After being a burnout competitor for just over two years, Leroy Rees has absolutely smashed the hell out of the industry. Last year alone he took home the winners trophys for Gazzanats Adelaide, Elite Pro Street Burnouts and Drag Tag 10k Burnout Challenge.

Even after all of his success, the “Loud Obnoxious C***” still has both feet firmly planted on the ground.

Everytime BIGV8 heads out on the pad, you can be assured of a great show. A true crowd pleaser in every sense, it has the mechanical muscle bulging out the bonnet, ear bursting exhausts and instant tyre smoke. The only downside to watching any of Leroys burnouts is that they are very short lived, a brand new set of 17″ tyres last on average 90 seconds when the loud pedal is flat to the boards.

My specs for the car were for it to be big powerful and f*%^ing loud

Ever wondered how these burnout guys manage to see amongst all the smoke and mayhem? We asked Leroy and he reckons before he goes out on the pad he picks out a few structures so he can find his bearings once emersed in the smoke ie a light pole, rooftop etc…

Whilst the car was built originally to blast the tyres off in burnout comps, Leroy tried his hand at some Off Street Racing at this years Powercruise in Darwin and came away with the winners trophy. Asked what it felt like to actually get the big Statesman upto speed and Leroy replied with “It felt like my ass was trying to suck the leather off the seats it was puckered up that much, but I loved it!”.

The drag racing bug seemed to bite and Big Leroy is keen on taking it down to the strip to lay down a few numbers.

“I don’t want to go too fast, cos I don’t want to have one of those poofy looking shopping trolley handles strapped to the back with a nappy to slow me down”

Leroys son James Rees is the brains behind the engine and he is a really clued in guy. He himself owns a 253 powered VC wagon running 11.20’s which looks set to run into the 10’s shortly. This is without a bottle, running on meth and naturally aspirated, the fastest 253 in Australia?? Hopefully we can bring you James’ wagon in the not too distant future.

Ask Leroy what engine specs he gave James to build to and you’ll get - “My specs for the car were for it to be big powerful and f*%^ing loud, I don’t know about how this bolts to that thing, I just wanted to drive the bastard.”

Engine Details (this is going to be a long one)

Normally we give a pretty brief rundown of the motor, but in this case James wanted us to publish the lot. So here goes.

Engine

Built by John Pilla, Power House Engines 03 5623 3447 / James Rees.

509 cube Bigblock Chev

Compressoin : 9.2

Crankshaft : 4” Steel
Rods : 6.135 Carillo
Pistons : JE Flat Top
Rings : Total Seal
Mains & Rod Bearings : Clevite

Heads

Ported and polished alloy heads
Valves : Ferrea 2.250
Valve Spring : Manley nextek
Retainers : Titanium
Valve Covers : AMP

Cam & Valve Train

Camshaft : Clive Cams
Lift : 730
Duration : 275/285
Lobe Seperation : 114
Lifters : Howard Cams
Push Rods : Manley
Rockers : Crane Gold
Rocker Ratio : 1.73
Stud Kit : ARP
Timing Chain : AMP
Oil Pump : Standard
Water Pump : Standard

Induction

Carby : Enderle Bird Injector Hat
Blower : Weiand 871 17% overdriven
Injector Size : 56

Electrics

Dizzy : MSD
Coil : LX92
Spark Amplifier : Hi-6

Exhaust

Headers : 2.5” 4 into 1 headers

Power : 900hp estimated
Torque : 1000ft lb estimated

Drive Train

Transmission : Power Glide Full Manualised
Stall Converter : TCT (3800rpm)
Driveshaft : 3”
Diff : 9” Full spool, 35 spline
Ratio : 3.25

Special Thanks

James Rees – brains behind the motor setup
John Pilla – Powerhouse Engines 0356233447
TNT Auto Parts – Terry
Bryan Jones – HQ Restorations
Mick Zahra – Drouin Steel Sales
Ian Bennet – Bus N Body Shop
Dave – Warragull Auto Interiors
Steve Mcgreggor – Warragul Exhaust
John Williams, Norm Hoult, Paul Jensz

Special Thanks to my wife Janine, kids Jaimee, Shae, Emma and Eden

Full Gallery Of BIGV8

Video Compilation of BIGV8

Discuss BIGV8 (i’m sure leroy will be more than happy to answer questions)

The first thing that springs to mind about Darwin is what a beautiful place it is, great weather, hot back packers and cops that don’t seem too fussed about what speeds you travel at.

