“Here’s my 1970 ZC Fairlane,” says Daniel Irwin. “As the youngest of five boys, I grew up around the usual cars and bikes, and my eldest brother had a tough-as-nails big, black ZC Fairlane. The memories of that car were awesome, so I wanted one ever since. One day, a ZC Fairlane popped up on eBay, of all places; it was black, had a V8, was driving, and wasn’t a mess body-wise. Best of all, it was only 10 minutes down the road! It was soon sitting in my garage, and my plan was simply to build a tribute to my brother’s old car.

“First of all, I replaced the locks, barrels, gutter trims, and door and boot seals. The rear tubs were pushed out to easily accommodate the 275/60R15 tyres on 8.5-inch Street Pro Convo rear wheels. All of the suspension and steering bits were replaced with new parts, including lowered springs and shocks all ’round. Inside, while everything was still in great shape, it still got stripped out and cleaned. New underlay and carpet was fitted, along with a bundle of new trim parts.

“Up front, the car now runs a quiet yet fresh 302 Clevo, with the asthmatic two-barrel carb and factory intake replaced with an alloy high-rise manifold and an Edelbrock four-barrel. The auto is a freshened-up C4, and for now, the standard BorgWarner diff is still in place. Closing the bonnet on all of this, you come face to face with the crown of the tribute build: the Bug Catcher hat and a trio of cowl gauges.

“Keeping the build quiet until it was ready was tough, but my older brother was excited and surprised to see it when I finally showed it to him. I think he’s most excited for the next stage of the build, though: building the stroker, gearbox and nine-inch diff for it.”