FRESH from collecting third place in the Grand Champion comp at Street Machine Summernats 30, Adam and Kylie Perry’s Tailspin FB Holden appeared at the Victorian Hot Rod & Cool Rides show last weekend. It was in good company, with the likes of Chris and Colleen Bitmead’s XBOSS XB Falcon and next month’s SM cover car – Doug MacDonald’s HG Holden panel van – also part of the show.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, Tailspin was born out of a concept drawing by Linda Vesperman that featured in Street Machine way back in 1994. It depicted a back-the-front FB Holden – the boot was done up with headlights slotted into the FB fins, while the tail-lights were where the headlights would normally be. It also had a new funky two-door roofline.

When Canberrans Adam and Kylie Perry were looking for inspiration for a unique show car build, they came across the Vesperman drawing in Street Machine and decided they had to make it a reality. Many moons later – after much custom metal fabrication with the help of legendary car builder Howard Astill – two FB Holdens, two Nissan Skylines and a VN Commodore had been transformed into Tailspin.

The car took on its first Street Machine Summernats earlier this month, and was a great success for Adam and Kylie and everyone else involved in the car. Going for Grand Champion meant Tailspin had to be driven in the Go-to-Whoa and Slalom events, so Kylie took the wheel and drove the car for the first time (other than on and off car trailers).

At Summernats Tailspin collected the award for Top Custom, Top Special Effects Paint, second for Top Bodywork, third for Top Engine Bay, second for Top Undercarriage/Driveline and third overall for Grand Champion.

After a highly successful Summernats, Tailspin took home more silverware at the Vic Hot Rod Show last weekend with gongs for Top Custom, Radical Custom, Best Displayed and top five for the whole event.

We caught up with Kylie at the Vic Hot Rod Show to chat about the car and her experience at Street Machine Summernats 30.