Octane Fix Online Issue 23

ISSUE GET AMONGST these two awesome muscle cars - a staunch SS Nova and fully tricked Falcon XA Coupe. Plus roar into Dragstalgia at the Masterton Motorplex and go crazy at Muscle Car Madness!

Holy, we’re into April and the end of summer already!

What a crazy busy summer it has been trying to cram in as many shows and events as possible, but totally cool having a crack at it that’s for sure!

It sure is awesome getting amongst the drag racing scene again. I so love olds-cool drag racing! It just seems way more raw when the front wheels are in the air!

This month saw the Nostalgia drags run by Bay Rodders in Tauranga kick off again after the crazy lock downs, so it awesome to be able to grab the camera gear and get amongst that!

They do an awesome job running the weekend events which included the Nostalgia Drags and the Pre 90’s Team Champs for the club scenes to get amongst and battle it out on the strip.

Also this month we saw the return of the massive Beach Hop event in Whangamata. Being held at its normal time of March again. It seems like we only just got back from the last Hop and we’re into it again!

That was another massive event again and ran incredibly smoothly considering all the upheaval with the weather events that had hit the area earlier in the year. Full credit to Noddy and The Hop Team for keeping the event running and just dealing with it!

As you can imagine, we’ve got a heap of photos and video to go through now to bring to you over the coming months. So watch this space for the South Island Shows and Drag Racing events to come out, it’s going to be cool! I so can’t wait to get into those!

On the home front, I’ve finally got the coupes new engine back and have parked my

into the coupe to have her on the road again. I fully can’t wait to see how this combination drives. It’s definitely going to be fun, that’s for sure!

The Burnout scene is kicking off full noise again too. Rapanats has just been and we have Aussie Assault, Autofest and the LOLIFE Burnout Comp. in Kaikoura coming up again too. Check out our previous issues in our free online library from our webpage www.octanefixonline.com if you want to suss these events out and get along. They are definitely awesome events and worth a road trip if not in your town.

It’s awesome to see the club scene going strong around the country too. I’ve noticed lots of day runs and cruises happening which is awesome. Winter may be upon us, but there is still a few shows and events happening over the chilly period. Mangakino Hop is looming up fast and the Thunder Hop crew are running a weekend event in Taupo with a cruise to the Mangakino Show on that weekend. So if you want to make it a weekend event, get amongst the Thunder Hop website and suss that out.

This issue has been fun to put together. We’ve got awesome coverage of Dragstalgia in Masterton and then we head back to the maddest party in the South for the most relaxed

fun filled four-day event we have in NZ. Plus a couple of awesome coupes! Haha and I’m fully biased on that but I’m ok with it! Haha So get amongst all. Check out our YouTube channel for the new releases and make sure you hit that subscribe button to keep up to date. Then grab your mates phone and subscribe them too! Haha

ROCK N ROLL all Cheers,Giggles

(aka Bogan)

Photo credit goes to the awesome Rod Dunn from Creative Auto Photography

XA FAIRMONTSuper smooth

How’s this for a classy finish to an iconic Australian Muscle Car from the Bathurst racing days of the seventies!

These gorgeous Hardtops became the masters of the famous Bathurst hill in the early seventies. The staunch 351ci Cleveland engines screaming their massive torque up that hill and then back down Conrod straight to speeds exceeding 160mph on them 14” rims even!

These days these Hardtops are treated a bit differently to way back then.

Although not many of these Coupes were actually built, no one really took any notice of that fact and a fair few of these were turned into race cars or just generally trashed as every day cars.

DAVE KEATING’S

The Cleveland engine making for a great tow vehicle to back the boat into the harbour or tow that caravan around the country.

Towards the end of the seventies, the two door Hardtops started to become out of favor with the new car buyers due to trying to fit the family past the front seats into the rear passenger area. So the demise of the Hardtop Coupes began in all the Aussie models including the other car builders.