Our falcodore couldn’t do anymore than 205 on the speedo (GPS read 201). That’s flatout with four people, luggage and the A/C huffing and puffing – not bad for a stock standard taxi.

What we really went to the top end to see was all the action on track at Darwin Powercruise 13 2008. The biggest standout over the entire powercruise weekend would have to be the crowd. We’ve traveled all over Australia for events and not one single place has had the same atmosphere.

Granted the crowd paled in comparison to the Sydney Powercruises’ or Summernats’, however their enthusiasm for burnouts was second to none. At one stage old mate was out in his rodeo barely taking the skin off his tyres and the crowd still cheered him on. He drove around for a good 3 minutes turning the tyres at a good 2 or 3 k’s faster than he was moving and the crowd cheered him on.

Big hitters such as RHYNOS, BIGV8 and UCSMOKE almost caused massive coronary’s throughout the crowd. A big thumbs up to Darwin for crowd enthusiasm!

Show N Shine

This EH wagon was absolutely stunning, not a powerhouse with a 6 pot still under the hood, however it was immaculate, a really nice looking cruiser.

Another standout was this FJ ute, stock as a rock and immaculate.

This VK had an ex truck blower on it and an enormous pulley wheel, it would be interesting to find out what sort of power this combo gives especially with the massively underdriven pulley attached to it.

Show N Shine Gallery Powercruise 13 Darwin 2008

Miss Powercruise

Chiccy babes and cars, why don’t all events come to the party on this one?? Check out any ricegrinding event and it is always top heavy with girls in next to nothing.

I’m sure the Allina’s (blonde pictured above) stove has been stoked in many a wet dream since Darwin Powercruise, I know she is a dead ringer for my next girlfriend.

Babes Gallery Powercruise 13 Darwin 2008

Burnouts

Top 5 burnout winners above with BIGV8 (Leroy Rees) taking out crowd favourite and UCSMOKE (Steve Loader) overall top burnout.

Demo burnouts were put on by Joe Pagano (IMXITD) and Ryan Pearson (RHYNOS). I think someone needs to let Ryan know that you can’t pop a tyre twice. Once you’re down to the rims and sparks are flying, the burnout is over.

Just one thing on the burnouts- Gup - having them at night is absolutely f*****, especially if there is zero lighting on them.

Burnout Gallery Powercruise 13 Darwin 2008

Powerskids

Theo and Gup had a running bet for who could do the longest powerskid (huge spenders with a $1 bet and clean the other mans car!). Naturally the winner was Gup.

Just gotta love the number plate on this VZ ute ‘TEABAGS’

PROLS1 – pumping out somewhere in the region of 450hp at the rears, this ute tore up the tarmac all weekend. Awesome setup!

Powerskids Gallery Powercruise 13 Darwin 2008

Street Racing

Street racing was absolutely dominated by BIGV8, a car built to do burnouts with an owner who never intended for it to do anything but blow tyres to bits, congrats leroy we expect to see BIGV8 punching out some very low numbers on the track very soon.

Street Racing Gallery Powercruise 13 Darwin 2008

Had to throw in the odd pic of a croc, we were in croc land after all. We spent a day kicking about after Powercruise and went on a tour to see some crocs jumping out of the water.

Funny thing, heading back to the wharf, the woman who was feeding the crocs, tried her hardest to get one of the local birds(kite) to fly down into the jaws of a croc, apparently she’s not a fan of kites.

Videos Powercruise 13 Darwin 2008

Gallery Powercruise 13 Darwin 2008

Winners Powercruise 13 Darwin 2008

Discuss This Post

Two weeks and no updates, we’ve been working on the merc, just haven’t had a whole lot to show for updates.

