There are two schools of thought among street machiners today. Some want their classic tin to be left largely alone, while others need everything taken to 11. Sydney’s Chris Schembri falls somewhere in the middle. He likes his cars to keep their classic vibe but with way more guts than the factory ever offered, as his blown, 403ci LS-powered HT Monaro proves.

First published in the December 2024 issue of Street Machine

“I tried to keep it looking like an original car from Holden, but way tougher,” Chris says. “I wanted a Monaro my whole life, and I went through probably 27 cars, buying and selling them, to get to a point where I could start looking for one.”

Chris found his dream car inside the shed of 2008 SMOTY winner and Summernats 21 Grand Champion Rob Godfrey, who’d been hanging on to it for a potential project. “A guy I knew told me that Rob had an HT Monaro he was thinking of selling,” he says. “I went out there to have a look at it, and he showed me around. I think he wanted to make sure it was going to go to the right person.”

With the deal done and the HT now his, Chris wasted no time in getting it stripped, de-skinned and media-blasted. The factory rear wheel tubs scored some extra metal, and the shell was then cleansed of all the dreaded tin-rot. With those tasks accomplished, Chris started thinking about how best to finish the bodywork – and that’s when his plans for a straight resto started evolving into something far more elaborate.

“I kept saying, ‘It’s just an HT,’ but my mates kept saying to me that it was more than that,” Chris says. “So, the engine bay ended up getting shaved, then the door jambs, and then the boot, and it rolled on and on. We couldn’t leave one part alone after we’d done such a good job on another part of the car.”

Once everything was smoothed and sanded to perfection, Mark Baldacchino laid down the PPG Sebring Orange, a Holden colour offered on HT Monaros back in the day. Chris made sure to add gloss-black GTS stripes for some extra visual muscle. “Everyone loves the Aussie classics, and it gets a lot of comments,” Chris says of his Monaro’s striking looks. “It was so important to me that the body was left original but done better than new.”

Something else that’s a definite step up from what GM-H delivered in 1969 is the thumping powerplant now rising out of the Monaro’s bonnet. Years ago, Chris’s mate Wayne Grima took him for a drive in his dad Laurie’s ’56 Chev (SM, Jul ’03 and Sep ’05), and Chris has been hooked on blowers ever since. “During the build, Wayne said to me, ‘You have to be blown to be known.’ So, I bought a blown LS and sat it in the engine bay mocked up. From that moment, it all changed; even if I was in a crap mood after a bad day, going to the shed to look at the supercharger on my Monaro snapped me out of it.”

Jenkins Performance Engines in Penrith stretched a Dart iron block to 403ci using a Callies crank, Oliver H-beam rods and forged CP pistons, while a Warspeed Industries cam works deep-breathing LS3 cylinder heads. The party-starter mounted on top of this good gear is a billet 8/71 supercharger sandwiched between a TBS intake and a pair of 650cfm carbs.

Drinking straight pump unleaded, the metal mountain has made a healthy 520rwhp on a miniscule 9psi, and all the hardware is in place to make serious snot should Chris ever decide he needs it. “I told Jenkins to build me a good, strong street engine; that’s more important to me than making 1000hp or some figure,” he says. “I could make another 500hp, but I want the reliability. It fries the tyres easy as it is now, but being able to turn the key and see the blower spin is what I need.”

Before Chris could enjoy that bracing sight, though, he had a date with the Great Meguiar’s Uncover at Street Machine Summernats 36, and this meant a year-long slog of late nights and weekends in the shed. While you can now glance at PHATHT and think it’s just a neat Monaro with a blower, you’d miss so many of the finely finished details that Chris and his mate Jamie Galea incorporated into the car during that 12-month thrash.

“Jamie has been one of my biggest supporters during the build, and he suggested we use stainless bolts, and de-burr and paint areas instead of just rattle-canning them,” Chris says. “The final six months before Summernats, I didn’t breathe; it just went nuts. Jamie and I would be pushing through and getting no sleep before work so that the car could make the unveiling. But now it’s finished, and all the hard work has paid off.”

After winning a Judges’ Choice award in the ’Nats 36 Elite Hall, Chris is focused on getting the HT engineer-approved to start racking up kilometres and show his friends and family what all the late nights were for.

“I love taking it to pick up the kids from school on a Friday afternoon, and I needed it to be streetable so I could take my wife out to lunch or go get a coffee,” he says. “My thing is to create memories with my friends and family; to share my passion.”

We can’t think of a better way to do that, Chris!

CHRIS SCHEMBRI
1969 HOLDEN HT MONARO

THANKS
Jamie Galea; Jayden Galea; Ash Sidley; Dave Maiolo; Dave Micallef; Adrian Fenech; Lyndsay Kennedy; Jason Frendo; Michelle White; Simon Vella; Craig Ward; Brodie Ward; Riley Mate; Dean Sammut; Dave and Allison at King Trim, Mark Baldacchino; Ric Graziotto; Chris Agius; Danny at Danny’s Moulding Restorations & Polishing; Lewis Mitchell; Rare Spares; Jenkins Performance Engines; Chubby at Lowe Fabrications; Wayne Grima at Grima’s Garage; last but not least, my amazing wife Rachael and my beautiful kids Jayden, Lucas and Eliana.