BUT that iconic shape never died! The memories of watching these Coupes flying down Conrod etched into many of our brains to taunt us with the need to own one one day.

Dave was no different with his search to own one of these rare birds, letting go of a very cool build to get his hands on this gorgeous Fairmont to park in his shed.

This old Fairmont is in no way reflective of its age now though.

The interior has had the full re-fit with new leather trim but still maintaining the

comfort and finish.

The manual shifter now removed for a paddle shift mount on the steering column for quick shifting the manualised C6 auto transmission slotted in behind that staunch tricked up 351ci Cleveland engine.

The body has an incredibly smooth appearance with the original door handles removed and smoothed finished with the door skin. With none of the GT fins on the Fairmont body, the appearance down the side flows nicely with the curves of the huge rear guards.

As with these Coupes, the rear quarters can pack a good size rim in there to accentuate the rear view and race car styling.

Not many classic automobiles can slot in a pair of 285 wide tyres on the rears without making modifications, but these old Coupes designed for the racetrack back in the seventies can.

The view of the rear end of these

Coupes with the massive curved guards and huge tyres was unmatched by its competitors back in the day and still is I reckon. But you know I’m biased already! Haha

The custom work didn’t just stop at the body either. The boot area has been lined and upholstered to match, finishing the standard of this build to a ‘show finish’ for sure.

The engine bay has been detailed with chrome and polishing and the battery moved back into the covered in area within the boot.

The Ford Racing rocker covers to catch cans and the K&N air filter giving the clue that things definitely aren’t factory inside this build.

This is definitely a classy and well finished build, worthy to a show standard but not just for show. It’s built to kick butt as well and be driven like they were intended to back in the day, which is awesome to see!

Give me the dirt…

MAKE/MODEL: 1973 Ford XA Fairmont

COLOUR: Orange

ENGINE: Big cammed, balanced 351ci Cleveland with Holley four-barrel carb to Edelbrock inlet manifold and headers

TRANSMISSION: C6 automatic transmission with paddle shift steering column mounted

DIFF: Borg Warner LSD 2.77 ratio with disc brake conversion

SUSPENSION: Lowered suspension all set up on a race car then transferred to this car

BRAKES: Disc brakes all round

WHEELS/TYRES: 17” Simmons rims. 235/45 R17 up front with 285/40 R17 on the rears

INTERIOR: Fully reupholstered to original spec with the boot lined to include the amp and speakers

Q&A:

What else are you into Dave?

Tits, tyres and propellers

So how long have you owned the car?

4 years now

Where did you find it, import or around NZ?

Found it in Tauranga

What made you pick this car?

I grew up in this era of car and always wanted one

Did you buy the car as is or build it?

Bought as is

What would be your favourite car to have?

This one – XA Falcon Coupe

What car would you like to test drive?

AMG 6.3 Merc

Any other cool cars in the shed? No

What other cool cars have you owned?

65 Impala Coupe, LS Monaro, 81 Big Block Corvette

Any you wish you still owned?

Yeah, 65 Impala and the LS

What cars are on the wish list?

None now

Favourite style of car ie. Coupe or wagon etc?

Coupe for sure

What do you love about the car scene the most? People with the same interests

Favourite car movie?

Ford v’s Ferrari

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HERE’S YOUR CHANCE TO SHINE...

If you think your ride deserves to be in here, drop us a photo and let us know about it. Every issue we will be picking a random car to show off. Plus, we may just stop in and do a full photo shoot for you and for us to feature.

Email us: info@octanefixonline.com

We check out Graeme Young’s gorgeous “Gold Digger”, a Tangerine scream of tuff manual Cleveland Ford 58 Custom 33

OLDS-COOL SMOKEM-UP ACTION FROM MASTERTON MOTORPLEX

drag racing action here!

Masterton Motorplex, the home of drag racing in the Wairarapa area holds these awesome two-day events catering for the Wild Bunch, Outlaw 71 with Front Engine Dragsters, Muscle Cars, Hot Rods and associated olds-cool drag racers to fully get amongst and push their machines to the edge and over to crank out the quickest times possible down that quarter mile!

