First published in the November 2007 issue of Street Machine

The Australian nostalgia scene has grown in leaps and bounds over the past few years, just as it has in America.

Much of the appeal is that it’s a fun form of competition. Most racers are more interested in enjoying themselves than making the finals. Having a laid-back attitude and being heavily biased towards older vehicles that ran in the glory days of drag racing, means looking right and having a cool name for your beast are almost as important as running well.

Soon after the Funny Car phenomenon took off in the States in the mid 60s, small numbers of locally built Funny Cars began to appear on drag strips Down Under. Our nostalgia HB Torana is loosely based on these early Aussie Funny Cars.

Better still, the rorty, short wheelbase coupe would be relatively cheap to build and a hoot to drive. Yes it would be a handful on the strip, but hey — taming the beast would be half the fun!

THE BUILD

DRIVELINE

In keeping with the traditional style, our Sledgehammer HB Torana runs a 283 Chev, with double-hump fuellie heads and an early Hilborn mechanical injection system. A Vertex magneto fires up the methanol, while the spent gases erupt from a set of four-into-one headers that exit straight out the side. From there, the grunt is fed through a four-speed top loader and into a Dana 60 rear end.

BODY

The welded and reinforced steel body flips up as one-piece, in true Funny Car style. The front wheelarches have been moved forward, while the rear arches are cut way up high to clear the fat M&H Racemasters mounted on reproduction Halibrands.

CHASSIS/SUSPENSION

Gone is the original monocoque structure, replaced by a tube-frame ladder bar-style chassis. The solid front axle is located with a four-bar set-up, while the rear is a traditional ladder-bar.