WITH the hard borders still in place for WA and a requirement for all people entering the Perth Motorplex to be double-vaccinated, the entrant and crowd numbers definitely took a hit for the 36th instalment of Motorvation, but there was still plenty of cool stuff to check out if you did make the effort to get down there this year, regardless of what you were into.

If shiny stuff is your thing, then the Elite Tent had some amazing new builds, with everything from over-the-top lowriders to corner carving Pro Tourers and a few unexpected builds in between. The unveil cars were a perfect example of the diverse styles that abound in the scene at the moment.

I’m fairly certain that no one – at any point in the history of Motorvation – would have put money on the fact that anyone would hot up a Suzuki Mighty Boy, let alone build it to such a level that it would be crowned Grand Champion. If you were hiding under a rock this last weekend, then go and check out your social media feed and you’ll no doubt be inundated with images and videos of this crazy little machine built by Simon Birch.

The diversity was abundantly clear when you turned to look at the car parked alongside Simon’s Dove Grey Mighty Boy. Frank Ricceli’s ’67 Camaro RS was a no-expense-spared build that featured a twin-turbo 427ci SBC, mile-deep Candy Coke paint and a full custom leather interior.

It was a similar theme with the other two cars unveiled this year, Joe Veveer’s ’66 Impala has undergone a major restyle, with a completely new interior and colour change, although he did keep all of the amazing airbrush work across the top of the car.

Directly in front of Joe’s lowrider was the HQ GTS Monaro of Simon White, which probably got the biggest cheer during the unveil show. With its custom candy green paintjob, big and little Weld wheels and tough-as-nails 427ci SBC from Blown Motorsports, it’s easy to see its mass appeal.

The true test of mass appeal is the People’s Choice award, and to be honest, the winner was a bit of a surprise to me. I thought the Mighty Boy, or perhaps the HQ would have been front runners, but it was the ’64 Impala of John Royce that took home the coveted award. Over the last few years John has added more and more engraved details to the car, to the point where it’s hard to find a shiny metal surface that hasn’t been touched.

That extends to the door hinges, shifter handle, even the brake and accelerator pedals. The major change was a brand-new chassis built by House of Low that has all of the lowrider tricks that allow John to get the car up on three wheels and pull all of those tricks most of have only seen on music videos.

With the event back to three days for the first time in a number of years, Sunday’s events focused on the driving events for the elite cars – and a very entertaining show was put on by all the contestants – and of course, the burnout finals. With the reduced numbers, it felt like there was a bit more quality over quantity this year, with the finals limited to just 10 spots in each of the three classes; Sportsman, Open and Pro.

It’s definitely been a tough couple of years for the Motorvation and Summernats teams, so a big thanks to all the hard-working volunteers that helped put the event on this year. Tickets are already on sale for next year, so get in early for some smoking deals on entrant prices, and let’s all plan for a massive show next year when should be back to some kind of normalcy.

Dwane Pallentine in PEPER IT was the first to hit the pad for the Pro Class finals and he put on a display that looked like it would be hard to beat. The speed and aggression that he brings to the pad is up there with the best in the country and the bright orange Torrie is always beautifully presented and always on song. That Google Tune app is really working out for him.

Brett Pearson and VYNOT put on yet another killer show that wasn’t too far behind Pallentine’s effort. The BYE Performance crew can always be relied on to bring the noise and the smoke and a whole lot of aggression to the pad.

Chris Orchard in THE GAME brought all of the revs and his A-game to the Snakepit in his brand-new Dodge NASCAR-powered VH SL/E Commodore. Considering this was his first time out in the car, it was monumental effort to get on the podium against some very tough competition. While the blown cars are amazing, there’s nothing quite like naturally aspirated V8 revving well past 8000rpm.

One of my favourite cars in the burnouts was the HZ pano of Ronny Harvey’s. Powered by a 540ci BBC with a Fisher blower and injector topped by an Enderle bird catcher hat, the mechanically injected, magneto-equipped monster was pure old school. To me it just seemed like the car had a story to tell, and as it turns out, it did. This is actually the first car to perform a burnout at the Motorplex when owned by Maurice Hamersley of Kwinana Performance. Watch the video, trust me, it’s one of the greatest things you’ll ever see.

Justin Pitsikas and REFINED didn’t make the finals due to having a failure with the fly-by-wire throttle during qualifying. The BYE Performance crew got the problem sorted overnight and Justin went out for a demo skid after the finals were run. It was all looking good, but a header tank for the cooling system split and sprayed coolant all over the windscreen and put an end to the show.

MOTORVATION 36 BURNOUT RESULTS

PRO

1st: Dwane Pallentine – PEPER IT

2nd: Brett Pearson – VYNOT

3rd: Chris Orchard – THE GAME

OPEN

1st: John Castrianni – NACOTIK

2nd: Michael Donnelly – SYCO MOTH

3rd: Mitchell Marshall – LIL-JOHNNY

SPORTSMAN

1st: Tristhan Bruce Powers – EBLUBLY

2nd: Jack Alfirevich – AUGASM

3rd: Nathan Atkinson – DIRTYED