Preview: NZV8 Issue No. 139 by Via Media

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TH U O M PLY OSED EXP

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XTREME CAMARO RAC ER DEC. 2016 ISSUE 139

$11.99

feature car

GTX uth o m Ply 1968

litee s i h h ss’ wit est at the a l c d l b r m ‘wo ake on the nd roads r e t e t h la fines t TX, built to f New ZeaHOTOS: ADAM CROY e d e r P ary h G urs o WYLIE Ian Ne el Plymout le the rigo WORDS: TODD d lev ime in ecalling d han n a land t hr w etty b r o p t wort ed in h a lo s S A Not a est 13 wa . r 0 y e M r t 2 o E in e t t is e a S e from u wer land h

ea ss yo to driv r, in New Z undy n, unle e oing o k for Mark L ck. Howev g s a w o nd ba thing a e g it to h n m t r o lo s No rld, how erston V8 wo d. That was to Palm re so, in NZ de n n o e t t g in o ption’, pun Wellin orld, or, m — as ‘Eru d g in n t w w p r o u a r n c e k he , the l was GTX unfinis specia mouth zine in an n’s ly t P u 8 pretty a b Ia 6 e mag thing, ry’s 19 h a a t e g f h o in c N Ian anyth do su cover at we g the unlike ustom gracin not often th something o l e fc It’s oubt, he lev d T t . of any state. u e t r o a nd th s, with d seen befo o a y e w hat’s b r a c ha and , and t ealand above he country t New Z he car was built in ry day. on t r ever e work cle ca ins to this v s u m other rema it w o h exactly

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When the build began all those years ago, it was While the car is undoubtedly along the lines of the Troy Trepanier’s Build Book on Joe Rogan’s ‘Sick Fish’ high-end builds that you see roll out of workshops ’Cuda, that inspired Ian, but, as he became more and with the names ‘Foose’, ‘Trepanier’, or ‘Roadster Shop’ more involved in judging at the SEMA Show each attached to them, there’s a major difference between year, he had hands-on access to some of the most those cars and Ian’s. That difference is that the car is amazing cars ever built. Seeing those cars up close rolled out of a garage that is slightly above average size and getting to know people, such as Troy, on a firstin a fairly nondescript suburb of east Auckland. Yeah, name basis, only added to the already complex plans it’s clearly not a cheap build, but it’s also far removed rolling around in Ian’s from a chequebook head. build, if such a thing Broken down into actually exists in this simple terms, the goal country. was to build a unique As someone who muscle car that retained creates high-end the GTX’s heritage plaster work for and muscle car appeal his day job, Ian’s yet was modernized, attention to detail encapsulating and fastidiousness everything desirable are miles above about modern cars. what most people One of the aspects could ever imagine, that sets the build apart so, when he turned The ‘Eruption’ name ties into the car in a few different from others is the work his attention to ways — one being that the original plan was to have it that went into the building a worldrunning on liquid propane, a natural gas that’s drawn from the ground. The name really came about, though, when a undercarriage — the class muscle car good friend asked Ian where he gets all his wild ideas from. bones of the build, if eight years ago, we His reply: “They just erupt into my head”. From there, the you like. had no doubt that name ‘Eruption’, well … erupted, and the rest is history. The While these days, it would be a true colours on the car also reflect the theme, the white being snow, the orange lava, and the various greys schist/rock. jumping online, work of art. ticking boxes, and The plan was never entering a credit for the build to take card number can see an aftermarket chassis arrive that long, though. In fact, Ian thought that he’d be at your door, Ian chose a different route. That on the road a mere three years after turning the first was to have Terry Bowden and Mike Roberts at spanner on the car, and, again, when we featured it Terry’s Chassis Shoppe craft custom chassis rails for back at the end of 2013, he thought that he was a year the build — and we’re not talking about welded-up from completion. As we all know, though, building a bits of box section here. The integral rails were lasercar always takes twice as long as you think it will, and, cut, rolled, and folded to look factory, although they when you’re aiming for perfection, those time frames were far from it. In turn, those were covered with a expand even further.

