Preview: NZV8 Issue No. 138

W E P AY T R I B U T E T O 5 0 y e a r s o f c a m a r o

NOV. 2016 ISSUE 138

$9.99 9 416803 510003

+ TYRE FRYING CHARGER FATHER'S DAY DRAGS mayhem

SHOW-STOPPING ANGLIA GASSER

ACTION GALORE KAIKOURA HOP

TOUGH HOME-BUILT TORANA

feature car

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XP con l a F Ford 1966

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caith ob Pit

started this project 16 years ago,” Rob Pitcaithly says — but, as we’ve heard a million times before, it was never meant to get this out of hand! The year 2000 was looming, and the clocks would soon tick over a new millennium. While world leaders were tearing their hair out over the threat of a Y2K-sponsored global technological meltdown, things were notably more relaxed in Rob’s Christchurch workshop. He’d just finished building a Ford Falcon XM sedan for a customer and bought two spare Falcon XP parts cars off the guy. Little did he know it at the time, but this would be the beginning of a long journey to build the car he always wanted. Of those two XPs, one was restored for his partner while the other was kept as a project to dig into when he had the time.

“I was running an XD Falcon at the drags, doing mid 13s but wanted something faster, lighter, and cooler,” Rob recalls, “and I started dreaming of a twin-turbo XP.” As luck would have it, an XP coupe body just happened to roll through the doors of the restoration shop where he was working, so he measured it all up to plan for his own XP build. As Rob thought about the car he wanted to build, he decided that it’d be easier to do what he had planned with a complete rolling body rather than the spare XP panels he had left over. Hunting around for miscellaneous parts, he managed to score himself a decent rolling body, and the build was looking all ready to go. Or so he thought …

The unpredictable path of life — not helped by South Island tectonic activity — meant that Rob had to put the build on hold for a few years.

but R , t n a w r you ly way a c e h n t to get it isn’t the o y a w is one roves that t e l l a p A fat w eet Falcon OD DUNN :R tr pro-s AL GRACE PHOTOS N

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1966 FORD FALCON XP

ENGINE: 398ci Ford Cleveland V8, 302 Cleveland block, ARP fasteners, stud girdle, 3.9-inch stroke Pro Comp cast crankshaft, H-beam rods, Autotec pistons, Ford alloy heads, ported runners, unshrouded chambers, Manley 2.19-inch intake valves, Manley 1.71-inch exhaust valves, Jomar stud girdles, Comp Cams 1.8:1 stainless roller rockers, Roush single-plane intake manifold, two-inch carburettor spacer, 850cfm Race Demon carburettor, 40-litre alloy fuel cell, 110-gallon-per-hour electric fuel pump, 14psi bypass regulator at tank, 7psi fuel-pressure regulator, MSD 6AL ignition, MSD Blaster 3 ignition coil, MSD distributor, Nascar ignition leads, custom mild-steel headers, three-inch merge collectors, crossover pipe, AdrenalinR mufflers, Ford Falcon AU alloy triple-core radiator DRIVELINE: Tremec TKO 600 five-speed manual, Ford Racing alloy flywheel, six-puck clutch, McLeod Racing pressure plate, narrowed nine-inch diff, Pro Comp alloy bolt-through case, 4.30:1 diff ratio, Detroit Locker centre, 31-spline axles, 1350 universal joints, 3½-inch steel-tube driveshaft SUSPENSION: Coilover shocks, Nissan Laurel front spindles, four-link rear, custom sway bar BRAKES: VH44 remote booster, Nissan Skyline R32 four-piston front calipers and discs, Ford Falcon EA rear calipers and discs WHEELS/TYRES: 15x6-inch and 15x15-inch Weld Draglite wheels, 15x15.5x29 Mickey Thompson Sportsman Pro rear tyres EXTERIOR: Custom purple paint, custom hood scoop CHASSIS: 3x2-inch box-section back half, four-link rear, custom radius-arm mounts INTERIOR: Racepro bucket seats, Momo steering wheel, Tremec shifter, AEM air–fuel gauges, custom roll cage, custom dashboard, custom centre console PERFORMANCE: 500–600hp (estimated), 11.5 seconds at 122mph, Super Street class

“I bought my own house in mid-August 2009,” Rob remembers, “then, two weeks later, the earthquake hit! The house survived, but it had needed a lot of work anyway.”

