“I was their apprentice,” Mark says today. “They were great to work for. I got to help them out on a number of their own builds, like the EA ute (SM<\/em>, Apr-May’97), XP hardtop (SM<\/em>, Apr-May ’99) and the first AU coupe. They were returning the favour.<\/p>\n

“I wanted to build something out of the ordinary,” Mark continues. “Being a Holden man through and through, I was actually looking to build a two-door Commodore. Then Holden announced the Monaro was going ahead. I thought the AU coupe looked all right, so I went that way instead.”<\/p>\n

It didn’t take long to find a suitable donor – a white, ex-highway patrol XR8 with only 40km on the clock. Mark drove it around for a few weeks, then had to replace the radiator and figured he might as well just keep going.<\/p>\n

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“Dad was mortified,” Mark recalls. “He’d always wanted a V8 Ford, and here I was, only 20, with a pretty good V8 XR8 – he couldn’t believe I was going to cut it up.”<\/p>\n
From go to whoa, it took Mark and the lads 10 weeks’ worth of long nights and weekends to complete the conversion.<\/p>\n
So how was it done?<\/p>\n
“The biggest myth of all is that the wheelbase has been shortened,” says Mark. “It’s stock.”<\/p>\n
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