Check out the Pro Street action from Calder Park and see what it takes to run deep into the 7’s, choke on the smoke as we check out the action from the Grunt Files $10,000 Burnout Challenge and see if you can pick the winner. Grunt Files makes the annual pilgrimage to North Queensland for the Ingham Xtravaganza… The tough cars and the ferals, the burnouts and the gorgeous women. A quick look at some of the action from Summernats and check out Tuff Street.

Talk to car builders, competitors and racers to bring you the latest goss, and find out what it takes to be a winner.

Posted By: AJ , On: July 2nd, 2008
Posted In: DVD's & More, Other

1280 OR 1600 Wallpaper

Would you believe this started out life as a stock standard 1984 Toyota 4runner? The 4runner now stands a full 23″ taller than when it originally left the production line. The added height was achieved through completely modifying the stock suspension and driveline setup. The absolute basics of the change in height is due to a 3″ body lift, 4″ spring lift and the addition of 44″ super swamper tyres.

The front suspension has gone for an independant setup to a live axle with leaf springs and drop shackles(drop shackles give another 3 to 4″ of suspension travel) along with 9 stage toughdog custom shocks. The rear end has the same custom toughdog shocks and extended shackles.

Posted By: AJ , On: June 29th, 2008
Posted In: Feature Cars, Other

1280 OR 1600 Wallpaper

Our very first Torana and a tough one at that. James has owned this hatch for over 10 years, it started out as his daily driver (first car) and escalated over the years into a dedicated burnout car. James and his wife Helen have steered this A9X mocked LX hatch through many a burnout comp and taken home many a trophy.

The little LX started out with a 253 powereplant, backed up by a Supra 5 speed (m21’s just can’t handle a good burnout). It wasn’t until late 2006 that the 253 and manual box were swapped out for the current VR 5L and 2 speed powerglide combo which has proved to be a very tough and reliable setup.

Posted By: AJ , On: June 18th, 2008
Posted In: Feature Cars, Other

Mercules has been moving along nicely, we had to throw our camry rack in the bin and go for a larger VN rack as the engineer wouldn’t let us use a rack from a smaller car (camry weighs in at ~1200kgs and the mercedes is ~1400kgs). This actually turned out to be a good thing in the end as the mounts were relatively simple to make. The tags used to mount the VN rack almost lined up perfectly with the bolts on the lower control arms (see pic above). For the engineer this is a plus as this is an point of *strength* or some such garble. He said that he would be happier if we always tried to mount brackets on existing / factory strong points - ie original engine mounts in the crossmember, original trans xmember etc…

Posted By: AJ , On: June 17th, 2008
Posted In: Mercules, Other, Project Cars