DARRAN Clark’s HQ was bought new by a
family friend, and was fully rebuilt and kitted
out in the early 1990s as a pro street beast.
Personal issues saw the car fall into Darran’s
hands, where it was parked up for some
years. In between his earthmoving business
and playing with several other hot Holdens,
Darran finally found time to get it back on the
road last year. The Quey runs a 350 with a
700 double-pumper, ported heads and a solid
Crane cam. A 3500rpm stall converter feeds
into a shift-kitted T400, through to a nine-
inch diff. Plenty of special fabrication was
done, including the entire three-inch stainless
exhaust and tidy radiator surround. “We took
it right down to every nut and bolt ourselves
and put it back together,” Darran says. “My
dad was a panel beater, so we did all of that
too.” The same Weld Draglites and Yokohama
352 radials have been living under the HQ’s
arches since its initial transformation almost
30 years ago. A fibreglass scoop and full
custom respray round things out. There’s just
as much crushed velour as you’d expect from
a car retrimmed in this era, keeping the early-
90s mood alive. Darran gets his feedback via
a custom gauge cluster packed with Auto
Meter gauges. He says he doesn’t want to
alter anything on the car. “If I go and change
one thing, I’d have to change the rest of it,” he
says. As they say, if it ain’t broke... To Darran,
the Monaro is and always has been a tough
weekend cruiser. “Drags aren’t my thing, so
I’ve never looked into quarter-mile times,” he
says. It’s safe to say, however, that the old
Monaro still knows how to get up and shimmy
when called upon. Photos: Luke Hunter
DARRAN CLARK
HOLDEN HQ MONARO