First published in the March 2013 issue of Street Machine

There were plenty of changes to Motorvation this year. Nothing major, just tweaks, updates and a fresh look at how the country’s longest-running car festival — one year older than Summernats — can keep attracting the West Aussie car-loving public when there are so many other distractions out there these days.

In the past they have had top-flight show cars brought in to wow the cars in the elite tent but what the people love is burnouts. So in a very wise move, Dean Neal and his team at Kwinana Motorplex invited Steve Loader and Steve Nogas to bring their cars across.

On Friday night, UNLOAD and KILLA-B were set up as part of the elite display but on Saturday they went out and smashed tyres. Both of them put on killer displays, with Loader even creating his own fireworks. The massive crowd lapped it up and I think this will be a continuing theme for Motorvation.

I have to admit, moving the mega-screen down from the track into the pit area to create a ‘village green’ sounded kind of poofy to me but it turned out to be a fantastic idea. It meant you could still see the action on the track while you grabbed a bite to eat or just took a break out of the smoke.

The elite tent also housed the traders for the first time, and although it wasn’t as stinking hot as it can be in Perth in the middle of January, it was a welcome change for them.

It did mean fewer cars in the tent but everything was top notch. It was a nice mix too: street machines, muscle cars, hot rods and competition cars, with a couple of low riders thrown into the mix for good measure.

There was also a change in the timetable, with more action packed into Friday night so the event didn’t run so late on Sunday. It began with the Kewdale Tyres Pound The Ground burnout competition. Forty-seven cars lined up in the winner-takes-all competition and the contestants went for it big time.

Kewdale Tyres owner James Calway even entered his RAVIN Cortina but it dropped its guts catastrophically so it ended up costing him way more than the $1500 he handed over to big man Jason Foekens who put on a great smoke and fire show with his recently refreshed HT wagon.

For Saturday, huge crowds lined the track and they were entertained by some not so cruisy Supercruises. Motorvation is quite different to Summernats in this respect, as the cruise track is only open at certain times but you can go nuts when you’re on it and many people bang their tyres going through the Snakepit.

There’s cruising in the pits but that’s kept on a tight leash. A few people couldn’t wait to get out on the track and decided a big skid in the pits was a good idea — until they got turfed out.

Saturday also had the burnout qualifying, with the finals on Sunday arvo. There were 67 unblown and 20 blown cars registered, fighting for just 10 spots in each final, so the action was intense. The technique at the Snakepit seems to be to get a fast run-up, hook the car into a heli or three and — hopefully — keep it of the wall.

Nathan Hollis didn’t quite stick to that plan in his blown ’85 Sigma, dubbed TANK. On that third heli he backed it into the concrete wall and it broke it in half — the wall, not the car. But he didn’t pause for a second and just stood on it to put on a great show despite a very secondhand-looking bumper and boot area. It didn’t matter as it was covered in smoke and the crowd loved it. Still, he lost points for hitting the wall and didn’t make the final. Fair call, since the judging criteria call for car control, but man, it was still a great skid!

On Sunday there was Supercruise action and more driving events in the morning before the finalists hit the Snakepit for the burnout finals. Most of the competitors put on a show before the show, pulling big burnouts in front of the crowd while heading to the staging lane. It caught a couple of people out, however, with premature deflation — very embarrassing.

The open cars battled it out first, including a regular in the blown class: Justen Brown in what must be his family car. As you’d expect, he did a killer skid and narrowly missed out on the podium, finishing fourth to the impressive skid of Aaron Edmondson in his bright blue VN SS, SLIPP3RY.

With WONAGO in the blown finals, Justen had to get back to the pits in a hurry while Matt Purnell had to find a mate to drive TERRA to the staging lanes as he had qualified both that and his second car, BLACKOUT. In a first for the history books, Matt scored first and second places in the event, BLACKOUT being judged the best burnout, though not by much. In another massive achievement, Justen Brown finished third in the blown class.

It was a real testament to the quality and reliability of the cars, and the talents of the owners, to take them home in one piece. It was all done and dusted by about 3:30pm, leaving plenty of time to pack up and head home. The changes to the event seemed well received and judging by how well this went, I think next year’s going to be an absolute cracker.

