NZV8 #167 Preview

YEAH, IT’S GOT A HEMI — PLYMOUTH ROAD RUNNER

APR. 2019 ISSUE 167

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416803 510003

$10.99

TOP-DROPPIN’ PONTIAC

ON-THE-DECK C10

GOOD OL’ CROMWELL

IS THIS NZ’S ULTIMATE SHED?

MUSCLE CAR MADNESS

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contents APRIL 2019

The Cars

20: MAGNUM OPUS — THE ULTIMATE HQ MONARO 28: LONG-TERM PLAN — DROP-TOP PERFECT PONTIAC 56: DAMN LO — TRICK LS-POWERED C10 84: REAL DEAL — HEMI-PACKING ROAD RUNNER 104: THE LONG GAME — HALF-BUILT F100

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40 The Events

The Other Stuff

40: MUSCLE CAR MADNESS 78: CROMWELL CLASSIC CAR AND HOT ROD SHOW 112: ENZED CMC ROUND FIVE

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04: SHORT SHIFT 08: NEWS 10: JUST QUICKLY 12: ONLINE THIS MONTH 14: DAILY GRIND 16: IN THE BUILD 18: EVENTS 36: SUBSCRIBE AND WIN 38: STRAIGHT TALK 64: DRAGGED UP 68: NZ’S QUICKEST 70: AEROFLOW RACE DIARY 92: SOCIAL SCENE 94: CONCEPT CORNER 118: CMC NEWS 120: CARGO 124: A DECADE AGO 126: LOCAL SPECIALISTS 128: COMING NEXT MONTH

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72 96 Special Features

48: MAN ON A MISSION — GRANT RIVERS, PART TWO 72: STAR OF THE SOUTH — SOUTHERN DRAGWAYS UNCOVERED 96: DREAM SHED — BIGGER THAN TEXAS themotorhood.com

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FEATURE 1972 HOLDEN HQ MONARO LS CAR

WORDS: CONNAL GRACE PHOTOS: ADAM CROY

SOME OF YOU WILL REMEMBER ‘SMOO’ — KARL STANBRA’S SHOWSTOPPING HOLDEN HQ UTE FROM OVER A DECADE AGO. THIS IS HIS FOLLOW-UP, AND IT’S BETTER IN EVERY SINGLE WAY

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FEATURE 1969 PLYMOUTH ROAD RUNNER CAR

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WORDS: TODD WYLIE PHOTOS: ADAM CROY

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JUST 234 ROAD RUNNERS ROLLED OFF THE PRODUCTION LINE IN 1969 PACKING A 426 HEMI AND 4SPEED. THIS ONE’S BEEN HIDING OUT IN NEW ZEALAND AND GETTING DRIVEN IS IT SHOULD…

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SPECIAL GRANT RIVERS FEATURE

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WORDS: TONY JOHNSON PHOTOS: SUPPLIED

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TAKE A LOOK INTO THE HIGH-SPEED AND EVER-CHANGING JOURNEY OF A NORMAL WORKING BLOKE, WHO HAS ACHIEVED GREAT THINGS AND PACKED FIVE LIFETIMES INTO ONE AS A RESULT OF DETERMINATION, WORKING HIS ARSE OFF, AND MAKING THE MOST OF A NATURAL, INSTINCTIVE AND INTUITIVE GIFT FOR ANYTHING MECHANICAL. AND HE’S A LONG WAY FROM FINISHED YET…

gifted, obsessive, different

By the time he was 10, Grant Rivers had already shown that he possessed an astonishing gift for mechanical things, never more apparent than when — entirely unaided in either thought or deed — he fitted his dad’s Villiers lawnmower engine onto his bicycle. He’d owned motorcycles and cars before he was old enough to hold a driver’s license, and owned his first V8 road car at age 16. Another decade on, he’d topped his polytech class three years in a row and had become an A-grade motor mechanic, had owned a string of American cars, was building performance V8 engines, and had completed two major car-builds in his mum and dad’s single garage and backyard.

Grant Rivers and I lived in the same town, we were the same age, and we were both heavily immersed in American and Australian cars, so it was inevitable that our paths would cross early on. We met as 18-year-old kids, became good mates, and our close friendship has spanned 40 years. There were a bunch of us who were heavily into cars as teenagers in Whanganui, but, even back then, it was obvious that there was something different about Grant’s interest — no, obsession — with cars compared with the rest of us. His focus was less divided. He was less easily distracted. He’d often be in his garage late on Friday and Saturday nights while the rest of us did road-trips, partied, and chased skirt. On week nights, he had the energy to work on his cars until two in the morning while the rest of

us were done by 10 or 12. Looking back, I didn’t realize then that he was going to be such a man on a mission, but I should have — all the signs were there to see, as plain as could be.

