WE MEET THE STARS OF WILD BUNCH
S I N I S T E R J A I L B A R + H Q W A G O N S + K I W I S
ISSUE 176 ∞ JANUARY 2020
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JAN. 2020 ISSUE 176
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contents JANUARY 2020
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20 The Cars
20: BLACKER THAN BLACK — ANY COLOUR YOU LIKE 28: FLIP-FLOP — A ’33 UNLIKE ANY OTHER 70: LOADED MISSILES — HQ HOLDENS PACKING HEAT 82: FULL HOUSE — JOHN POULTON COMPLETES THE SET 106: BIG RED — THE LEGENDARY CAMARO
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Events
42: TAKAPUNA ROCKS 114: ENZED CMC ROUND TWO
The Other Stuff
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04: SHORT SHIFT 08: NEWS 10: JUST QUICKLY 14: DAILY GRIND 16: IN THE BUILD 18: EVENTS 36: SUBSCRIBE AND WIN 38: STRAIGHT TALK 56: DRAGGED UP 58: NZ’S QUICKEST 60: AEROFLOW RACE DIARY 90: SOCIAL SCENE 92: CONCEPT CORNER 118: CMC NEWS 120: CARGO 124: A DECADE AGO 126: LOCAL SPECIALISTS 128: COMING NEXT MONTH
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62 Special Features
48: KIWIS IN AUS — SHOWING THEM HOW IT’S DONE 62: WILD BUNCH, THE RETURN — WHAT TO EXPECT 94: DREAM SHED — CALIFORNIA DREAMING 100: BATHURST MUSCLE — THE TRUE KINGS OF THE MOUNTAIN
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FEATURE 1944 FORD JAILBAR CAR
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WORDS: SHANE WISHNOWSKY  PHOTOS: AARON MAI
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THIS FORMER TV STAR HAS HAD ONE HELL OF A MAKEOVER, AND THE END RESULT IS TRULY STUNNING
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FEATURE 1933 FORD ROADSTER (REPLICA) CAR
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WORDS: TODD WYLIE PHOTOS: STRONG STYLE PHOTO
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IT’S NOT JUST THE COLOUR THAT CHANGES ON THIS WILD ONE-OFF ROADSTER!
C
ars are my life; I love them,” says Ross Bell, with a grin that stretches from ear to ear. “I’ve started building another one now.” While the first statement is predictable from someone who has poured his heart and soul into building his dream car, the second statement is a major surprise considering how tortured Ross has been by the process.
Little did he know when he started the build back in 2007 that it would cost far more than he imagined (predictable), with life changes and more sleepless nights than one would wish on one’s worst enemies. Now, some 12-anda-half years later, though, he’s still as excited by the car as he was when he was first introduced to Chris Mazany at Black Jack’s Speed Shop.
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SPECIAL KIWIS IN AUS FEATURE
WORDS AND PHOTOS: JON VAN DAAL
DUCKS MAY FLY SOUTH FOR THE WINTER, BUT KIWI DRAG RACERS FLY WEST TO AUSTRALIA. HERE ARE SOME OF THE HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE LAST 40 YEARS OF TRANS-TASMAN SUCCESS
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ou may have heard the old expression, “ducks fly south for the winter”. Well, in this case, quite a number of Kiwis have flown west instead, to Australia. Over the past 40-plus years, a steady stream of New Zealanders have tried their luck there in everything from Super Sedan to the Nitro ranks. The first time I went to the land of the long white cloud was in 1977 to join Garth Hogan and some other Kiwi racers who were going to tour California. For me, it turned out to be a great way to share time with one of your country’s greatest drag racers, as we did a workshop tour of the brands that Garth imported into New Zealand. Hogan raced in Australia with both his ‘Arrow’ nitro funny car and ‘Speed Pro’ Top Fuel dragster in the final decades of last century. Since the late ’70s, a number of Top Alcohol
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racers have also made their way to the ‘West Island’, including the dragster of Bob Clarkson and Lewis Wymer, and the alky funny cars of Alan Dunlop and Wayne Yearbury. Both of these flopper drivers brought different cars over to Australia during this period. Doorslammer drivers Steve Keys; Chris Tynan; and, of late, Trevor Smith and Barry Plumpton, have also ventured across the pond. A number of Kiwi racers came to Australia to live too, including Warren Anderson, with his Hemi-powered T-bucket, and Rod Sendall, who drove the wild A/Altered production Jeep. In a total coincidence, both drivers had incidents at Heathcote Park Raceway, with Anderson sliding to a stop on the grass while Sendall went ‘endo’ there. Other sedan standouts include Competition racer Mike Nola with his nitrous Camaro, and in Super Sedan, Lee ‘Leemo’ Sherwin. The most
successful Kiwi racer was actually Top Bike rider Athol Williams, who won the 2009 Top Bike Australian National Drag Racing Association (ANDRA) Championship on his nitro sickle. I managed to catch up with some Kiwi drivers who have since started businesses in Aus and done very well. The first of those is Rod Andrews from Whangarei. “I used to attend sprint races at closed-road events near a place called Waipu. They used a hockey-stick timer under the front wheel back then,” he recalls. “In 1976, at the age of 21, I came to the Big Smoke [Sydney] and freely admit that I was as green as grass. I crewed for Phil Olive on his ‘Red Devil’ blown AA/Gas FJ when I first arrived, then I began racing my Holden utility at street meets. In the end, I raced the ute for just on 11 years, constantly modifying it to increase its performance.
