While boosted machines tend to make up the bulk of the field at Drag Challenge, there are always those who prefer more traditional forms of hurtling their way down a drag strip.

One of those is Sydneysider Stephen Micallef. While he has been dabbling with a seven-second, turbo LS-powered VZ Maloo of late, he is best known for his aspirated big-block HQ One Tonner. Now, the Tonner’s fat-block has returned to active duty, this time in his fresh LJ Torana build.

“I put together the Maloo as a fill-in car while I was building the Torana,” says Stephen. “The Torana uses the same engine from the HQ, but rebuilt with a new top end, more compression and other neat tricks.”

With this same 632ci fatty Bowtie in the engine bay, Stephen’s eight-second Quey romped to victory in the Tuff Mounts Outlaw Aspirated class three times – twice in our full-length Drag Challenge (2016 and 2017), and once at the three-day Drag Challenge Weekend (2018).

“It should make over 100hp more, and the chassis is 1000lb lighter than the HQ,” says Stephen of the LJ. “So, we’ll be targeting low eights, and then build on it from there.”

Many would know Stephen to be a bad-arse gearbox builder as the owner of Shift Right in Sydney. In his limited spare time, though, he builds his own cars, so barring body, paint and interior, the majority of this Torana is his own work.

The LJ was officially unveiled to the public at Street Machine Summernats 38 as part of the Meguiar’s Great Uncover, wearing its uniquely tweaked version of the original Holden Covert Beige.

“That was an unreal experience, and I’m so glad we did it, because once this thing is up and going, it’ll never look this nice again,” Stephen says. “We’re going to race the pants off it!”

At the time of writing, Stephen is in the final stages of kitting out the Haltech Nexus R5 that’ll be running the show for the Torana. It will then hit the dyno, and after that, it’s off to the track for testing.

So, will Stephen be easing into the job of testing the new chassis? Not exactly. “If it takes it, we’ll go for it,” he declares. “We’ll aim to be at the track in the next two to three months, and I’m hoping to hit it hard, all going well.”

Stephen’s already scoping out the competition for this year’s Drag Challenge, 27-31 October. Paul Wood’s radial LC Torry, for example, which also rocks aspo big-block power, is one car in Stephen’s sights.

“Paul ran 8.35 on the last day at The Bend [at Drag Challenge 2025], so even though he’s in the Radial class and me the Outlaw, that’ll be a fun battle between the two Toranas,” he says.

We’ll have a full-fat feature on the Torana in the mag soon, and we’ll be sure to keep you updated here if Stephen sets the boards alight when the car goes testing.