The engine and trans sitting in the merc. It took a bit of stuffing around, but the mounts are all made. They ended up being relatively simple mounts too.

A recipe for Custom engine mounts
1 X 200mm length of 50mm square bar
2 X 270mm length of 8mm thick flat plate
1 X 200mm length of 4mm thick flat plate
Pair of HQ holden engine mounts
Turbo 350 transmission mount (commondore)
Original Mercedes transmission mount
Original Mercedes engine mounts

The steel cost us a total of $17 and the mounts another $74.

We retained the original Mercedes plates that bolt to the front crossmember, removed the rubber (image below) and welded in a small upright for our HQ holden mount. We went for the holden mounts as they suited the design we wanted for our mounts. Ie would bolt to a 50mm upright.

The transmission mount was pretty simple, a 30minute job really. Cut the original Mercedes mount, welded in a piece of 4mm thick flat plate, two holes and she was done.

burn baby burn

The Mercedes’ engine mounting point was mid engine and on the chev, they are right up the front of the motor. The engineer we spoke to before we started this project stressed that if we could to use the original mounting points on the cross member. Something to do with this already being standard location / strength etc etc…

Anyways some 8mm thick flat plate was used to bring the mount back to the original location.

Next step is to fit our newly acquired Toyota camry power steering rack, modify a sump and pickup, then move onto the headers. We also need to tidy up the engine mounts, trim a bit of fat off them and they’re ready to be painted up.

Not really looking forward to the headers, does anyone know if making headers similar to that on a boat would cause any big issues?

Discuss This Post

Mercules Build Up Part 4 Gallery

What makes a good sleeper? It seems like a pretty simple formula really, take a car add a big dose of horsepower, leave the rest looking like the standard vehicle and off you go right?

What’s missing from 99% of sleepers though? They all have the power and looks yet at idle most sound like they’re ready to tear your arms off and beat you around the ears. It’s not a bad sound, it’s a sound we all love and chase, but a true sleeper needs to be subtle and unassuming in every way, including its exhaust note whilst putting around town.

Kris’ turbocharged 1UZFE powered HT ute is the perfect example of a true sleeper. With powder blue paint, ridgey didge holden hub caps on steel wheels, 320hp at the wheels and a the subtle burble of a V8 eminating out the back at idle.

Check the video out (above), at idle you would be hard pressed to think this is anything but a stock standard HT ute, but get on the loud pedal, the turbo spools up and the rear tyres skate side to side searching for some traction.

A best of 12.6 has been achieved on the ¼ mile, crossing the line at 119mph, so it definitely has the potential to hit the 11’s if properly setup. Bare in mind this time was achieved with the skinny rear radials, 3.08 diff ratio and standard stally.

The initial build left me with a naturally aspirated 1uzfe in the engine bay and it left me wanting more power, so after 12 months of driving. I decided a turbo would do the job

‘I bought the ute back in 2003 with a 327chev and powerglide. I wanted to go EFI, more power and have something a little different. Looked at options like a chev, LT1, holden 304 and even a Nissan VG30DETT, but wanted to stick with a V8. Started looking into Jap V8’s and found the only real choices were Nissan VH45 or Toyota 1uzfe. After some research, the 1uzfe seemed like the best option by a long shot.’

‘The standard exhaust manifolds were too wide, so I sourced a pair of Crown log style manifolds as they have a lower profile.’

‘The initial build left me with a naturally aspirated 1uzfe in the engine bay and it left me wanting more power, so after 12 months of driving. I decided a turbo would do the job and hunted one down on ebay. The standard computer caused a lot of detonation when the turbo was added, so I ended up getting a Wolf 3D computer along with bigger injectors and a fuel pressure reg. She’s running on 12psi and putting out around 320 at the rears for now. I’d like to get it tuned properly in the future and squeeze out a few more horsepower.’

Congrats on building a tough sleeper Kris, it’s a seriously tough ute with a very unostentatious look about it.

