Here’s part two of our coverage of a bumper Meguiar’s Great Uncover at Street Machine Summernats 38, where over 20 car where seen in public for the very first time!

You can read through part one of our coverage here, and below is a jam-packed part two!

MELISSA GOW – 1969 DATSUN 1600

MELISSA Gow’s lovely little Datto 1600 follows from her husband Clayton’s LSA-powered Datsun 1200 ute, clothed in a similar yellow and built to take on the Summernats Elite Hall..

After Clayton had a minor bingle in it several years ago, the Datsun was sold, but it’s now back with the family, fully rebuilt with a 600hp-capable billet 13B with a G35 turbo.

SDR Motorsport went to town on the engine bay, and the couple elected for a bright lick of yellow paint to mirror Clayton’s 1200 ute.

Brent Parker Motor Trimming executed his finest work on the interior fit-out, with billet touches throughout.

ANGUS PIROTTA – 1971 HG MONARO

FIRST-gen Monaros continue to be one of the most popular models at Summernats, with the Elite Hall gleaming with countless swept rooflines of these late-60s/early-70s muscle cars.

Despite the bright Sunset Pearl paint, Angus Pirotta has exercised outstanding restraint with his HG Monaro. It runs an 8/71-blown, ProFlo-built 406ci small-block that has spun all the way to 900hp on the engine dyno.

The blacked-out engine is matched with a similarly black interior that Angus insists is in line with the car’s future as a regularly driven street car: “We’re going to drive this car, so everything has to be practical.”

CHRISTOPHER CAMPBELL – 1931 FORD MODEL A DELUXE

CANBERRA local Chris Campbell rebuilt his Aussie-assembled Ford ’31 roadster with his own two mitts, right down to the paintwork! “I wanted to build a very much period hot rod, so there’s nothing made past 1948 on this car,” he said

Chris bought the car with his old man eight years ago and has been working on it on and off since. Five months ago, he was invited to unveil the car, and some late nights in the lead-up to Summernat 38 got it across the line.

Edelbrock heads, an EM7 high-rise manifold, and a baby camshaft. It’s backed by a traditional three-speed cog swapper, and originality goes down as far as the original NOS hub caps and Firestone tyres!

PETER XIBERRAS – 1982 HOLDEN VH COMMODORE

PETER Xiberras’s VH Commodore isn’t a Brocky tribute; it’s a faithful and thorough restoration of the very first vehicle to ever claim multiple Bathurst victories. This VH battled The Mountain and carried Peter Brock and Larry Perkins to Mt Panorama stardom, cementing both men as legends of the sport and making this car a piece of Australian motorsport history.

“When you’re doing a resto, you can hide all the damage, but that’s the DNA of a race car like this,” Peter said. “We haven’t filled every hole and erased its history; for example, this car was before air jacks were common, so if you look under the sills, you can still see the marks from jacking the car up!

“This car is truly one of one,” he continued. “There’s no other car in the world that can claim what it has done. I just love the history. What this car achieved made so many of the later HDTs – like the Blue Meanies, for example – popular. The wreath on the rear quarter of a VK Group A celebrates two of this VH’s victories!”

MICK SAMMUT – 1939 CHEVROLET SEDAN

NOT content with the 680hp HQ Monaro that also fills his shed, Mick Sammut enlisted ProFlo Performance to piece together one of Summernats 38’s most distinctive vehicles. A 1939 Chev isn’t what most street machiners reach for when they think of building a tough cruiser, but for Mick, the styling was impossible to go past.

“I love the high-roofed, bubbly style of the ‘bomber’-era cars,” Mick said. “There’s a big scene for them in America, but I wasn’t going to simply leave it low and slow!”

It’s an intentionally traditional car styling-wise, with period-correct pastel green paint that rests low over whitewall tyres thanks to the airbag suspension. Inside, Mick was careful to respect the car’s heritage, but it’s a neat and practical interior that’s comfortable enough for family cruising on the weekend.