WHY ‘ERUPTION’?

replacement floorpan, which, again, looks not too dissimilar to that with which the vehicle rolled off the production line. The original build plan included a 440ci Wedge, backed with a TorqueFlite and Gear Vendors overdrive, and that hand-formed floor was crafted around those. However, a change of plan along the way — which Ian is well aware is a dangerous thing on a build such as this — saw a Dodge Viper–sourced 8.3-litre V10 and Tremec T56 six-speed manual transmission purchased. Thankfully, the new combo could be installed with minimal reworking of the floorpan. Why not a Hemi, you ask? After all, they are the king of all Mopar engines. Well, that’d have been too predictable for Ian’s liking — not to mention the V10’s bang-for-buck making the Viper too good an opportunity to pass up. The change from auto to manual saw a custom pedal assembly produced, and the car undoubtedly become more fun to drive. Despite that engine change, the build was remarkably well planned out from the get-go, and built up

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feature car

ang Must d r Fo 1967

quick a e b to osed wner p p u s o ly as on chine-shop instead … w t c e g proj ow the ma uise missileOTOS: ADAM CROY n a t s u h PH cr ker’s M esses as to -powered DS: CONNAL GRACE l a W WOR Steve . Three gu 7ci Clevor p 2 tidy-u up with a 4 ended

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Special Feature

By memory, this is around 1989, with Rhys Harrison lining up against Matt Gibbons’ Superbird. Rhys had stacked the Torana a couple of times — once quite spectacularly, T-boning a geriatric while doing a massive burnout on High Street — and put the engine into the new family wagon, which ran 12s on LPG. This meeting was the closest Port Road ever came to be rained off; look at the puddles on the ground, yet the show went on!

50 Years of PORT ROAD DRAGS

WORDS: KEVIN SHAW PHOTOS: KEVIN SHAW / NZV8 ARCHIVE

Our resident old fart, Kevin Shaw, reminisces about 50 years of the Port Road Drags!

eremere Dragway — or Champion Dragway, the name it’s often recalled as by we of the older generation — is often considered to be the home of drag racing in New Zealand. What many don’t realize is that, by the time the Meremere strip opened, Port Road was already in its seventh year of racing! While it’s not a quarter-mile track, and it may have started out as essentially a street sprint spot, Port Road is New Zealand’s longest-running drag racing venue and, this year, is celebrating 50 years of racing. Unlike Meremere Dragway and other tracks, it’s never had a rainout, with racing completed every single year — although sometimes only just! For those of you who have never ventured to the Port Road Drags, you really don’t know what you are missing. It’s probably your best opportunity to see some of the toughest street cars around running hard where they belong: on the street. Originally run by the Hutt Valley Motoring Club, the event was adopted by Cam County way back in the 1980s and, under its stewardship, has grown

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into a must-do meeting for most of the quickest street cars in the country. My first exposure to Port Road was back in 1984 when I moved to Wellington. Port Road was to Wellington what Wiri was to young men in Auckland — no doubt every town has a place like it: somewhere the young guys gather to show off their cars and do skids. In Wellington, Sunday nights at Port Road was the place. Once a year, though, the real event happened, and the place was transformed into a proper drag strip — well, kind of. The road was closed, a tree was set up, and the racers pretty much paired up and went for it. Anyone who attended the meets in the ’80s will remember how poor the safety side of things was in the early days — spectators sitting on the fence rails with feet on the kerb as cars performed massive burnouts just a few feet away, with no spectator protection at all for the length of the track. I guess, back in the early days, it was an event for the car-club members to run their cars flat out, and the racing was for the racers rather than the spectators — even though their numbers were huge.

The Mk3 Zephyr belongs to Steve Cooper, and the little scoop on the bonnet was for the turbo! He was running a 272ci Y-block with a Holley four-barrel sucked through a turbo, with water injection to control detonation. This was mated to a Jag four-speed with electronic overdrive. I think about this time — judging from the paint job — he had upgraded to a 351C with the same single-turbo set-up. Never much good on the strip, Steve’s Zephyr was a demon on the open road, easily hitting speeds over 140mph!