Quick Specs

Kris Allan aka Krayn

1969 Holden HT Ute

Colour : Blue (Spies Hecker)

Occupation : Comms Liney

Age : 32

ENGINE

Make : Toyota 1UZFE

Induction : Master Power T70 Hybrid Turbo

Heads / Bottom End : Stock

Ignition : MSD 8.8

Exhaust : Single 3″

Cooling : Alloy Radiator

TRANSMISSION

Gearbox : Manualised Toyota box

Converter : 1800rpm

Diff : BTR 78 (VP Commodore diff) 3.08

SUSPENSION & BRAKES

Springs : Selby springs and Munro shocks

Brakes : HQ Holden up front and VP commodore discs on the rear

INTERIOR

Wheel : HT Monaro

Instruments : HT GTS

RUBBER & RIMS

Tyres : Front 205/65/14 Rear 235/60/14

Wheels : Custom steelies and HT Premier Hubcaps

THANKS

Adam at ATS Automatics and LEXTREME

Just wanted to add a big thanks to Kris for providing us with some much needed video footage as ours was damaged.

Full Gallery of Kris’ HT Ute

Video of Kris’ HT Ute(compilation)

Discuss Kris’ HT Ute

Mercules has been moving along nicely this past week, we’ve managed to get the shell primed and have also given the underbody and wheel arches a new coat of sound deadener. The primer will be given a guide coat, wet rubbed and any highs or lows we find will be bogged up before going for round two of primer. However this will have to wait for atleast another week as we want to get our newly arrived engine mocked up in the engine bay.

It’s nice seeing the shell in one colour!

Since starting this project, the transmission tunnel has always looked like it might not be able to house the turbo 350 without some serious massaging. However once we had the box and engine bolted together and int the bay, they fit in nicely. A snug fit, but it fits which is all that really matters in the end.

The tranny pan is hanging down pretty low but should be ok once we get 2.5″ pipes running either side of it. The exhaust will hang alot lower than the transmission.

We came across two issues when it came to aligning the engine in the bay, 1 - sitting the engine further back meant we fouled on the mercedes powersteering box and lame steering dampener and 2 - sitting the engine further forward meant that the front cross member would need to be modified to fit the starter motor. The merc powersteering was taken out as we figured it would create a heap more room in the bay (check above the merc powersteering is HUGE) and we found a rack from a 92 Toyota Camry that will be perfect for the job. This means that front cross member can now remain intact as a starter motor will fit and half the transmission isn’t visible in the engine bay now.

Next on the list is to build our engine and transmission mounts. The trans should be able to use the stock mercedes mounting bracket with very minor changes needing to be made. Also we’re going to have to modify the sump and pickup - not 100% sure on that one as yet. Anyone have any suggestions on having maybe two pickups??

Discuss This Post

This TC never knew what hit it when Shaun decided it was the car for him. It was bought with a warm 289 in it and has since had 5 engine combos. The latest is a 383 stroker that was recently rebuilt after cooking the crank and 4 rods at Elite Pro Street Burnouts 2007( CYCOV8’s Elite Prostreet Burnout Video )!

Built to be abused and used, this TC cops a hiding at events around Australia, from powerskids, burnouts to drag racing. Mini tubs and a 4 link rear end were added late last year to help preserve the paint during burnouts and increase hook up off the line at the drags.

Pumping out 400 odd ponies at the treads, Shaun recently managed a pb of 10.88 at Calder Park (Gazza Nationals). He’s confident this motor has a mid 10 in it before putting it on the bottle in the hopes of achieving a high 9.

touched the brakes and pulled back to second, I kinda realised I was going to need a new set of undies before the next run

“Gazza Nats in Vic was the first time I’d ever raced with this new engine and we decided to check out the drags on the Friday night. First run I got half way down the track and the fan belt spun off. By the time I went through the traps, coolant was pissing out of the radiator onto the front wheels. When I went through the traps, the f’ing thing kicked out on me and as soon as I touched the brakes and pulled back to second, I kinda realized I was going to need a new set of undies before the next run. Not sure how I lucked out of that one, seemed like the wall was so close the whole time.”

