There’s always a few smokies that emerge each year at Street Machine Drag Challenge, and last year’s campaign from West Australian Nathan Jehu and his 1976 LX Torana sedan was right on track to give all the top players a run for their money.

“It was a shame when the engine let go on that second-last day at Heathcote; we were having a solid run up until that point,” says Nathan. “We had very little drama on the road and managed to find speed on track.”

That’s politely underselling it, as up until then, Nathan was running second in the Radial Blown class, with a 5.15@145mph on Mildura’s eighth-mile on Day Two, and consecutive 7.5s on the quarter-mile at Dragway at The Bend and Heathcote Park Raceway over the following two days. “It was around 20mph down on that 7.59 pass at Heathcote when it let go, but a melted piston and two bent rods ended our week,” says Nathan.

The lads still put it together to idle over and break the beams on the final day at Heathcote to officially complete the week, but the default 20.00-second time you get for doing so plummeted Nathan from second to outside the top 10 in class.

Despite that pain, the two seven-second passes and official completion of the week earned Nathan a coveted Seven-Second Club hat, along with the Hard Luck award for his troubles.

“It was nice to get into that hat, for sure,” Nathan says. “We were just really hoping to turn it up those last two days and push into the 7.3s or maybe even 7.2s and give it a real shake.”

That’ll be partly what he’ll be looking to avenge this year when Nathan returns for DC 2025. The Torana’s PB is already a 7.33, and with some fresh changes to the car, that could be set to fall even further. “Admittedly, with Perth Motorplex currently closed, we won’t be as prepared as we’d like for testing, but we’ll hopefully get some in at The Bend before DC,” Nathan says.

With all the tools of his business, JP Fab, at his disposal, Nathan built the bulk of the LX himself. Purchased as a standard 253 machine from Mandurah, south of Perth, the Torana soon scored a Pro9 tubular front end, a full unequal parallel four-link rear end, and a six-point, funny car-style rollcage. Then there’s the Dart LS behemoth up front, built by Elite Automotive.

“I went with LS partly because I’m familiar with the platform, but also because we want to keep the weight off the nose of the car, which is hard to do with a big-block,” says Nathan.

That mill is a Dart 427, pushed out to 433 cubes with a Callies crank, MGP rods and Diamond pistons. The stick is a custom-spec hydraulic unit from John Bewley, breathing through LS7 six-bolt heads and intake manifold, both from Higgins.

With the Garrett turbos and Holley EFI management, the package is good for 1700hp to the hubs at around 32psi, with tuning by the WA master Jeff Johnson. “We’ve run it on ethanol, but for Drag Challenge last year, we ditched the water-to-air intercooler and ran methanol at the track,” says Nathan. “I’m not sure it really helped us, so for this year, we’re going back to that intercooler, which should net us an extra 200hp and more consistent intake temps.”

With a start and finish at Dragway at The Bend for DC ’25, Nathan is hopeful that he’ll be able to finish the job from last year. “That’ll be the main goal – redeem what we should’ve done last year,” he says. “That’s why I love this event. It’ll be my third one, and the platform to prove yourself and what you built at an event like this is unlike any other, so we’re keen to get stuck in and hopefully follow through with a decent result this time.”

You’ll be able to see Nathan and the LX in action at Street Machine Drag Challenge 2025, 29 October to 2 November. Full details and tickets at dragchallenge.com.au.

CAPRICIOUS CHALLENGE

Nathan’s 2024 campaign marked his second Drag Challenge appearance, having first tackled the event in 2018 with his 8sec 2004 Holden Caprice (above), which packed a twin-turbo 6.7L LSX combo.

It fought him that week, destroying the timing gear, which saw the team rebuilding the front of the engine in the pits at Swan Hill until 5:30am on Day Five so they could finish the week. The LX is Nathan’s newer, lighter DC whip – one hell of a progression!

NATHAN JEHU
1976 HOLDEN LX TORANA SL

Class:

Hare & Forbes Machineryhouse Radial Blown

THANKS
Jeff Johnson; Ignite Auto Electrics; Elite Automotive; JMC Engine Machining; Nathan Higgins; Al’s Race Glides; Shearer Fab; JP Fab.

DAMAGE CONTROL: The penultimate day of DC ’24 at Heathcote Park Raceway ended Nathan’s competitive campaign, after a torched piston and two bent rods on a 7.59 run. The crew pulled it down, found the problem and then bolted it back together to idle over the line on Day Five to officially complete the week

7 UP: A 5.15 at Mildura’s eighth-mile, a 7.55 at Dragway at The Bend and a 7.59 at Heathcote Park Raceway prove just how much juice Nathan has under this LX. With a 7.33 PB to date, he’s a good chance to shake the top of the tree again this year

ENGINE BAY: Nathan chose to mount the turbos proud, partly to avoid using the scavenge pumps required in low-mount systems, but also for ease of space, and he built his own manifolds and piping. Plus, let’s be honest, they look bad-arse!