If you haven’t caught the Wild Bunch and nostalgic action before, you definitely need to get it on your bucket list and get amongst this action. These awesome builds are a throwback to days of build it huge and just hang on! A fair few of the cars are originally from the day and still pumping out awesome quarter mile times.

The Wild Bunch and Outlaw 71 Series was introduced to preserve these awesome cars and keep them running at the dragstrips to entertain the crowds and teams alike.

crowd making for an awesome event to get along to.

As we all know, the weather Gods can play havoc at times with the day starting off looking rather dark and damp leaving teams and onlookers huddled under marques staying dry. Fortunately, the rain clouds broke apart letting the sun sneak through, so it was full noise action with the tractors and prep team drying the track to have it all sorted to send the cars down.

With around 180 drag cars lined up to hit it big, the action was all go when the lights finally lit.

Not only cars were in for the action, a good turn out of drag bikes rolled up to the line to get amongst the action as well. With so much action on for the two days, the crowds rolled in from far and wide with the biggest turnout ever at the Masterton Motorplex.

The car park itself resembled a Hot Rod and Muscle Car Show with vendors

Wandering through the pit area was like stepping back in time to when sex was safe and drag racing was dangerous!

Although these olds-cool cars may look as if the chassis and seat has been built around the huge blown engine, because they actually have! The safety features built into them now far exceeds the original cars from back in the day.

These FED and Wild Bunch cars are certainly pieces of engineering artwork when you get a chance to have a decent look at them!

The safety cages and bracing built in to have them handle the body twisting torque of them huge supercharged engines screaming horsepower through the drivetrain to spin them massive tyres at speeds around 200mph may look extreme, but it needs to be to keep them running straight!

Although built around the original designs, technology has snuck into them in the pursuit of reliability and

performance making for awesome units to see hit the track over and over. With the sun coming out good and strong in the afternoon and for the second day of racing. Some seriously cool times were being laid down the track.

The Door Slammer Exhibition test runs by Gavin Green peddling the lowest time of 6.215 seconds with the fastest speed of 236.18mph in his Pontiac Firebird. Dwane Garrett wasn’t far off that pace, with a time of 6.559 seconds with a speed of 217.16mph down the quarter.

The hot sticky track providing some awesome wheel standing action for the crowd and some fantastic burnout action to warm them tyres.

These nostalgic drag racing events are certainly worth getting along to for some awesome entertainment. The wheel standing acceleration from these old cars is fully impressive and to see the drivers hold the car straight at such high speeds against that screaming blown engine wanting to just rip the tarmac apart to get down that track is certainly impressive to say the least!

They are definitely my favorite drag racing events to get amongst!

Check out our YouTube channel for our cool selection of videos! Drag Racing / Burnouts / Car Shows / Retro Pageants

Our awesome sponsors CHEMZ providing a gift pack for who ever could guess the closest amount of caps in the jar.

Gavin Green from Featherston and Masterton’s Dwane Garrett ran an awesome test run with their top doorslammers.

Check out our YouTube channel for our cool selection of videos! Drag Racing / Burnouts / Car Shows / Retro Pageants

DUNOVA 74 SS NOVA Fully ANITA HENRY’S

of these with sixcylinder engines to actually be more efficient, so the thought was there.

The Nova model was so popular that Chevrolet produced just under four hundred thousand Nova’s back in 1974, but you still don’t see too many around now.

This is one of those cars that you just don’t see very often, yet the 1974 SS Hatchback Nova was one of the biggest sellers in the US market way back then.

The looming fuel crisis in the US had car buyers looking for smaller more fuelefficient cars and the compact Nova fitted right into that thought pattern.

The fact that there was a 350 Chevy under the hood didn’t seem to matter much, it was still more efficient in a smaller car! Haha, don’t you love the way car buyers think, well used to anyway!

