Street Machine Australia — January 2018

LETTER OF THE MONTH

HOLDEN ONTO THE MEMORIES

JUST wanted to say thank you to Street Machine and

Glenn Torrens for interviewing me for the Monday

Mourning sidebar in your Holden production line yarn

(SM, Dec ’17). It was a privilege to be able to tell my

working life story from among the thousands that

have worked for Holden.

Building cool cars like the Monaro, GTO, SS, HSV

• and the not-so-cool, like Toyota Lexcen – is only
  part of the story. It’s the people I worked with over
  the years that made Holden the best place to work,
  and turned a ‘I’m just staying a year or two to make
  some money and I’m going’ gig into what I thought of
  as a job for life. From the management down to the
  casuals, I’ve worked with some top people. I can’t
  name everyone but I’ll never forget my first team from
  the 1995 Final Assembly Group 517 arvo shift – ‘The
  Wog’, Greg, Attilio, Tony, Daniel, Andrew and Kevin


• who taught me so much about cars and life.
  Here are some pictures of my car, which was built
  in September. I just wanted to say thanks boys for the
  memories: Hamish, Dusty, Azza, Bubba, Jorge, Adsy,
  Steedsy, Dave and Gaz.
  Thanks for the great mag that I’ve been enjoying
  for 29 years now.
  Andrew ‘Gumpy’ Willoughby, email

WHAT A BEAUTY EH?

ABSOLUTELY devastated reading about

the closure of Holden (Blowin’ Gaskets, SM,

Dec ’17) but gee whiz, how good is the EH

Holden on the cover? There’s people that

change things to be different and then there’s

people like Ben Judd who only change things

to make it better. In an age where show cars

have blacked-out chrome, matte-finish paint

and airbag suspension, it’s so refreshing to

see an EH with a hot six with Webers, bench

seats and leaf springs that’s just put together

perfectly! The interior is so well designed (the

floating bench seats are amazing) the colour is

fantastic, and the wheels finish it off perfectly.

It’s the best wagon I’ve ever seen and probably

the best EH I’ve ever seen. I honestly can’t stop

lookin’ at it. There’s life in Holdens yet.

Daniel Peachey, email

RE: BRANDING

SAME old story from a different reader. How

about changing the name of this magazine to

something more general? A big percentage

of cars featured are not street machines –

top machines, yes, but not street machines,

and never will be! This year’s SMOTY winner,

Gary Myers’s AGROXA, is a fantastic car,

and he is well deserving of recognition for his

creation and workmanship. But it is not a street

machine. His win has stopped some genuine,

registered, real street machines from vying for

this prestigious award. Maybe split the award

into sections if you must; include drag cars,

burnout cars, etc.

This is not only my opinion; I am sure

thousands of your readers would agree.

Gripes aside, it’s still a great (the best) Aussie

car magazine.

Terry Boyle, email

BOSS ADVICE

REALLY enjoying the Street Machine and

LSX Tuner mags this year, great work. Could

you put me in contact with Chris Bitmead

with the 1976 Falcon? I’m looking for some

tips on how they modified their seats with

built-in seatbelts.

Tully Davies, email

THE seats in XBOSS were sourced from a

CL500 Mercedes (same as SL500), which are

engineered with the seatbelts built in. We ended

up using the frame and seatbelts only as we

wanted to re-shape and re-trim the seats. To

accommodate the seats we had to strengthen

the floor of the car where the seats bolted down,

and the engineer I used provided advice on what

was required for the strengthening.

I understand that some older Range Rovers

and Saab vehicles also have seats with the

built-in belts. Hope this helps! – Chris Bitmead

YOUR STUFF

Write to: Your Stuff, Street Machine, Locked Bag 12, Oakleigh, Vic 3166 or email [email protected].

Make sure you include your address (not necessarily for publication). Keep it short and sweet!

DECEMBER 2017streetmachine.com.austreetmachine.thinecom.aufacebook.com/streetmachinemagazinefacebo

$10.95NZ $11.95 incl GST incl GST

TO THE

OLD HOLDENS

NEVER DIE!^

RAZOR-SHARP EH

PUSHES THE ENVELOPE

FUTURE

TOTOTOTT

BACK

DECEMBER

2017

WILD EH WAGON

2000HP TWIN-TURBO BBF

FAREWELL HOLDEN

(^) CRAZY KIWI LX HATCH
DRAG WEEK
(^) HUMBLE HQ MONARO
GARY MYE R S S M OTY HAT-TR I C K
TWIN-TURBO LX HATCH: STREET-LEGAL IN NZ!
,!3BD0A6-aaibej!:L;
M
TWTW
600 CUBIC INCHES OF
TWINVALVOLINE STREET MACHINE OF THE YEAR -TURBO FORD POWERAUSSIES AT DRAG WEEK KING OF THE STREETFAREWELL HOLDEN
2000HP
!
I t l R S a s o t a G a
ook.com/sook.com/sm/streetmachinettreetmachinemtreettmachinemamachinemamagazingazingazinezinene
TTTT
RBO LRBO LXHATCX HATCH: SH: SSS
(^00) N^0 - -TUTUTTUURBOURURBBO EA
LINE STREETAUSSIES MACHINEAT DRAG DRAG OF THE AG WWEEK WEEKYEA````KINNG OF 200 NZ $11.95 incl GSTDECEMBER 2017$10.95 incl GST streetmachine.com.austreetmachinereetma hicom.aucfacebook.com/streetmachinemagazinefacebook.com/s/treetmachintmachinemamagazigazine TO THE OLD HOLDENS NEVER DIE! RAZOR-SHARP EH PUSHES THE ENVELOPEPUSHES THE TOTOTOTTTHEHHHEFUTURE BACK DECEMBER 2017 WILD EH WAGON 2000HP TWIN-TURBO BBF FAREWELL HOLDEN CRAZY KIWI LX HATCH^ DRAG WEEK (^) HUMBLE HQ MONARO GARY MYE R S S M OTY HAT-T RICK TWIN-TURBO LX HATCH: STREET-LEGAL IN NZ! ,!3BD0A6-aaibej!:L; M TWTW TWIN600 CUBIC INCHES OF -TURBO FORD POWER VALVOLINE STREET MACHINE OF THE YEAR AUSSIES AT DRAG WEEKFAREWELL HOLDEN
`KING OF THE STREET
2000HP!