Some of the coolest photos we’ve seen this year came from Scott Briant’s shed, as he rechristened his iconic, Holden 355-powered Corolla wagon (SM, Sep ’09) after a 15-year separation. Shane ‘Paj’ McDonald captured Scott and the ’Rolla getting reacquainted via a huge burnout, while Scott’s kids and mates looked on.

First published in the August 2024 issue of Street Machine

Starting with a $300 shitbox, Scott built the Corolla into a competition machine dubbed KE355 back in 2006, before steering, skidding and generally sending it to a list of trophies as long as both your arms. “I had it at every Easternats, most Gazzanats, Performance Car Mania, and I was in the Team Extreme at Springnats for a couple of years, where we were paid to do demos – I did a lot of powerskids and drifting in it,” Scott recounts. “It had five very hard years with wheels coming off, drifting around Calder and all sorts of things – it’s lucky we wrapped the quarters in clear when we painted it!”

Like most of us, Scott can’t keep his car stuff the same for too long, and he sold the ’Rolla in mid-2009 to focus on a string of cool road-going rigs, including a mega-sneaky, VG30-powered Datsun 120Y, which ran low 11s on LPG and copped an awesome bowls club-themed photoshoot in our December 2013 mag.

The Corolla travelled to Queensland initially, but it soon wound up closer to home in Colac, Victoria with a bloke named Mark. “I was in touch with him for a bit, and the car appeared at two shows in his ownership,” Scott says. “He had a series of unfortunate events in life, and the car was parked up in a small backyard shed.”

Mark promised Scott that if he ever sold KE355, it would be back to him, but he proved tricky to find as time rolled on. “I found his mum on Facebook about six years ago, and she got back to us,” Scott says. “We were actually camping not far from where they lived, so we went to have a look at it. It was the first time the kids had ever seen it.”

Scott checked in with Mark again at the start of 2024 and struck a deal to trade the Corolla for a weekend driver he’d been working on. “The Corolla was completely covered in dust and dirt,” he says. “We pushed it out of the shed, as it hadn’t been started in years; the engine bay was all corroded and every bit of chrome was rusty. We got it home, pulled out the motor and painted it – the motor was fresh when I sold it to him, so I knew it was sweet.”

Dozens of Scott’s mates turned out to help recommission the car and supervise over a few coldies, and with some new fluids and a hastily repaired fuel fitting, the 355 rose to the occasion. “It ran exactly as it always had, so I pulled it into gear and did a shed skid straight into top cog, flashing it off 7500rpm for a heat cycle,” Scott laughs. “Nothing leaked apart from fuel, so up and down the road we went with seized brakes!”

Scott’s made a couple of minor changes in returning the car to public life, but they’re just that. The Glasurit green paint is still the stuff Andrew Lang sprayed 20 years ago, and needed little more than a polish by mates Andy and Johnny to be ready for a MotorEx 2024 display. The Showwheels billets have been replaced by bead-locked Welds, while the dated shotgun scoop made way for cool, homemade velocity stacks.

That’s gone a long way towards modernising the car, and the time gap and quality of finish are such that many punters would pick it as a fresh build. “There’s a lot of people that do know it, but also a lot of younger ones that don’t,” Scott points out. “It’s aged really well – that’s why I got the sign written and brought the previous magazines [to MotorEx], because otherwise people would think it was built last year.”

Best in Show at a local Goulburn Valley event and a win at All Japan Day 2024 proved that KE355 can kick it with cars built two decades later, much to Scott’s joy. “It’s been unbelievable,” he says. “I’ve been a bit overwhelmed, to be honest. I never thought I’d get it back; my son’s grown up now, and he’s at the age where he loves it and wants to be involved, so it’ll progress to him!”

Scott would like to thank to Hoops; Jakey; Noel; Dick; Harry Haig; Andy M; Langers; Radish; Adam at Stylyn; Adam #54; Charlie Battisti & Co; Rick at All Race; Rob at Bocam; Southern Rod & Custom; Johnny Perony; Nudge; Burko; Boonan; Dale; Rooter; Churchy; his wife Emily and kids Carter and Sophie.