Pevitt; Matt Sims at North Albury Automotive; Premier Panels; Glenn Arundel at North Vic Engines; Allan ‘Blacky’ Black; Racewires; 74 Works; KillaBoost; Pete ‘The Tin Man’ Coleman; the team at Grimshaw Signs for the PPF and allowing me to spend so much time finishing the ute off