A stroked LSA bottom end is mated to a naturally aspirated top end, and breathing through a carby, the Chev makes a healthy 630hp.

LEE & ANNA POVEY – 1987 VL COMMODORE WAGON

LEE and Anna Povey unleashed a new era of Povey-inspired VL violence on the radial world when they ripped the covers off Anna’s Duramax-powered VL wagon.

While an 80s Commodore wagon might not instantly inspire fear in the hearts of your enemies, underneath the skin is a tried-and-tested recipe for drag-and-drive savagery.

The 6.6L Duramax has been stroked out with a billet crank, rods, worked heads and a beefy camshaft, expanding capacity to just over seven litres. It’s controlled by a MoTeC engine management system, tuned by one of the great diesel drag gurus in America.

Behind the coal-roller is an M&M Turbo 400 and a 40-spline full sheet-metal diff, with a 9.5in centre and a carbonfibre tailshaft, all designed to fight the grunt of the torquey Duramax.

“Our plan is RockyNats, MotorEx, Red CentreNATS, Jamboree, and try to do all the shows with it while it’s pretty, and start racing it in 2027,” Anna said. “I’ve crewed for Lee for years – now it’s his turn!”

MATTHEW ELLARD – 1974 TOYOTA CELICA 

SUMMERNATS 38 wasn’t wildly different for Matthew Ellard of Image Vehicle Manufacturing. He spent days detailing and setting up customers’ cars as per usual; however, in his spare time he also set up his own 1974 Toyota Celica for debut.

Matt has owned the car for quite some time, but in recent years he’s turned his attention to finishing off a long-term rebuild, which now sees it running a Toyota 3T-GTE four-cylinder mill, an impeccably integrated Tesla Model S interior, and – as you’d expect from the Image crew – outstanding custom metalwork and luscious paint and panel.

The cherry on top is the ride height, with the car slung low over staggered billet wheels.

JOE KURTOVIC – 1933 FORD COUPE

JOE Kurtovic’s 1933 Ford coupe was one of a handful of 30s-era unveilings at Summernats 38, and it offers a delicate balance of period-correct styling with modern power and performance.

“We’ve owned the car for 25 years and in that time it’s been a street car, a drag car, a short-lived burnout car and now this final version as a 1970’s style Fuel Altered,” explains Joe.

The engine is an exotic, nitro-sniffing 392-cube Hemi plucked from a racing boat, converted to suit the rod with some changes to the cam and compression ratio. A Reid-case Powerglide fronts a trick Winters quick-change rear end that’s been converted to full-floating 40-spline axles.

The team went down to the wire to get the car to the ’Nats after it suffered a small mechanical failure 14 weeks out from the event, and only finished piecing it together in the Elite Hall 24 hours before the covers came off on Thursday!

CLINT STEVENS – VS COMMODORE UTE

CLINT Stevens has owned this VS Commodore ute for nearly two decades and has envisaged ripping the covers off it at Summernats ever since the day he got it!

After going through a few Holden V8 iterations, the car first broke cover at Summernats 31 with a 350-cube Chev nestled between the towers, with a 6/71 blower and injection hat towering over the small-block.

For its latest incarnation, the ute spent a few months in Victoria with Showtime Customs & Fabrication, where it received a narrowed coil-over front and a fabricated nine-inch rear end, allowing Clint to run 22in Simmons rims measuring 7in wide on the nose and 12in on the rear.

“It can be challenging to do something different with a modified Commodore, so we just constantly tested ourselves to push the boundaries,” Clint said.

MATT MIZZI – 1948 CHEVROLET PICK-UP

MATT Mizzi’s Chev pick-up proves that nothing exceeds like excess. Everything about it is supersized, and it’s the car he’s always wanted to build.

“It was always destined to look like this – just not as shiny,” Matt laughed. “It was never supposed to go this far, but after we settled on the wheels, stance and the engine, it kept evolving.”

The 14/71-supercharged big-block Chev has had the ProFlo magic wand waved over it, and spits out a brutal 1750hp at the crank on 30psi, chugging methanol.

