DARWIN bloke Troy David became the fourth Red CentreNATS Grand Champion in 2018, behind the wheel of his twin-turbo FJ Holden ute, PRIMED.

Troy left the FJ at home this year and cruised down in this stunning HG Monaro, a car that actually belongs to one of his three daughters.

“My father-in-law bought the Monaro for my daughter Alicia,” says Troy. “We got it 11 years ago and it looks fairly similar to how it does now! The paint is 20 years old.”

What Troy has changed, is the driveline. “The Monaro now has the running gear that we had in the FJ before we went LSX,” he says. “It is a 410-cube small block. It makes around 660hp normally aspirated. When we were racing it in the FJ, it had a 400hp nitrous shot as well, but now we have a smaller kit on it, just for the looks.”

Other mods include an Alfa Fiberglass scoop to contain the mill and a set of Wilwood brakes to pull the car up.

“We might take it out in the street drags tomorrow, but this car isn’t about racing,” says Troy. “It is something tough to cruise in. I don’t want to cut this car up, just do bolt-in mods. Our next plan is to fit a stack-injected sprintcar motor that makes around 850hp. I’ll fit a SCF front end and beef up the diff, but that is all reversible.

“Red CentreNATS is great. Our favourite part is the Street Parade, the whole town gets behind it. There are a lot of different cars that we haven’t seen before this year, which is awesome.”