<\/span>On Sunday morning, hot rods, customs and street machines filled Queenscliff\u2019s grassy park areas near the water\u2019s edge for the show \u2019n\u2019 shine. All takings from the spectator gates went to the local area\u2019s Lions Club, which channels the funds into community charities. The show \u2019n\u2019 shine was a perfect laidback end to the weekend, allowing entrants to rest up for the drive home or cool off at the nearby beaches.<\/p>\nGeelong Street Rodders have been running the Rod Run in Queenscliff for 21 years now, and 2019 was one of the biggest they\u2019ve ever had, with over 700 cars entered, even after deciding to align with ASRF guidelines by making it for pre-1966 vehicles only. It\u2019s also the biggest weekend of the year for local traders, so there\u2019s no doubt the township will embrace the 2020 Rod Run with open arms and friendly smiles again.<\/p>\n
HIGHLIGHTS:<\/strong><\/p>\n
<\/span>1. Barry Walters owns this bad-arse matte-black \u201957 Chevy. Under the hood is a ProCharged 350 SBC.<\/p>\n
<\/span>2. Craig Smith has nailed it with his 1954 Ford Zephyr convertible. Craig has owned the car for 35 years! The late John Taverna Sr did the chassis work, with a four-link and coil-over rear end. The rears measure up at 15x10in and power is provided by a stout 302 Windsor.<\/p>\n
<\/span>3. We featured Darren Schembri\u2019s XY GS in Street Machine<\/em> Fords back in 2008, and since then it\u2019s undergone some changes. It now has an angry 440-cuber pumping out over 800hp naturally aspirated. New tubs and bigger rubber have helped Darren run consistent 9.7s.<\/p>\n
<\/span>4. Lately we\u2019ve seen Damien Reeves\u2019s XT Fairmont driving everywhere. It\u2019s powered by a Whipple-supercharged 363ci Dart backed up with a FTI Turbo 400 trans. It\u2019s run a best of 10.4sec and Damien is hoping to bring the car on his third Drag Challenge later this year.<\/p>\n
<\/span>5. My boy Max was fixated on Ryan Chara\u2019s massive F250 and its 40in tyres!<\/p>\n
<\/span>6. Hunter McDonald driving his dad Dean\u2019s 1959 Plymouth Belvedere. He\u2019s only 16 years old and has already clocked up over 60 hours of driving in his mum\u2019s XP sedan and the blown Hemi-powered Plymouth, which we featured in June 2011. Dean couldn\u2019t get him out of the driver\u2019s seat all weekend. What a young gun!<\/p>\n
<\/span>7. It looks like an old jalopy as it comes towards you, but as it gets nearer you realise that Shaun Colliver\u2019s 1930 Model A is far from that. Shaun bought the Deluxe coupe complete with the original four-banger and bullet holes, then set to work shoehorning in a massive 460ci big-block Ford. To make it fit, they recessed the firewall 7in. The chassis has been fully boxed and strengthened, and Shaun added a K-frame and tailshaft loop. It\u2019s a real sleeper with its 4in skinny whitewall tyres, rumble seat, cowl lamps and six-wheel option.<\/p>\n
<\/span>8. Curtis Grima is no stranger to rad rides, and his latest addition is this 1931 Ford five-window coupe. It\u2019s powered by a lumpy 322ci nailhead with dual carbs, a three-speed auto and a 9in out the back. Future plans include a hefty roof chop, new interior and paint.<\/p>\n
<\/span>9. You couldn\u2019t help but be dazzled when Bryce Davies\u2019s metalflake 1960 Oldsmobile cruised by. It was even better when we saw his 16-year-old son Bobby in the driver\u2019s seat having a steer. The 88 coupe is an ex-show car from America called \u2018Space-Coke\u2019, and runs the original Rocket 88 371ci Olds motor. While the body looks extremely custom, there are only a few subtle mods, showing how radical American car design was in the late 50s and 60s.<\/p>\n
<\/span>10.\u00a0We loved Steve Carpenter\u2019s F100. The combination of weathered body with new underneath just screams cool, especially when it\u2019s packing a tough 600hp Pavtek-built 393ci Cleveland. The 1963 unibody sits on its stock chassis, but with a Jag front end and four-linked rear with a giant notch helping it sit as low as a snake\u2019s belly.<\/p>\n
<\/span>11.\u00a0On the Friday night before each year\u2019s Queenscliff, Leon Davies and his best gal Leah host their Spit & Beers night. They put on a slap-up meal and local businesses donate plenty of goodies for the raffle, with all proceeds going to the local cancer ward. Legends!<\/p>\n
<\/span>12. One of our favourites on Saturday night was Sean O\u2019Brien\u2019s 1956 pillarless four-door Chevy. The car has been in his family for 25 years, but Sean only recently decided to step it up and enter the pro street zone. It\u2019s packing a tough 406ci small-block Chev, which should propel the mini-tubbed beast deep into the 10s.<\/p>\n
<\/span>13. Chad Forward\u2019s 1962 Beetle drew our attention with its burnt-looking finish. \u201cThe car was in a shed that burnt down,\u201d he said. \u201cSome guys saved it and I ended up buying it.\u201d He then designed his own suspension system with static front and \u2019bagged rear to achieve that killer ride height. Chad kindly donated a couple of pimped-up skateboard decks to the Friday raffle, and these were snapped up very quickly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Intrepid photo-journalist Chris Thorogood hits up the Queenscliff Rod Run<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":12805,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[501,2917,3496,7296],"coauthors":[42],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/qld-rod-run-10.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12804"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12804"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=12804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/span>My 2019 Queenscliff weekend kicked off on the Friday night with \u2018Spit & Beers\u2019, held at Big L\u2019s Chop Shop down on the Bellarine Peninsula near Geelong. A few years ago my good mate, talented fabricator and all \u2019round top bloke Leon Davies decided to have a few mates with customised cars around to his shed for a private prelude to the Rod Run. A couple of years in and it had grown to 50 or 60 people, so Leon decided to hold a raffle and donate the proceeds to the local Geelong cancer ward. Enter 2019 and the raffle has become the focal point of the night, with generous invitees donating handmade items, collectables and car parts. This year was the biggest yet, with over 250 people in attendance, rad cars overflowing into the paddocks and a massive $8500 donated. Congratulations to Leon, his partner Leah and the whole Davies family for putting on such a successful night.<\/p>\n