memory and something that came and went in
my history of car ownership. It wasn’t until I was
introduced to the likes of Facebook and other
social media that it opened up a whole world of
people who still remember it so fondly after so
long; I had no idea it inspired people the way it
did. The strangest part is when people say: “Are
you ‘that’ Wayne Pagel who built GAS69?” But
I mean strange in a good way; it’s nice to know
the car made such a positive impact. It even
made it onto a T-shirt once, which was pretty
humbling – although it would have been nice to
have actually been given one [laughs].
Did you, Rob and Greg see yourselves as
pioneers, or did friendly rivalry push you
to outdo each other?
We were just a bunch of guys who appreciated
what we could get away with it at the time.
Knowing super-talented guys like Rob and
Greg got everyone motivated and we’d all pitch
in to help each other out – can you picture
GAS69 being built next to Greg’s Blown Silly
WB ute? Working on cars was a social thing
too; discussing ideas as well as actually driving
them and enjoying them was a big part. Of
course some of our individual ideas were semi-secretive, but that just pushed everyone else to
raise the bar a little higher.
Your wife Sandy has been front and centre
with you throughout this journey and has
a couple of very cool cars of her own.
Having a partner that shares the passion
must make life much easier.
Most definitely. She still owns her quad-
Webered QIK68 HK Premier (SM, Jul-Aug
’92) and we’ve recently finished a rebuild of her
late uncle’s VW Beetle, which he bought new.
Sandy is an underrated talent with an excellent
eye for design and detail. The quality of herTHE STRANGEST PART
IS WHEN PEOPLE SAY:
“ARE YOU ‘THAT’ WAYNE
PAGEL WHO BUILT GAS69?”
IT’S NICE TO KNOW
THE CAR MADE SUCH A
POSITIVE IMPACT
HJ UTE
A CROWER-injected big-block Chev took
centrestage for Wayne’s tidy HJ ute (SM, Jun
’88), which was built in a three-week thrash
for Summernats. It was initially a stop-gap car
while his XF Falcon pro streeter was in the build.
After GAS69, Wayne started the XF build as
a late-model car to take on Rob Beauchamp’s
VL and Greg Carlson’s VK. But the project got
bogged down so Wayne’s famous HJ was built in
a rush instead.
“The HJ ute was my tow car, so after the Falcon
build stalled, I fitted the big-block to the ute
for Summernats,” Wayne says. “The plan was
to refit that engine back into the XF, but that
project was dragging on and eventually I lost
interest, so we sold it off.”wewewewerererererer““““““““““““““
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