For 45 years now, Street Machine has been bringing you the hottest street machines, hot rods and custom cars, so when we build a car to give away, we can’t really phone it in. It’s why previous SM project cars like the widebody HQFORU Monaro coupe and the two-door, V8-swapped ‘Sony Scorcher’ EA Falcon have become iconic rides in the Aussie street machining pantheon, and few other magazines have given away legendary tin like a genuine, restored Phase III GTHO or a factory-fresh GMP&A A9X Torana.

VUFORU was a ground-breaking build when it debuted at Summernats 17 and graced the cover of our January ’04 issue. Taking a then-new model and applying traditional street machining styling cues – custom paint, big ’n’ little wheels, bespoke trim and more – was a pretty radical idea at that time.

Now, this legendary, LS-powered VU SS ute is once again under our ownership. Last year, we bought VUFORU back after more than 20 years in the wilderness, and asked Jason Waye at Tuff Mounts to lead the charge of restoring it to its former glory. And you could win it! Entry info here.

“I reckon VUFORU was a turning point for the whole industry,” says Jason. “It was a brand new car, and nobody had messed around with one in this way, plus LS engines were still pretty new in Australia. We’d never seen a wheel combo like this and in these sizes; we’d never seen two-tone paint like this on a late-model car and then with the traditional-style flames as well; and we hadn’t seen airbag suspension on a street machine at that stage. This car influenced a couple of builds of mine.”

VUFORU’s story began in 2003 with a well-used, black VU SS ute that Holden had put through the wringer as a development mule for the SS Fifty special edition. Serving as the Street Machine workshop truck, it was quickly lowered, had a Crow cam and MAFless tune thrown at the 301hp, 5.7-litre LS1 V8, and a snappy set of 3.9 diff gears were installed out back. From there, Street Machine features editor – and 1991 SMOTY winner – Craig Parker hatched a plan to build it into a Summernats show-stopper in an incredible five months.

Ryan Carter from Stylemaster Designworks was handling renderings for our Expression Session section of the mag at that time, so he was tapped to come up with some modern pro street concepts for the ute, which were later brought to life by paint guru Mat Egan from Extreme Designs in a whirlwind eight-day thrash. But the real talking point of the build was the wild 18x8in and 24x10in Bonspeed billet wheel combo, combining old-school, pro street big-tyre rake with contemporary wheel sizing.

Cramming some proper dish and big, wide meats under the rear was mandatory for nailing a pro street vibe, so Waddington Street Rods (now Castlemaine Rod Shop) went to town on the ute to make it happen. They mini-tubbed the rear end and narrowed it with custom arms and axles, shifted the IRS cradle 50mm upwards, and stretched the rear guards 100mm to provide the huge 24×10 Bonspeed rims room to move. Tubular Suspension Systems added then-new air suspension to give the ute an awesome stance when parked at shows while still allowing plenty of height to get into carparks and over speed humps.

On debut at Street Machine Summernats 17, VUFORU blew people away, with the combination of old-school pro street styling and custom paint on a new-model car offering something radical yet familiar. The ute toured shows around Australia before being given away to Sydneysider James Gethen.

VUFORU has led a life since then, passing through an estimated six owners before Jason brokered the deal for us to bring the well-travelled SS ute back into the fold.

“I saw it for sale and it hit me that this was an opportunity,” he says. “Broads reached out with an idea to get it back and I was on board instantly. I no longer build cars for people, but the chance to have this special car back was truly exciting, although I didn’t know if I had the ability to bring it back to a level to do it justice. I also didn’t know if I could commit to the timeframe to have it done by MotorEx.”

Hopes were initially high that the car could be simply refreshed rather than fully restored, but reality soon dawned. The epic paintjob laid down by Mat Egan had copped plenty of weather and battle scars; the front suspension leaked air; the polished Bonspeed billet wheels had also seen damage and a repaint in black; and the T56 manual had been replaced by a TH350 three-speed auto. Other changes included a VZ Monaro bonnet, Auto Meter gauges, and an individual-throttlebody intake.

To restore VUFORU’s iconic paint scheme, a full respray was required. Ryan and Scott at Revive Paint & Panel knocked out dents and war wounds from the ute’s two decades of use, before laying down fresh black and pearl green paint supplied by Axalta, with a matching red pinstripe to break it up. Troy and Tara from Nightmare Designs were on hand for the airbrush and stencil work required to replicate VUFORU’s original flamejob. Using PPG Vibrance paint to respray the graphics, they followed what Mat Egan had done back in ’03 as closely as possible but added some extra shading to sharpen the design up a bit.

“It was a blow to have to respray the car,” says Jason, who has a history of restoring significant Sports Sedan race cars. “There is a fine line between preserving, restoring, and recreating an important car, and finding that balance can be tricky, especially when you’re working to a very tight timeline and have to make decisions quickly.

“It’s been nine weeks of thrash to get it ready for MotorEx,” he continues. “We’ll have it back after MotorEx to test-drive it and finish up any final issues.”

For Jason Waye, there’s a satisfying feeling of mission accomplished. “I reckon VUFORU’s paint is now better than it ever was,” he says. “It’s nice to show that the car has lived a life, because it’s been around and it’s of its time. You can see it’s the original car, and it has the same feel to it that it had back at Summernats 17.”

VUFORU’s original build

1. The driving force behind VUFORU’s original build was then-SM features editor Craig Parker, who has a long history of creating ground-breaking cars. Long-time SM readers would remember Craig’s 1991 SMOTY-winning TUFFXY Falcon, which helped bring pro touring to Australia, while his infamous ‘Baby Cup’ HQ virtually patented the concept of the ‘Summernats Cruiser’ build.

2. VUFORU was given pride of place in the Summernats 17 Supercruise, and did bulk laps in the hands of most of the SM staff. One of the best moments of my near-25-year career with Street Machine was when Craig Parker flicked 21-year-old me the keys to drive it out of the Supercruise.

3. One of the gurus of custom paintjobs at the time VUFORU was built, Melbourne’s Mat Egan has since taken his wild style all over the world. Mat laid the famous flames down the side of our ute in just eight days, and it’s a testament to his skill that the paint held up as well as it did over the years.

4. The team at Waddington Street Rods had to go to serious lengths to get the 24x10in rear wheels to fit and tuck nicely once the ’bags were aired out. The IRS cradle was moved up 50mm, custom trailing arms and axles were installed to suit the narrower rear end, and the stock wheel tubs were taken to the chassis rails.

STREET MACHINE
2001 HOLDEN VU COMMODORE SS

THANKS
Jason Waye and the Tuff Mounts crew; Ryan and Scott at Revive Paint & Panel; Troy and Tara at Nightmare Designs; MPW Performance; Penrite; PPG Paints; Chubby at Lowe Fabrications; Axalta Coating Systems; Air Ride Suspension Systems; VCM Performance; Mako Motorsport; Haltech; Pacemaker; D&T Performance; Muff Motorsport; Biggie Scrolls; Adept Metal Polishing; Scotty at Oxytech Powder Coatings; Gareth Lougher.