54 replies to this topic

[rexy]

Pigeon pair.

 

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A proper race car with a proper engine.

Interesting strut work.

 

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Green

 

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Shineys favourite green

 

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Green

 

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[rexy]

More mother trucking green

 

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Better cos its got more black?

 

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Australia, you can do better.

 

Like this!

 

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[rexy]

Not really a colour?

 

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Again, better with more black?

And it being a hatch of course.

 

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[rexy]

The top 60 hall is always interesting. Its a terrible place to take pics with lots of glare from peoples staged displays.

 

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Spectacular colour

 

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Orange really is the king of colours.

 

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You could even win this one.

 

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[Shiney005]

Offset smoke stack through the hood so presumably a 4 or 6 cyl consumer of the fuel of Satan.

Mercedes OM 606 engine. Nissan front and rear ends too.  The car isn't finished yet, but I love it.

 

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Edited by Shiney005, 11 January 2026 - 08:51 AM.

[rexy]

Thought my tubbed vh sle was decent untill it lost rego....confused how some have rego again

 

You just need to find the right people to deal with. Finding them is the hard part.

I would suggest finding the equivalent of MPW who is close to you.

[RallyRed]

Great  pics and report.    Those HP  numbers are just insane....can only imagine the stresses in the engine, must be 99.9% on the verge of splitting  bores, bustin' cranks etc etc.  Regardless,amazing numbers!!

[Shiney005]

Watch the youtube videos of them Col. They are on a hub dyno and you wont believe how high they climb up on the suspension. If they keep going up in horsepower, you are going to see a catastrophic suspension / chassis / body failure.

[RallyRed]

Yeah mate, one  of those hub machines had a failure , or as you say, the  car has  one,  there'd be stuff everywhere.

[Ice]

Yeah mate, one  of those hub machines had a failure , or as you say, the  car has  one,  there'd be stuff everywhere.

What could possibly go wrong at 3500 HP on the dyno 

i wouldn’t be standing any where close to it 

[rexy]

Watch the youtube videos of them Col. They are on a hub dyno and you wont believe how high they climb up on the suspension. If they keep going up in horsepower, you are going to see a catastrophic suspension / chassis / body failure.

 

 

Great  pics and report.    Those HP  numbers are just insane....can only imagine the stresses in the engine, must be 99.9% on the verge of splitting  bores, bustin' cranks etc etc.  Regardless,amazing numbers!!

 

 

Yeah mate, one  of those hub machines had a failure , or as you say, the  car has  one,  there'd be stuff everywhere.

 

 

What could possibly go wrong at 3500 HP on the dyno 

i wouldn’t be standing any where close to it 

 

 

Gentlemen, there is no concern required!

 

Don't forget, these are not your mates stock 6 cylinder bodies with a hot SBC wedged in them. These are dedicated well engineered race cars. The stress on the suspension and drivetrain is less than they face in competition.

 

While there have been very occasional failures on the dyno at the nats they are usually related to transmissions or occasionally engines.

No one has ever been injured by flying dyno debris at the Nats to my knowledge. 

 

Even so, I am paranoid enough to be in front of the cars rather than beside them.

 

Summernats is a very safe event. In all of its years there has only been one trauma related death, the poor bloke who fell backwards out of a ute, hit his head and died. Way safer than your average night out at the pub or a night at home with your family in Melbourne…

 

This was the most impressive fail I witnessed.

 

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Jake Edwards promised to make 2000hp (I think?) with his SBC powered yellow box torana.

And he did!

 

He did however have a blow up so bad that Pinky was able to pick up the centre remnant of the Turbo impeller and do show and tell for the crowd. The oil smoke cloud was biblical.

[rexy]

Plenty of small toranas as usual.

 

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Its hard to be black in the hot dusty weather.

 

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A survivor, of sorts.

 

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The bright end of the spectrum tends to look good on a torana.

 

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And disliked on a cop car.

