We have featured plenty of Chev V8-powered HR Holdens in the pages of Street Machine over the decades. In fact, John Vergotis’s 327-equipped HR sedan scored a feature in our second-ever issue (Oct-Nov ’81). There have been some rippers since then, but only a select few come close to the way Jim Georgalas’s ute combines raw toughness with elite fit and finish and strict street legality.

First published in the September 2025 issue of Street Machine

Yep, despite the angry small-block under the bonnet and massive rubber out the back, Jim’s HR has passed the full tranche of VicRoads engineering hurdles, including full track and noise testing.

Jim’s relationship with the HR model dates from far humbler beginnings. “I only ever remember my old man driving HRs when we were kids,” he recalls. “My first car was an HR, and as I entered the workforce as a painter and decorator, I needed a ute for work. Guess which Holden ute I bought?”

The HR’s work duties lasted no more than two years before the car’s factory Powerglide spat the dummy, and Jim parked it up. “I had a dream of building it into a tough pro streeter,” he says. “But like everyone, marriage, mortgage and kids took over. My cousin hassled me for two years to sell the HR to him, and I finally relented. He left it stored in his garage untouched for another 20 years, so I bought it back off him!”

With the ute back under his care, Jim decided that now was the time to pursue that pro street dream, so within days, the HR was stripped and sent off to Ryan O’Donohue and the team at Riot Lab.

The Riot Lab crew laid the foundations for the build, tubbing the rear end to swallow 315 rubber, and adding stout chassis connectors along with stacks of fabrication and extra strengthening to handle the expected power levels. The crew also fabbed a sheet-metal nine-inch diff, suspended by a Gazzard Brothers mono-leaf set-up with CalTracs and an Enemies Racing anti-roll bar.

From there, the ute was off to Sasha Hollenbach and the team at Delux Kustoms for a full turn-key build, which was carried out in constant consultation with an engineer to ensure Jim’s street-legal pro street dream could become a reality.

Sasha’s shop is highly regarded in early-VW and Porsche circles, but it’s also churned out a stack of traditional street machines in recent years, including a mind-blowing restoration of John Zeigler’s famous HJ ute (SM, Oct ’18).

The Delux team’s first order of business was completing the HR’s underpinnings, which included significant reworking of an aftermarket IFS, complete with power rack-and-pinion steering, coil-over shocks, tubular A-arms and Wilwood brakes all ’round. That work was done with the knowledge that the car would have to pass both brake and swerve tests at 100km/h, loaded up with 200kg of ballast, which makes it even more impressive that the ute now sits so nicely yet easily clears that fat HQ sump.

From here, the body was treated to a full rotisserie restoration, which included stretching the rear wheelarches 2.5 inches to help accommodate the wheel and tyre package. The factory HR rear bumperettes were flung and the spare-wheel door deleted in favour of a full-length HD wagon bumper and rollpan, while up front, a tasteful steel reverse cowl was added to the bonnet.

The engine bay and firewall were smoothed out, with factory uglies including the heater box, battery box and wiper motor flung into the reject pile and replaced with much neater solutions hidden throughout the car.

But while Delux’s work in the engine bay is impressive, the tray provided a massive canvas for the boys to work their magic on, with custom sheet-metal throughout and a trick hatch to allow easy access to the battery and electric power steering pump. The factory side panels were cut-and-shut to ensure that they could fit around the wheel tubs, a detail that has many HR owners scratching their heads. The Aeroflow race cell takes pride of place in the rear of the tub, with the neat hard fuel lines kept visible at Jim’s request. The whole deal is decked out in a tintable Raptor coating, with the actual colour of the car impregnated into it.

With the panels fitted up perfectly and the body gapped within an inch of its life, David Boi from Delux laid on the Bronze Perseo gold paint, covering every single surface inside and out.

The gold theme sneaks into the all-black interior by way of gold Porsche houndstooth inserts, tastefully bringing the exterior inside. Stock HR interiors are basic in the extreme, so Sasha and Adrian van Tongeren from Tiger Trim were careful to improve on those foundations without straying too far from the factory’s plan.

“We looked at Buick and other trims from that era and used them for inspiration when retrimming the seat, adding in some stitching where there was none to not only the seat, but also to the crash pad and parcel shelf,” Sasha explains.

Some subtle mods inside include trick electric heater control knobs replacing the factory sliders, which look as if they have always been there. The stock gauge fascia was modified to accept Speedhut gauges, and the Aeroflow Bang Shift shifter was chosen for its right-hand-side gear markings, which was necessary for engineer approval.

The engine combo is a collaboration between cylinder head guru Nathan Higgins and famed engine builder Glenn Wells. Using a Dart block, the pair stretched capacity out to a very healthy 420 cubes, and capped it with Higgins CNC-ported SB2H heads and a matching Higgins manifold, topped by a billet APD carby.

“The brief was to make as much power as possible naturally aspirated, while being relatively maintenance-free – hence the choice to go with the hydraulic-roller cam,” Glenn explains, and 768hp on the engine dyno is the proof in that pudding.

“The chassis is set up to handle up to 1000hp if we want,” Jim says. Fortunately, the rest of the driveline will measure up to that task if needed, with a Shotgun Performance ’Glide in the tunnel and a whopper fabricated nine-inch strung between the rear wheels.

“It was only ever going to be a small-block Chev, and it’ll stay N/A – that’ll never change,” Jim asserts. “It was always going to be an old-school build.”

The complete exhaust system was fabricated by Delux’s Michael Grogan, and is indeed a work of art. The system starts with equal-length four-into-one headers with two-inch primaries that retain the 10mm clearance demanded by the engineer and fit without the engine bay needing to be cut. The finished headers were then ceramic-coated by Ryan at Race Coatings, and the boys used Car Builders heat shields to ensure there would be no blistering of the paint.

The rest of the system was designed to be fully symmetrical while tucked up as high as possible, employing an X-pipe design with two hotdog mufflers. Out back, two MagnaFlow mufflers keep the HR’s rumble down to the legal limit. As in the bay, a stack of custom heat shielding was used to both protect the surfaces and satisfy the engineer.

The HR made its public debut in-the-build at Meguiar’s MotorEx 2024, where eager show-goers lapped up the ute’s luscious lines and unique modifications, perhaps unaware of the fire-breathing potential of the snarling small-block.

As for future plans, Jim already has something up his sleeve: “We’re always talking about the next project,” he says. “It’ll be another early Holden, something pre-HK.” Hey, why quit when you’re onto a good thing?

Legal matters

Building the HR required the Delux Kustoms team to work within a tight set of requirements, starting with the fact that Jim wanted the ute to look, sound and be tough, yet be 100 per cent street-legal.

“Fitting big tyres and horsepower in a small car legally is challenging,” says Delux bossman Sasha Hollenbach. “There is very little room to play with, while needing to retain clearances so the car will work nicely and be legal.

“It was a tough build and was painful at times, but at the same time, it created great friendships with all involved, and working with Jim made it fun.”

JIM GEORGALAS
1967 HR HOLDEN UTE

THANKS
The entire team at Delux Kustoms including David Boi, Michael Grogan, Stephen Cloney and Sasha Hollenbach; Ryan at Riot Lab; Brendan at Car Builders; Nathan Higgins; Glenn Wells; Adrian at Tiger Trim; Race Radiators; my wife Voila and our three boys; Archie Christou and everyone else that contributed.