Interior is completely custom, chock full of buttermilk and orange suede with a leather roof lining. Front seats started out as SAAS seats whilst the rear seat is a customised version of the original.

Billet window winders finish off the suede and leatherdoor trims.

“The interior was a huge job, I’d just had the tubs and 4 link and engine rebuild finished and wanted to get the interior done before summernats. Ended up taking a week off work and helped out doing whatever bits of interior I could. We ended up finishing the interior by about lunch time Friday and then headed upto nats that night.”

What really sets off ‘CYCOV8’ from other Cortinas is the blue flames that adorn the front guards and bonnet. Take a closer look and you’ll notice subtleskulls throughout the flames (see above image).

What’s Next?

After 5 engine combos, the current 383 stroker is by no means the last. Shaun is already talking about going injected with a centrifugal under bonnet blower.

Engine bay is looking like it will get a repaint to match the flames that adorn the bonnet and front ¼ panels.

Quick Specs

Shaun Petrie aka Stubbs

1974 Ford TC Cortina

Colour : Blue (it’s a secret)

Occupation : Aircon Mechanic

Age : 25 and looking for love

ENGINE

Make : Cleveland, 383ci

Carbie : Holly 750cfm

Heads : Port & Polished Alloy

Ignition : MSD 8.8

Exhaust : Ceramic Coated 1 ¾” Headers and dual 3” exhaust

Cooling : Alloy Radiator

TRANSMISSION

Gearbox : Full Manualised C4

Converter : TCI 4000rpm

Tailshaft : 3” Thickwall shaft

Diff : Full spool 9” 4.3:1

SUSPENSION & BRAKES

Springs : Front 90/10, Rear Coil Overs

Brakes : Slotted Ford XB Front Rotors, with holden Calipers

INTERIOR

Seats : Saas fronts and custom rear

Wheel : Saas

Trim : Combination of leather and Suede

Instruments : Autometer Pro Comp

Shifter : B&M Pro Ratchet

Cage : 6 point moulded into the interior

RUBBER & RIMS

Tyres : 295/50/15, 155/60/15, BEF Goodrich

Wheels : Centerline Convo Pros

THANKS

Michael at B&R Brakes, Grant – Grants Performance, Blacktown Automotive and LA Auto Electrical, Ryan & Chris – Twisted Arts Factory, Ian & Crew – Kreative Enterprises, John – JBK Smash Repairs, Andrew for the C4, Mick for the trim and lastly family & friends for helping get it all together.
Full Gallery of CYCOV8

Video of CYCOV8 (compilation)

Discuss CYCOV8’s ride

As you can see from the image above, Mercules has been getting a lot of our attention over the last week. We’ve managed to prep all the paint to be ready for the first coat of primer (hopefully she’s all primed this week). Everything is ready bar two doors, they were just too rusted out on the bottom sill to even bother trying to fix. We have found some replacements which should be here by the end of the week.

We have also taken care of all the surface rust and minor holes which were cut out and new pieces of *metal* welded in.

A booth of sorts was constructed, so that we could minimize the mess we make and have a good environment in which to prime Mercules. The booth is made out of $15 worth of plastic sheets from bunnings and a couple of pieces of builders string. Works an absolute treat too.

The stock exhaust cutout in the body work was going to be rendered useless as we plan on dumping twin 2.5″ pipes directly under the number plate. So a quick zap with the welder and a little bog and you’d never know it was there.

Aerial hole removed, we’ll run an indash one as the stock one weighed a tonne and looked like a bag of the proverbial.

The battery will be run in the boot, so we drilled out the spot welds, pulled out the battery tray and sent Paul off to hospital to go on record as Merules’ very first victim!

Two stitches and Paul was a little tentative to go another round with Mercules (what a blouse).

New metal was welded into the engine bay, where the battery tray use to live. Seems all battery trays are chock block full of rust. Anyone care to enlighten us on this one, is it something to do with the battery acid being corrosive?

