Wollongong’s Simon Kryger probably requires little introduction to the readers of Street Machine, but we’ll give him one anyway. He’s owned and built countless pro street toughies over the years ranging from regularly street-driven machines to out-and-out race cars, but the common denominator has always been nitrous. Lots and lots of nitrous.
First published in the October 2024 issue of Street Machine
His eight-second LJ Torana, INOCNT, graced the cover of SM in September of 2001. Eight-second street cars were few and far between back then, and Kryger’s was the quickest hydraulic-cammed car in the world. Before that came a slew of Cortinas and an LX Torana that was running bottom-10s in the mid-90s.
The 2000s saw Kryger build and campaign yet another Cortina, as well as an LX Torana that also ran the INOCNT plates. Then he stepped up big time to a Camaro Pro Mod that ran into the 6.50s over the quarter and was the quickest nitrous car on the planet on a 10.5-inch tyre. More recently, you probably recall Simon’s green LX Torana (another Torry called INOCNT), which brought him great success on radials and big tyres alike. Oh, and there was a mega-tough, big block-powered ’57 Chev streeter in there somewhere, too. Suffice to say, it’s an impressive back catalogue.
“But this is my favourite by far,” Simon says definitively of his rough-and-ready 632ci WB One Tonner. “I just love this thing – it’s the first car I’ve built from start to finish since the LJ. I’ve had Pro Mods and everything, but I’m excited about getting back to my roots with this car.”
It was in the beer garden out the front of the George IV Inn at Picton, NSW that Simon first came to meet the Tonner. It may have been the whiskey talking, but when his mate Dan rolled up to the pub in the then-LS1-powered workhorse, Krygs reasoned that it would make an epic drag car. As luck would have it, Dan was on the hunt for a more modern ute at the time, so Simon offered up his Nissan Navara in exchange for the Tonner, and the deal was done.
When you think about it, a Holden One Tonner is a fine platform for a drag car. The commercial chassis is plenty strong (albeit a little heavy); the leaf-sprung rear end is easily upgradable with mono-leaves and modern adjustable shocks; you can fit plenty of rear tyre under them without the need for tubs; and there’s ample space in the engine bay for Kryger’s powerplant of choice – a big-block Chev ingesting ungodly amounts of nitrous oxide.
“I drove the Tonner as my daily until my new Navara arrived, then I stripped it,” says Simon. “I really liked the colour and the trim, and even though the body looked bad, it was actually pretty mint. I decided I wanted to run sevens with it looking like an Aussie farm truck, and I figure that with a 118-inch wheelbase, it won’t wheelie, and I should be able to tip shitloads of power into it. And for the no-prep tracks. I can put lots of weight on the back to help it hook up.”
There was no need to reinvent the wheel in the suspension department. Six-cylinder springs and Pedders 90/10 shocks have been used up front, while in the rear, Matt at Pro Street Industries mounted Gazzard Brothers mono-leaf springs inboard of the chassis rails, along with Menscer two-way, no-prep shocks and a sway-bar. That freed up enough real estate for 28×10.5 Hoosier slicks on 15×11 Weld Full Throttle beadlock wheels.
Matt also took care of the Race Products diff (which boasts meaty 40-spline floating axles and a Strange alloy centre), as well as the rollcage, which is good for 7.50s at the track.
The engine is a tried-and-true formula for Kryger – bulk cubes to the power of shitloads of spray. The 632-cuber was originally built by Ali Sead and is now being looked after by Westend Performance.
The rotating assembly consists of an Ohio crank, Oliver rods and JE pistons, and the camshaft is a Comp solid-roller. The Brodix Big Duke 18-degree heads were ported by Demaj Bros Racing and topped with a Dart inlet manifold. A 1250cfm Dominator carb is in charge of fuelling duties, while spark is catered for by a 20-amp ICE ignition, dizzy and coils. The lofty 16:1 compression ratio helps the fatty make an impressive 1180hp without the nitrous systems armed, but it does require VP Racing QM25 fuel. “It’s an oxygenated fuel, and I’ve used it while spraying other cars up to 1000hp and had no problems hurting pistons,” Simon explains.
Given his vast experience with nitrous, Kryger specced the power-adder stuff himself. “I run a plate system for full no-prep stuff with about 150hp in it, and then I custom-built the second direct-port kit with Induction Solutions gear. The second kit has a 36 pill in it at the moment – so 350hp, maybe – which gives me 500 all up. But when I hub dyno it, I’ll put a 52 pill in it, which should give me around 800hp total in nitrous.
