Yes, it’s that time! Check your mailbox, servo, newsagent, or supermarket, because the August ‘22 issue of Street Machine is on sale now.

We reckon this mag is a delicious blend of retro goodness and new-world performance. Don’t just take our word for it, though. Grab one for yourself!

Our cover car is an incredible LC Torana built by Corey Phie, which he unveiled at Rockynats 02 earlier this year. Dominating the elite hall with its wild pink and rose gold colour combo, there’s a 1200hp Tremaniac-built LS7 under the perfect engine bay metalwork. BUCKL UP, indeed!

Michael Ellard is known for his cracker work as the man behind Image Conversions, so when he gets stuck into a humble KE36 Corolla, something good is sure to come of it. The BEAMS-powered van matches more than ample grunt with six-speed manual fun, all wrapped in a mega-tidy package with subtle modern touches.

R&D projects don’t come much tougher than Jason Waye’s force-fed, Barra-swapped Foxbody Mustang. Jason brought the quick white Fox over from Adelaide for Drag Challenge Weekend 2022, putting the Aussie-American hybrid through its paces to the tune of mid-nine-second passes. It did so while looking pretty damn cool, too!

The Blue Oval love continues with this gorgeous home-brewed XL Falcon, care of Queensland’s Clinton Leayr. Don’t be fooled by the intact bonnet and grandpa-spec paint, because under the bonnet you’ll find a 347-cube Windsor-based screamer and a massive Proboost snail.

PSI isn’t the only way to big power and impressive timeslips, as proven by Chris Vassilis’s killer eight-second aspirated LX Torrie hatch. The street-strip bruiser started as a bare shell before Chris whacked in a comparatively tough small block making 840hp at the crank.

Let’s not forget Keith Hards’s evil Camaro on the topic of seriously quick cars. This big-block-powered weapon recently saw some changes, and battled it out at Drag Challenge Weekend.

Mat Lloyd was just 15 when he snagged his ex-cop VK Charger for just $3000. He followed up the astute purchase with some more smart work, envisioning a car from a world in which 1972’s supercar scare never happened. That meant colour-coded bumpers, E38 stripes, and a stout 392-cuber for motivation.

You’d be forgiven for pegging Chris Dicker’s HQ Kingswood as an 80s pro street survivor, but what you see here is pretty much all his own creation! With a ladder bar rear and 15×15 rolling stock already installed, Chris went all-out by adding in-your-face graphics and a grumpy 331ci small-block Chev.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few months, you’d be familiar with our Milwaukee Young Street Machine of the Year competition, where Australia’s best and brightest aged 24 and under are vying for bragging rights and a cool cash prize from Milwaukee. After some serious deliberation through almost 500 entries, we’ve put together our 16 finalists! It’s a truly varied bunch, and the win could go to anybody, so check out each car in our News Front story and cast your vote online!

Heathcote Park Raceway put on its most epic event in recent memory, as Top Fuel racing returned to the iconic rural Victorian dragstrip for the first time in three decades. The 20,000hp monsters were joined by a bevy of Sportsman racers on the newly refinished quarter-mile, alongside our own Scotty Taylor in an on-song Lightning McBarra. Even the burnout crowd got in on the action, smashing tyres with aplomb inside HPR’s old speedway facility.

The dynamic duo of Telfo and Iain Kelly hit up the Sydney Hot Rod & Custom Auto Expo, accompanied by gun snapper Ben Hosking. All sorts of killer metal came out to play, from restored muscle cars to wild hot rods and traditional customs. It went off like a frog in a sock as plenty of newly unveiled rides hit the floor alongside old favourites.

There’s a pearler Grunt Hunt yarn, too, as we dive into the last Holden V8 engine to win at Mount Panorama. When most of the touring car pack switched to imported Chev mills in 1993, Larry Perkins stuck with the iron lion, flogging the lot to the point where the engine’s F1-style intake was banned. It’s a truly loving (if not near-pornographic) dive into a legendary motor, regardless of your brand allegiance.

The time-warp theme continues with a look at Toony Ross’s FC Holden, which earned him Top Overall Street Machine at the first-ever Street Machine Nationals way back in 1975. After losing track of the triple-carbed toughie for some time, Tony managed to buy it back in 2014 and kick off a no-holds-barred recreation of its ‘70s look, with a few subtle modern touches.

We also pay tribute to the late Brendan Akhurst, who lost his battle with cancer earlier this year aged 73. His ‘Wayne and Vicky’ cartoons were a longtime staple of the Aussie street car magazine scene, debuting right back in our Dec ‘81/Jan ‘82 issue before hitting Street & Custom and Super Street. Brendan also sketched out heaps of other fantastic illustrations, including the Torana and Falcon on our 30th anniversary mag, and art for Noel Tuckey’s Dirty Stuff yarns. It’s a great look at the publishing history of our sport, with words by Seddo and plenty of Brendan’s greatest hits on-page.

3D-modelling god-emperor Aidan Donald looked to the past for this month’s Expression Session, reimagining the legendary Blobak ute for the modern era. Starting with a VF Commodore ute, Aidan stuck a Harrop-blown LSA in the tub, and added plenty of smart touches to drag the wild twin-engined design into the 21st century.

Convinced yet? It’s all in the August issue of SM, alongside your usual favourites including a great retro Snap Shots piece, epic readers’ cars and projects, and heaps more!