Cara Bertoli
HJ Holden ute

“I purchased my 1975 HJ Belmont ute in 2011, when I first started building my HZ drag ute; I had the fantastic thought that I could build two utes at once! That crazy little idea didn’t last long, and I ended up selling her back to the mate I originally got her from.

“He then undertook a lot of body-off-chassis work to fix all the rust, which she certainly wasn’t short of. A few years later, I bought the ute back, and since then it’s been an on-and-off build. As of last year, she is back ‘on’, and I cannot wait until she is finished.

“There are a lot of jobs still to do, the major one being replacing the right-hand quarter panel. She will be running a 346ci LS1 with a carby and distributor, which I will build with the aim of making 450-500hp.

“Behind it will be either a TH350 or TH400 trans. It will be painted Holden Aquarius blue with black-outs along the doors and front windscreen mouldings. I’ll be painting the ute myself so have lots to learn!”

Tony Burrell
Jaguar XJ12L

“This is our 1973 Series 1 Jaguar XJ12L, which came into our lives as a birthday gift to me from my beautiful wife, Jude.

“It already had the small-block Chev transplant, including the old-school Bug Catcher sitting on a Holley 750 carb and Performer manifold. The Chev is a stock 350 with HEI ignition, bolted to the Jag’s factory-fitted BorgWarner 12 transmission.

“It works reasonably well for a V8/three-speed combo, but the V12 diff ratio helps. Up front is a custom radiator with dual thermo fans. So far, we’ve swapped out the leaky brake booster for a dual-diaphragm unit; replaced every bush, bearing, ball joint and mount; and are roughly 60 per cent of the way through prepping the body for repainting.

“The colour will be applied by a good friend of ours with years of experience and talent, which, along with the incredible colour combo ideas we’re experimenting with, should put the finishing touch on a not-so-regular custom Jaguar.

“Throwing a V8 into one of these old girls was a very popular and reasonably cheap conversion back in the day, but it’s pretty rare to come across one of these builds these days, 50-plus years since they first saw the road.”

Lochlan Chancellor
Volkswagen Kombi

“Dad and I are building our second air-cooled Volkswagen. Our first, a Beetle we finished a few years back, was posted on the Street Machine Instagram page and attended Summernats 35.

“Our new build is a high-light panel van, which will have a notched chassis, tubbed wheelarches, and sit very low while static. It will run a fairly standard motor and a ragtop sunroof, and we’ll be keeping the patina paint.”

Blake Thompson
Ford XD Falcon

“My XD Falcon came into my life as a 3.3L/single-rail car, but that didn’t last long, as we pulled the crossflow and trans out and fitted up a 351 and C4.

“I got my P-plates and daily-drove the car like that for a few years while I was doing my mechanical apprenticeship. Then I drag-raced it once, and the bug bit! So, out came the 351, and we built a fairly stout 408ci mill with a transbraked C4 and 9in behind it, and added CalTracs, sliders and mono-leaf springs in the rear. I then raced it a fair bit.

“In 2018, I asked my partner to marry me, and as the car was pretty tired, we got moving on sorting the panel and paint so we could use it for the big day in 2020. We then started racing it again, with a PB of 10.80, and I realised I was now just leaning on the combo for no reason.

“This is where we land today; we pulled the driveline out and started cutting the car up. It now sits at our workshop with a 434-cube Clevor with an 88mm turbo hanging off the side of it, topped by Higgins heads and a Bain Racing manifold, and all controlled by a FuelTech ECU.

“Behind it is a TH400 and 35-spline 9in. I can’t take all the credit for the work done so far, as I’ve got good friends and family around me who have helped get the car to this point. Fingers crossed we’ll fire it up into life this year.”

Got a sweet ride that’s currently in the build and want to share it with our readers? Email photos of it (2MB+ each) along with some details on the build to [email protected].