 

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One of my few tickets was from a copper driving one of these.

 

 

 

 

 

[rexy]

Friday night entertainment was very chill. A happy crowd got to see a few bands.

 

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Ella liked to take a knee during the set. Beginner Summernats mistake as you can see from the black patches on her knees! Everything is coated in a dusting of once was tyres.

 

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Screaming Jets were very good as was the DJ who filled the downtime during set change. He certainly knew his crowd and gave us an Aussie sing a long set of Khe Sanh, Boys Light Up, Down Under, Highway to Hell, Jessies Girl, Eagle Rock and unfortunately The Horses. 

 

 

 

[Shiney005]

We appreciate the photos Rexy. I am really going to have to make an effort to get there.  Obviously the timing of Summernats is great for the show, but it makes it a bit hard for me.

[YellowGTR]

Hi Rexy,
As always thx for all the photos and a Storytellers versions of events going on.
Been years since I was there, I think they were trying to crack a 1000hp amazing what there getting now.
Cheers.

[rexy]

Hi Rexy,
As always thx for all the photos and a Storytellers versions of events going on.
Been years since I was there, I think they were trying to crack a 1000hp amazing what there getting now.
Cheers.

 

Most years I get a bit ho hum about making the trip as the year goes by. Its a big trip in a busy life.

 

And then as soon as I get close to the event and start seeing the cars, hearing the sounds and smelling the smells I am back in heaven.

 

Excellent for ones mental health.

[rexy]

The venue has a huge grass oval at its centre. Lots of cars parked up here every day in a show and shine kinda vibe. More like dust and shine….

 

Its relentlessly hot and bright nearly all the time.

 

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Clear blue sky without end. 

Makes it all the easier to see that this former top 60 hall 1 of 1 custom coupe still hasn't had its terrible panel fitment sorted. I kinda want to buy it so I can fix it.

 

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You never know whats hiding under a bonnet.

 

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It really is an every standard of car type of event. For example this is more likely to induce droop than tumescence.

 

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[rexy]

Good

 

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Very good

 

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No good

 

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Except for this bit

 

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[rexy]

An uncommon colour choice.

 

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This was winner of best custom for me.

 

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A new innovation for this year was walkover bridges across the cruise route, similar to those at the Melbourne GP. Seemed to be a big improvement in reducing crowd clusters at the crossovers.

 

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At times the signage is inadvertently amusing.

 

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[RallyRed]

Thanks again for the report and pics.   It's good to see so many varied 'takes' on the cars that started life pretty  much the same as each other.

[rexy]

Red is very nice

 

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Skid row crowd always enthusiastic

 

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Theres weird stuff

 

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Weirder stuff

 

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And families with little kids

 

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[rexy]

Cant not include a rod

 

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Or two

 

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Wouldnt mind a slammed pickup

 

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[rexy]

The local paper, The Canberra Times, is about as left as the media gets. Its amusing to read the published response from the public.

 

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Many are clearly not amused!

 

The event is a huge revenue spinner for the ACT and was thought important enough this year to be given Major Event status. This enabled a much larger on site police presence than in previous years. In hand with a new very professional security team I felt very safe.

 

 

[rexy]

By late Saturday the crowds were huge.

 

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We finished the day out with more burnouts including the 10 car Masters final.

 

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Even as we wandered to the gate there were new freakish things to discover.

 

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Headed down south to home in the mighty big block 1.4 litre Hyundai Accent Sunday morning. Fortunately the highway had been reopened. Plenty of smoke haze as we approached the border.

 

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Bad enough to make your eyes sting but nowhere near the 2020 experience.

 

 

 

[rexy]

And just like that Summernats number 38 is done.

 

Every time I think I have seen it all I am proven wrong. If you are a car person you really should come and have a gander. It is full sensory overload and like no other show on earth.

 

I will leave the final word to the Canberrra Times.

 

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See ya round like a rissole!