ACCORDING to Reion Sammons, his HQ was a “stock, rusty blue 202 ’73 Premier with air and steer” until he and his mates decided they needed to enter Drag Challenge Weekend in the Turbosmart Outlaw Blown class. The tired more-door was reborn as a Monaro lookalike when Reion transferred the blown, injected, tall-deck 598ci Big M big-block from his ’65 Impala to the Quey.

“It went 9.80@114mph in the 5200lb Impala – hard on the brakes,” Reion laughed. “The Impala wasn’t tech-inspected and I didn’t want to ’cage it, and that engine was starting to wreck the Chevy. So I ’caged the HQ and got it teched. Hopefully it goes 8.70, but it is 4200lb with 160 litres of methanol in the back.”

Rather than filling the HQ with methanol at each track, Reion installed a custom-made 160-litre fuel tank in the boot just for the alcohol, with the stock HQ fuel tank filled with pump unleaded and left underneath the sedan’s floor for road duties.

While some swapped tyres and exhausts between road and track during DCW, the Townsville local and his mates went a few steps further, removing the BDS 8/71 pump, injector hat and belt and plonking on a carburettor set-up for road use. This was also when the fuel tank full of unleaded came in handy, as the rowdy fat-block sips pump juice.

“It’s a seven-year-old engine and I think it made 1450hp back then,” Reion says. “It is built for fun, not for taking it too seriously!”

Watch next: Drag Challenge Weekend 2020 Day Three

The combo hadn’t had any real testing before running Turbosmart Outlaw Blown at DCW 2020, so a 9.04@125mph on Day One was pretty good going in the oppressive Queensland heat. Reion later admitted, however, that he’d actually pulled the ’chute and got on the brakes early because he mistook where the finishing line was!

A 5.78@124mph on the slippery Warwick eighth-mile was backed up with a 9.05@159mph on the sweltering Day Three at Willowbank for Reion to emerge victorious in Turbosmart Outlaw Blown.

REION SAMMONS

1973 HQ PREMIER

Class: Turbosmart Outlaw Blown

SPECS

Engine: Dart Big M 598ci

Supercharger: BDS 8/71

Gearbox: Powerglide

Converter: SDE 4500rpm

Diff: 9in, 3.7:1 gears

Power: 1450hp

Previous PB: N/A

Best DCW 2020 Pass: 9.04@125mph