Street Machine

G’DAY, and thanks for picking up the April 2023 issue of Street Machine. It’s another cracker of a mag, just quietly. First up is Brett Hewerdine’s genre-busting ’49 Ford single-spinner – a platform usually reserved for low-and-slow lead sled-type builds. Brett’s example is low and fast, however. Dumped over a custom chassis and suspended by innovative Hydroshox coil-over struts, it’s got a nasty blown and injected 589-cube big-block riding up front, all put together by the wizards at ProFlo Performance. It’s Brett’s second Street Machine cover in recent times, with his epic HT Monaro the headliner of our April 2019 issue. You’ll notice a few commonalities between the two cars – a slammed stance, a thumping fat-block adorned with a blower and hat, plenty of rubber, and attitude in spades. It’s…

MAY 2023: ALL THE NEWS THAT MATTERS THE peaceful paddocks around Wilby Park Raceway in northern Victoria were brought to life on Saturday 15 April for the fifth instalment of the Retrospeed Wilby Park Sprints. The sprints are open to street and race cars made before 1978 with a period look, the aim being to create a fun, casual event with a cool retro vibe. HAVING NO OTHER CARS ON TRACK MEANS DRIVERS ANXIOUS ABOUT BENDING THEIR PRECIOUS METAL HAVE VERY LITTLE TO WORRY ABOUT Those kipping in the trackside camping area awoke on Saturday morning to the sound of side-exit exhausts delivering raucous, ill-tempered, cold-start race motor notes. Within a few hours, and after a few sighting laps, spectators were able to experience the full vocal range of those same engines screaming…

VALE TODD IT WAS with great sadness that we learned in early April that Datto nut Todd Bulkeley had lost his battle with cancer. Todd was a true fighter and a car lover like no other, and never let the fact he was permanently wheelchair-bound stop him from enjoying his hobby. We featured his Summernats Elite-level Datsun 1600 coupe, SIRDAT, in the October 2017 issue of SM, and he’ll be dearly missed by all in the car community. RARE RETURN OUR friends at Rare Spares have just re-opened the store in Hilton, Adelaide for you South Aussies to get your fix of repro parts. The freshly renovated store carries up to 6500 parts, so odds are they’ll have what you need ready to go. Pop in during normal hours Monday to Friday, or…

MAY 2023: ALL THE NEWS THAT MATTERS AARON Gregory is never shy about reinventing his 2020 Street Machine of the Year-winning ’51 Chev pick-up truck, but this time he’s really going HAM on it. The noted fabricator reckons the current updates have been on the cards since he debuted the truck way back in 2012. “A ‘10th birthday’ was always planned for it,” Aaron laughs. “It started life as a fat ’n’ low cruiser, but I’ve always liked the racier style of cars. One hot lap around Bathurst with Gary Reid in the [pro touring] Repco C10 Chevy cemented the want for that even more!” Work on the truck has begun in earnest at Aaron’s Memphis Hell shop, and there is quite a bit to do. “The oil-leaking, fuel-burning, heavy iron lion is out,…

GEELONG All Ford Day always delivers an awesome mixed bag of Blue Oval goodies, as you’ll see in our feature on the 2023 event from page 70 of this issue. But few cars at this year’s go-round were as obviously race-bred as Dave Luff’s widebody Mk2 Esky, which rocked up with a cool crew of other small Fords. This thing looks awesome, Luffy! What’s its background? It’s an Australian RS2000. It’s a 1979 car with an X-Pack kit, which was never fitted from factory – they were all fitted by dealers. In Australia, they’re very rare; there’s only three or four here. IT WAS STORED FOR TWO YEARS, AND IT STILL STARTED STRAIGHT AWAY; I WAS WELL IMPRESSED WITH THAT! How’d you come to own it? I bought it off a mate of mine who…

Part 2 WE CONTINUE this issue with part two of our hot humpy flashback, looking at a variety of custom FX and FJ Holdens that graced the Aussie scene on both the show circuit and local streets in the 1960s and early 1970s, along with a couple of more modern builds inspired by that era. The variety of modifications and sheer individuality that many builders incorporated into the basic humpy shape during that time is staggering, with imagination seemingly the only limitation. Unfortunately, only a handful of customs from the period have survived to tell the tale, but thankfully there are some colour photographs still doing the rounds that give us a greater insight into what made the hot-car builders of that era tick. We’ll finish up next issue with a…