Never Seen Before Builds Heading For Summernats 36

The Top 60 Elite Hall gets crazier every year with the quality of vehicles, hundreds of entrants going head-to-head in judging to earn their place into the prestigious pavilion. Inside the hall the unveil cars will be waiting patiently waiting to drop their covers, it’s hard to believe that the builds just keep getting crazier and cooler over the years. 

So, we are giving you a sneak peek at a couple because we are way too excited with only a few weeks till Summernats 36.

EDIT: Check out Street Machine at this link for more SN36 unveil goodness!

Chris Schembri – HT GTS

Who doesn’t love seeing a bit of blown Aussie muscle at Summernats, this was Chris Schembri dream for years. He will be showing off his drool worthy 1969 HT GTS Monaro, the Sebring Orange is the perfect punch of colour that flows around the tuff 403ci LS and 871 blower. Originally bought off grand champion legend Rob Godfrey ‘TOYTON’ six years ago, the Monaro was a sight for sore eyes, literally.

My dream was always to have a blown car, the day my engine went in was the best part of the whole build. My good friend Michelle White unveiled her HZ a few years back I was lucky enough to be part of that, I was blown away when Owen Webb rang and invited me to unveil mine.” 

Chris stripped the HT down to nothing over those six years, unpicking skins and started from less than what the factory shells came out with. Underneath this beast is another story now mini tubbed with a modified tunnel to house the TH400 that runs through to the 35 spline 9-inch rear, rolling on a set of V Series fronts and beadlock rears with willwood brakes all round. Wayne from Grimas Garage poured endless hours into Chris’s dream, and alongside of wife Rachael, sons (Lucas, Jayden) and mate Jamie, Chris is truly grateful to be showing you his pride and joy with everyone at his side. 

Joe Bauer – RT Charger

Earlier this year we visited Joe Bauer’s personal garage to check out his killer collection, we can finally show you the beast that was lurking in the corner. His 1968 Blown RT Charger is all kinds of class and beast mode combined, Joe found this gem in Texas and sent it straight back home landing Christmas eve two years ago.  

The build taking sixteen months form home with extensive planning and fabrication, the roof taking a 2-inch chop/extension, front end extended by 2-inches and the rear end getting stretched 4-inches. Adding to the old skool cool is a pair of grafted 69 Charger rear lights, fully fabricated chassis, custom four link, and below the perfectly grafted rear bar is a twin 6-inch exhaust from over the floating sheet metal diff.  

The best part of my car would have to be the sound, that, and the body lines with the classy and tuff colour combo.”

One of the main reasons for rear stretch other than fitting the huge 22-inch-wide boots, is the full custom interior. The rear seat is full sized with loads of leg room for a coupe, finished in Nappa leather with a suede roof, this has a luxury race feel with electric windows, air, steering and front seats. 

The elephant in the room is without a doubt the monster Victor Brey built 604ci Keith Black Hemi, pulling over 3000hp not even trying to hide it barley fits in the custom fabricated engine bay. Being a sneak peek the shopping list on the custom race componentry is huge, this one you’ll need to come see with your own eyes. We’ve heard from along the grapevine this weapon is looking for that Grand Champion sword, let the games begin!

Mark Carunan – HK Sedan

Mark Carunan’s 1969 HK Sedan was bought four years ago with the original 13,000 miles on the clock, there was no way that engine was lasting long in this beast for Mark. The new donk was built by the legends at Proflo so you know it was destined to be an animal, now sitting in the smoothed bay is a 440ci small block chevy that is pulling over 700hp. 

Setup with a manual Turbo-400 with 5500 stall, paired with a custom four link that run to the custom braced sheet metal 9-inch with ally 3.5:1 truetrac centre this thing is set to haul arse. 

Building the HK with family and mates is the highlight of the build, after Summernats Mark wants to try do as much driving as he can and hit the tracks for Auto Fest. 

The body was completely stripped top to bottom, the undercarriage also extremely tidy in satin black, the outer a different story with the body getting the full treatment from one of the best in the business Sebastian Desisto. The new body colour is a custom two-tone mix, also taken care of by another great team at Macarthur Autobody. This is definitely one to keep an eye on come January, tuff as hell and looking killer. 

