In this week’s episode, Scotty gets to live out a dream of his and compete in a serious car the event he has run for 10 years, Street Machine Drag Challenge!

The last year or so has been dedicated to turning Grimace from a simple V6, manual into an 1100rwhp, mid eight second machine for the event. This was his first time competing in a DC event since Drag Challenge Weekend 2018 in Turbo Taxi, and this time it was no easy ride with air con and cruise control.

The week turned into a nightmare before Drag Challenge had even begun. We had ourselves a staunch race car, but it was a long way from being a reliable streeter. Fortunately, Scotty had his mate Tom Banks riding shotgun for the week. Tom is a very capable mechanic and can-do kind of bloke and he worked like a Trojan to keep the ute on the road as the pair worked through solutions to the various issues presented.

After crawling their way to Calder Park for the start, racing was cancelled due to an unsafe track. Although there was no racing, what Scotty and the other entrants did still had to take on a near 600km and minimum five hour drive from Calder to Mildura.

With temperatures nudging over 30 degrees in Mildura that day, the further entrants drove, the hotter it got. Scotty and Tom also found on this road leg that Grimace was not a fan of 98 PULP for heat management, but with E85 scarce on the road route, it was just a case of manage what you’ve got.

Day two at the eighth-mile Atlantic Oils Sunset Strip was another challenging one, with boost pipe and traction issues only yielding a 6.19. It wasn’t representative of the cars true potential, but it was enough of a banker to hit the road for another big road leg from Mildura to Tailem Bend, via Murrayville.

The third day at Dragway at The Bend in South Australia was a much better one for Grimace, which PB’d on its best run of an 8.49@163MPH. Just a bee’s dick below the 8.50 index for the Pro Street Radials 8.5 Radial class Scotty was competing in.

Enjoy part one below, and keep your eyes out this time next week when part two drops detailing the last half of the week, with some surprising results!

A massive thanks to our sponsors, VPW Australia for making this all possible. The ute is a rolling test bed for their products, including their Street Pro rims, Dart LS Next block, RTS nine-inch diff with full-floater axles and more.

It is also chock-full of their Proflow gear, including:

• Proflow SuperMax+ intake manifold
• LS3 cylinder heads
• 525 LPH fuel pumps
• Billet Surge Tank
• DBW 102 mm throttle body
• Fabricated aluminium radiator
• Intercooler core
• Water pump
• Boost clamps
• All Fittings & hose

We also have to thank Haltech (Nexus R5 VCU & IGN-1A coils), AllFast Convertors (amazing Powerglide and convertor), TurboSmart (ProGate 50mm wastegates), MPW Performance (tuning and stacks of fabrication, including the exhaust manifolds) and Pulsar Turbos (7375G reverse-rotation turbos).