What a day! From the moment the City Cruise convoy hit Northbourne Avenue, Street Machine Summernats 37 was looking like an absolute belter.

Things ramped up several notches during the Last Chance Wildcard burnout comp, with Chris Orchard in BALLISTIC, Bryan Smilie in TIPNIN, and Brad Kilby in HAMMERTIME set to join the other finalists in the Pro Burnout Series finals on Saturday.

And as if that wasn’t enough the Meguiar’s Great Uncover was packed to the rafters with next-level builds and punters alike. We’ll have a full rundown on all the new unveils for you shortly.

While all that was happening, the Braddon Fringe Festival fired up into action – and we awarded Heath van der Waerden the Eagle Auto Parts Street Machine of the Year award, presented by Enthusiast Motor Insurance. Phew!

Here’s a few of our favourite rides that helped make day one of Summernats 37 such a belter.

XY Body-Swapped FG G6E Falcon!

“We only made it here with a day to spare, but eventually we’ll turbo the Barra,” says Anthony Habib of his truly unique XY Fairmont. The driveline is stock FG Falcon for the moment, including the IRS rear end that allows it to swallow up the 22 inch wheels.

“I found the XY Fairmont shell on a farm six years ago. It had been tubbed but it was just sitting, rusting away. I did some measurements and found out that the wheelbase was ridiculously close to the late model Falcon, so we basically cut up a G6E Falcon and dropped the XY shell over the top of it “It keeps the FG boot floor, firewall, dash and strut towers, and all the electrics inside like the audio and powered seats work as if it was a bone stock FG!”

Big-block VF Valiant

“We’re a Mopar family – I’ve got a ‘73 Cuda and the young fella has got a matching VF that’ll be out skidding later!” says Sheldon Rose, who travelled all the way from Brisbane to Australia’s biggest horsepower party in Canberra.

“I’ve owned it for sixteen years, and for a long time it just ran a small block but we made the decision to throw in the big block. The rest of the driveline was already there – the built gearbox and shortened 9 inch diff. We put the FITech injection on it because it makes it way more drivable. It makes somewhere in the region of 450hp but I’ve never been bothered about the number, we just want to drive it around our hometown.”

12A-swapping Pop’s Hilux

“I’m a Canberra local and we’re here every year,” explains Kane Venn of his unique 1977 Toyota Hilux.
A Mazda gearbox sits between the naturally aspirated 12A rotary engine and the standard Hilux diff’.

“It was actually the first car I learned to drive manual in! My grandfather bought it brand new in a little town called Corindi, and I’ve owned it for the last fifteen years. It originally had the flat tray, then we put a tub on it and more recently, the service body. Eight years ago the original petrol engine was looking a little tired and I’d always considered a rotary. I’d never owned one before but when I saw how well it fit, it made so much sense.

FJ20-POWERED Nissan Bluebird

Dominic Perrone took on this 1985 Bluebird from after his mate who owned it previously passed away. It’s running a super cool FJ20 2.0-litre turbo combo, sporting forgy rods and pistons. Running a Haltech Elite 1500 and on E85, it made 530rwhp through the five-speed manual ‘box – plenty in a car tipping the scales at just 1050kg! “We just got it running before the event, so we’ll cruise it for now and might take it roll racing once we sort an LSD,” says Dominic.

EH Premier taxi

Patrick Hogan dug this sweet EH Premier out of a paddock after it sat there untouched for 19 years, doing the bare basics to get it back and running. “We cleaned the fuel tank, it didn’t need much to get back running,” says Patrick. It’s now got a hot 208ci Holden six from a speedway car for shove, combined with a 500hp- capable Trimatic and an LSD.

“We’ve taken it on a load of events, Cancer Council rally and all that, which is why we did the Taxi theme for it,” he says. It’s their first year at the ‘Nats, and he and his son intend to smoke a set out of the rear wheel covers on Skid Row. “It should look pretty cool if we can get some smoke coming out of those, should look pretty cool!”