Rob tucked into the house and garage, until February rolled around and the next big quake struck. While Rob was lucky enough for his house to survive yet another big hit, his workplace — and job — weren’t. Even worse, Rob’s mother found these stresses too much and passed away soon after.

“Mum was always proud of what I could do with my hands, and I was tired of being too tired to work on my own stuff,” Rob says, “so, when I was left with some money from her house, I thought, If I don’t take time out to build this car, I’ll end up too old to do it.”

With his partner’s support, Rob quit work and got stuck into the build that he’d never got around to starting. He had an enormous collection of parts at his disposal — the result of years and years spent browsing swap meets, garage sales, classifieds, and for-sale columns. This allowed him to get straight into things, stripping the rolling body and mounting it on a rotisserie that he’d made on his car transporter trailer.

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After bracing the chassis to keep everything square, Rob took a heap of measurements and began to fabricate a custom rear subframe to accommodate the narrowed nine-inch diff, four-link, and fat rear wheels and tyres he’d planned. Once that was all done, he chopped the rear inner guards out to make way for the tubs — a pair of second-hand aluminium truck guards.

At the front end, Rob gave the strut towers a bit of massaging to ensure that he’d have room for the headers. Then came the fabrication of custom engine mounts and an alloy front cross member, to which a steering rack was bolted. Rob also took the liberty of installing Nissan Laurel steering knuckles and aftermarket coilover shocks, giving the old Falcon a bit of driving refinement as well as a properly slammed stance.

Moving further inboard, Rob reused the original steering column and pedal assembly, though he chose to hide a VH44 brake booster under the dash, alongside the vacuum pump. However, there was no way the original dashboard panel was going back in — not when it wouldn’t comfortably house the array of gauges Rob was intending to install. Instead, he fabricated a custom-brushed aluminium dash panel, repeating the process for the custom centre console.

Outside, the body was in pretty decent nick for what it was, but there was a lot of room for improvement.

“The floor, roof, rear guards, and bottoms of the doors were the only rusty parts, but the body was quite bent. Even the left-hand rear pillar at the guard was full of lead from factory misalignment!”

Rob says.

While repairing these ailments was well within Rob’s skill set, his neighbours were not enjoying the noise, so he does admit there’s a bit more filler in there than he really wanted. Even so, after weeks of sanding, filling, and priming, the Falcon’s now

DEEP PURPLE

A chance encounter with a purple travel mug at The Warehouse provided Rob with inspiration for the colour to paint his Falcon. He found a bargain-priced four-litre mis-tint at a local paint shop, adjusted it, and got close to the candy purple he was after — while he’s not totally happy with how the colour turned out, it’s good enough. The finishing touch was the addition of some fine blue and purple flake to the clear coat for a slightly different appearance.

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feature car

1968

er harg C e g Dod

ther e h W . r harge on the C s i h rash illing tyres ashed … h t o t xcuse school or k getting sm e o n s t m s need Rico off a ver far fro r e v n ne son D’A Dion pping his ud pedal is ro o he’s d t pad, the l AM CROY u AD burno L GRACE PHOTOS: NA

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W

herever there’s a tough secondgen Dodge Charger, you know the movie references aren’t far away, but Dion D’Anvers’ Charger is a little different from most. Sure, if you wanted to, you could identify elements of Dom Toretto’s blown street racer from The Fast and the Furious, or the loose antics of the Duke boys from The Dukes of Hazzard, but ‘WIKD68’ has carved out a reputation and identity that are entirely its own. That said, without the Duke boys, it’s unlikely that Dion would have built himself what’s got to be one of New Zealand’s most well-known Chargers. Like most who grew up watching The Dukes of Hazzard, Dion inexplicably found himself drawn to second-generation Chargers — the only thing a bogan boy wanted more than a piece of Daisy Duke was a Dodge Charger of his own!

