Slingin' Spanners And Smashin' Tyres - Trying For The Summernats Dream

Here’s a quick recap (click here) for those that missed the epic dash that’s about to unfold in this story.

Flying home from work off nightshift for what he thought was going to be a smooth sailing week of shoe-horning a dodge Nascar engine into a Torana, Aiden was full of confidence.

That feeling soon went away when he hit his first snag when unboxing all the parts they realised the gearbox adapter plate hadn't been sent with the engine. This wasn’t going to stop him, over several beers and the temporary bell housing adapters were made and five hours later they finally got the engine and gearbox in the car for the first time.

As the week faded quickly the boys faced many other challenges along the way - to be expected in a project like this!

“Reflecting on it all now basically every single part was either modified or made from scratch that went into the car. Luckily my team of mates Reece Regan, Michael Donnelly, Tristhan Bruce Powers and Lionel Powers are all talented car builders and this is certainly not their first rodeo.”

The week came to an end with Aiden flying back to work, and it seemed like the chances of making it to West Coast Nats were looking quite grim to say the least. Fast forward a week to the Wednesday (two days before the event) the gearbox adapter plate finally turned up in the post.

Aiden not due to fly home from work until Thursday, good mates Tristhan Bruce Powers and his Dad ‘Lionel’ took matters into their own hands and got stuck into putting the adapter plate and gearbox into the Torana. As we all know too well nothing fits without modifying it. The adapter plate was modified along with the converter by Allfast Torque Converters at the drop of a hat!

Friday of West Coast Nats has now rolled around and bump in starts from 8am. Finally the Torana fired up for the first time at 3am the morning, less than 12 hours before the skid comp kicks off. Before they skidded they took the car to Reece Regan’s workshop to do a few paint ‘touch-ups’. As we have seen many of times, Aiden doesn’t know how to do things in small scales, which led them to painting almost half the car with the paint only getting laid on at 4am Saturday of the event.

Finally, after what seemed mission impossible the Torana made it to West Coast Nats! Just in time to do a quick jet change in the carbs, check the timing and go smash tyres off where it did just that, in an epic smoke show of power skids up and down the track without a hitch on song at 9000rpm!

Unfortunately, the burnout finals were rained off and Aiden’s chance to skid the pad and the Summernats dream was over, but it was still smiling all round with a huge sense of achievement felt by all the lads.

“For us it's a revolving door; one build finishes the next starts, which is now getting Reece Regans HR Ute ADHD done in time for Summernats! Huge thanks also goes out to the Josh Vukinovac.”

When you hang out in the car community long enough you soon find out it’s not always about the trophies, at the end of the day your car is the trophy and the time spent with mates working on our pride and joy. In saying that, Aiden did take away the Promoter’s Choice for the event, he was chuffed to say the least.

These guys will make the trip over to Summernats 36 from WA with their cars and regardless of the outcomes, and they will have the best time of their lives. See you in Canberra fellas!