YOUNG GUN
STORY TAS MCMILLAN PHOTOS SHAUN TANNER
W
HILE most other teenagers spend their
weekends glued to their smartphones,
17-year-old Darcy Chircop occupies
himself by restoring his EH with the help
of his dad Manny and the guys from Showroom Finish
Smash Repairs in Hoppers Crossing. It’s his first car, and
he’s investing a great deal of effort in making it something
really special.Fair to say that cars are in your blood, Darcy?
Yep, my grandfather owned an EH, and Dad’s one of the
founders of the Cruzin Knights Car Club. My EH started
out as a shell; the only panels that came with it were the
boot and bonnet. My dad bought it for me for my 12th
birthday, and then Nino from Showroom Finish put his
hand up to help us out and took me on board. If it wasn’t
for them, it’d be nowhere.
What’s gonna make it go?
My dad used to crew for Steve Russell of Cameron &
Russell Racing, and Steve said: “You bring me the motor
and what it needs and I’ll build it for you.” It’s a 179 with
twin 97 Stromberg carbies on a Redline manifold and a
basic exhaust. The car was a manual, but I’ve changed it
to a column-shift Trimatic, and we fitted the HR front end
for the disc brakes. We’ve still got to run all the fuel and
brake lines and all the wiring for the auto. We lowered it a
little bit and it’s going to run 15-inch wheels with adapters
to mount the original 13-inch hubcaps.
How much work have you done yourself?
I’ve done all of the panelwork, with lots of help from Nino
and the other guys at Showroom Finish. I started with
replacing the floors and deleting the aerial; then I cut all
the rust out of the doors and welded in the patch panels.
There was a lot of work in getting the doors to fit properly
and making the panel gaps acceptable.
What colour will it be?
It’s going to be Seacombe Green metallic with an off-
white roof, wheels and venetians. We picked up the
interior from an old bloke who had it all retrimmed in green
10 years ago but got too sick to continue with his project.
What do you love the most about the EH?
Coming here every weekend and having people wanting
to help me. There aren’t many kids out there doing this. IfDARCY CHIRCOP
17, HOPPERS CROSSING, VIC
1: The 179 was built by
drag racer and family
friend Steve Russell.
There’s nothing
particularly special about
the mild combo, but the
twin Strombergs give it
plenty of old-school cred2: The HR disc-brake
front end is a common
upgrade for the EH’s
weedy drums, and was
one of the first jobs theboys tackled on Darcy’s
machine. The Whiteline
sway-bar should help
improve the 60s-spec
handling tooLEFT: Darcy’s willingness
to learn and affinity for
metalwork have made
both his family and
mentors proud. Apart
from some help from Nino
with tricky jobs, all of the
bodywork is Darcy’s1