Photographers: Tim McCormack, Chris Thorogood & Shaun Tanner

Street Machine Summernats 36 is gearing up to be a corker!

We headed to the massive new scrutineering zone at GIO Stadium to check out some of the new and returning coolness.

Reece Regan’s normally schmick ‘ADHD’ HR burnout ute looked a bit underdressed with a
junk pile bonnet, but it was enough to get him through scrutineering. He’s got a proper
fibreglass unit in the works, so stay tuned!

Iron Maiden Lorella Burns’s XW wagon has some fresh, if not sacrilegious power. Hubby
Anthony has plonked an LS1 into the bay, disguising it with Ford rocker covers. “I had a Ford
air cleaner on it but it wouldn’t fit under the bonnet,” he laughs. “I got somebody at the servo
with it yesterday!” It’s entered in Harry Haig’s upcoming Hardass 1000 drag-and-drive in March.

Don’t be fooled, Barney’s XY-looking pano was born an XR! It served as an RACQ service
vehicle before the rear quarters and tail end were updated in 1972. “I found it in Crow’s Nest
in a shed; it still had the 200-cube log motor in it,” he explains. “They’d done a good job [with
the conversion], but I didn’t like it being two different cars at the front and back.”

After bolting the XY front on, Barney slotted in a tough 434 Dart-blocked Clevor combo, paired to a TH400 and Mark Williams-built floater. It’s run an 8.90-second quarter with nitrous in his FUCOPA Falcon sedan. He debuted the van earlier this year at his native event, Powercruise Queensland, having thrashed to finish it on the Friday and Saturday, sending it to 360s down the main straight in the Dream Team session. “It was pretty cool,” he grins.

Summernats is a longstanding family tradition for Brett Carlton, having first visited when he
was just six days old! He built this rad Monaro with his dad over six years, which now runs a
Harrop-blown LS, Powerglide and nine-inch. “It’s been a long process in the making, Brett
says. “I’ve sort of kept the tradition going; my son was one day old when I first brought him
here!”

Mark Thornton’s tough-AF Blue Meanie tribute is making its event debut. “I bought it from a
bloke who restored it three or four years ago,” he explains, “it was an original 308 car.” The
Calais now packs a 428 cubes of blown, Warspeed-built Dart LS, paired to a TH400 and
nine-inch. “It’s set up for roll racing, Drag Challenge, and all that stuff,” he enthuses.

“It’s got a Nexus R5 that controls everything.” Mark’s owned a few blown Kingswoods a but admits
he’s always had a soft spot for VKs, and if you ask us he’s made a pretty strong first
impression on the Commodore world with this one!

You couldn’t miss Deni Dave’s Cannonball Run ZF Fairlane! It’s a thing stacked with period custom work and oodles of history, so check out his rundown and much more in the video below, thanks to Hare & Forbes Machinery House.

We’ll be bringing you heaps more ‘Nats 36 content soon! Burnouts start today, and tonight will see the covers pulled off two dozen epic new builds.