STREET MACHINE: JANUARY 2016

Street Machine brings in the New Year with a bumper 244-page behemoth

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THE first Street Machine of 2016 is on sale now (in er, 2015), and it’s a big 244-page monster issue packed full of the usual stunning feature cars, plus a massive 77-page write-up on Drag Challenge!

Pro Touring Camaro NwOn the cover is Graham Laity’s stunning pro touring ’69 Camaro. It may be a show car, but it’s no trailer queen – as we learned when Graham drove it from Bendigo to Sydney for MotorEx! It was built to drive, and has all the goodies, including an LS7 donk, a TCI front chassis clip with adjustable coil-overs and a TCI Torque Arm set-up out back.

George BarrisIn Legend we pay tribute to the king of customs, George Barris, who passed away on 5 November. We were fortunate enough to meet Barris at MotorEx earlier this year when he made the long journey from Los Angeles to Sydney, and even at age 89 his passion and enthusiasm for cars was as obvious as ever.

Ford XW FalconYou wouldn’t think it by looking at it, but Marcus Howe’s XW Falcon is a nine-second strip-storming stealth machine. It has no tubs, no turbos, and nothing poking out of the bonnet, just an aspirated 434-cube Windsor filled with good stuff shoving 737hp through the rear wheels!

Ford Fairlane ThunderboltHayden Ivers’s quest to build a Fairlane Thunderbolt replica ended up taking him all the way to Pennsylvania to meet up with Dick Brannan, who helped create the original Thunderbolt back in 1964! The end result is a super-clean replica inside and out, powered by a 489ci stroker motor. She’s good for mid-11s at the track for now, but should go high 10s once it’s been run-in and tuned.

HQ Holden Monaro Build SICKOWe catch up with Billy Shelton, who is halfway through his wild SICKO Monaro build. With the metalwork just about complete, Billy shares some of the secrets that have gone into the car, like the cool one-piece front end and custom dashboard.

Ringbrothers Splitr Mustang SEMA 2015We also headed to Vegas for SEMA to check out the amazing cars and the latest parts and crazes to hit the automotive aftermarket. Pro tourers seemed to be the flavour of the month, but there were still loads of cool rods, customs, drag beasts and pretty much anything else you can think of. It was massive!

Ford GT40 Replica NwJim Shack’s Ford GT40 replica was delivered as a box of bits, and with the help of a few mates tempted by the idea of some barbeque meat, the car came together in about six months. And with a beautifully detailed Boss 5.4-litre V8 sitting behind the cockpit, Jim’s car is getting plenty of love at the shows.

Bubba VH Commodore Drag ChallengeAnd to top it all off, we have almost 80 pages of Drag Challenge coverage, running through the highs and lows of each day and how the competitors and their cars held up over the five-day event.

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