Our VUFORU project car was a ground-breaking build when it debuted at Summernats 17 in early 2004, gracing the cover of our January ’04 issue. Taking a then-new model and applying traditional street machining styling cues like custom paint, big ‘n’ little wheels and tyres, and custom trim was a radical take on what a street machine could be at that time. You can check out the original build, lead by Craig Parker, here.

And now it is back under our ownership. Last year we bought the SS ute back after more than 20 years in the wilderness, and we have had Jason Waye at Tuff Mounts lead the charge to restore it to its former glory, in preparation for giving it away to one of you, again. 

“I reckon VUFORU was a turning point for the whole industry,” says Jason. “It was a brand new car and nobody had messed around with one in this way, plus LS were still pretty new in Australia. We’d never seen a wheel combo like this and in these sizes; we’d never seen the two-tone paint like this on a late-model car and then with the traditional style flames as well; and we hadn’t seen air bag suspension on a street machine at that stage. This car influenced a couple of builds of mine.”

“I’d call Craig Parker a visionary, because he sees things from a different perspective and his builds are all timeless in their own right,” Jason offers. “I reckon the paint is now better than it ever was. It’s nice to show the car has lived a life, because it’s been around and it’s of its time. You can see it’s the original car, and it has all the same feel to it that it had back at Summernats 17.”

In the video, Jason discusses the choices we had to make when planning the build. Put a new spin on it for 2024? Or preserve its originality as far as possible. Telfo even had visions of keeping the looking, but transforming the intent into a weekend track-style build.

“There is a fine line between preserving, restoring, and recreating an important car and finding that balance can be tricky, but especially when you’re working to a very tight timeline and have to make decisions quickly.

“It’s been nine-weeks of thrash to get it ready for MotorEx,” says, who having just dropped the ute at MPW for wiring and tuning ahead of its big reveal. Stay tuned next week to see in the finished product in action!