First published in Street Machine’s 2021 Yearbook
Best Street Machine special features 2003-2019
Once we dusted off the archives and started compiling our list of the best feature yarns to have appeared in Street Machine for the special 400th issue, we quickly realised that we wouldn’t have the room to run all the great stuff we found. So here we continue the journey, beginning in 2003 and going right through until 2019. We hope you enjoy this trawl through some of the mag’s greatest moments.
2003
BOB’S BEERS & BURNOUTS
JULY 2003
The first in a series of yarns featuring photo essays by Simon Davidson on private burnout parties. This one was the third event run by Bob Nicholls on his 7000-acre farm, located somewhere in the Riverina.
The skids were held inside Bob’s hayshed, where Davo shot the iconic ‘House of Pain’ cover image for the mag. Arby worked his magic on the prose.
2003
DESERT STORM
DECEMBER 2003
Years before Red CentreNATS, the Ultimate Aussie Supercruise saw groups of hotties travel from almost every capital city in the land out to Alice Springs for one hell of a cool gathering that included drag racing, participation in the Henley on Todd Regatta and cruising through epic landscapes.
Among the flock was Rod and Carol Hadfield in their Hemi-powered ’22 roadster and Drag Challenge madman Noel Inman in his infamous Tall T.
2004
SMOKE RING
SEPTEMBER 2004
Yours truly accompanied Davo on his next visit to a private burnout event, this time in The Compound, a firmly locked Shepparton industrial unit, which served as an antidote to the over-policing of Springnats.
The quality of cars was next-level, including a NASCAR-powered XD, a big-block EK Holden (which was later reborn as a very cool Drag Challenge contender) and a blown, stick-shift XB GT coupe.
The night ended with a tired six-pot VK Commodore being treated to an impromptu roof chop and one final skid before it met oblivion.
2006
ADULTS ONLY
SEPTEMBER 2006
The last of our trio of invite-only burnout event yarns saw Davo and Seddo return to The Compound to witness the absolute peak of mayhem, including a Sigma forklifted onto a hapless Commodore, chained for security, skidded to failure, then chopped up with axes.
Sharp eyes would spot Harry Haig’s blown XR ute in action, three years before it took the big money at the very first Ultimate Burnout Challenge.
2009
GO WEST
MARCH 2009
At Street Machine Summernats 21, Damien Lowe took out Top Street Overall in his famously never-trailered VB Commodore, before moving up to Elite status at ’Nats 22.
Nine days later, Damien was driving CHU88Y across the Nullarbor with our man Adam Morrissey and a couple of mates riding shotgun. The multi-award-winning VB completed the 8000km round trip with ease and won Top Sedan, Top 10 and Longest Distance Travelled at Motorvation in Perth.
TRIPPING WITH TROY
MARCH 2009
Troy Trepanier was a star attraction at Street Machine Summernats 22, and a week later, over 50 high-end streeters gathered for a cruise with Troy and his dad Jack as the guests of honour. How high-end? We’re talking Anthony Sant’s ’57, Laurie Grima’s ’56, Garth Bell’s Dart Attack, Howard Astill’s Mustang and Paul Bennett’s Willys.
2011
THE CARS THAT ATE JAKARTA
DECEMBER 2011
In 2011, Street Machine sub-editor Adam Morrissey journeyed to Indonesia to cover the street machine scene in Jakarta. Guided by Galih and Indy Laksono, Adam was treated to a five-day whirlwind tour of automotive awesomeness.
We are well overdue a return trip, but in the meantime, check out Galih’s Instagram page @gspeed1.
2014
TAKING BACK THE STREETS
MARCH 2014
October 2002’s Rumble In The Jungle was such a pivotal yarn that we yearned to do it again. We got our chance in 2014 when the newly minted Tuff Streeters Sydney CC threw together an impromptu cruise to the now-defunct Torque Bar & Grill on Parramatta Road.
Photographer Matt Everingham met up with the Younis clan for the cruise up the M4 in Louis’s blown six-pot LC, Danny’s tunnel-rammed Capri and dad Tony’s blown Anglia. The who’s who of the Sydney hot-car scene turned out to join them, including our own Broads in his Torana.
FARM ANIMALS
SEPTEMBER 2014
We always knew Chris Thorogood was an ace snapper, but after his coverage of the Haulass Hoedown, we discovered the bugger could write too.
Chris put life and limb on the line to cover the event masterminded by Shepparton-based madman Harry Haig. Harry went to town preparing his property for his guests – including a race track based on a real F1 circuit, a drag strip and a massive Dukes of Hazzard-style jump. The only rules? All vehicles must be removed by morning, and no sooks allowed.
2015
DRAG CHALLENGE #1
JANUARY 2015
While we’d covered plenty of street drag racing in the years since the one and only Australian Street Machine Drag Championships – and sponsored the Oz Muscle Shootout class at the Eastern Creek nostalgia drags in the 90s – we didn’t have another proper go at running our own event until the first Drag Challenge in late 2014.
Scott Taylor masterminded the whole thing as an invite-only, four-track deal to see if we could pull off a Hot Rod Drag Week-style event without getting arrested. With just 18 entrants, the event went off with nary a hitch, and Drag Challenge has kicked on strongly ever since.
PARTY GAMES
JANUARY 2015
When Gary Myers invites you to his 50th birthday, you can bet you won’t be playing pass the parcel.