The glorious paintwork was one of the final pieces to the puzzle, with the burgundy panels glowing under the Elite Hall lights.

JASON HOLT – VH COMMODORE SL/E

SEEING the covers come off his VH SL/E Commodore wasn’t just the culmination of years of hard work for Jason Holt, it was the final chapter of a story that began in the early 2000s, before his brother – the car’s original owner – tragically passed.

“He and I used to speak about his plans for the car, and when he passed, it became mine. We did a few little projects to get it to a state where we could use it for my wedding,” Jason said. As a lifelong Summernats fan, Jason decided that seeing the VH sitting alongside some of the nation’s finest builds would be a fitting tribute to his brother.

The subtlety of the build is the real winner – mods so tiny and expertly executed that only the most well-trained eye could pick them up, like the deletion of the rubber weather strips around the chrome SL/E bars.

Under the bonnet, a Hi Torque-built LS is topped by a whopping 3100 Harrop huffer, and makes a healthy 1000hp at the hubs.

DEJAN STOJANOVIC – HK MONARO

“I’VE wanted to build a car to unveil at Summernats my whole life!” said Dejan Stojanovic of his HK Monaro.

“The goal was always clear: shave the engine bay, tidy up the paint and panel, and pay a lot of attention to the engine. I always wanted it to be custom.”

The Monaro looks sublime finished in a bright silver paint, which perfectly complements the red interior trim. An EFI 406-cube small-block fronts a Turbo 400 and nine-inch, but the suspension choices tip the hat to the family’s intention to street-cruise this stunning piece of Aussie muscle.

“It’s got a four-link in the back and a Rod-Tech front end, with coil-overs all ’round and a remote-mounted Astra electric power steering pump,” said Dejan.

COLIN LEE – 1936 FORD FIVE-WINDOW COUPE

COLIN Lee’s ’36 Ford is the result of his 30-year passion for hot rodding and his time spent crewing for the Gatt family and their race cars.

“The engine combo is very similar to what we ran in the Gatts’ XA,” said Colin of the 8/71-blown Clevo stuffed into the front of the coupe. “The Turbo 400 gearbox came out of Ben’s Capri, but we’ve obviously freshened it up.” The spicy driveline is finished with a fabricated nine-inch between the rear wheels.

The race car theme extends in to the extensively caged interior, broken up by mirror polished sheet metal for a shine that rivals the sizzling orange paintwork.

“I like the pro street cars from the 80s like Owen Webb’s XY, so the styling is part gasser, part pro street,” said Colin.

PETER LIVERSIDGE – HG HOLDEN WAGON

THE age of diesel-powered street machines may very well be here, as parked alongside the Poveys’ ballistic Duramax-powered VL drag-and-drive car was Peter Liversidge’s HG wagon, also bursting at the seams with Duramax fury.

“My first car was an HT Premier wagon and I’ve got a lot of good memories with them, so four years ago, we picked up this HG,” Peter explained of his fascination for the long-roofs.

Peter pieced the wagon together with his good mate Brian, and he admits they had their doubts about whether the giant sooty donk would ever see the inside of the HG’s engine bay. But with nothing to lose and plenty of grinding discs, the duo mated the HG with its new coal-fired heart and accompanying Allison transmission.

Detail abounds in the rest of the build, and the styling is a vibrant and tasteful explosion of browns, beiges and bronzes.

LUKE SWIFT – 1971 LC TORANA 

THE story of Luke Swift’s LC build would be familiar to many other car crafters throughout the Elite Hall, and indeed the street machining scene in general: “I thought I’d bought a neat base for a project, but as I started pulling it apart, it revealed its secrets,” he laughed.

Luke enlisted the help of his detail-oriented dad and his engine builder brother, who between them did a fantastic job of disregarding Luke’s original plans for the car to be a neat streeter!

Instead, the Torana was unveiled as a pro street-inspired, blown 404ci LS-powered beast packed with detail, but Luke was adamant that the minute the tyres touched terra firma again, they were getting turned in anger!