MOST combatants taking on the gruelling trials of Drag Challenge come into the week with some form of strategy to make it through the 1500km of road driving. Switching fuels, tyres, tunes and so on is common, but pulling off an entire blower set-up between tracks is a Drag Challenge first.

This is something Charlie Attard had planned well in advance with his 1970 LC Torana, and, as he explained, the daily procedure is not as arduous as it may sound. “It takes about 45 minutes to swap it over from the blower back to the normal carby set-up, and we’re pretty good at it now,” he said.

Believe it or not, the reason for the blower removal is actually to keep things simple. “We run meth with the blower, so when we switch back to the carby we also go back to pump 98 and it makes the road miles pretty easy,” said Charlie.

The donk itself is a trusty old 202, grout-filled to the bottom of the water pump and still running the standard crank and rods. Flat-top forged pistons help contain the 12psi of boost from the 6/71 blower, breathing through an aluminium Yella Terra 12-port head and a homemade four-barrel manifold to make the blower swap a breeze. Other mods include an external oil pump, MSD ignition and a mechanical belt-driven fuel pump to feed the blower with meth, while an electric pump feeds the carby set-up PULP 98 on the road.

“It’s great; it’ll cruise at 100km/h all day long with four blokes loaded in and the trailer on the back, doing 20L/100km/h,” said Charlie. “It’ll use the same amount of meth in one pass down the strip!”

Charlie says power is around 300rwhp, which gets to the ground via a two-speed ’Glide and a BorgWarner BW78 diff from a Commodore with road-friendly 3.08:1 gears.

This is Charlie’s first time at Drag Challenge, and at the time of writing the week was so far going to plan for him. “We’re hoping to run 11s this week, which is where we are; we can’t go much faster without the ’cage anyway,” he said.

“It’s such a good event,” he continued. “I’ve been wanting to do it for a while now, so we re-did the car this time specifically for the event. This is the first time I’ve registered it since I bought it six years ago.”

Day One saw Charlie PB on the quarter at Calder Park with an 11.26@119mph.

CHARLIE ATTARD
1970 HOLDEN LC TORANA

Class: XR6 Turbo Developments Six-Cylinder

Engine: 202
Blower: 6/71
Transmission: Powerglide
Converter: 5000rpm
Diff: BorgWarner BW78, 3.08:1 gears
Best DC Pass: 11.26@119mph