A legend of the early years of the Aussie street machining scene, Lindsay ‘Gunna’ Atkinson passed away last week. He’ll be missed by his clubmates in Melbourne’s United Street Machine Club and by hot-car fans across the country. Here is the feature on his famous FC from the Aug/Sep 1982 issue of SM.
First published in the Aug/Sep 1982 issue of Street Machine

There is an old saying that goes “Gunna do this and gunna do that”. The world’s full of gunnas, with some eventually doing it and others failing to. But of those that do, most don’t do it in the style of Dandenong’s Lindsay Atkinson.
People’s Choice is a hard trophy to crack at an event the size of the 1982 Street Machine Nationals, but Lindsay’s black and silver FC Holden seemed the natural, and we might add, popular choice. It’s classic lines drew admiring glances wherever it was parked.
From the comments we overheard Lindsay’s FC was the star of the show. The fact that it was finished amazed most. “Three weeks before Easter the car had no interior, the wiring was half finished and the doors were still off” said Lindsay. “I took three weeks off work to finish it and managed nine hours sleep for the last three days before the event”.

Some projects start in the simplest of ways. The bumpers were off what was an already tidy street piece some nine months before the Nats. “I only intended cleaning it”, said Lindsay. “Then I was only going to paint it and put in new sills”.
“Practicality was my aim in the build-up”, Lindsay commented, “with my aim being to achieve everything without any cutting”.

Lindsay did run into two problem areas, the steering and the exhausts, but both were overcome with the sensible approach of tackling each problem as it came along.
The 350 he always wanted sits nice and low and in the engine bay. The pistons and rods are standard, with the rods magnafluxed for security, rings are chrome moly and the cam runs a mild grind for low down response in the rev range.

Acme Engineering handled the head work and retained most of the standard parts. A Holley 780 sits atop a C3BX Edelbrock manifold and Cranbourne Exhausts put together a special set of headers with 1 7/8 inch primary tubes, running into Turbo mufflers. They then ran the system through to the rear with 2 1/2 inch dual exhausts.
Dress-up items include braided lines, Holley valve covers and a sprinkling of chrome. The engine bay
looks a picture with Ron Johnston’s wiring and items like brake boosters hidden under the front guards.
The trans is a two-speed Powerglide complete with a shift kit and a Holeshot converter. The power is then fed through an HR Isd diff’ complete with tall 2.78 gears and Dufor axles.



Lindsay bolted an HR disc braked front end up to handle the increased performance, adding LH Torana rack and pinion steering and HK V8 springs. The rear springs are now seven leaves thick, along with Lovells front and rear stabiliser bars and Monro Wylie shockers, to give the FC some respectability in the handling department. Seven inch wide Dragway mags and BF Goodrich TAs keep the FC in contact with terra firma.
The interior features an HR steering column, extra guages, stereo/radio and some nice stitch work courtesy of friend, Con Visidas. Con used black vinyl as a base, and offset it with striped grey velvet inserts in the door panels, Mazda front buckets and original rear squab. Little wonder Lindsay says it’s fantastic to drive. The boot is just as tidy with carpeting and the Datsun fuel tank behind the rear
seat letting you know that this beauty is much more than skin deep. Underside detailing is just as strong with a little chrome and lots of black paint.

When it came time to do the body Lindsay cleaned up the bonnet and added a straight bar square tube grille. The one deviation from the ‘resto’ theme is the Harwood scoop. That helps warn the unsuspecting that the FC is indeed a tough street machine. Ron Johnston did all the bodywork.
He also suggested the GM-H SL/E color scheme and went one further and actually did the job. Lindsay was at first unsure if the idea would come off but he only needed the Nats to know the end result. Tinted laminated windows finish the car off.

Working to a budget and under instructions from his wife items like centrelines, a new laminated rear
window and a nine inch diff’ will have to wait. The cost was kept down to a reasonable $4500, due partly to the help from many of Lindsay’s friends. Now that it’s finished Lindsay feels it’s worth a damn sight more than that.
Lindsay reached his aims of putting together a plain and tidy street machine, but insisted during our
interview that the car could have been better. Were all those people who picked “their” favourite car out of the 500 at Canberra wrong? Not on your life!
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