And, like all good bogan boys, Dion became proficient in the art of sustained loss of traction, to go along with his love of American muscle. After owning a ’65 Impala and a crazy custom ’55 Chev, Dion began to take the Charger hunt seriously. So, one summer around 12 years ago, in the hope of finding one, he travelled north with his mate Joe to the Kumeu Classic Car and Hot Rod Festival. There, Dion found an amazing-looking example only to miss out on it, but this simply fuelled his desire to own one, and it wasn’t much later that he had another mate call him about a big block ’68 Charger he’d seen on Trade Me. “That car was in Mosgiel, so I spoke to the owner and told him I was interested in having a look,” Dion says. “If it was as good as he said it was, I’d drive it home; if not, I’d jump on the next plane home.” Well, he loved the look of the car as soon

as he saw it, and a road test around town was enough to see the deal get done. “I loved every minute of the 1300-kilometre road trip home, apart from the regular service-station stops!” he laughs.

With 440 cubes of Mopar big block under the bonnet, Dion became as disliked by the local constabulary as he was seen as a hero by the local petrol stations. It was also around this time that the Waikato Roadmarkers Club hosted a successful burnout competition in the car park of a local Morrinsville pub. Unfortunately, the event was stopped, and, being the industrious bloke he is, Dion couldn’t help but think how cool it would be to have a skidpad in the paddock out back. Borrowing a digger from his work, and, with the help of a few concreter and car-enthusiast mates, a square skidpad was poured. Not large enough for anything other than standstill burnouts, the square was soon modified with the addition of four more sides, turning it into an octagon and creating the cornerstone of what is now the Scrap Palace Morrinsville Burnout Comp and Wet T-Shirt Comp!

Dion’s now run the event for over 10 years, and the Charger has been there for it all. Of course, you can’t run an event like that without being partial to blowing a few sets of tyres, and, for that, he hasn’t limited himself to just his own event. Having won the Best Mopar award at the 2007 Father’s Day Drags, placed first-equal at the 2010 Kaipara Car Show Burnout Comp, won the 2010 Thames Anzac Car Show burnout competition and both the A-bracket and burnout competition at the 2014 Father’s Day Drags, you might begin to understand why this car is such a hit with the punters.

FANS GALORE

The Charger’s battleship-sized front end doesn’t just look intimidating; it also provides ample real estate for mechanical packaging. That’s handy, considering the long supercharger snout required to clear the front-mounted distributor, but it’s also got other benefits. Dion’s mounted a pair of external oil coolers and thermo fans in the cavity before the radiator — one for engine oil, and the other for transmission oil.

