Nelson Granger is a man with an affinity for wildly overpowered late-70s Holdens. We featured his big-block HJ Kingswood in the May 2019 issue – a car that would have been tough enough for most, but Nelson then backed it up with a similarly styled HZ ute with a blown and injected big-block.

First published in the April 2026 issue of Street Machine

There’s no shortage of footage all over the internet of Nelson relentlessly beating on both cars at events like Powercruise, taking them drag racing and even drifting. Yep, the bloke knows how to handle a wheel!

By comparison, this HZ Kingswood looks like a refreshing change of pace for Nelson. “I picked it up five or six years ago,” he says. “It was straight, but it was in bits. I was originally going to cut the quarters off it to repair the HJ, but it was too neat!”

Nelson stashed the Kingswood on his dad’s farm for a few years, before smashing out a budget build in just six months. The first step was giving it a quick coat of jam in the factory Chamois colour. “My HJ was originally Chamois when my grandfather owned it,” Nelson explains, and he added the pensioner peak over the windscreen for the same reason.

“In the first build, the car had a 308 in it, but I wasn’t happy with the power, and this BluePrint Engines small-block came up at a really fair price,” Nelson says. “I was adamant this build was going to stay small-block to help make it handle better than the other two, and for engineering.”

At 454 cubes, the combo is small in name only, but it’s extremely simple – a BluePrint crate engine with an Edelbrock intake, 850 carb, and a 150hp shot of gas to help the Kinger make 600hp at the treads on 98-octane fuel.

A beefed-up Turbo 400 is absolutely what you’d expect to find in a driveline like this, but a Truetrac centred-Salisbury diff wouldn’t make most people’s Top 10 Diffs list. “It made sense for the original budget and for engineering to stay with the 10-bolt,” Nelson explains. “Plus, once you add the weight of a nine-inch and change the location of the control arms, it makes them handle terribly.”

The diff definitely doesn’t hold the car back, as it’s run a snappy 10.08sec quarter-mile with a 1.38sec 60-foot, on 235 radials!

Underneath the HZ are a few tricks that Nelson learned from getting his other two big-bodied Holdens to handle, such as the Torana steering arms for a little more lock, and the introduction of some castor to help get the Kingswood even remotely compliant with his efforts behind the steering wheel. Other than that, suspension and braking mods have been kept to a minimum.

Inside, it’s 70s Holden perfection – a black retrim over the standard Kingswood equipment, without so much as a ratchet shifter or a rollcage to detract from the car’s purity.

“One goal I had when I built the car was to run a nine in it, but it’s nowhere near teched for that, so I’ve got to be careful,” Nelson chuckles.

The HZ was finished in time for Street Machine Drag Challenge 2024, with Nelson and a carload of mates running a string of low 11s in the ITF Hire 235 Aspirated class. “It’s a street car, but I’m taking it to more events,” he smiles. “It’s a fun car because it’s got plenty of power, and it’s so reliable.” Sounds like the perfect sleeper to us!

NELSON GRANGER
1979 HOLDEN HZ KINGSWOOD

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