Chevrolet did however produce a bunch

The 74 was the facelift model due to new laws being imposed on the manufacturers for tougher bumpers etc, so Chevy carried it through a bit further with some extra detailing inside and out. They really are a compact unit so with a tricked-up stroked out Chevy to 383 cubic inches, this little unit can fair boogie now!

Anita is a personal trainer so you can tell she has performance on her mind and won’t be happy just idling along with the crowd. The detailing that has gone into this rebuild is honestly awesome! From the engine bay to the undercarriage and

throughout the interior, the finish standard is right up there with the best. Yet, neither Paul or Anita are afraid to stick a foot into it! Watching this car cruising and then going hard in a grasskarner is pretty cool to see! Driven not hidden being the mindset here.

The sticker on the dash says it all really “work hard - play harder”.

Both Paul and Anita are fully into the car scene. Paul’s “RUSTY” blown Chevy is a well know car in the burnout scene and Anita is on her mission to go harder than Paul on the pad. So we will be watching that space closely to see what happens there!

Now this was an opportunity I couldn’t resist! I’d been watching this car roll around Muscle Car Madness for a couple of years now and when Paul asked if I could take a couple of photos for him and Anita, I fully jumped at it!

Give me the dirt…

MAKE/MODEL: 1974 Chevrolet Nova Custom Hatchback with SS option

COLOUR: HSV, “Son of a Gun” Gunmetal Grey

ENGINE: 383 Chev with Eagle Crank and Rods, Edelbrock E Street alloy heads fitted with Roller Rockers, Edlebrock Endurashine Intake Manifold and Carb, Stainless Steel EPC Coated, long tube headers. Full Chrome dress up, including engraved bolts

TRANSMISSION: Factory Th350

DIFF: Factory 10 Bolt

STEERING: New CPP power steer box and Urethane Coupling

SUSPENSION: Front - CPP Tubular A arms and Viking Coil overs with dual adjustable alloy shocks with over 350 settings each.

Rear - Hotchkis 2 inch lowered leaf springs and dual adjustable Viking alloy shocks

BRAKES: New Master Cylinder, Booster and Prop Valve, factory front callipers, cross-drilled and slotted rotors, CPP Drilled and slotted Rear disc brakes

WHEELS/TYRES: Powdercoated factory SS 15 inch rims with all stainless trims removed, painted Holden Hubcaps have replaced the HUGE factory Hubcaps, black internal hex wheelnuts, BFG tyres all round

INTERIOR: Floor pans coated in POR15 then over 5 boxes of Dynamat and Dynafoam fitted throughout  the cabin, doors and hatch area. We still have the original, mint front seats but fitted the TMI aftermarket bucket seats as Anita was sliding off the originals while doing laps of Ruapuna during the Chrome Expression Events.

New underfelt and cut pile carpet throughout. The dash was also repaired and recovered.

New 1 piece headlining. A commodore cargo net was fitted to protect the extremely rare, unbroken cargo area panels

STEREO: 383 Chev and Headers, LOL

THE STORY...

In 2015 on a family holiday, we went to an Americas Fastest Street Car Meeting in LA. After watching 100’s of cars pulling huge wheelies and low timeslips, Anita decided she wanted a 70’s Nova, unfortunately we did not have time to find one on that trip. We returned in 2016 for the 100th running of the Indy 500 and while there, purchased this car in LA, from only it’s 3rd US owner......we don’t recommend buying a half stripped car with only 24 hours left before flying home!! This meant sitting outside a glass shop for an hour at 8am on our last day overseas waiting on a new windscreen to arrive, then driving it 70 kms to sit it in the car, duct tape it in and pray it survived the trip home.

We then towed it to Kiwi Shipping for them to ship it back to NZ and we then drove straight to the airport and jumped on the plane home ourselves.

