SUMMERNATS: KIWIS IN AUS
SHOW SPEC HQ UTE + CAMARO +
416803 510003
$10.99
SUMMERNATS
ISSUE 178 ∞ MARCH 2020
r e t n u H 9
8-SECOND
MAR. 2020 ISSUE 178
Q H L L I U A EVLT TO H BUI
S BONE G E IN P L L RO ’32 COU
8-SECOND CAMARO STREETER
SLICK C10, WHAKATANE 50TH, WILD BUNCH ACTION, VOLCANIC RUMBLE, BARE-METAL PREP
FEATURE 1973 HOLDEN HQ UTE CAR
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WORDS: TODD WYLIE  PHOTOS: AARON MAI
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THE PLATES WOULD LEAD YOU TO BELIEVE THAT GRAHAM ESPINER’S HQ UTE IS EVIL, BUT WE’D SAY IT’S FAR TOO NICE FOR THAT!
T
he life of a shift worker in the Australian outback can be an interesting one. You’ve got to have the right sort of mental fortitude to be able to go to work for a few weeks, then back home again for a few, on a cycle that repeats indefinitely. It’s hard work, but the pay is good, and if you can make the most of your weeks off, then it all becomes worthwhile. This is the position Graham Espiner was in seven years ago. Sure, he may sound a bit like an Aussie, but he’s a true-blue Kiwi at heart. Looking for something to fill in the weeks between work, Graham decided that the ‘Aussiest’ of
Aussie cars, an HQ One Tonner, would be a good project. Of course, countless others up in the same remote part of the outback had the same thought too, and the oncecommon One Tonners were in hot demand — so much so, that there was simply none for sale. While on this hunt, he continued keeping fit by doing plenty of walking, and one day on his regular walking route, he came across the HQ you see here. Graham tells us: “It was sitting on a front lawn for about six months, and as I was walking past one Saturday, a bloke was trying to get it going. We started talking and I asked if he wanted to sell it.” A handshake later, a deal was done, and at last Graham had his project.
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FEATURE 1969 CHEVROLET SS CAMARO CAR
WORDS: TODD WYLIE PHOTOS: STRONG STYLE PHOTO, LANCE FARROW
NATURALLY-ASPIRATED ENGINES ARE NICE, BUT IF YOU WANT TO GO FAST, YOU NEED TO ADD SERIOUS BOOST
G
eoff Dann’s a man who likes his horsepower. We’re not talking about a few ponies in a paddock here, but the type that can only be created by an internal combustion engine, preferably one with a little bit of boost. Over the years, he’s owned, tuned, and tweaked his fair share of them, but one of the highlights was a late-model turbocharged Commodore ute. It was when experimenting with the ute that his need for speed increased,
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and the logical way to satisfy it was to purchase a dedicated drag car, which he did. As a long-time General Motors fan, a race-ready ’80s Iroc Camaro was just the thing … well, kind of. Although the car had previously been on the strip both here and abroad, Geoff added his own touches to it. The results of his hard work saw him card a best of 8.6-seconds down Meremere’s finest piece of tarmac. While he knew there was plenty more in the car, as he’d yet to engage the second
stage of nitrous oxide, the driving time to cost ratio really wasn’t working for him. The car not being street legal simply meant he couldn’t get out in it enough to justify the time, effort, and cost involved in owning it. At a similar time to this revelation, he also had a C10 pickup in the shed, a car that he’d poured countless hours into building from the ground up into a solid all-round performer. The build had been set up for a big block, and the alure of turbos was calling once more.
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FEATURE 1932 3-WINDOW COUPE CAR
WORDS: KEVIN SHAW PHOTOS: STRONG STYLE PHOTO
TONY HOUSE HAS OWNED A FEW ‘KEEPERS’ OVER THE YEARS — HERE’S HIS LATEST, AND BEST ONE YET
K
iwis are well renowned for punching well above their weight, with our sports teams amongst the best in the world in a variety of disciplines. In motorsport circles we have had drivers that have been world champions and we are innovators in the engineering world, involved and pushing the boundaries. Basically, Kiwis are passionate about what they do, and when it comes to building hot rods and cool cars you don’t get many more passionate than Hamilton’s Tony House. Tony is a prolific car builder with countless cars passing through his hands over the decades. While he would have loved to keep most of them, Tony’s creations are now scattered all over New Zealand and can be found in Australia, too. This is the problem many car guys suffer: once a project is finished, something else catches their eye and, being working men not Rockefellers, the ‘keeper’ often has to be sold to fund the next project. That pretty much sums up Tony’s life. While he has built a few cars just to flip, he has also built more than his fair share of keepers — it’s just that someone else always ends up keeping them! However, the latest keeper may actually be the one.
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It is a car Tony wanted to build for a long time — the quintessential hot rod, a 1932 Ford three-window coupe. Unlike so many out there, this one is real steel — although not quite how Henry Ford intended it. Tony had long been a fan of the Rolling Bones style of hot rod, and set out to capture the look, feel, and soul of hot rods of the ’40s and ’50s. The key to the Rolling Bones cars is their chop, which sets the stance of the car. So, when Tony spotted this home-built ’32 that had ‘the look’ for sale on the HAMB he had to find out more. The car was for sale in Texas, and it turned out the old dude who had built it had spoken with Keith and Ken at Rolling Bones, who were generous with their advice to enable his home build. He basically chopped it under their instruction and to their measurements, and with their support managed to build something pretty close to what the shop would have done — rather
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FEATURE 1982 CHEV C10 CAR
WORDS: TODD WYLIE PHOTOS: STRONG STYLE PHOTO
RIKKY DAWSON TAKES HIS C10 TO THE NEXT LEVEL IN A PRESSURE-COOKER BUILD!
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