At first glance, you might be excused for thinking that John Vesnaver spent the go-fast budget for his HR Holden ute on a fancy set of wheels and some flat-tops and a Holley for the old 186. But this old Holden is a far more formidable proposition than first meets the eye.

First published in the October 2026 issue of Street Machine

It’s not until you lift the bonnet, poke your head under the rear end or watch this absolute weapon click off seven-second quarter-mile passes that its true nature is revealed.

Let me be clear: this isn’t a drag car. This is a tried-and-tested streeter built for drag-and-drive events, with a reputation as one of Queensland’s toughest no-prep cars. The fact that it placed third in a stacked Unlimited class at the recent Allstars Drag & Drive event (SM, Sep ’26) is evidence enough of that. The level of engineering and planning that has gone into this build is a credit to all involved.

“I’d always been heavily into the car scene,” John says. “As a teenager I was always reading Street Machine. We’d moved up from Brisbane to Toowoomba and I bought the old ute locally, driving it in pretty stock form for about 10 years.

“It was bright purple with a hottie red motor and mag wheels – the way they used to build them way back when. But it had always been my intention to build a turbo LS for it, and we finished the first build on the car in 2021.”

The timing was impeccable, because it meant John was able to debut the car the following week at the first Rockynats event. Despite the high level of attention paid to detail, paint, panel and trim, the HR was never meant to be a show car; it was built for drag-and-drive events and street miles, and it more than proved its worth at Rockynats.

“The car was super reliable,” John recalls. “We ended up squeezing 950rwhp from that little alloy-block 5.7 before we ran out of fuel system and intercooler, which aligned with our goal of running anything in the eights.”

Just like John had hoped, the car went 8.99sec over the quarter-mile, straight off the trailer! But when you start leaning too hard on a 5.7 block, it usually ends in tears, and John’s engine basically split in half. Nonetheless, 950rwhp was damn stout on just an aftermarket-rod-and-piston combo with a bunch of boost up its arse.

Over the next 18 months, John kept revising the combination and had five engines come and go. A set of Trick Flow 225 heads helped bump the power up to 1200rwhp, but ultimately the combo kept lifting the heads.

These days, things have progressed somewhat, and while the engine still retains the same heads, the block has been updated to a Dart item with a lot of good bits, and now belts out an estimated 1600rwhp.

“We buzzed the motor up to 1500rwhp at 30psi of boost on the dyno, but we’ve turned it up to 35psi at the track,” John says. “To be honest, we’ve never been too concerned about dyno numbers; it’s all about racing. We ran a new personal best at Allstars Drag & Drive – a 7.91@172mph with a wheelie and a pedal, and banging the limiter on the gear change. We’re sure it’s got a 7.80 in it, but once again we’re out of turbo, intercooler and fuel system.”

While quarter-mile is fun, John mainly focuses on no-prep, street-style meetings, where the car is very competitive. “We’re certainly in the top five no-prep cars in Queensland, and the top three at every event,” he says. 

A stout performer it is indeed, having been Pro Street runner-up in the past three Rockynats street drags, the last two of which were on account of a red light.

“There’s a lot to be said about temporary light set-ups,” John says. “There are lots of variances; the left lane beam is never the same as the right, which is what happened to us at Rockynats, where we actually won both races but struggled between the two lanes with bulb sequencing.” 

While this HR ute may look light, it’s every bit a street car at 3850lb, with a full steel body, glass, and full interior. “It’s a road car; I’ve never had a desire to lighten it,” John reasons. “We haven’t scaled it for a long time, but back when we had the alloy block, it was 65 per cent on the nose. Now we’ve got bigger turbos, an iron block, and a massive 250kg block of lead weight in the back, with an additional 85kg bolted on the diff.”

The engine bay is certainly busy. With a massive intercooler dominating the front of the bay, John moved the radiator to the rear of the ute; it simply wouldn’t fit up front.

“It took a while to get it sorted out and working properly, but now we have an opening in the tray that opens on struts and allows the air to get pulled in the from the tray area,” John explains. “It’s just a cheap VZ radiator with a set of factory Commodore fans mounted just below the tub floor. I have a shield on either side of the radiator that stops stones from hitting the core, and it works mint.”

A Meziere water pump at the rear circulates the water, and after getting a quote for almost $2500 to plumb the cooling from front to rear in –20 braid, John decided to have a crack at something different. Being a plumber, he did the whole lot in copper, which increases cooling through better heat dissipation, and then had it powdercoated to blend in.

“I’d drive to Sydney and back in summer towing a trailer,” he says. “The fans kick in at 175° and it just cycles; it really works well.”

Kevin Morton at KPM Performance Engines in Gatton is the man behind the 6.0-litre engine build, which includes a Dart billet crank, Spool rods, SRP pistons, Trick Flow 225 CNC cathedral-port heads, a BTR intake manifold, and a pair of Precision 64/66 turbos with Turbosmart wastegates mounted on custom-built manifolds by Kyle Hopf from 6boost.

A Haltech 2500 ECU controls the whole show, with Jesse Manners from Madoc Tuning in Toowoomba doing a great job with the power management on the ute, especially at no-prep events. 

The trans is a US-sourced Powerglide, which Benny from Elite Automatics has overhauled a few times. It comprises a 10-clutch drum, 1.80 straight-cut gearset, and a Pro Pump with a ringless input shaft, matched to a billet bolt-together converter built by James Horan at Full Race Torque converters in Brisbane.

The well-designed rear end features Calvert split mono-leaf springs and sliders, CalTracs traction bars, AFCO shocks and an anti-roll bar. The Ford nine-inch diff has been fitted with a Strange Ultra Case centre with 3.50:1 gears, and, for quarter-mile, a 275 Radial Pro tyre. For the no-prep stuff, PSR 325/50s get the nod.

“I love the no-prep because we get like 30 passes in a day – for seat-time, nothing can match it,” John enthuses. “We just go around and around, not cooling it down, just running it. As they are knockout events, you need to keep the car running – 10 rounds without touching fuel or tyres; we love that style of racing.

“I guess the toughest part of the build has been paying for it. Engine failures are frustrating, and getting the combo right was a struggle, but with the new combination by KPM, we can beat up on it.” 

Unfortunately, the car is back at an all-too-familiar juncture: out of fuel system, out of turbos and out of intercooler. It will be interesting to see where the build goes from here, as any steps forward will be costly.

John would like to give a big shout-out to all the businesses and people already named for their invaluable help, as well as Jason Seng at Jase Race & Restoration for the suspension set-up; Resident Restorations for the killer paint and panel; Lea McCarroll for the interior trim; HBR Race Cages & Fabrication; Cal’s Garage for fab work and assembly; and Barton’s Auto Electrical for the full rewire. 

“Special shout-out to my wife Beau and son Ace for allowing me to spend their inheritance on our passion!”