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event report

CMC AT BATHURST WORDS: TIM MURPHY PHOTOS: MATTHEW HANSEN / SIMON CHAPMAN

It’s not uncommon for there to be thunder at the annual Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, but it’s never before been as welcome as this!

he tale of how 26 of New Zealand’s toughest muscle cars took on Bathurst began around five years ago. The local Enzed Central Muscle Cars (CMC) has always had a strong association with Australian-based Touring Car Masters (TCM), and the drivers have raced head to head at Eastern Creek, out of Sydney, twice before. With the association between the groups that had been built up over the years, it had been loosely discussed that CMC would venture over the ditch one day to race with TCM at Bathurst. After a number of attempts to make it happen, a lot of heartache, and even more hard work, it finally became a reality when CMC appeared as a support class at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 for 2016. Reasonably tight time frames and some pretty strict rules meant that the 26 cars were loaded into the containers in early September to allow time

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— a drive around Mount Panorama. Unfortunately, Calvin Andrew didn’t make the first session due to some audit technicalities, and Tony Barrow was laying down oil as he proceeded around the track, so was soon back in the pits. At this point, the CMC drivers had not been given transponders, so lap times were unknown, and, for most, it was just an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the circuit — not that that stopped anyone from giving it their all. The second practice session was held later that afternoon. By then, the sun was out and heating for them to be unloaded and given a final check before the sessions at the track started. The cars were unloaded on site at Bathurst on the Wednesday morning and placed in the marquee area that had been set up on the infield pits. The atmosphere was great, although the air was a little chilly, and everyone was nervously excited and couldn’t wait for what lay ahead. After the fuel deliveries had been made, cars filled, and last-minute adjustments made, most of the cars were started, just to make sure there were no cobwebs or gremlins after the trip across the water. Documentation was completed, and then cars were ready for the two practice sessions the following day. After a fairly direct and to-the-point drivers’ briefing on Thursday morning, it was back to the pits to warm the cars up for the first practice session. The excitement was building as cars headed down to the pre-stage area and then onto the track for what everyone had been waiting for

the track — meaning lots of grip, especially with the plentiful rubber laid down by other classes in the interim. The Aussies certainly knew the track — the lines, the braking points, the passing points — well, just about everything about Bathurst — and were very quick around the circuit. Dean Perkins was the quickest CMC driver in this session, at 14th overall, with John Midgley close behind, followed by David Hopper. Sadly, Ross Graham’s Torana didn’t make it out for this practice session, as it had suffered a pushrod issue in the previous session. Calvin Andrew still didn’t get out — this time, due

50 CARS THUNDERING ACROSS THE START LINE ALL HEADING FOR THE SAME PIECE OF REAL ESTATE IN TURN ONE

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t From

trivia WE TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

Net

HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW YOUR OLD HOLDENS?

PRO-TOURING WILLYS

OPTIONS: 1960 (FB), 1961 (EK), 1963 (EJ), 1964 (EH), 1965 (HD)

The Willys coupe is one of those cars that has become far more recognizable in modified form than stock, and with good reason. The car’s huge rear guards look great when jammed full of massive rubber. But what if someone did something different with one? Would it still look as good? Hell yes, is the answer! The team from Detroit Speed recently completed a pro-touring-style build for a customer, and we think the result may be the coolest Willys we’ve ever laid eyes on. Set aside an hour for yourself and check out the massive build gallery at detroitspeed.com.

(Answers at bottom of page)

COOL THINGS WE DISCOVERED ON THE INTERNET THIS MONTH

HOLDEN EJ TRIVIA C

The Holden EJ was introduced in 1962 as the successor to the Holden EK, and presented a radical design change for GM Holden. Gone were the EK’s fins and restrained ’50s styling, replaced with an almost-textbook GM ’60s style. Holden hit a major milestone during production of the EJ. On October 26, 1962, the one-millionth Holden — an EJ Premier — rolled off the production line.

The EJ was released with only one engine — a 138ci straight-six better known as the ‘grey’ engine. This was the final time the grey engine was released. It was superseded by the ‘red’ engine, installed as standard fitment in the Holden EH. The red engine’s biggest change was from four main-bearing journals to seven, for a sturdier bottom end.

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SUBSCRIBE NOW, AND YOU’LL SAVE A BUNCH OF CASH, GET YOUR COPY OF NZV8 EARLY, AND AUTOMATICALLY GO IN THE DRAW TO WIN GREAT PRIZES EVERY ISSUE. FOR MORE INFO, SEE PAGE 42, VISIT MAGSTORE.NZ, OR CALL 0800 727 574 ANSWERS TO TRIVIA (ABOVE) A: 1963 (EJ) B: 1960 (FB) C: 1961 (EK) D: 1964 (EH) E: 1965 (HD)

DON’T 136 OUT MISS