We live in an age where the world’s knowledge is at our fingertips and we’re exposed to humanity’s wildest inventions through devices in our pockets. Car building has evolved along with this, as engine swaps, body mods, 3D-printed parts and wildly engineered suspension systems help take the top builds into another world of creativity and insanity. But there’s still something to be said for the classics; something beautiful about simple things done well, from food, to music, to tough street machines like this slammed, 777hp HQ Monaro.

First published in the April 2026 issue of Street Machine

Melbourne’s Justin Hunt has owned plenty of sweet cars over the years, including a nickel-tough, 900hp, blown HK Prem (SM, Jan ’22), and he favours clean, simple builds packing hardcore hearts. This HQ Monaro GTS is his latest, and it’s a certified ripper: dripping, wet-look grey paint; tar-burning stance; modern bigs ’n’ littles under the arches; and a rowdy small-block heart that’s ripe to party hearty.

“I bought the car in 2021 as a bare shell in primer,” says Justin. “My wife told me to buy it, and it came with a carload of parts, with only a few stainless trims missing. Once I got it home, I stripped it back to bare metal and booked it in for tub work. What was meant to be a quick job turned into a year-long delay, and I finally got the shell back in mid-2022.”

As with any worthwhile project, the devil is in the detail, and great lengths were taken to get the HQ at a more pleasing ride height with an aesthetically appealing wheel combo out back. This included moving the rear rails in and up 70mm, but Justin had the shop replicate the factory tinwork so nothing appears different at a quick glance. With the front control arm mounts left in place, McDonald Brothers whipped up a set of custom four-link arms to mount to the narrowed nine-inch now living out back, and there’s QA1 coil-over struts at all four corners.

“While I was waiting for the fab work, I got in touch with Bill Kaglatzis at BK Race Engines to build me another small-block Chev,” Justin says. “I’d used Bill before with my HK Premier, which had a 6/71-blown small-block, so he was the only person I trusted for this set-up. A 422-cuber with 18° heads was selected, with a goal of 800hp, and Bill carefully picked parts to build a reliable, tough, long-lasting engine package.”

These top-shelf ingredients include custom Diamond pistons, Callies Compstar rods and a Scat 4340 steel crank, while a Bullet roller cam works BAM bushed lifters and 3/8-inch Trend pushrods. Up top are Trick Flow 18° heads with a matching Edelbrock 18° single-plane intake, crowned by an APD 1000cfm 4150 four-barrel carb.

On BK’s engine dyno, the combo spun up a very stout 777hp at 7600rpm on 98 pump fuel, and passes that hurt through an SDE converter to a manualised Powerglide auto. Out the back, a narrowed nine-inch diff sports a Truetrac centre, full floaters, 35-spline axles and 3.5:1 gears.

“Once the engine arrived and the gearbox was built by Trev at Tranzco, I dummy-fitted them along with the diff, and sent the car to the boys at Geelong Motorsport Fabrication for a full custom stainless header and exhaust system,” Justin says.

With the car dry-assembled and all the cutting and grinding done, Justin scouted around for a paint shop to get the curvaceous Quey into colour. “By luck, a good mate of mine, Shannon Reeves, happened to be working up at DDR Customs in Kyabram,” Justin continues. “Shannon overheard the boys saying they might have a small gap in their schedule, so he threw my name in. He showed them some photos of the mock-up, and the boys agreed to take the HQ on.

“I loaded the coupe up and headed off early Monday morning to drop it to Dean, Youngy and Grassy at DDR. They tidied up the previous bodywork, sharpened all the lines, door gaps and features, and laid down a stunning coat of PPG Grigio Estoque Metallic. Their turnaround was insane, getting it all done in just eight weeks.”

The Quey was then handed straight to HQ magician Shane Casey. “He pieced together the entire car: stainless trims, windows, mechanisms, rubbers, interior, bumpers – the lot,” Justin says.

The car was back home with Justin in November 2024 as an assembled roller, allowing him to get all the fun, oil-filled parts installed before he sent it down to Chris at Race Wires for a full rewire. He opted to have all the electrical system hidden to keep things looking clean.

“I took it down to Geelong Carbs, and with Darren Gill’s help, we started it for the first time all without a single glitch. But that’s what happens when you start with a quality motor from Bill and use the right people for paint, panel, wiring, and fabrication. The car has run mint from day one.”

You’d think such a clean, immaculately presented coupe would now be spending a good deal of time on the show circuit, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“As soon as the car was finished, I entered it into MotorEx 2025,” Justin says. “Since then, I have just done a heap of kilometres with the kids and wife in the car, and I’m loving it.”

Yep, there really is much to enjoy in the simple things in life.

JUSTIN HUNT
1971 HOLDEN HQ MONARO GTS

THANKS
DDR Customs; BK Race Engines; Geelong Motorsport Fabrication; Race Wires; Auto Bling; Tranzco; SDE Torque Converters; my family and friends.