“The first kit is activated on the hit, and then for the second kit, I can either use the scramble button on the steering wheel, or I can ramp it in using the nitrous controller, depending on the track. The car is teched to run 7.50, so the goal is to run a 7.60, and I’ll put whatever I have to in the second kit to do the job. I’m telling you, it’ll do it – I’ll keep adding gas until it does!”
Central to the Tonner’s appeal, of course, is that it still looks like it’s been dragged out of a paddock. And while you could be excused for thinking that required zero effort, Simon actually went to quite a bit of trouble to achieve the desired aesthetic. A reverse cowl was required to clear the towering big-block, but it was important that the new bonnet matched the old one’s patina. What better way to do it than to photograph the stock bonnet, then have the image applied to a vinyl wrap by the team at Graphic Industries? Similarly, the rapidly decaying timber tray was photographed, and a new steel tray insert was wrapped to match. Simon reckons it fools plenty of people.
“I have mates in the business who want to paint the Tonner for me, but the way I see it, this paintjob has been 42 years in the making,” he says. “When I bought the Tonner, I had a vision for it, and this is exactly how it looked – it’s cool as shit.”
For now, the Tonner is done, and Kryger is chomping at the bit to race it. “I don’t want to put a funny car ’cage in it, so mid-sevens is the goal, but I mostly built it for no-prep stuff. Johnny Habib is launching the No-Prep Racers Australia series, and it kind of feels like the band is getting back together from the old APSA days. I want to drive the car to and from the staging lanes and prove that a full steel-bodied, 3820lb One Tonner can do the job. I want to slide around, have fun racing on goat tracks, where it’s not who makes the most power that wins, it’s who has the most knowledge.
“I’ve spoken to Farmtruck and AZN [of Street Outlaws fame], and I asked whether, if I built something cool – an Aussie equivalent – could I pull up over there and do some street racing. They said definitely, so that’s next year’s plan. I want to show ’em what an old Aussie tradie truck can do!
SIMON KRYGER
1981 HOLDEN WB ONE TONNER
Paint: | Standard Yellow |
ENGINE | |
Brand: | 632ci big-block Chev |
Induction: | Dart inlet manifold, 1250cfm Dominator carb |
Nitrous: | Custom 150hp plate system, custom fogger system, Induction Solutions nitrous controller |
Heads: | Brodix Big Duke 18-degree, ported by Demaj Bros racing |
Camshaft: | Comp solid-roller |
Conrods: | Oliver |
Pistons: | JE |
Crank: | Ohio |
Oil pump: | High-volume |
Fuel system: | Aeromotive 2000 pump, four-port reg, two-port reg for fogger kit |
Cooling: | Alloy radiator |
Exhaust: | Custom 2.5in four-into-one headers |
Ignition: | 20-amp ICE ignition, dizzy and coils |
TRANSMISSION | |
Gearbox: | 2500hp Powerglide, 1.58 first gear |
Converter: | SDE 10in nitrous converter |
Diff: | 9in, 40-spline floating axles, Strange alloy centre |
SUSPENSION & BRAKES | |
Front: | Standard six-cylinder springs, Pedders 90/10 shocks |
Rear: | Gazzard Brothers mono-leaf springs, Menscer two-way no-prep shocks |
Brakes: | Wilwood (f & r) |
Master cylinder: | Wilwood |
WHEELS & TYRES | |
Rims: | Weld Full Throttle; 15×4.5 (f), 15×11 with beadlocks (r) |
THANKS
Matt at Pro Street Industries; Westend Performance; Norm at Victory Transmissions; SDE; Michael at ICE Ignition; Dave at DRC; Alfa Motorsport Fibreglass; Mark at Rocket industries; Kon at Wollongong Automotive Services; Phil at Fuelworx; VP Racing Fuels; Precision Suspension; Graphic Industries; Dan McGrath for selling me the car and always helping me; GameOn Motorsports; Induction Solutions; Gazzard Brothers; Holden for making a cool truck to start with; Johnny Habib at No-Prep Racers Australia (NPRA) for giving us somewhere to race; my wife Angela for putting up with all my car things; my girls Caitlin & Courtney for always supporting me (Courtney think she’s going to drive it!)
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