Everyone knows Peter ‘Flinty’ Flint, the man behind the gas mask, the firesuit, the camera and the Flinty460 YouTube channel, which brings us all the killer burnout footage from around the country. Because he’s not already busy enough doing that plus running his business and looking after his family, Flinty also organised the High Grade Mechanical West Coast Nats over a couple of days in September at the Perth Motorplex.

The city had been having the winter that kept on giving, with windy and wet forecasts the norm rather than the exception right through September. Thankfully, the rain held off for the most part, with one small shower halting proceedings at one point. With heavy rain forecast for right when the burnout finals were meant to happen, Flinty did some quick thinking and rejigged the schedule to ensure the competition went ahead. They got through all the cars in the nick of time, finishing with a couple of killer demo skids from Chris ‘Ballistic’ Orchard in GAMEOVER and Flinty himself in OLDHOON just as the heavens opened.

It’s always great when the traders get into the spirit of things, as Anthony Crocker from Repco did, bringing along his stock-as-a-rock EH ute – although he did admit it was lowered a bit. The old workhorse was restored quite a few years ago but still looked remarkable, even though it may well have been the most underpowered car there!

Denis Groombridge has always dreamt of owning a ’57 Chev Bel Air Sports Coupe, but you’ve gotta start somewhere, so he found this cool 150 sedan that still sports the original six-banger, three-on-the-tree and is still left-hand-drive, which made for a pretty serious learning curve when he first started driving it. He brought the whole family along to enjoy the fun. (L-R) Bossden, Jess, Em-Jae and Denis.

The engine bay in Nathan Scott’s VY Clubby looks pretty cool with its finned rocker covers and big single turbo. The LS2 runs on E85 and gets the boost from a GTX45, while forged internals make sure everything stays together to put 900hp through the T400. The four-inch single exhaust and all the fab work was executed beautifully by Ovaboost.

I spotted some clever recycling of Bundy and Coke cans on Daniel West’s B&S-inspired SHITSNGIGS ute. He finished third in the Six-Cylinder class and smashed plenty of tyres over the course of the weekend.

The Rambler Hornet formerly known as HORNUT has a new name, a new engine combo, and a new owner, Kevin Mason: “It’s now called FIRE BUG, because it was all burnt when I got it.” The car previously ran a blown SBC but now has an LS1 on methanol with Aeroflow EFI backed up by a T400 and 9in. It was Kevin’s first time skidding the car, but it looks like he’s already got the hang of it

Jason Tanian threw the keys to KENOATH to a mate of his and let him cut loose on the Snakepit during one of the cruise sessions in the screaming Clevo-powered XD ute. He took the keys back when it was time to compete in the Open class and put on a master class, taking the win and showing all those young bucks how it’s done.

Nick Ierino got bored with running his car naturally aspirated, so he bolted on the massive 3.4L Whipple and twin carbs and got busy having fun and vaporising tyres in his stunning HZ. You can find the full story on this car here.

Chris Barrie’s EF Falcon drew me in with its rather interesting-looking induction set-up. The car had previously run a triple throttlebody set-up, but Chris decided to get creative and mounted a Shelby blower on the 4.0-litre, which is fitted with a Stage IV cam, while BF injectors and fuel rail supply the juice. The blower sits atop a fabbed plenum that bolts to the stock lower intake.

It’s always good to see SM feature cars out and about, and even better when their owners are giving them a good hiding. Max Phillips isn’t afraid of getting rubber all over his ’74 Dodge Dart, which isn’t too hard when you’re running 500 cubes of Mopar big-block. Read all about it here.

Tom Hyndman only just finished his Tonner, which he built up after purchasing it as a painted cab. Although he’s had plenty of Commodores before, this is his first steel-bumper car, but it’s got a few modern tricks up its sleeve. It runs an L98 with forged internals, Terminator X ECU and a Hughes Racing Powerglide. It has VE SS seats trimmed in leather, and the REDRUM plates are a tribute to his favourite move, The Shining.

You don’t get much tougher than Aaron Deery’s jet black HQ. Stuffed with over 600 cubes of blown big-block Chevy power built by Aaron himself, it was making pretty short work of a pretty nice set of tyres – no sacrificial stockies on the back for this baby!

With a screaming BNR Engines blown big-block up front, it really was GAMEOVER for the rear tyres on the Audio Image VF. With Chris ‘Ballistic’ Orchard at the wheel, the black beast put on some killer demo skids and ironed out a few small teething problems in the process. This one will be a serious contender on the burnout scene.