1968 DODGE CHARGER

THE ONLY THING A BOGAN BOY WANTED MORE THAN DAISY DUKE WAS A DODGE CHARGER OF HIS OWN

ENGINE: 451ci big block Chrysler, Big Al’s Toybox crate engine, Chrysler big block, steel crankshaft, steel H-beam rods, JE forged pistons, balanced rotating assembly, Comp Cams billet roller camshaft, Comp Cams roller lifters, Edelbrock Performer RPM alloy heads, Comp Cams valve springs, Comp Cams Pro Magnum chromoly roller rockers, BDS intake manifold, BDS 8-71 supercharger, billet snout, funny car–style belt guard, two 650cfm Quick Fuel carburettors, Holley Dominator dual fuel pump, Quick Fuel fuel-pressure regulator, factory fuel tank, -12 fuel-feed line, -10 fuel-return line, Mallory distributor, MSD 6AL ignition module, MSD Blaster 2 ignition coil, 9mm ignition leads, custom headers, two-inch primaries, four-inch collectors, electronic exhaust cut-outs, custom triplecore alloy radiator, two thermo 'pusher' fans, external engine-oil cooler, thermo fan, LambdaLink sensor DRIVELINE: Chrysler 727 TorqueFlite three-speed auto, Cope Racing internals, manual valve body, reverse shift pattern, Transmission Specialties 10-inch XHD converter, 3400rpm stall, external transmission-oil cooler, thermo fan, Chrysler 8¾-inch diff with Sure Grip centre, Yukon 33-spline axles, four-inch driveshaft SUSPENSION: Torsion bar front, Calvert Racing splitmono leaf springs, Calvert Racing CalTracs traction bars, Calvert Racing CR Series nine-way adjustable shocks BRAKES: SSBC Performance Brake Systems brake booster, SSBC Performance Brake Systems front calipers and rotors, factory rear drums WHEELS/TYRES: 15x8-inch and 15x10-inch Magnum 500 wheels; 205/60R15 BF Goodrich front tyres, 295/50R15 Cooper Cobra rear tyres EXTERIOR: Sikkens paint, de-loomed engine bay, chromed firewall plate CHASSIS: Hotchkis chassis connectors INTERIOR: Reupholstered factory interior, Momo leather steering wheel, Auto Meter gauges, Sony Xplod speakers PERFORMANCE: 11.6-second quarter-mile (old engine)

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special feature

50 YEARS OF CAMARO

w nd-ne s a r b e ’ h ago, t on America s r a e Fifty y Camaro w Follow the … olet ot it.

Chevr d it’s still g 966 to now IVE an RCH m1 heart, s story, fro ACE PHOTOS: NZV8 A GR ro’ NNAL S: CO Cama WORD

O

n September 29, 1966, GM created a legend — well, that’s not exactly correct, but that was the date on which the Chevrolet Camaro was first released for sale to the general public. To understand the significance of that moment in time, we’ll need to warp back into the black-andwhite pages of the ’60s and get a feel for the era.

Chevrolet released the mid-engined Corvair in 1960. Although the Corvair was firmly placed at the ‘economy’ end of the Chevrolet spectrum, the sportier and higher-spec Corvair Monza stole the show, pushing the US’s domestic manufacturers towards sportier and more appealing models in a bid to crack a lucrative segment of the market. The gradual emergence of middle America’s younger vehicle buyers, with disposable income, saw cars with a more youthful, vibrant flavour than the staid family wagons and utilitarian commercial vehicles permeating the market at the time.

This slowly simmering mixture came to a boil in April 1964, when Ford released its all-new Mustang, changing the automotive market forever. The intelligent design of the Mustang, using many parts already in production for the Falcon and Fairlane models, allowed Ford to market the new ‘pony car’ at a very attractive price point. The 22,000 orders received on the first day were enough to put paid to Ford’s anticipation of first-year sales no greater than 100,000 units; it took the Mustang only three months to surpass 100,000 units. In fact, just 18 months later, the 1 millionth Mustang would roll off the production line — the pony car market was in full swing, and things would never be the same.

You can be sure that GM executives were keeping a close eye on the Mustang and its unprecedented success, fronting up with a direct competitor on September 29, 1966. However, to employ that terrible cliché, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and reports suggest that Chevrolet was working on a Mustang competitor as early as April 1965 — a secret car that, at the time, was nicknamed ‘Panther’ by the automotive press.

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Imagine, then, the confusion among the 200-odd North American automotive journalists who received the following telegram on June 21, 1966: “Please save noon of June 28 for important SEPAW meeting. Hope you can be on hand to help scratch a cat. Details will follow.

[Signed] John L. Cutter — Chevrolet Public Relations — SEPAW Secretary.”

A second telegram followed the next day. It read: “Society for the Eradication of Panthers from the Automotive World [SEPAW] will hold [its] first and last meeting on June 28. (Insert city here) chapter will meet at (insert hotel name here) and join national 14-city telephone hookup with meeting in Detroit at which national president E. M. Estes will preside. Please telephone acceptance to Frank Faraone, (Telephone #) Delaware 7-4601. [Signed] John L. Cutter — Chevrolet Public Relations — SEPAW Secretary.”