GRAND CHAMP

Considering he wasn’t even meant to be at Motorvation, it turned out pretty well for Lennard Vidot.

“My partner is back in Colombia and I was meant to be with her but I couldn’t get anyone to look after my business [an Ultra Tune store] so I had to stay home. She said I should get the car finished, so I got stuck into in early December.”

It’s been a 10-year build but it still ended up being a mad rush: “A week out from Motorvation it didn’t have any trim or glass in it. We pulled an all-nighter on the Monday to get the trim in and I was bolting the bumper on as the car went on the tilt tray.

“Street Machine is the Bible to me. If I didn’t have enough money to buy it as a kid I would go to the shop and read it until the shopkeeper told me to get lost! Back then it was all about 454s, so that’s what the car had to have,” Lennard says.

The billet blower and mechanical injection don’t hurt either and the Spicey Orange paint — a 2003 Mazda colour — looked killer out in the sun.

GROUND POUNDER

On Friday night a new event was added to the Motorvation schedule: the Kewdale Tyres Pound The Ground competition. It’s a winner-takes-all burnout event with $1500 and a big-arse trophy up for grabs. Taking home the loot was Jason Foekens in his revamped HT wagon.

Apart from the new paint, courtesy of Gas 78 Industries, the car also headed to Rollin’ Industries for tubs and a heap of other work, while the interior copped a complete retrim.

Powering the smoke machine is a screaming 400-cuber put together by George Separovich.

“I went from carbs and pump fuel to methanol, injection and a magneto. We’re still working on the fuel system to get it just right and we only had 10lb of boost in it. Next time we go out we’ll put 20 in it!”
If you’re keen to see BLWNWGN in action, the next chance will be at Gazzanats WA, down in Collie on 9-10 March.

DOUBLE WHAMMY

In what must be a first in any burnout competition anywhere, Matt Purnell not only qualified two cars but also won the competition and finished second!

“It was never a good idea to bring two cars,” he said — but that was before he went out and put on two killer skids for the appreciative crowd.

Matt’s well-known for his two-tone ute, TERRA, but he recently bought George Separovich’s NUTTER and renamed it BLACKOUT.

“The injection is so radical compared to the carbies — the response is instant. It’s a 454 that’s been destroked to around 440 cubes and I spin it to 8000rpm,” Matt says.

With 2.7 gears in the diff, that works out to around 280km/h at the wheels. No wonder it looks like a bushfire when he hits the Snakepit!

HIGHLIGHTS:

1. If there was a Sleeper Of The Year award, Wayne Smith’s XL Falcon would have to be a contender.

The mild-looking four-door packs a few more cubes and quite a bit more plumbing than your standard Falcon Futura. Super Pursuit indeed.

2. When the 317kW of your VE GTS isn’t enough, why not put on a blower and injection? That’s what Tony Mazzitelli did.

There’s no old-school small-block under there either; that Littlefield pump is bolted to a stroked LS2 but sadly it had a bit of a mechanical issue just before Motorvation, so we didn’t get to see it in action.

3. Look under the bonnet of John Plati’s classy HQ coupe and you’ll spy a very nicely detailed 6.0l LS2 featuring throttlebody injection controlled by a MoTeC M800 ECU.

The Edelbrock rocker covers hide the coil packs so at first glance it looks like a traditional carby small-block. Clever!

4. Dave Morgan’s XW GT was doing some mighty fine skids in the Snakepit during the Supercruises and looked mighty fine doing it, too.

5. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a lower Statesman than Daniel Scafidi’s HZ. Bagged but with a little too much air cleaner sticking out of the bonnet, as Daniel copped a canary just after Motorvation. I’m sure Mr Plod didn’t love the deep-dish Simmons as much as we did either.

6. They don’t get much sharper than Darren Rowe’s ’57 Chevy Bel Air Sport Sedan, which does well in the judging wherever it goes. This year Darren added Best Paint and Body Work, Best Sedan and a Top 10 plate to his ever-expanding collection of tinware.