Lauren Youngs loves taking it right up to the boys on the burnout pad in her pink metalflake BF Tonner aptly named CARSTR8R. As you can tell by the massive smile on her dial, Lauren was loving every second of this skid.

Winner of the Six-Cylinder class was Dayne Bairstow in HAVEAGO. His Barra-powered Falcon ute has a rear track narrow enough to give Clint Ogilvie a run for his money, but obviously it works just fine.

Daniel Prowse’s ratty looking VC wagon is much more attractive up close, with a methanol-slurping L98 with worked heads, Victor Jr intake and 750 Holley carb, backed by a T400 and 9in. With fab work by Black Magic Race Cars, the front end is a mix of VC with VS lower arms and VX brakes.

Dwane Pallentine hit the pad for a demo skid on Friday and put on an amazing show, with high entry speeds, lots of noise and lots of smoke. Unfortunately, a stripped blower belt put an end to the party during Saturday’s comp. The beautifully presented Torrie always looks stunning on the pad, especially when the sun bounces off that pearl orange paint. Here he is at Summernats setting the pad on fire.

After wowing everyone at Summernats 33 a couple years ago, this was Kevin Mantach’s first serious hit-out with his stunning ’50 Chevy coupe. The military-themed sled is full of amazing fabrication and neat details, but was essentially built to skid. And skid it he did, putting on a very impressive and aggressive show. All the gory details can be found here.

Glen Taylor always puts on a killer show with BARK. The blown single-cam screamer had a propensity for spitting out gearboxes, but an Allfast Turbo 400 seems to have solved the problem. How’s it go? Built Ford tough with Chevy stuff?

Daniel Catalano had a good weekend in BLOWN40, his BNR Engines-powered shorty 40. He took the win on the Friday night comp and finished third in the Blown class. Some changes to the front suspension really helped out in the steering department, and he put on a fantastic show every time he hit the pad.

One of the top performers across the weekend was Jamie Ball’s SHITTORQUER. The 427-cube LSX has PRC heads, Plazmaman manifold, billet 6/71 BDS blower and a JBR carbon hat. The dry sump is all hidden away in the back and the combo makes 800hp at the tyres with just 10psi of boost. A super sano engine bay and custom interior round out this tough and tidy tyre killer.

Aiden Wernik recently purchased Stephen Molson’s ute, formerly known as CRUD, slapped on his PUNTER plates and proceeded to beat up on the rough looking old girl. Truth be told, the car underwent a full rebuild and the rusty Sandman finish is a vinyl wrap. Smoke effects are courtesy of a dry sumped LS2 topped with an 8/71 TBS high-helix blower, Thunder Road carbon hat and backed by a Reid-case ’Glide.

Darran Williams was competing with a bit of battle damage in the ever-popular DIESEL. The 395-cuber features Trick Flow Clevo heads on a Dart SHP Windsor block. It’s also dry sumped and back to being naturally aspirated, for now. “You can’t beat the look of blowers hanging out of the bonnet,” said Darran, who still managed to take the win in the Blown class (which allows people to enter with unblown cars, in case you were wondering).

As the rain started to come down again at the end of the night, the man, the myth, the legend, Flinty himself hit the pad to round out the event. On a very damp and very slippery surface, Flinty went halfway to Rockingham before turning OLDHOON around, ripping the pad a new one, and smashing both sets. The perfect ending to a top event.

Results – West Coast Nats 2021

BLOWN

• Darran Williams – DIESEL
• Aiden Wernik – PUNTER
• Daniel Catalano – BLOWN40
• Brett Pearson – VYNOT
• Matt Hughes – MON5TA
• Andrew Corlett – AGROGEM

OPEN

• Jason Tanian – KENOATH
• Kevin Capelinha – CHUBBY WPN
• Joshua Liebeck – NOTORIOUS
• Gavin Van Breukelen – FLACCID
• Stephen O’Brien – QUP4THIS

SIX-CYLINDER

• Dayne Bairstow – HAVEAGO
• Tristhan Powers – EBLUBLYkevin
• Daniel West – SHITSNGIGS
• Zac Giles – AU DEADLY
• Luke Hall – SLUNT

BEST TIP-IN

• Brett Pearson – VYNOT
• Brad Owens – BLOWN E
• Matt Owens – EVYL SS

BEST WHEELWORK

• Joshua Liebeck – NOTORIOUS

PROMOTER’S CHOICE

• Kevin Mantach – FIFTY
• Aaron Deery – IM ON
• Lachlan Horn – APEX
• William Mcfarlane – MOODSWING
• Tim Astone – XGS-000