Garth Hogan themotorhood.com
Alan Dunlop
Garth Hogan Wayne Yearbury
on
rs Warren Ande
“I held the ANDRA national B/S record in 1983 (11.55, from memory), and I was the NSW Super Stock champion in the same year and had numerous event wins in Super Sedan and Super Stock. I sold the ute when Castlereagh [International Dragway] closed down, as I was just sick of travelling. I then drove Lucky Belleri’s LH Torana Hatchback to a best of 9.40 at 139mph, but it later ended up in tears when I crashed it at the ’89 Winternationals.” Andrews, a draftsman by trade with an engineering background, started to design a few cars and suspensions after the arrival of CAD software. Another Kiwi, Garth Bell, came along and Andrews then designed his FJ ute. “It was an unusual design for its day, with some car builders shying away from it — so, in the end, I built it, subbing the welding to Mick West,” Andrews reveals. Bell had the funds for a good engine (a Buick-headed small block) and the car was a weapon from the get-go. At its first meeting, the FJ went straight under the D/Gas national record. It was then that people started to realize that maybe Andrews’ design wasn’t so bad.
Working part time, Andrews then built four more cars at home. In 1994, he went full time, and, by 2004, he had expanded into selling tube as well. Since then, he has gone from one factory unit to three, and his sole business is to supply only tube and all components for race car manufacturing. “At the moment, we are supplying a lot of kits to racers who want to build their own car, so we are super busy,” he says.
As well as race car raw material, Andrews Race Cars now supplies tube to the mining industry and to diverse industries that use high-tensile material, such as competition wheelchair companies and aircraft manufacturers. Andrews deals with wholesalers in the US. Tube is manufactured in mill-run quantities in Germany and India, and many components are manufactured to his designs in China. You can find Andrews Race Cars on Facebook or at andrewsracecars.com.au/.
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FEATURE 1974 HOLDEN HQ KINGSWOOD AND 1974 HOLDEN PREMIER CAR
WORDS: KEVIN SHAW PHOTOS: STRONG STYLE PHOTO
DON’T LET THEIR MODEST LOOKS FOOL YOU, THESE HQ WAGONS ARE BOTH PACKING SERIOUS HEAT!
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T
he term ‘station wagon’ was almost a swear word in the street-machine world in years gone by. But these people movers and grocery getters (from the time before people movers) are starting to come of age. With the scarcity of some of the previously more desirable body styles, which are now long gone or priced out of most people’s market, these old wagons are becoming very popular. It’s history repeating itself for each generation. In the ’40s and ’50s, the pre-war coupes were the hot rodder’s choice, and every young man yearned to own their own little deuce coupe. When the
coupes started to disappear on dirt tracks, and, as hot rods other body styles began to grow in popularity, the once-humble sedans and utilities of that era had their time in the sun. Then, of course, there were the glorious American cars of the ’50s and ’60s that were sold new here for the local youths to lust after — only four doors, mind you — which led to so many coupes, hardtops, and convertibles being imported decades later. For many of those born in the ’70s, those early cars were still cool, but they were growing up in the era of local performance cars, when GT Falcons, XU1s, and Monaro coupes were everywhere and were the
cars to own. They were cheap by today’s standards too. Fast-forward 30 years so, and, like the prewar coupes, the local muscle cars are now also becoming scarce, or at least very expensive, which brings us back to the once-humble station wagon. Thankfully, the local car makers had an array of models for us to choose from, and, for a couple of Bay of Plenty locals, these long-roofed wagons are their choice of car. Unlike the flash and bling of the old hot rods, these two have built understated-looking cars with performance that belies their modest family-hauler past, both taking a very different approach to the job.
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