Update, 11 May 2026

Da Hulk broke cover with its fresh look at the Sleep Fast Not Furious and Shannons meet on Saturday night, still brandishing its original airbrushing that has been revived.

The wheelarches have been vinyl wrapped, and owner Ian Vann has added the Sleep Fast Not Furious campaign message down the side. It’s still Da Hulk we all know and remember, and given it’s a road-legal, registered machine, Ian says we should expect to see it out more soon!

“We’ll take it to car events and shows, get it out there, let people get up and close with it again and let them enjoy it,” he says.

The story to here

Friday 8 May: Just after we’ve finished restoring and unveiling VUFORU, our Holden VU SS giveaway ute from 2004, another one-off, custom-built Holden ute of the era is ready to make a public debut following its own revamp.

Created by Gary Gibons, the outlandish, 4×4 VY ute known as ‘Da Hulk’ first came to our attention back in 2006, and it went on to appear at Street Machine Summernats 20, 21 and 22. Sure, Holden experimented with AWD wagons and utes with the VY and VZ series, but Da Hulk is by no means just a beefed-up version of those.

Rather, it’s a VY SS dropped onto a Nissan Patrol chassis and 4×4 drivetrain. Room was made for 46-inch offroad rubber, but the driveline swap did not include a Patrol donk. Nope, we’re talking a CAPA-blown 427 LS good for over 1000rwhp, which would have been more than enough stonk to move those muddies. It was quite the attention getter, with a cool story behind it. You can read more on that here.

Like many of the wild builds of the noughties, it eventually fell out of the public eye – until it popped up for auction at Lloyds in mid-2024. It appeared the ute had lost a lot of its bling – both inside and out – by that time. The blown LS had been swapped for a stock LS1, and the 46in-high tyres had been replaced by slightly more sensible rubber.

The ute is now owned by Ian Vann, and he is set to unveil it at his own event tomorrow night, 9 May, in partnership with Shannons. The unveiling takes place at 5pm at Shannons’ Eagle Farm showroom in Brisbane.

“It’d been through a few hands, and it had been passed around a little, but it still had under 17,000km on the clock,” says Ian. “It’d sat around and got weathered and lost its way, so to speak. All the good stereo system had been taken out long ago, along with a lot of the other show pieces.”

Ian is the founder of Original Mattress & Furniture, and has been running an awareness campaign called Sleep Fast Not Furious. “The campaign is based around stopping driving fatigue, as it’s the number one killer on our roads,” he says. “Even if we save one life, then we’ve achieved my goal.”

Ian’s fleet includes a Subaru Inpreza WRX and pair of Nissan GT-R R35s, which travel the country as showcase pieces for the cause, and Da Hulk is set to join them from Saturday evening.

The ute has been given a revamp for its unveiling tomorrow night, with help from all the businesses supporting Ian’s cause. “Pedders has come on board to do all-new suspension for it, and MTX Audio has put a fresh stereo system in it,” says Ian.

The signature airbrush art on the bonnet and tailgate have been saved, along with the chains down the side, with the exterior’s been neatened up, too. We’re keen to check out its new look when the covers come off tomorrow afternoon.

“We’ve got 90 cars coming from all sorts of styles – Euro, Japanese, and all sorts – and it’s a free, family friendly event,” says Ian. “I’m still in touch with Gary, the original owner and builder, and he’ll be onsite for the unveiling as well.”