The October 2026 issue of Street Machine launches straight off the startline with Stephen Micallef’s LJ Torana filling the cover with 632ci of big-block Chevy grunt.

This freshly built beast is looking to set some records at Drag Challenge 2026, with over 1000hp naturally aspirated. You can learn all about it before the big event, which is coming up in late October – spectator tickets available soon!

For the Blue Oval fans, we’ve got Tony Marakis’s glowing green XY GT, which is punching out over 700hp. This Falcon is packing the best that modern technology has to offer up front with an EFI 417ci Clevo, but it’s backed by an old-school Top Loader four-speed and integrated with the classic look of Australia’s most iconic muscle sedan. It also features on this issue’s poster, with the Melbourne skyline in the background.

Kian heads all the way up to Far North Queensland for the 10th edition of Northern Nats – three days of mayhem and madness amongst the special breed of car nuts that inhabit Australia’s warmer latitudes. There was drag racing and show cars galore, but with $35,000 in prize money and a Summernats Wildcard ticket on the line, the burnouts were next level, as entrants went for broke for a taste of the spoils. We bring you all the action and the results.

If burnouts or crazy quarter-mile demons aren’t your thing, we’ve also got Jim McLaren’s beautifully built HQ Monaro, which won Red CentreNATS Champion last year. It’s got the looks and the mumbo to take the fight to the best show cars in the country and win – and just wait until you get a look at that colour-shifting paint.

For the Mopar faithful, we’ve got Matt Dietrich’s VF Valiant hardtop that’s packing 6.4 litres of modern Hemi horsepower. With extra-meaty rear rubber and a ground-hugging stance, this mighty Mopar is looking to take on Drag Challenge for the very first time, and we can’t wait to see how it goes.

Then we head over the ditch to the Land of the Long White Burnout Cloud, to see how the Kiwis do it at this year’s Chrome Horsepower Festival. The event is centred around Hampton Downs Motorsport Park on New Zealand’s North Island, conveniently located right next to a drag strip, which means they have drifting, burnouts, drag racing and a whole lot more, and we’ve got 10 pages of all the action.

Brian Galea’s Mustang is sure to tempt show-car fans, muscle car fans, Ford fans, or just anyone who loves cool cars with V8 engines. Abandoned in a Californian barn, the car was shipped to Australia so Brian could undertake a rebuild that defies belief; it’s an immaculate build that is equally at home in the Summernats Elite Hall or your local cars-and-coffee.

We’ve also got something for those who like their rides powered by triangles – and we certainly don’t mean that in a negative way. Jared Romeo’s 1969 RT40 Corona has been built with modern attention to detail but using some decidedly old-school methods. For example, the Mazda 13B rotary has been boosted with the help of a draw-through turbo set-up using a Weber and a T04 hairdryer. If you want to know more, you’ll have to grab a copy of the mag and check it out – it’s definitely worth a look.

Our Young Gun this month is Joel Sammut with his cool 6.0-litre LS-powered UC Torana. At just 21 years of age, Joel might be young, but his dad David has been around the scene for a couple of decades, once again proving that building cool cars often runs in the family. Who knew that a UC Torana could look so good?

And that’s just scratching the surface of what we’ve packed into the October issue. There’s also an in-depth look at the ins and outs of forged pistons; the return of Darryl McBeth’s SMOTY-winning humpy; Dan Case’s small-block Chev-powered Drag Challenge Torana; Arby chatting to John Vesnaver about his impressive seven-second HR ute; and Brad Jenkins’ killer ProCharged Clevo in Mill Of The Month. Not to mention the latest hot-car news and amazing stories from across the globe.

It’s all in the October issue of Street Machine, so head down to Coles, Woolies or your local newsagent and grab a copy now!