Who says you need $200,000 worth of LandCruiser and caravan to tour our vast country? Central Victorian Paul Rockes certainly doesn’t think so. He threw a Barra into this old EK postie van, resurrected it in his own garage, and is already taking it on road trips all over the country.

First published in the June 2025 issue of Street Machine

This isn’t Paul’s first wicked machine, having previously built an awesome blown V8-powered Mk2 Cortina (SM, Dec ’14), and the EK also shares shed space with his Appendix J-style FX Holden.

So, how did the EK come about? “It’s a car I got from a mate of mine, who sadly fell to mental health problems,” Paul says. “I didn’t want to see the project unfinished, so I took it on and spent the next three or so years rebuilding it from the ground up.”

Even with an EK being a factory six-pot machine, fitting the Barra took more than just a set of fancy engine mounts. “We had to recess the firewall 170mm to fit the engine, and then mounted it and the gearbox,” says Paul. “We also added a Castlemaine Rod Shop chassis strengthening kit and converted it to an independent front with a Curley’s Rods & Customs front end.”

So, why a Barra in the first place? Sure, a grey motor wouldn’t have been much chop, but jumping ship to the Blue Oval is a bold call. However, Paul still sees plenty of Aussie pride in his choice. “I wanted a unique engine in it, but I wasn’t interested in an American or Japanese one. That ruled out an LS or an RB30,” he says. “I thought a car built in Melbourne deserved an engine local to it, and Barras were built in Geelong. That seemed like a nice fit to me.”

The engine, transmission, ECU and wiring were sourced from a wrecked BA XR6 Turbo ute and shoehorned into the unsuspecting Holden van. Now, the usual temptation at this point would be to try and screw four-figure horsepower out the ‘Aussie 2JZ’, but Paul’s head is a bit more sensible than ours. “It’s very tight for things like the intercooler, piping and the turbo, which is why the turbo and manifold are still standard,” he says.

After a three-year build during the height of COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions, the EK had only been on the road a few months before Paul undertook a mammoth 5000km round trip in the van from his home in Harcourt to Alice Springs for Red CentreNATS 8! “We had one drama with a rear shock, but otherwise the car was faultless,” he says. “She cruised at the 130km/h limit in the NT with no worries, doing 10 litres per 100km and with cruise control!

In between then and now, Paul took the EK for a basic tune, which ended up revealing a pretty big issue with the engine. “Turns out it had been overboosting, so we had six bent rods!” he laughs. “So, Aaron Dewar rebuilt the engine with the good basic bits, with better rods, pistons, valve springs, oil pump gears and the like.”

The rebuilt combo is yet to make a representative number, as Paul still needs to sort out a better replacement for the BA XR6 intercooler before more juice can be squeezed. “I’m only looking to maximise what’s there – it only weighs 1440kg, so we don’t need heaps,” he says.

“Once that’s done, I might enter it in Drag Challenge next year, but otherwise it’ll still be a road trip machine.”

With around 13,000 kays of this great country already under the EK’s wheels since its rebuild, 70-year-old Paul is enjoying his retirement in a way most of us could only dream of.

PAUL ROCKES
1962 EK HOLDEN PANEL VAN

THANKS
Geoff Houlden for fabrication and fitment; Hoota for the panel and paint; Harry for the electrical work.

Got a car that looks mild but goes wild? Email pics, car details and contact details to [email protected].