When it comes to building tough streeters, Brisbane’s Joel Blake is no shrinking violet. Over the past few decades, he’s built myriad hotties based around traditional Aussie fodder, including the ‘CRAYZER’ HR (SM, Feb ’19), while also being deeply entrenched in the lowrider scene (Snap Shots, SM, Mar ’14). “I’m really not biased towards any particular brand or model or engine configuration, either,” Joel says. “Sure, I love my HG Monaro and ’57 Chev, but it’s rare for me not to have a hot four-cylinder or tough six sharing space in the garage too.”

First published in the May 2025 issue of Street Machine

Joel’s vehicular resume reads with the volume and variety of a Unique Cars magazine, but the one thing he’s not afraid to do is pick up and run with something already road-ready. “I’ve built enough cars from scratch to know that buying someone else’s hard work – and normally greater financial outlay – can be beneficial too,” he says.

“We’re not getting any younger, and I’d rather enjoy my cars now than waste time chained to the shed for years with some new money pit, or stressing over a build drama.”

A sound philosophy, and one that sees Joel regularly perusing Marketplace and the like for something a little bit different. “The Crown didn’t make sense when I first saw it,” he says.

“Normally a sleeper is drag-oriented, but this featured a six-speed manual and was packing circuit racer running gear on sloppy suspension and skinny tyres!”

Despite that apparently pretzel logic, the car had piqued Joel’s interest big time, so he figured he’d simply swap out the manual transmission for a Powerglide and go racing. “But then I drove it as-is, and my mind immediately changed,” he says. “This thing is an animal, and I wouldn’t switch transmissions for the world.”

That’ll happen when you jam a Toyota 2JZ engine and decent turbo into pretty much anything, but the motor in Joel’s Crown – now dubbed ‘Herman’ – is far from ordinary. “I was told it was a full-house, Japanese-built race engine with titanium internals and all the good stuff, and my subsequent research checks out.

It came to Australia as a spare engine for a Japanese race team who were running a Supra at a previous World Time Attack Challenge, and it ended up staying behind.”

The engine and race-spec Getrag six-speed manual were expertly installed into the tidy one-owner Crown by the team at Solid Mechanical & Engineering in Adelaide, who were also responsible for the stainless four-inch exhaust and HiLux diff conversion. “The previous owner spared no expense with the build of this car, and it shows in how well it actually drives,” says Joel.

“It pulls dead straight under power, and with 700rwhp at 15psi on pump 98, it’s like driving on butter with the skinny rear tyres. I did try some sticky radials at Willowbank, but it just blew them off through first to third gear, and all I could manage was an 11-flat with a top-end charging 136mph.”

With those sorts of challenges front and centre, tapping into the available 1000hp at the wheels on 28psi and E85 might be a long shot, but Joel’s having too much fun to be putting that kind of pressure on himself. “Usually with a sleeper there is still something that gives it away, so it’s important to me to put the time and effort in to keep it looking totally innocent,” he says.

“To that end, I’ve just tidied the car throughout, cleaned up the paint a little, tracked down some missing badges and even scored an era-perfect 4BH 882 [Brisbane easy listening radio station] sticker for the back window. This is the fun stuff for a sleeper build.”

Sadly, Joel’s time with the Crown is coming to an end, but not really by choice. “I broke my right foot quite badly in 2023, which has involved a bunch of surgeries, so wailing on a car like this is definitely not helping its recovery,” he laments. “Plus, I have a new project I’m keen to fund which will still be cool, but hopefully remove some of the right foot-stomping temptation.”

JOEL BLAKE
1970 TOYOTA CROWN