First published in the January 2005 issue of Street Machine

You might find it hard to believe, but this gorgeous EH Pro Streeter is a genuine, 100 per cent, street-driven car. We spent three days with BAD EH, first watching it crawl happily in CBD traffic on a cruise night. The next day we followed it all over Auckland’s suburbs, finding just the right location for our photoshoot. We came back for some more shots a few days later, only to find owner Alan Norris busily cleaning a mess of bugs from the front of the car, the result of a weekend jaunt in the country. Heck, he even drove the car 3000km from Auckland to Christchurch for the Muscle Car Madness show last January, with the paint barely dry.

For all you Aussie readers muttering in disbelief, this is possible because New Zealand has some pretty cool rego laws. Blowers, wheel tubs and rollcages are all legal as lemonade, as long as you build a safe car within the guidelines.

Alan’s car is not only legal and street sweet, but is a car of exquisite build quality. On that first trip to Christchurch the car received awards for Rodder’s Choice and Top 10. And as you read this, Alan and his girlfriend, Kim, continue to collect awards everywhere they go.

On top of that, BAD EH is genuinely fast, as Alan has pedalled the blown small-block to a best of 11.00sec at Champion Dragway.

So why go for an EH? Alan says he gets asked that question a lot. “I like the lines and the styling. I wanted something different and I also wanted the best.”

Not only has he succeeded in creating the best, but his car raises the bar in the Kiwi street machine scene. Thanks to this car, gone are the days when simply dropping a warmed-over V8 under the hood of a Holden or Falcon would turn heads.

It also represents a change because, up until now, American iron and street rods have traditionally been the cars that top-end car builders have chosen to modify. Alan knows that in terms of resale value, it would have been smarter to build a ’57 Chev but he wanted to make an impact. Early Holdens with Pro Street style may be reasonably common in Australia, but they are downright rare in NZ!

It was after a trip to Summernats 14 that Alan started to firm up his vision for the EH. This is a car where the various threads of street rod fit and finish, drag race drivetrains and suspension, and Australian street machine intertwine.

Terry Bowden of Terry’s Chassis Shoppe was responsible for the trick engineering. He created the Pro Street-styled back half by rolling up some wheel tubs and narrowing the Ford nine-inch. Those 11-sec ETs were with leaf springs and Cal Trac bars too.

Terry also bent up the rollcage which ties everything together and extends through the firewall to keep the front of the EH in the same plane as the rear.

In keeping with the tough but show-quality theme, Alan purchased a blown 355 small-block Chevy from an altered drag car. Terry was called upon again to fabricate two-inch primary headers from the Brodix heads into a dual three-inch system, incorporating Flowmasters.

All the aluminium on the engine was polished to a high lustre while steel was chrome plated. No expense was spared on the engine; the build-sheet features fully worked alloy heads with polished ports and a multi-angle valve job, roller cam, steel crank, BDS blower components and an MSD ignition.

You’d think a race car engine on the street would be totally impractical, while the tubbed rear end would just be undriveable. However, Alan’s EH is more than the sum of its parts and the result is a blown, tubbed, slick, great-sounding street car that starts first time, idles like a kitten and is as driveable as a brand-new, stock-standard car.

The EH stays cool in town thanks to a full-width radiator equipped with twin electric fans yet it lights the tyres at the drop of the hat. As Alan’s not afraid of stomping on the go pedal, the rear bags don’t have a long life expectancy. And despite the undercarriage being finished as beautifully as the top, he’s not worried about covering it in a thick layer of molten rubber!

The driveability comes courtesy of a sorted transmission set-up: a fully manualised Hughes TH350 with a 3000rpm stall and B&M Quicksilver shifter. The EH has plenty of attitude and the wheel and tyre combination adds spice. The 15×4 and 15×12 Weld Racing wheels are wrapped in 165×15 Michelins at the sharp end and 29×15.5 Mickey Thompson Sportsmans out back.

But despite the tough attitude and scorching soundtrack from the blown donk, it’s the attention to detail that keeps bringing you back: the mirror-finish on the inside of the all-steel front clip, the polished stainless radiator support panel, the brushed alloy interior door pulls. Sharp-eyed Holden purists will also notice that this EH has five horizontal grille bars in place of the original three. And then there’s the customised dashboard which utilises a factory-style cluster — updated with Auto Meter gauges to complement the race-bred Auto Meter tacho.

Everywhere you look, small details grab you, like the rear seat between the tubs, styled after the front Recaros. Trimmed by Stitches Upholstery the rear seat was sorted for Alan’s daughter, Courtenay, so it’s not just a daily driver, it’s also a car for the whole family.

Kelly and the team at Stitches were also responsible for the trick tan leather trim and wool carpet. Meanwhile, popping the boot open reveals race-bred components like a Jaz fuel cell and Barry Grant fuel system, along with swaged steel tubs with tan leather accents — that’s what we mean by detailing.

In Alan’s quest for the best EH Holden in the land, he stumbled upon a real cherry example with 84,000 original miles on the odometer. He pestered the owner for years as he needed the doors and front guards to replace the tattier ones on his car. Finally the owner agreed to sell and as fast as the deal was done, the doors and front panels were off, primered and bolted on to BAD EH. Yup, primer — Alan had the car running in black primer, initially.

All sounds too easy, doesn’t it? Well, like any car builder, Alan had his share of problems, the worst being engine detonation at the drags. It turned out that the harmonic balancer had moved on the crank and the timing was reset with too much advance.

However, it’s thanks to that problem that BAD EH looks so good. It was while the engine was out at Murray Smith’s Papakura Engine Specialists for a rebuild that Alan thought about turning the car into what you see here. That meant a full bare-metal respray, in custom-mixed Richard Petty Blue, by Greenpark Panel and Paint. Alan borrowed a rotisserie and scraped and sanded the underside before the first coat of primer was laid down. From there, a further seven months of block-sanding went into getting everything straight.

Like with any deadline, as the big trip south drew near Alan had all hands on deck to get the EH finished but he refused to compromise on quality. Having improved the looks and performance, he didn’t ignore the brakes and specified Wilwood stoppers up front, another installation he entrusted to Terry Bowden. To keep the tidy lines, the brake booster and master cylinder are hidden under the dash. All the plumbing in the engine bay uses braided lines and anodised fittings to keep it looking trick, while brackets and fasteners copped an HPC ceramic polished alloy coating for looks and durability.

BAD EH is testimony to one man’s vision, dedication and perseverance. Alan wanted the best EH Holden in New Zealand, but he ended up building the best street machine in the process. Will we ever see it in Australia, to compete with the best of the best at Summernats? Let’s hope so!

Bitchin’ stitchin’

Kelly O’Donnell and his capable crew at Stitches Upholstery were behind the outstanding interior in Alan’s EH but it’s far from their first show star. Remember Robyn Watkin’s luscious red ’56 Chevy (SM, May ’03)? What about Neil and Pam Baker’s bagged ’57 Buick (SM, May ‘04)? They stitched those award-winning cars too. The tan leather with sculpted door panels and rollcage-hugging hoodliner is as up-to-date as you can find. Kelly and his crew went right out of their way working overtime to ensure Alan would be travelling on time and in style to Muscle Car Madness in Christchurch.

Alan Norris
1963 EH Holden Premier