The perfect drop SEAN FOWLER LIKES FINE WINE AND FAST CARS. HIS LATEST CREATION IS THE PERFECT COMBINATION OF BOTH hile he may deal with rocks, rubble, and dirt during the day, Sean Fowler has developed a taste for the finer things in life. While some people favour beer, and some favour spirits, red wine is Sean’s vice of choice — well, red wine and fast cars. Regular readers will be familiar with Sean’s name, most likely from his exploits in Central Muscle Cars (CMC), where, although he may not be the fastest man on track, you can almost guarantee he’ll be the one having the best time. Win or lose, Sean’s often seen to be ecstatic as he crosses the finish line in his SLR-replica Torana sedan — it’s a refreshing sight these days when everyone’s pushing harder and harder for victory. The sedan is not a bad piece of kit; in fact, it’s probably one of the best-presented race cars ever built in the country, even though it’s been on track for a few seasons now and had its fair share of racing incidents along the way.
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Auto Channel Issue #24 May 2020
While Sean never really thought about selling the car, when a friend and fellow racer started putting heat on him to let the car go, it did get him thinking. We all know SLR5000s are cool, right? But an A9X hatch is even cooler. Soon this thought was discussed with the sedan’s builder, Rodney Heads of Heads Racing Supplies, and, having owned and built
We all know SLR5000s are cool, right? But an A9X hatch is even cooler various Torana hatches before, Rodney agreed. The idea soon developed further, and Sean reached the point where he would be happy to let the sedan go, but only if he could replace it with the ultimate hatch. The difficulty, of course, is finding a decent hatch as a starting point these days. Many have succumbed to rust, while those that have survived
have succumbed to appreciating prices. And, while Sean had the ability to buy a finely restored one as a starting point, he really didn’t want or need to. Instead, some hunting around led him to a shell in Perth, Australia. Being of a ‘distinguished age’, he knew that, as much as he enjoys his racing, this car would really be his last full-on race car build before he called it a day. So, with that in mind, the decision was made to go all out, no expense spared. Besides this, his only other instruction to the team at Heads Racing Supplies was it must be the colour of his favourite pinot noir — something that Cody at Triple C Cars was able to take care of easily. It’s not often that a race car builder gets free rein over a vehicle, but this was also far from Rodney’s first build, so he knew exactly the recipe that was required to make sure it was money well spent. As always, the build began with the shell being stripped to its naked glory before any fabrication could begin. In this instance, there was plenty of fabrication required. Interestingly, due to CMC’s minimum
