First published in the January 2006 issue of Street Machine

If you believe that Johnny Wilson’s PIG-383 numberplates indicate that he has 383 cubic inches under the bonnet then boy are you in for a rude shock.

You see, Johnny has been hacking away at the street car shootouts for a while now and he’s seen the light. Nothing makes power like sheer cubic inches.

Okay, so before you all start running around in a frenzy screaming about the boost, nitrous, and other evil concoctions, we’re here to tell you that Johnny just isn’t that kind of guy. He likes it all natural, you see. No that doesn’t mean he likes to stand bare-arse naked with his tackle swinging in the breeze; we’re saying he likes to see what an engine can do without artificial aspiration.

He’s resisted the temptations of the blue bottle in the past as he clawed his way through the street car ranks. Back then it was small-block Chevs built with his own two hands.

“I bought an HQ ute that had a 283 Chev in it and a top loader. It didn’t stay in there long before I built a 400hp fuellie-headed 350 Chev. I raced it for a few years going a best of 12.5@106mph, which was quick back then.”

Seasons changed and the engine grew bigger and badder, progressing into a methanol-slurping 383 which had Johnny doing the full track boogie in a tad over 10 seconds, still wearing full street trim.

Then Johnny got his marching orders to go west; out to the coalmines to service the big earthmovers that keep the lights glowing for you and me. After a few years spent getting his kicks chasing wild pigs with a team of dogs along with a stint as a station mechanic-come-bull-catcher — where they had to chase and catch bulls using four wheeled bikes — he finally returned to the big smoke.

He wanted to get back into the street car scene, so he put the feelers out for a new car. The HQ was long gone but he still had the 383 in the shed and it was looking for a home.

As luck would have it, this genuine HK Bathurst Monaro turned up, already sporting a 383 of its own and a bunch of other goodies, so he snapped it up as a complete unit.

Now the Monaro wasn’t exactly slow when purchased.

“I took it to the drags and it went 10.30@130mph and then it blew a head gasket,” Johnny says.

So he pulled the donk, gave it a freshen up and a few tweaks, and soon had the big coupe running 9.99@136.36mph in full street trim. But that still wasn’t fast enough for our boy.

“I wanted to go fast,” he says. Uh okay, obviously nines aren’t fast enough.

A look at the Modified Street Unblown list in Street Machine gave Johnny a few ideas and a talk with Steve Leerentveld from RDP saw his bank account a lot lighter. You see, Steve sourced him a 615 cubic-inch monster from the States pumping out 1100hp at the flywheel.

Holy mountain motor Batman! There’s an engine that’ll put some wood in your wang.

There’s no point doing a full engine recital here — a quick check of the spec list will tell you that this engine has got it all and then some. With precise figures of 1103hp with 880lb-ft of torque we’re talking about the power to realign the Earth’s axis.

Having the motor isn’t enough though; you need to fit it, and then you need a driveline to back it up. Johnny knew that shoe-horning 615 cubes of Chevrolet’s finest into the confines of an HK Monaro wasn’t a job to be done over a couple of cartons so he handed the essential pieces off to the boys at KV’s Race and Resto Fabrication. They mounted the engine along with the 2000hp-capable Vasco-glide, built the exhaust system, made the Caltrac-style traction bars and fitted the mandatory parachute.

Johnny can’t speak highly enough of the work or the late nights spent making sure the car was right to go. They even made up that eight-inch tall cowl induction hood to his specs, and what a magnificent piece of bulging bodywork it is too.

When purchased, the Monaro was already fitted with the chrome-moly six-point cage, and the 31-spline nine-inch diff. While there are some doubts about the longevity of the 31-spline set-up, the launches are so soft at the moment that the diff seems to be holding up just fine.

A 60-foot time of 1.46 seconds might seem quick to you and me but when you’re talking about a car that has run 8.98@153.8mph then you realise that the 60-foot times are about 15-hundreths off the pace.

And you read that right; this is an eight-second animal. In fact the Monaro went 9.27 at 151mph first time out and ran its first eight-second pass on the tenth run down the strip. Not bad when you consider that the Monaro is un-tubbed and struggling to put the power down through a 10-inch wide slick.

“I leave the line at idle and just squeeze the pedal,” Johnny says. “I have never felt so much grunt — the torque of this engine is unbelievable.”

With just a few runs under his belt, Johnny is already looking to squeeze into the top spot in Modified Street Unblown; his current time is good enough to see him into third spot right now. But it’s pretty clear that he wants to be number one.

“Originally my goal was to run an 8.70 at around 160mph but after hitting the eights so quickly, and with so much left in the set-up, I reckon we’ll see 8.50s pretty easily.”

Given that he hasn’t even attempted to use the transbrake yet, and that he’s only run a dozen or so passes, we reckon he could be on target.

So is there a chance that Johnny might tub the beast? Well not really, he reckons. While he wasn’t the one who originally chose to turn a genuine Bathurst Monaro in a street-come-race car, he isn’t willing to hack further into this Aussie legend. This is why you’ll see such touches as the standard GTS wheel and dash left in place. Essentially nothing has been done to the car that can’t be undone.

So does he ever cop it from his mates about using a Bathurst Monaro?

“Yeah, a little bit, but I’d cop it heaps more if I tubbed it.

“When you look at the Modified Street Unblown list, they’re all Toranas and Capris, not many are using bigger-bodied cars like the Monaro.”

Yep there’s something about a full-bodied car running eights that appeals to us, and doing it au naturel just makes it so much better.

JOHNNY WILSON
1968 HK GTS BATHURST MONARO