Matt Kemp surprised his wife Angela with a freshly-built, LS3-powered LX hatch drag car for their 10th anniversary, even though she had never raced before. And now, within just six months Angela is running low eight-second passes! Here, Matt gives a brief summary of the secret six month build.

First published in the September 2024 issue of Street Machine

“Thought I’d send in some pics and info on my wife Angela’s LX hatch, which was my present to her for our 10th wedding anniversary. I wanted to build her a drag car as a surprise, and a mate of mine in Sydney mentioned he had an LX hatch he wanted to get rid of, so we did the deal and the car was transported back home to Perth.

“From there, we had six months to secretly build it into a radial weapon. Lundy and Ned at Reaper Performance then hooked into the build. We had an LS3 fitted with a ported LSA blower, along with Holley EFI and a full rewire.

“Other additions included a PTC converter; new Gazzard Brothers shocks to suit radials; new steering column, dash, seats, Funny Car rollcage, CO2 shifter and parachute release; re-bushed suspension; and Billet Specialties wheels.

“The team at Alfa Motorsport Fibreglass whipped up a new bonnet in record time, as they knew the car was an anniversary present. It then went to Jeff at Power Management Solutions for dyno tuning. We got it all done with about two days to spare until our anniversary.

“Leading up to it, I told Angela that a bloke from Sydney had been building a drag car for his wife, and as she was about the same height, the guys wanted to know if she could do a couple of test laps down the track so they could get some data, because none of them would fit. She gave me an odd look but said yes, and off we went.

“She did a run, came back into the pits, and I handed her the keys! Six months later, the LX is now running low eight-second passes, with a best of 8.33@161mph – and driven by a lady who had never drag-raced in her life before we asked her to do that ‘test run’ back in January!”