Jim McLaren’s ENVIE HQ took out RCN Champion, but damn if Red CentreNATS 11 didn’t also bring out the wild, weird and wonderful to the arid desert plains. We’ve got a list of faves a mile long, but here is the best of the rest – an unofficial RCN 11 Top 10. Plus one!

As festivities came to a close at RCN 11, Dr Elephant and DJ Nicko took to the stage to drop some doof as entrants and spectators alike had a bit of a boogie at the Lasseters Podium Party Concert. It gave us time to pause and have a think about our standouts. Not necessarily the best, but the stuff that made us go, ‘hmmm!’ with surprise and delight.

Joe Thring
Holden VF ute ‘ORNATE’

Joe bagged Top Engine Bay despite half the motor standing well proud of the bonnet, Top Undercarriage and Engineered, and has modest plans to hit the burnout pad soon in one of the best presented modern Commos in the land. We’d like to tell him not to do it, but equally, we want him to send it.

Tom Gilfedder
Six-banger Subaru Impreza WRX

Tom hit up the Dirt Drags, making his grotty purple WRX even grottier as the weekend went on. We heard anecdotally that it might be running a flat-six, which is wild. What’s even wilder is he competed hard in the AWD section of the Dirt Drags, then won the 2WD section of the same event, in the same car. He also nabbed runner up in the motorkhana.

David Cufone
Chevrolet Caprice cop car

We first spotted this (admittedly Chevrolet) Bluesmobile leading off the Yeperenye Street Parade, and it sent my personal vehicle identification file into meltdown. I’d seen it somewhere before… in 1993, back when it was a Movie World prop. Seems it escaped the clutches of Warner Bros to come runner-up in the 2WD section of the dirt drags.

Hayden Phipps
Suzuki Mighty Boy ‘SHIFTED’

Hayden Phipps’ tiny ute certainly shifted my head. It looks positively hilarious on the burnout pad but seeing it casually lumping down the street of the Yeperenye Street Parade is something else again. The fact that wild, V8-swapped kei utes get a go on the streets of Alice is one of the greatest things about RCN.

Dean Tassone
Dodge Rampage

It took about 45 seconds to identify it, but I had it sussed. “Hey mate, is this a Dodge Rampage?” I asked one of the crew. He just stared at me and replied, “You are the only person who has ever got it right.” BOOOM. Only built from 1982 to 1984, it runs a 436ci Mopar monster; a far cry from the 2.2 litre FWD the Jumbuck-like ute packed from factory.

Tim Blazely
Holden LX Torana SS

Tuxedo black is a fairly rare choice on a Holden. The colour was available here and there for years, but without much fanfare outside of the VC HDTs, yet here we have a factory Tuxedo black SS Torana hatch. I checked the plate; it’s true blue black. A beautiful, faithful resto set off by a set of classic Simmons V5s that rightfully snagged Tim Blazely one of two Elite Judging Top 10 awards.

Jim Guckert
Valiant VH/CH Charger

Jim Guckert moved here from the States in the early 1980s and immediately bought himself a CH Chrysler by Chrysler. After 10 years of hard driving, he replaced it with a VH Charger, totally CH-ifying with bits from his big CxC sedan. It remains his daily, was painted by his daughter, has more gauges than a 747 and generates nearly as much power from the triple-carbed 410-cube small block.

Peter Coles
Holden LX Torana hatch

Peter Coles nailed the 7-second Heavy Hitters class at Alice Springs Inland Dragway on Saturday night, putting away Matt Able’s ’57 Chev by a bee’s franger in the final for the second year in a row. Champagne racing.

Lee Povey
Holden VL Calais

Lee has given the RCN Champion chase a fair shake over the years but bowed out this year to focus on the drags. His efforts were not unrewarded, as an 8.043 at 294.68km/h sealed the deal over SA’s Anthony Raschella.

Sam Wakefield
1952 Chevrolet ute

If you’ve ever felt like you were drowning in Coke – not Tony Montana-style – but Coca Cola-style, then Sam’s ute is the embodiment. The effervescent load hauler fizzed into the Street Top 10, received Top Custom and was the Top Club Entrant for the local Aces & Eights car club. 

Sean Basford and Julie Pfennig
Toyota RA40 Celica 

Adelaide’s Sean Basford and Julie Pfennig rocked up in a replica of Peter Williamson’s 1981 Bathurst Toyota Celica. Built on a budget and thrashed together at the last minute, Sean hit the Motorkhana and the Dirt Drags in his immaculately turned out Toyota. Sure, it’s missing both a Racecam and an actual cam, but believe it or not, the Simmons are from the original car.

This Top 10…er… Top 11 only just scratches the surface of all that was wild at RCN 11. To all the guys and girls we chatted to, harassed for photographs and interviewed for gory details, you are not forgotten, and all found a place in our motoring hearts. We love featuring the odd desert-based machine, for we only venture here around once a year, and the Eastern staters can’t have all the limelight. 

Big congrats to Jim McLaren, Anton Duval and team for the beautiful and well-deserving ENVIE HQ Monaro GTS that won this year’s Champion chase, and everyone else who managed to get their wheels there – from near and far – to make LMCT+ Red CentreNATS the amazing event that it is.