AN elite-level build was far from Joel Lambert’s mind initially when it came to his HG Monaro build. A lifelong early Monaro fan, at age 17 he bought this car as a roller from his old boss at the local butcher for $5000. It was a factory white six-cylinder GTS in decent shape, and had been given a lick of Indigo Orange acrylic paint, but had no running gear.

Having emptied out the piggy bank buying the thing, Joel let it sit for a number of years, with the plan to one day return it to its former glory. “My original plan was to just do a tough streeter,” he says. “Repaint it and drop in a 283 and Powerglide combo that I had already built. But once we got into the project we realised the engine bay was full of bog; in some spots it was an inch thick! At the same time we found a heap of bog in the rear quarters, so I quickly realised that it was going to need some serious bodywork.

After said serious bodywork was complete, the quality of the build had elevated well beyond Joel’s expectations. So the original 283 Chev combo wasn’t going to cut the mustard, so a 441-cube small-block was sourced from Nelson Racing Engines in America.

Joel debuted the car at Summernats earlier this year and has been doing the show circuit since. Now Joel’s finished showing the car, the next step is to get out and drive the wheels off it. With around 1000hp worth of Nitrous small-block under the bonnet, Joel is hoping to run a low nine-second pass down the quarter.

Check out Joel’s Monaro on the cover of the September 2016 issue of Street Machine magazine for the full story on this car.