By 1985, Grant — or ‘Grub’ as he was known by then — had married Fiona (I was his best man), they’d bought their first house, and the ‘Life in the Fast Lane’ Falcon had been sold to pay for the build of a large garage in their spacious backyard. But there was, of course, an automotive void that had to be filled — both quickly and cheaply.

married with children

The void was filled by a 1948 Ford jailbar pickup that Grant bought as an unfinished project for next to nothing. A quick-and-dirty 302 Windsor was built out of spare parts lying around — back in the ’80s and ‘90s, he had the foresight to save or buy cheaply, and stockpile, every single overhead-valve Ford V8 block, crank, cylinder head, or other Ford engine part that he could lay his hands on — and he fitted a MkIV Zephyr gearbox and narrowed nine-inch Ford diff. It got a roof-chop, a quick coat of yellow slops, and its name ‘Diamond Dog’ hastily sign-written on its doors — twice actually, because I misspelt it the first time. It was rough, noisy, and a barrel of fun — and good enough for low 13s at Thunderpark dragway just outside of Hastings. Best of all, the finished truck owed him $1500 all up — a bargain even back then.

While Grant was building the jailbar, I was

restoring a genuine XA GT351 four-speed manual Ford Falcon coupe, for which Grant rebuilt the tired engine. There were some strange things about the engine that Grant noted at the time, which we figured out many years later were due to the car being fitted (on the assembly line) with some Phase IV engine parts — notably, intake valves and, possibly, the complete cylinder heads. When the proposed XA Falcon-based Phase IV GT-HO ceased production, the parts earmarked for the cars got scattered into regular production. The finished car was an absolute rocket, and, by gently pedalling the skinny Firestone Cavallino tyres (necessary for the class I raced it in), I reset the national record at Thunderpark for B/Stock, one of the drag racing classes that existed back in those days, at 13.9 seconds at 105mph – a record that was never broken.

This was Grant’s first notable engine-building achievement, and it was actually a bigger deal than either of us realized at the time, because what we didn’t know then was that the sky blue XY GT-HO Falcon of Brian Bowater that we took the B/Stock national record off was, in fact, the actual John Goss ’71 and ’72 Bathurst car and Sandown 250 winner.

Back in the mid 1980s, Thunderpark paid travel expenses to everyone who travelled from out of town and entered a proper class, so we’d load Grub’s old Diamond Dog pickup onto a borrowed trailer behind the Falcon coupe, and race both the Falcon and the truck, having a

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FEATURE 1964 CHEVROLET C10 CAR

WORDS: TODD WYLIE PHOTOS: ROD DUNN

BIG ON IMPACT AND BIG ON STYLE, TODD SUTHERLAND’S SLAMMED C10 TICKS ALL THE BOXES

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hat old saying of there being no rest for the wicked is very true for Central Otago’s Todd Sutherland. Not long after finishing his ’31 Chev coupe, he was straight into thinking about the next project – something that was user-friendly but looked the part too.

An engineer by trade, and running his own business, TS Engineering, Todd had the skills both to buy something that he could see potential in and to put in the hard graft himself to see that potential come to fruition. This meant plenty of internet searching both locally and globally for just the right thing.

While Todd knew it was always going to be a Chev, he didn’t know exactly what year he’d end up with — instead hunting for something that was just right. Making the search a touch harder

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was the fact that he didn’t want to have to deal with bodywork — call it sunburnt, call it faded, call it patinaed; he wanted something with the right look that wasn’t going to see him wasting hours with a polish cloth or touching up stone chips.

Having lost out on a few deals — mainly due to people thinking that, since he was from abroad, he was trying to scam them, he found a 1964 C10. Thanks to Kiwi Shipping, an inspection was performed and shipping arranged. All he needed to do was pick it up from Christchurch and trailer it back home to Alexandra.

Being a long bed, a long trailer was needed, but he’d wanted just that, as, in theory, it would allow the vehicle to be used for work when required.

Once in the workshop, the truck was stripped to bare chassis.

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