All too puzzling, but the mystery behind these perplexing telegrams would be uncovered no later than June 28, 1966 — a day of firsts in automotive history.

It was, indeed, the day of the world’s first, and last, SEPAW meeting. That meeting turned out to be a press conference held in real time across 14 cities, all connected via telephone lines — the first time ever that such an undertaking had been performed. More than 100 people were involved in connecting the 14 cities through more than 13,000 miles of telephone cabling, more than 9000 miles of microwave radio, and more than 4000 miles of coaxial cable — a phenomenal task for the era, but well worth it considering the gravity of the announcement that was to take place. Yes, June 28, 1966 was a day of firsts, all of which were building up to the first-ever announcement of Chevrolet’s all-new Camaro.

The conference was headed by Chevrolet’s

general manager EM ‘Pete’ Estes, who artfully dispelled the confusion around the ‘SEPAW’ acronym, layer by layer, to drop the bombshell that Chevrolet’s Mustang competitor was a sure thing — a sure thing that would be introduced on September 29, 1966.

In the time between the Mustang’s release and the June 28 SEPAW conference, the North American automotive press had run rampant with rumours of a new Chevrolet to fill the uncontested ponycar market. Estes’ mention of this — “As far back as April 8, 1965, a Detroit newspaper had headlines proclaiming that Chevrolet had a ‘Panther’ car to answer the horsey offering of a competitor” — made the intention of the SEPAW conference clearer. It was, first and foremost, to show that Chevrolet would release a new car only on its own terms.

“In the two years since then [the release of the Mustang], you gentlemen of the press, radio, and television have literally designed, built, and marketed the Chevrolet ‘Panther’ to the point where we get irate letters from customers, plus phone calls demanding all specifications and price, so they can place orders!” Estes claimed, before confirming that Chevrolet would be offering “What we feel is the last word in personal-sized cars”.

The meaning behind ‘SEPAW’ — the Society for the Eradication of Panthers from the Automotive World — had been made clear: the Panther was no more. No, Chevrolet’s new car would be the ‘Camaro’ — a name chosen to represent “the comradeship of good friends … as a personal car should be to its owner”.

True to the promise made at that meeting, the all-new Chevrolet Camaro was released three months later — on the designated day, September 29, 1966. As predicted by myriad behind-the-scenes folk at Chevrolet, it was exactly the car that the company line-up needed to capitalize on the burgeoning ponycar market. The Mustang and Camaro have been locked in a tooth-and-nail battle for supremacy ever since, and, 50 years after the birth of the original Camaro, they’re still at it.

AARON COSTELLO

1969 CHEV CAMARO

PAT CROUL

ISSUE NO. 98

1969 CHEV CAMARO

ISSUE NO. 62

What kind of person buys a GM Performance ZZ572 crate engine only to decide that it would go even better with a bit of boost? A crazy person, we’d say — by that logic, there ain’t none crazier than Aaron Costello. ‘UNIT’ is packing a massive F2 ProCharger under the bonnet, good for obscene amounts of power, legit nine-second quarter-miles, and the ability to lay down fat marks at any speed.

The best part is that, despite the ridiculous power — and fuel economy, we’d assume — and top-quality finish, the car is totally street legal, and you’ll never catch Aaron looking for an excuse to drive the wheels off it.

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1967 CAMARO

he all-new Camaro was a breath of fresh air for a car-buying market that had only just been awakened to the delights of a ‘personal car’ — a machine designed and bought not for practical reasons, like a common appliance, but to satisfy the desire to have a car as an extension of one’s personality. As tacky as that may sound, think of the state of the automotive market for mainstream America at the time — saturated with family haulers and commercial vehicles — and realize that cars like the Camaro and Mustang represented an idea of automotive freedom that average Americans had not known they could be a part of.

