One of the most talked-about cars from this year’s Meguiar’s MotorEx – both at the event and online afterwards – was Mitchel Hawkins’s mould-busting VR ClubSport tribute. It didn’t just challenge styling conventions – it brazenly defied them.

First published in the August 2025 issue of Street Machine

Known to be a bit of an antagonist, Mitchel sought to ruffle some feathers with his VR and give street machiners some inspiration for the next era of tough street cars. “I was tired of seeing the same old stuff on every build,” he says.

While he’d had some tough cars when he was younger, Mitch had sold them all to build his business and set up his family, so he was itching to get back into things. “I convinced my wife that I should spend $60,000 building a tough street car for the family,” he laughs, before admitting he’s long since blown that initial budget!

For Mitch, deciding which model to build was a no-brainer. “My first car was a VR Commodore, and this one had been in a garage down the street for years,” he says. “I noticed the family moving out and they said the car was their father’s, who had just gone into aged care. After some back and forth, we got a deal done, and my mind started racing straight away!”

Armed with that blank canvas, permission from the Minister of Finance, and a desire to build something controversial, Mitchel initially earmarked a Ford six-banger to power the VR. “I went so far as to buy a green-top Barra to build, back when no one was doing the conversion, but pretty soon that was really common,” he explains.

Looking to find another way for his VR project to break the internet, Mitchel sourced an LS engine and shipped the car off to begin fab work, as his intention from the start was to build a tough cruiser, which meant tubs and a rollcage. However, this quickly escalated to a tonne of custom sheet-metal work, including the fabricated plenum cover in the engine bay, the dash and centre console, door trims and more.

“I’ve always loved drift cars and watch a lot of Formula Drift, so I wanted the inside to feel like a race car, hence the carbon, the Haltech iC-7 dash and the Woodward steering column,” Mitch says.

Steering columns are perhaps one of the least modified components in most Australian street machines, but Mitchel had his reasons: “There’s no way in the world I would have achieved the race car look with a daggy Commodore steering column with indicator stalks hanging off it.” The Woodward column has the benefit of a quick-release hub for the MPI steering wheel, but from the firewall forward to the steering rack, it’s all standard Commodore fare.

With the fab work well underway, Mitchel turned his attention to the engine and roped in his mate Nick Ursino, who you might remember for his aptly named MRNUTS turbo LS-powered LC Torana (SM, Apr ’23).

“I asked Nick if it was worth going with a 2650 supercharger, but he was quick to say that I’d get bored with the predictability of the power. He gave me a lot of advice on this combo,” says Mitchel. The LQ9-based mill didn’t need to be anything over the top, so Nick and Mitch devised a clever collection of parts aimed at maximum visual impact, with plenty of poke for the street.

The stock bottom end is capped by LS3 heads and mated to a Crow Cams bumpstick, but it’s the 76mm Aeroflow war whistle and billet Plazmaman intake manifold that command your attention.

“We made 650hp at the wheels, but we’re already out of turbo, so we’ll need to upgrade that before we go racing,” says Mitchel, who’s also got the car plumbed ready for a little nitrous for some extra spice.

The engine sat in the corner of Mitchel’s office for nearly two years while fab work continued on the car. The painted shell and driveline were then handed to Mitchell Hegedus at Wicked Reflectionz Automotive Detailing, who was tasked with piecing the car together.

While the Salmon Pink paint is now one of the most talked-about aspects of this VR, Mitchel is the first to admit it wasn’t his first choice. “I’m known for having pink excavators on my landscaping fleet, so everyone just assumed I’d paint the car pink, but I initially wanted to paint it black and introduce some pink into the interior,” he explains.

Scrolling social media for inspiration, he came across a vinyl-wrapped Rolls-Royce, and then a GT3 RS Porsche soon after in the same colour, with carbon wheels.

“I knew the combo would work straight away,” he says of the bold colour scheme of custom Salmon Pink paired with bronze carbon. “I got a sample of the paint and showed it to my wife, and we both agreed and that was it.”

The bronze carbon components visually tie in with the eye-catching Cerakote finish applied liberally throughout the car. “I first saw the finish on the FORGED XY Falcon [SM, Oct ’23], and it’s extremely popular in the US,” Mitchel explains. “I knew I was never going to polish any parts, and a simple black finish would have looked so plain against the pink.” Mitchel enlisted the design eye of the Wicked Reflectionz team before affirming that bronze was the way forward.

The VR’s interior is just as wild and polarising as Mitchel’s other colour choices, and again saw him drawing inspiration from social media. Once he had a concept in mind, he had Simon Judd from Elite Custom Interiors team up with Blake Kelly at Wicked Reflectionz to make it a reality.

“I really wanted to tie in a more ‘race car’ feel, hence the Sparco seats and Alcantara trim,” Mitchel explains. The basket-weave inserts and black eyelets give the car a decidedly American flavour. “I’d never seen a lot of these elements used in a car in Australia, which is why I knew I had to have them,” he says.

The VR was finished at Wicked Reflectionz mere hours before being loaded into a trailer for its debut at MotorEx. Despite Mitchel’s unusual vision for the build, when the covers came off CAVIAR at MotorEx, it was received with overwhelmingly positive acclaim, and social media was flooded with images of the car.

“It’s turned out so much better than even I could have imagined,” admits Mitchel humbly. “When I started building the car, I wanted a tough street car for the family but built to a level where we could unveil it, get featured in Street Machine, make the Summernats Top 60 and then retire it from the shows and go racing.” With two of those criteria already ticked off his list, Mitchel would be wise to chat with his wife about a racing budget!

MITCHEL HAWKINS
1994 HOLDEN VR COMMODORE

THANKS
Mitch and Blake at Wicked Reflectionz; Simon at Elite Custom Interiors; Metal Mavericks; Progressive Auto Electrics; Craig’s Automatics; Just Dip It Hydrographics; Rad Fab; Cruz Restorations; The Coating Garage; Nick Ursino; Tri-City Smash Repairs; my wife and daughter.