What do you do with a racing pedigree engine when you’re no longer in the sport? Sitting it in the corner is a sin and selling it is bad economics! Well Dave Graham’s solution was to shoe horn his 350 Chev into his favourite classic ride, an FC Holden Special. The problem is though, that these match ups are like putting a square bung in a round hole, it won’t just happen!
Dave Used to race speedway 20 years ago when he was a much younger man but these days he’s more content to cruise around in a tough street car for entertainment. As previously mentioned, Dave’s choice of street car is an FC and loves the flowing lines of the classic Holden. “I had an FC previously, about 15 years ago but it was someone else’s build and everyone used to say to me, that’s so-n-so’s car and it used to annoy me so I decided to build my own.” The running gear in this car was out of his speedway machine and he wasn’t about to part with that so he ripped it all out and sold the rolling body. He hunted around and found himself a ride to call his own, complete with grey motor and all. The floors were gone and had rust in the usual places but the vision was there. Read More →
This cool classic 1932 Ford highboy is known as the D-Rod. Custom built for the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau in 2006, it combines America’s most popular pre-war body style with America’s most revered V8, The Chrysler 392 Hemi. This is no ordinary Hemi and is one of only six hand built pre-production versions of the mighty Mopar 6.4 litre producing over 525 hp @ 510 ftlb donated to the project by the Chrysler Group LLC. It was built to showcase the best of the old and the new from Detroit’s auto industry. 
Ford Australia never made a GT ute throughout the twentieth century, the best you could hope for was a stock V8 ute optioned up to GS specs. FoMoCo once considered a sporty ute called a Surferoo in 1969, built one out of interest and to test the waters of the youth market but that’s as far as it got. It was left up to individual owners to build their own GT workhorses and Bob’s maroon classic is one such vehicle that copped the treatment. 
Many of us have our automotive passions influenced at a young age as our undeveloped minds are shaped and warped as the case may be to the desired rides we hope to own one day. Mike Krieger from Ontario, Canada is no exception with his conversion taking place at the start of his adolescence. Mike’s Dad, George has been racing the ¼ mile in Chevys for most of Mike’s young life seeing his son get a first-hand introduction into the automotive entertainment scene. At age 11, Mike met Miss Hurst Shifter, Linda Vaughn (who I’m sure left a lasting impression on many a young males mind including those behind the wheel) and they became lifelong friends. At 14, Linda introduced Mike to Bob Riggle, professional driver of the Hurst Hemi Under Glass wheel stander. This custom racer was a 1968 Plymouth Barracuda with a fuel injected Chrysler Hemi mounted at the rear under the exceptionally large rear window allowing the car to wheel stand for exhibition purposes. Well this might explain the Hemi obsession! The other half of the obsession could be attributed to meeting Bill “Maverick” Golden who raced a red A100 Dodge known as the Little Red Wagon. This cabover pickup was the first wheel standing truck as well as the world’s fastest truck circa 1965. 
The four door Monaro was Holden’s answer to Ford’s four door GTs and while the two door versions are most sought after, the four door Aussie muscle cars live on strong in the heart of any Aussie car fan. Bruno’s silver four door epitomises what it is that we love about these iconic muscle cars and be you a Holden, Ford or Valiant fan, you’d have to agree Bruno has hit the mark perfectly! 
Muscle cars are as popular today as when they were first conceived. The rarer the purpose built machine the more car fanatics want it. That goes for Albert Pace and his Thunderbolt clone too. He spied a 1964 Fairlane Thunderbolt in a magazine one day and decided that was the car for him but with only 100 of these factory experimental drag cars produced, he knew he wasn’t going to be able to get his hands on a genuine one so the only option was to build his own. 
Pick-ups are all the rage among hot rodders these days and the older they look, the cooler they are. The pick-up truck was never designed to be pretty as they are predominately workhorses and need to be tough to handle the daily grind of knocks and scrapes. Having said that, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and when modified, make great rods giving the builder many options as to how they want the finished vehicle to look. 
Larry Watson was one of the central figures of custom car building in LA during the 1950s. He was a trailblazer of custom paint trends, techniques and tricks. His name is synonymous with candys, pearls and metal flake along with some of the brightest paint jobs seen due to his colour mixing talents. To this day, various styles of custom paint work are still referred to as Larry Watson Scallops, Larry Watson Panel Jobs or Watson flames. His unique style is held in high esteem throughout custom car lore and can be seen adorning custom rides today. Dennis Jones’s 1959 Ford Fairlane is one such car that pays homage to this avant-garde customiser of the past. 
Caprice Photography Automotive Art 