Ashley Bell – XA Sedan

The automotive scene has got some pretty rad chicks creating some even cooler cars, we are keen to see the covers drop on Ashley Bell’s 1972 XA Falcon. Ashley bought her dream falcon three years ago as a six-cylinder, one owner vehicle from Tasmania, wow has it changed since then.

The new engine built by none other than Jason Mansweto the 2022 Summernats grand champ, running a 351 Cleveland with lots of billet dressings and a C4 with a shortened diff to back the extra grunt. Going with an original colour ‘WILD PLUM’ with a stunning pearl white painted on GS decals and wheels to match, the interior also getting a freshen up that is a must see saved for the unveil. 

The changes that Ashley and her partner Michael have done from its original look is insane to see, the last twelve months they have transformed this classic into the most eye-popping GS to hit Summernats elite hall. Michael no stranger to the Summernats elite hall unveiling his sick Blue XB GSHOON only nine-years ago and making the top 10, Ashley has been wanting to build this XA exactly like this her whole life and plans to drive the wheels off it after it’s unveiling. The maiden voyage looking to be a road trip to MotorEx in 2024, now that’s one cool unveil!

Robert Gorgievski – XW GT

This is a very special unveiling for many different reasons, Robert Gorgievski purchased his 1970 XW Falcon two years off legend engine builder Frank Marchese of Dande Engines. This has been a thirty-year dream of Rob’s and working alongside Frank has been the highlight of the whole build, Frank’s input on the styling and design was crucial to the entire build. 

The question was to me; how would you build a GT from factory? So that’s exactly what we’ve done, as it should have been.”

Rob has kept the GT replica as close to concourse as possible after going back to bare metal with very subtle changes on a few things, every marking from factory top to bottom has been painted back to original and every nut and bolt replaced. We knew the engine was going to be some kind of cool, Frank has worked his magic keeping the whole engine looking stock with the new Arrow block it’s now a 434 Cleveland Arrow four-bolt APD 950cfm carb. Fitted out front to back with a pro trans box with c10, 5000 RPM converter and 31-inch splines with billet axles off a solid 9-inch. 

The body colour is slightly altered from stock to make this the best version of the XW GT seen today, paired with a parchment interior with a factory look, the addition of a wind-up sunroof to tie it all together and all the one-percent components that make this one epic build. The guys are still working around the clock to get her kicked over by Christmas day and road testing just after, we can’t wait to see Frank back the Summernats alongside Rob. 

Zoran Markovski – VK Blue Meanie

Holy fabrication heck!!! We’ve seen a fair few commodore’s before at Summernats but this in next level. Zoran Markovski has been building his VK Brock Blue Meanie for two years alongside master craftsman Cain Balzer from Xtreme Fabworx, Zoran has praised Cain for the countless hours of design and execution by which can be seen from the extreme cage work to the precision carbon and sheet metal work.

This factory styled VK Brock Commodore is the perfect mix of paying respect to the original attributes with extreme hints of track beast, this ¾ chassis build has a chromoly K-Frame that houses the tuff 427 Noonan Billet LS built by Advanced Performance Machining. This animal needs all the backup it can get with the TH400 and 10-inch diff with custom rear setup, the set of billet specialties 16x16 rears keeping her glued to the track. 

Best part of this build is seeing it all come together, even better than expected. The stance and the way the turbos are moulded through the bumper would have to be my favourite parts of my car.” 

The body and paint were done by the boys from Grange Smash and has had extensive work as you can imagine with the mix of a steel front guards, roof, quarters and fibreglass bonnet, boot, doors, not to forget the ¾ funny car cage. All the original decals have been airbrushed on and cleared over to give this Blue Meanie all the right badges of honour, straight after this machine is unveiled Zoran will be hitting the track. 

We can’t wait to see this VK do both!

If you’re excited by those then just wait and see what else we have under wraps for Summernats 36, not long to go. Jump online to grab your season spectator passes before they sell out, see you there!