Upon the cars arrival in NZ we had good mate Guy Deveraux (RIP) replace a section of the hatchback weather seal channel that had rusted away. These hatchbacks are notorious for rusting out these channels along with the extremely rare hatchback doors themselves, luckily our hatch had been replaced at great cost by the previous owner, as they have not been reproduced yet so even average ones go for big money these days.

Then Anita completely stripped the patinaed, original metallic, dark green paint with an electric

drill and 3m stripping discs, uncovering a rust free, never dented or damaged body shell. It was at this stage that it was decided the car was too good for burnouts, which was it’s original intended purpose. So we then got Dave Addison (DA Panelbeating) to give it a quick tidy up, before the talented team at Hammonds Collision and Mechanical laid on a fantastic coat of slightly modified HSV “Son of a Gun” grey paint.

Unfortunately, after the paint was laid on, Paul suffered a serious concussion so re-assembly took him a bit over a year as he could only work on it in short bursts as his health allowed. This included removing the indicators from the grille and fitting a 72 Nova front bumper.

We also removed the huge crash impact shock absorbers on both bumpers, then narrowed the rear bar by nearly 2 inches and tucked it closer to the body. These were then painted Satin Black along with all the door and windscreen stainless trim, which was a nightmare to refit without scratching. The bonnet and headlight trim all got the same treatment.

Although the two “Hatchback” badges remained white to stand out. As unless it is up, most people don’t even realise it is a Hatchback. Including one guy at a car show who argued quite strongly that they never made Nova Hatchbacks, yet, there it was!

Initially assembled and driven for a year with its original looking 350 engine in place, then on New Years Eve 2021 both Paul and Anita pulled the motor out and fitted the fully chromed out 383 for the Muscle Car Madness Show 3 weeks later.

Since then, due to health and work commitments, the Nova has only done 3000 miles. The decision has been made to sell and hopefully the new owner will drive it more!!!!

The 383 has been removed and will be replaced with the original, freshly rebuilt, 350 chev (still chromed out).

The garages will still be full as we have Paul’s 58 Chev Burnout/Event Car (RU5TY8), Anita’s new burnout car, under construction, 55 Studebaker (ELVIRA) also there’s a 58 Chev Sport Sedan (4 door pillarless) project and Paul’s first car, a 64 Mini, owned for 38 years. There is also a low mileage HSV VT Senator Signature if we feel like some late model fun or trips away. Along with two daily drivers, we are out of room, hence the Nova being regrettably for sale.

Previous cars:

ANITA: Mk1 Escort (first car) also a 83 Trans Am, her daily driver for 5 years.

PAUL: 4 x EH Holdens, 1 x HQ, LH and LX Torana’s, also NZ New 64 Impala daily driver for 7 years.

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F100 Chassis

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Sweet Patina

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Hotrod hardware

IFS Front ends

Lights & Mooneyes

Oils & car care

Pedals & Shifters

Ridetech air suspension

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Wheels & Steering

Radiator & cooling equipment

1 shot

Porterbuilt Fabrication

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COMING EVENTS...

Check out what’s coming up and what’s going down.

> Coming up in the next issues are the awesome day out at the Southern Grills and Gasoline Show in Invercargill, plus the fun day and cruising

> Then we’re off to the drags at the Tokoroa Airstrip for some seriously cool olds-cool drag racing

+ More Feature Cars!

WHAT A PARTY!

Wicked, this was another awesomely mad party to get amongst!

Muscle Car Madness is definitely unlike any other run in this country. It’s raw, alive, action packed and fully full of laughs and a heap of fun!

This is one of those events that you just make it what it is. If you want a weekend starting on a Wednesday, that is going to include cruising in cool olds-cool rides, partying up to live bands, wandering around a massive collection of wickedly cool Muscle Cars, Hot Rods and Classics to checking out Retro Pageants and trade stalls, getting fully smoked out at a Burnout Competition, then this is the one and only event that you’re looking for!

When I say this is a “raw” event, that is exactly what it is. It’s old school non-pc fun with the one rule of “don’t be a dick!” and it works like a charm.