Instead, Simon Davidson documented a day and night of skids, paddock-bomb racing, fireworks and general mayhem. Perfection!
I DREAM OF EFIJY
JUNE 2015
The June 2015 mag will always be a favourite of mine. For starters, it contained within it issue 11 of Van Wheels – more than three decades after the last issue hit the shelves. But even better, it gave me the opportunity to drive Holden’s Efijy concept car around a race track!
Now, I’ve been lucky enough to pilot the GTR-X around a tight car-park track, and I’ve sat in the almighty Holden Hurricane, but this was next-level! Turns out, not only is Efijy the most beautiful factory-built custom car on the planet, but it was well-sorted and hammered hard, too.
BIG COUNTRY
NOVEMBER 2015
When it was announced that the Summernats crew were going to help Northern Territory Major Events run a major show called Red CentreNATS in Alice Springs, I knew we had to be there. And inspired by many of the yarns in this story, I didn’t want to fly into town and grab a renter; I wanted to drive there from Melbourne in my street machine
So I did, joined by photographers Chris Thorogood (on the way there) and Nathan Jacobs (on the way back). We were accompanied by three other Holdens – a Sprintex-supercharged, red-motor EJ ute; a twin-turbo, stick-shift VT Commodore; and a Vortech-blown, 253-powered HQ Monaro.
It was the trip of a lifetime, and while I’ve towed our MX-5 race car to Red CentreNATS subsequently, it just isn’t the same.
2016
VANAGE A TROIS
SEPTEMBER 2016
One thing we love to do here at Street Machine is acknowledge and pay tribute to our past, and there is no denying that the panel van craze of the 1970s and early 80s had a massive role in the birth of both the mag and our sport in general.
Far too many vans of that era have been lost to the ravages of time, so when we find a survivor, we’re always keen to document them for posterity. And when we find three? We completely lose our shit! Which is just what Simon Major and Chris Thorogood did when they brought Van Rat, Jade and Foxy Lady together with their original owners and current custodians.
DETROIT ROCK CITY
MAY 2016
More than a few Aussies have undertaken the herculean task of shipping their high-end street machines and hot rods over to the USA to compete with the best of the best the Yanks have to offer. The list includes Rex Webster and his FJ, Rod Hadfield’s blown V12 pick-up, Mario Colalillo’s WILD CAD and a few of Rob Zahabi’s creations. However, we’d never been in a position to accompany any of them on their overseas odyssey until Chris Bitmead hit the Detroit Autorama in his quest to win the Ridler Award with his XB Falcon, XBOSS.
Boris Viskovic and Chris Thorogood were the lucky bastards to make the trip, and they came away not only with amazing event coverage, but also incredible images of XBOSS under tricky conditions.
ALL HAIL THE KING
NOVEMBER 2016
We don’t get to test-drive too many elite street machines, probably because we don’t ask often enough. But when Chris Palazzo offered Craig Parker a turn behind the wheel of the SMOTY-winning King Kong ’Cuda, he didn’t have to ask twice!
Despite what you make expect from an Elite Top Judged-winning, 700hp Hemi-powered sculpture on wheels, Parker found that the ’Cuda actually drove like a dream. Scan the code to check out his full assessment and drool over the pics.
2017
AMERICAN DREAM
NOVEMBER 2017
Sixteen years after his balls-to-the-wall trip from Sydney to Springnats in WAR440, that man Arby was at it again, but this time on another continent, piloting his turbo LS-powered POR440 Valiant across America, ready for Hot Rod Drag Week 2017.
With Drag Week and Drag Challenge veteran Steve Reimann riding shotgun and photographer/journo/video dude Luke Nieuwhof in the back seat, Arby battled searing heat and more than a few gremlins on the journey from Las Vegas along Route 66 and then up to Cordova for the start of Drag Week.
The big Val completed the event and ran an average of 9.71 seconds on tiddler 235 rubber. Great success!
END OF THE LINE
DECEMBER 2017
2017 saw the end of manufacturing at Holden, and we sent Glenn Torrens and photographer Thomas Wielecki to Adelaide to bear witness to the final days of production. The result was an informative and touching tribute to the crew who ensured that the final Aussie-built Holdens were the best of the breed.
2019
TOO-LAME BLACKTOP
JANUARY 2019
It might seem incredible in these days of COVID tax, but we bought the 1963 Dodge Phoenix that would become known to Carnage viewers as Mr Dodgey for a grant total of $1454 at auction.
With that as a starting point, Scotty and Marv dropped in a BluePrint 440-cuber, a Paul Rogers 727 and had the thing running in three weeks! Just in time for Scott and Paul ‘Gus’ Cronin to road-trip the sucker from Dandenong to the very first Running On Empty Festival in Cobar, NSW.
A trip full of mechanical mayhem ensued, but the boys made it!
GET BLOWN
AUGUST 2019
Whether you’re reversing a car trailer or kickstarting a cranky old motorbike, there is nothing like an audience to make the job that much tougher. So if you’re going to fit a Harrop supercharger to a wrecker-spec 304 in your LC Torana, why not do it at Meguiar’s MotorEx with hundreds of punters watching on and a film crew recording each and every busted knuckle?
That’s what editor Broads did with two of his best mates at MotorEx 2019. And not only that, but the car was soon at the track, where it not only did a wheelie, but ran a stonking 11.43-second pass.
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