Mother Nature has wreaked havoc on the car events calendar lately, so we were relieved to spot blue skies peeking through the clouds at the annual Harrigans Rod & Custom Show on Sunday 16 October.

Around 450 cars cruised out to the water’s edge at Harrigan’s Drift Inn in Calypso Bay, midway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast, to enjoy South-East Queensland’s largest one-day automotive show, now in its 14th year.

Sat amongst the impressive variety of hot rods was an astounding display of high-horsepower toughies and elite-level show cars.

Last year’s show winner Charlie Harley returned in his pro touring 1957 Chev, Peter Sauer’s wild twin-turbo HG Brougham sat politely on display, and Tony Wilson took home a few trophies with his ’32 Ford, CHOODA.

You can check out this year’s results below, but here are our top 10 picks.

We dig Mark Smith’s 1959 gasser-style FC ute! The street-registered Holden had a full rotisserie bare-metal build, all done by Mark and his dad. Up front is a worked 202 with forged pistons, ARP studs and a 149 closed-chamber head. An HR front end, custom pipes and a set of custom-made Dragway billet wheels tie the gasser together.

This ’72 Camaro is a stone-cold stunner. Rob Zahabi and his crew at Rides By Kam are responsible for the custom ProCharger installation and EFI injection set-up on the immaculate 502ci big-block.

Danny Debono’s tough XT Falcon has had a serious facelift. After 13 years of thrashing the power pedal, Danny’s plans for a fresh lick of purple paint turned into a full nut-and-bolt rebuild. The XT sits low on a new set of beadlocks with a shortened diff and mini-tubs, and rocks an 8/71-blown 393 Clevo with an E85 carby set-up, good for 950hp.

Matt Olver’s mean ’34 Ford won Top Car of the Show. Since placing Top 20 in the Summernats 34 Elite Hall, the blown 383ci Chev-powered coupe has been on show all over the country, including Showcars Melbourne, Rockynats and Motor Madness.

We loved the new RC Components rims on Todd Sorensen’s Summernats 33 Grand Champion-winning ’67 Impala.

Wayne Turner spent three years building this eye-popping ’76 HX Holden panel van in his garage. The blown small-block Chev and candy orange duco are a killer combo.

Tim Hempenstall’s heavily chopped Model A tudor, BUCKSKN, is a real head-turner.

Lorne Cooper’s freshly built, heavily slammed Chevy pick-up gets the thumbs-up from us!

The whitewalls, two-tone colour combo and matching surfboard on the roof racks land Nigel Apps’s 1958 Chev Yeoman wagon a spot in our top picks.

Drag Challenge contender Dallis Hertsch cruised out in his single-turbo LS-powered HZ Statesman.

TROPHY LIST 2022