As I was writing this entry, our gearbox arrived and looks like it will be a very tight squeeze in the transmission tunnel! Box is a reco’d Turbo 350 with Stage 2 shift kit, it’s going to be a cruiser for 99.99% of the time, so there was no need to go full manualised on this one. We’ve sourced an engine (350 chev), which we’re hoping to pick up later on in the week. Then we’re ready to do a quick trial fit of both engine and box oooo exciting!

Anyways that’s where we are currently at with the Mercules project, more updates in a weeks time.

Discuss This Post

Well girls and boys, we now have a project car for MCF which we will be building up over the next 2 to 3 months and sharing each step of the build process. We went all out and blew the budget to pieces and purchased an unregistered Mercedes for the princely sum of $500!

The idea was to do something a little different which is why we ended up going for a 1975 230.6 Mercedes Benz (W114). In the engine bay is a straight 6 twin carbide 2.3L uninspiring piece of yawnsville that will be tossed as far away as possible. Right beside that you’ll find the 4spd auto that we’re most definitely not using.

Whilst the engine and box were never going to stay, we were pleasantly surprised to find the old benz had IRS, 4 wheel discs and power steering. The interior is pretty much perfect with zero rips or holes in the seats and carpet. The seats and door cards look like they will come up a treat with a good clean.

There is minimal rust through out the body, with the front drivers door needing some work and small amounts of surface around the front quarters and boot lid. All in all a very straight, near on zero bog free body for $500.

Planned Mods

Our overall goal is to build a ‘tough’ streeter that will hold its own in the WTF department and attract a bit of attention at the same time.

The donk is going to be replaced with a 350 chev that will be freshened up along with a lumpier cam. Backing up the 350 will be a reco’d Turbo 350 box with shift kit. A quick trial of a 307 block (pictured above) has enabled us to assess whether or not a 350 will fit and we’re confident we can squeeze one in there. Thanks to NO.TOY for the loan of 307 block!

The diff will more than likely be replaced by a larger V8 merc diff and the front discs and calipers will need to be replaced as the stock ones look like they would have trouble pulling up a bicycle.

Exterior wise, we’re going to try and stick to original as much as possible bar maybe losing a couple of badges here and there. So the body is going to get a fresh coat of white, polish up the original chrome and retain the original hubcaps with widened rear steelies.

First Steps

We’ve already ripped out the motor and trans which were HEAVY to say the least. All the chrome was removed along with front and rear windows.

Check out these engine mounts, look more like wings than engine mounts - reckon Boeing has a patent on these babies or what?

A little surface rust on the boot lid, nothing too severe.

Since we are sticking with white and the body is in good shape, it was only necessary to take the polish and clear off the paint in preparation for some primer.

Anything with a bit of surface rust was cut back to bare metal. We only found a couple of minor spots that needed a quick zap with the mig to fill in holes.

We’re sticking with the ‘FAT’ theme and have ordered the plates ‘FAT-230’.

Want to GET INVOLVED?

If any businesses who would like to give us a hand, whether it be through cheaper parts/labour/knowledge please feel free to contact us at mercules /AT\ modifiedcarforums.com - replace /AT\ with @

We have a tonne of space on the rear window for your businesses logo as this car will be attending numerous events when it is finished. Also we will plug your business with each step of the build you’re involved with.

Along with your co logo on Mercules’ dedicated website mercules.com

We’re currently looking for
- 350 chev ~1975 or older model
- turbo 350 box, shift kit
- paint / panel work
- interior/trim
- auto elec
- exhaust work
- parts ie fuel cells, fuel pump, carby, dizzy, inlet, waterpump, alternator, gauges, shifter etc

Discuss This Post

Gazza Nationals hit Calder Park for the first time and looks set to be kick some ass in years to come. Entrants cruised Calders track all weekend, dropping thick sets up and down the back straight, lighting up the ¼ mile with powerskids and drag racing.