The first-generation Camaro was built on GM’s existing F-body platform, available as an attractively designed hardtop coupe or convertible. Several engines and trim packages were available, and this degree of personalization was undoubtedly part of the car’s success. From a mild base coupe powered by a 230ci straight-six to a top-of-the-line 396ci big block–powered Camaro RS convertible, there was a Camaro to suit every person and every budget. First-year

production tapped out at an incredible 220,900 — more than double the production figures of Chevrolet’s existing small car, the Chevy II (Nova).

The first-gen Camaro would remain relatively unchanged throughout its production run of 1967 to 1969, aside from distinctive aesthetic redesigns each year. More trim and engine options were added over the years, of which the Z/28’s 302ci small block and the 1969 Central Office Production Order (COPO) Camaro’s all-alloy 427ci big block ZL1 are among the most highly regarded.

An essentially race-ready vehicle, the Z/28 was an option package that included a highly strung 302ci small block, Muncie four-speed manual gearbox, and power-assisted front disc brakes. Designed specifically for competition in the Trans-Am Series, which mandated engine displacement no greater than 305ci, the 302 was pretty much a road-going race engine. Power was advertised as 290hp — though it is believed that this was severely understated for both insurance and racing homologation purposes, with estimates as high as

1967 CAMARO Z/28

1969 CHEV CAMARO RS/SS [2014] ISSUE NO. 130 When looking back at what we’d consider some of the best Camaros to have been featured in NZV8, there was no way we could ignore the masterpiece crafted by International Performance Classics. What you’re looking at is a totally new Camaro — even the bodyshell is a new Dynacorn reproduction.

Off-the-shelf parts were purchased, modified, and improved, using the team’s race-car engineering expertise. Custom solutions were made as required. No stone was left unturned, no expense was spared, and it shows — this is not just New Zealand’s best-built Camaro; it’s the country’s best-built car, full stop.

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FIRST GENERATION (1967–1969)

INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE CLASSICS

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When we featured Pat Croul’s tough ’69 Camaro back in Issue No. 62, it was like nothing else to have graced the cover. Yeah, pro-street-style Camaros are no new thing, but Pat’s took the phenomenon to a whole new level, with elements of clean simplicity and brutal aggression infused throughout the car. Black-onwhite finish, massive tubs, nitrousassisted big block, race-inspired interior — we still can’t look at photos of the car without thinking how amazing it looks. Sometimes, there is just no substitute for simplicity.

1969 CAMARO ZL1 400hp when the car was equipped with twin fourbarrel carburettors, tubular headers, and a cowlinduction hood.

Features specific to the 302 engine included a range of high-performance modifications rarely seen outside the world of motorsport — a clear indicator of the Z/28’s racing intention.

The fundamental engine was based on a 283ci crankshaft, with three-inch stroke, in a 327ci engine block, with four-inch bore size. When the small block’s journal sizing increased in 1968, changes were made to the 302’s bottom end, most notably the new forged-steel crankshaft. To this were added shot-peened forged-steel rods and forged pistons. This is still top-shelf stuff, so imagine how incredible it would have been in the late ’60s.

On top of this, the engine ran the fabled Duntov camshaft — a solid-lifter flat-tappet camshaft — as well as upgraded valvetrain gear, including hardened pushrods, pushrod guide plates, and heavy-duty valve springs. Suffice to say that the 1967 Camaro Z/28 performed admirably in that year’s Trans-Am Series, no doubt playing a key role in cementing the Camaro’s name as one of the world’s true sports car greats.

As far as legend is concerned, the all-alloy 427ci ZL1 big block of 1969 surpasses even the 302.

Developed for Can-Am racing, the ZL1’s engine block was an all-alloy casting based on the existing big block architecture — reducing weight significantly — and topped with unique gear, such as open-chamber alloy heads, an aggressive camshaft profile, and a 427-specific alloy intake manifold.

Internal policy at GM prevented Chevrolet from offering an engine exceeding 400ci displacement in a Camaro, but the problem was not insurmountable. Two COPO numbers — 9560 and 9561 — were allocated to these special-edition Camaros, of which only 69 were manufactured, making this one of the rarest Chevrolets ever made.

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