Tonacia Long talks about her golden Holden Premier.

“MY GREAT grandfather had the first Holden dealership in Cloncurry, so Holdens have been in the family for a long time.”

This article on Tonacia’s Holden Premier was originally published in the July 2017 issue of Street Machine

“Before the Premier I had a one-tonner, but it wasn’t big enough for the family, so I sold it to buy the HT as a cruiser. I’m its third owner and I’ve had it for about eight years now.

It was 100 per cent original when I bought it, but the 186 wasn’t going to cut it, so we put in a 383ci small-block Chev, Turbo 350 transmission and a nine-inch diff.

It had to go fast but I wanted to focus on torque, which is what we built the motor for. It’s a great cruiser with plenty of grunt that’s awesome to drive; I can drive it to the track and run 10 or more passes, then drive it home.

My PB is 12.23, and my partner has run 11.87 in it. This year we’ve upgraded the transmission to a manualised reverse-pattern ’box, and added a new fuel system, which has helped with the times at the track.

My partner is a coachbuilder and we have another project on the go at the moment, so once that’s sorted we’ll strip the HT and give it some love!”