Show N Shine

Blown Chev laying low on air suspension

Blown Rod with some brilliant air brush work (shown below)

Show N Shine Gallery

Dial Your Own Drags

This is the ultimate equalizer when it comes to drag racing, power is taken out of the equation and skill of a driver is all that matters. Entrants set their dial in number after doing a couple of warm runs.

Once you have your ¼ time, racing begins! Simply get closest to your set time and don’t go under it(you’ll be disqualified) and you’re set to win. A bog stock VL commodore made it to the final 6 cars!

Drag Racing Gallery

Burnouts / Burnout Legends

The big boys came out to play, including George Separovich’s Blown 68 monaro, Big Leroy in his Blown Statesman ‘BIGV8’, Clint Ogilvie with his blown Pink Torana now sporting suicide doors, Tony’s blown Corolla ‘YLDTOY’, blown Camaro ‘MENTLE, Mark D’s blown green escort, blown VK Commodore ‘WILDE1’ and of course Gary Myers blown Mustang GM671.

All put on a spectacular show in the burnouts, obliterating their tyres inside a minute. We managed to get some brilliant incar footage in BIGV8, quite amazing to see what it’s like from the drivers perspective whilst doing a burnout.

New incar footage of bigv8, cycov8 and more. Check em out.

BIGV8 incar burnout footage

CYCOV8 incar drag racing footage

Burnouts Legends Gallery

Burnouts Gallery

Gazza Nationals Calder Park 2008 Photos

Gazza Nationals Calder Park 2008 Videos

Gazza Nationals Calder Park 2008 Results

Discuss This Post

It was looking as though Powercruise 12 might have to be called off due to rain early on in the week in Sydney. However the skies opened up and the sun beamed down to provide perfect weather for the entire weekend that would be Powercruise 12.

The largest Powercruise to date with 913 entrants in total, cars had to be turned away as there just wasn’t enough room to cram more in. Makes you think that next year is only going to get bigger, perhaps WSID and Eastern Creek could be used in 2009.

Friday saw a number of cars come off the track and hit the wall during cruise sessions. For the most part it seemed to be people driving above and beyond their abilities. The purpose built jeep drag car (pictured above) hit the wall and rolled over a number of times.

Powerskids

A new World Record for Powerskids was set on Sunday afternoon with Trent Smith (yellow torana pictured above) smoking his tyres to 557metres! Gup managed to smoke his tyres for 510m before his bonnet lifted and he ran out of tarmac.

Tony DeOliveria (YLDTOY) may not have won the powerskid however you have to give him a big thumbs up for trying. Tony covered well over 400m in his powerskid before losing control of his blown bigblock corolla and side swiping a water barrier at over 200k’s. Luckily he was unhurt and 20 minutes later was found competing in the Off Street Drags.

HB Torana pictured above ‘GOTNFN’ had perfection written all over it. Every nut and bolt had its place, look forward to seeing what times this is able to achieve at WSID.

Powercruise 12 Powerskids Gallery

Off Street Drags

The off street drags were taken out by the Trick and Mansweto drag Capri. IMA400 (pictured above) coming in a very close second – big congrats goes out to Chris Attard for taking on Goliath and not getting clobbered!

The rules for off street racing were Entrants had to use street slick(groved slicks), no warm up burnouts and a rolling start.

Powercruise 12 Off Street Drags Gallery

Cruising

As always cruising is one of the biggest parts of Powercruise, however with the huge number of entrants meant that those without a carport or garage were lined up for hours on end. We lined up for 2.5hours on Friday, went for a 10 minute cruise then parked up for the rest of the weekend to get joyrides in other cars.

All in all, a great weekend was had by all, was a pity to see cars coming off the track. But at the same time if they had adhered to the rules set in place then their pride and joy would still be in one piece. Bring on powercruise Darwin!

There was talk of holding two Powercruise events in Sydney per year, however Gup has confirmed that this will not be happening as Eastern Creek is booked solid as it stands.

Powercruise 12 Sydney 2008 Photos

Powercruise 12 Sydney 2008 Videos

Powercruise 12 Sydney 2008 RESULTS

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