It’s an event where you simply rock on in, set up camp for the duration, kick your shoes off and become one with your mates and surrounding mates to be.

The creations of automobiles that get built just for cruising the strip at MCM is unreal as well.

From motorized picnic tables, V8 tractors and all sorts of Mad Max creations turn out for this party.

It’s a laugh a minute watching the world go by here.

The whole event officially kicks off on the Thursday, but early starters arrive late Wednesday afternoon to set up camp and make themselves at home to watch the place explode on the Thursday with all the old school cars rolling in.

Thursday night has a cruise around the township of Rangiora and out to a few nearby spots for the locals to catch the excitement of what’s about to happen.

Friday is set aside for cruise day with the annual cruise out to the Ashley Gorge Reserve. This is an awesome little spot next to a river to cool off, as this place gets HOT!

After lunch at the reserve it’s either a cruise back into town and the camp or you can head out to a paddock bash to see who can drive the fastest time around the coned section of the paddock. This is always good entertainment and a crack up to see these big ole cars being tossed about on the grass trying to corner like rally cars! It’s dust and bouncing cars galore here!

Friday evening back at the camp is always an awesome kick start to the weekend. Live bands are set up in the main hall, cranking out awesome sounds to get the party into top gear until the wee small hours of the morning.

Saturday always rolls around too early, but it’s the big show day in the centre

of the AMP show grounds on this day. Anyone wishing to show their pride and joy off gets to park up in the show arena for the official “show n shine”

Around a thousand cars roll in here and it’s a massive display to go wandering about.

Trade stalls are all go displaying and selling their goods for the caves or cars alike while all this is going on.

Saturday and Sunday are open to the public to enter during the day, so the crowds throughout the show grounds explode with excitement on these two days.

Live bands jam out on the main stage entertaining the crowds kicking back to watch the world go by while having a feed. The kids rides and bouncy castles are all go to keep the kids happy as well. The Saturday this time around turned out a bit wet with the weather Gods, but it didn’t dampen the atmosphere at all.

The Retro Pageant was moved inside to the main hall and the entertainment continued with kids, ladies and gents

getting involved to bring on an awesome show kicking back into the era of the cool old cars in the display area outside. With the weather making the burnout pad no good for smoke, the burnout comp was pushed back to the Sunday, which made for an even more chilled out day of wandering about soaking up the atmosphere of this cool-as event.

Saturday evening soon rolled around with the Live bands starting up in the main hall and the cruising around the show grounds track kicking in again.

The cruising on the show ground track is always full of spectacles and giggles! Kicking back watching the world go by is hilarious in here at times.

The main hall always rocks off with the live bands. A series of bands kick off straight after dinner time and the party certainly carries on in here to the small hours each night, which is a great reprieve when the weather doesn‘t play ball with the cruising outside as well.

Sunday was all go again. The weather Gods turned the sunshine back on and the Burnout sessions were all go!

With an awesome field lining up to take out the Burnout competition trophy and prize money, the massive crowd lining the pad was in for an awesome show after the live band had finished playing there.

Everything from blown V8’s to Turbo six’s and the traditional AU’s were tearing it up on the pad. With no wind and scorching sunshine, the smoke soon filled the pad to give an awesome showing for the crowd to get amongst!

Sunday is also the prize giving and pack up day for most. A few stragglers stayed on to make the most of the venue before hitting the road again on the Monday, heading back to reality from the awesome week of kicking back to days gone by when pc didn’t even exist and we just had good ole fun!!!

This is certainly an awesome event to get amongst if you love good ole fashion fun with no frills and a lot of laughs catching up with mates and meeting new people.

It’s super-cool!

Check out our YouTube channel for our cool selection of videos! Drag Racing / Burnouts / Car Shows / Retro Pageants

Check out our YouTube channel for our cool selection of videos! Drag Racing / Burnouts / Car Shows / Retro Pageants

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