This month we ventured over to South Australia to find some Cars of Bendix at the Adelaide Auto Expo. This show encompasses all walks of automotive life from customs, muscle, imports and race cars, basically there is something to look at no matter what your taste. So lets get into the action and check out Novembers Cars of Bendix!
Mark Boxer
Starting life as a garden variety Ford ute, Mark or Boxer as he’s known has transformed this 1997 XH Falcon ute into a fire-breathing drag car. Featuring a full drag car rear end, trans-braked Turbo 400 and a 1000rwkW capable Atomic Barra engine with a rather large turbo hanging off the side. Having just been completed, the car has done some shakedown runs on the dyno and made promising power with just over 800rwhp only running 25psi boost at 6000rpm. Mark says the car has been in the build for a while, but he’s very happy to have it completed and even more so to have it featured in the current issue of Street Machine magazine. His current plan is to sell the car as a brand-new build as he's already working on another project, yet says that he hopes someone who will use it regularly buys it and runs some fast times.
Robert and Amanda
Robert first bought his Evo from a past customer who owned the car, it had previously won the best Japanese car at an Extreme Auto Expo event and when the car came up for sale he just had to have it!
The car came with a 2.3ltr stroker kit and a bigger turbo for maximum power. Thanks to Mike Dale the engine was rebuilt and tuned for 354kw at the wheels on 22psi running E85. The team at Salisbury Exhaust hooked him up with cooler pipes and a custom exhaust. All that was left to do was change the colour of the car to Rakio in house at Spikes Auto, switch to a set of XO Luxury Cario wheels with a carbon finish and have a big stereo installed by the team over at ACDC.
Amanda’s car was bought almost as you see it today with a full custom interior and crazy stereo system. The interior did need some work however and a few bits and pieces needed to be resprayed and touched up. The car then went into the workshop where it had the holes welded up on the Evo 9 boot, then the clear coat was fixed and resprayed on the Evo 9 carbon wing blade. The car then went into the paint shop where it was sprayed in a colour-shift paint appropriately named Tsunami. Finally the wheels were refreshed and painted in a black colour to finish the car off.
Frank - Fast Furious
If you’re a fan of the Fast & Furious series you will be no stranger to this car, Frank’s 1970 Dodge Charger. Originally found in a shed after sitting for 10 years the opportunity arose for Frank to purchase this beauty. While the plan originally was to turn it into a burnout car, after getting it back from the paint shop, he couldn’t bring himself to wreck such a well-presented car. It’s fitted with a 440 big block bored out to a 498ci and runs a forged crank, H-beam rods and Callies forged pistons. On top of the engine sits a pair of Edlebrock RPM heads fitted that are pumped full of boost supplied by a BDS 8/71 blower and fed by twin 950cfm carbs to ensure that there is no shortage of fuel supply.
Creating a movie-car tribute was not originally on the table, but one thing let to another and with help from his brother, Frank’s Charger is a great tribute to Toretto’s Dad’s car from the original movie. He even displayed it wheels up at the show!
Rick Hot rod
Ricks’ hot rod is a great example of building something right. Originally purchasing it as a rolling shell from Canberra 15-years ago with a 351 twin ram tunnel, he later changed it to a blown 351 Clevo. After 2 years of regulatory discussions, it's now a fully street legal South Australian based American Hot Rod. With its 12” wide Mickey Thompson rear tyres, 5” American Racing rims on the front and a 3000-stall convertor making this one very cool hot rod. Rick takes pride in having his car driven and not hidden. He’s driven in 42-degree heat and done numerous trips to interstate events. The car has also won many trophies at events held in VIC and it’s not only a car that Rick enjoys driving, but something his family love and take pride in. With its custom interior, flame paint job and big blower, it’s defiantly a car you want to keep an eye out for on the street and at future events.
Adam RX7
Boasting a 13B rotary engine and upgraded turbo, Adam’s Mazda is one of a kind stance weapon. Famous for their curvy body line and pop up heads, the FD RX-7 is the pinnacle of the Japanese 90’s era of imports. With the car sitting static, it had to have been one of the lowest cars at the Extreme Auto Expo. Underneath a freshly polished set of Work Meisters tuck right up under the guards. With only a few things left to do on the car, Adam can’t wait to get out and enjoy his rotary-powered Batmobile.
Jarrett Porsche
Jarrett’s 911s Targa is one of a kind. Whilst keeping the main German styling of the car, Jarrett has also put his personal flavor into the mix, as well as creating something that suits him own personal tastes. The car was not gathered but rather hunted. Jarrett was on the lookout for the perfect car when the opportunity arose to purchase this 1975 Porsche 911s Targa which he was told had “Gearbox problems”. After many hours on Google and some trial and error, a little access hatch was removed which gave assess to the trans tunnel and he discovered a pile of dust and debris. The remains of a coupler joint bushing which cost him a grand total of $25 to replace. After this, the months following saw a full restoration of the car, in which time he added his own flavour to the 911. Jarrett says he’s put about 800 hours of hard work into getting the car to where it is today in its immaculate condition.
R33 John
John was born with drag racing in his blood and what started out as a streetcar quickly became a fully upgraded drag car. Starting out with the usual modifications, an aftermarket exhaust, Apexi FC, pod filters and larger intercooler saw it make a 227rwkw. John says the was fun for a little while, but his thirst for beating V8s down the quarter mile was strong so he decided it was time for some serious power gains. The car under went more bolt-on upgrades, receiving a pair of HKS 2540’s were installed, 680cc injectors, bosh fuel pump, cam gears, Cusco exhaust catch can and Nismo upgrades, this made for a car that ran 11.8 down the quarter-mile with 338rwkw. Eventually, the engine decided enough was enough and at that point John was all in. An OS 3-litre short block engine package fitted with a brand new N1 head and even bigger HKS turbos. ON it’s first outing the car put down a 10.7. Everyone was impressed yet knew that it was capable of going faster and John dropped the clutch to launch off the line harder. Unfortunately he snapped both rear axles and that was the end of the outing. A few more axles and gearboxes later John ran a 9.66 at 148.85mph. Relieved he didn’t break anything, he attempted a few more runs and found that the car was capable of doing good consistent 9.6-second runs. These days the car not only still makes trips to the drag strip, but he often takes it to The Bend Motorsport Park to do some fairly entertaining but fast laps!
Daniel’s Torana
Daniels baby blue Torana is an absolute weapon and boasts a very tough sounding 650hp V8 engine. Having been in his position since the ’90s as a bare shell, he built it slowly over a number of years fitting the build in with his busy lifestyle. It was all long night, hard work and cash. The custom paint job was done by the team at Muscle Cars in Salisbury SA and it really sets the car parent from every other Torana. The 400ci V8 is fitted with alloy heads, a twin throttle body EFI setup and is run by an Autronic SMC ECU. Did we mention is also has a cheeky direct port nitrous system? Whilst being fitted out with as many modifications as he could, he also adamantly wanted to make sure that the car was going to be street-legal, so after a vigorous engineering process and a mandatory roadworthy inspection, it’s engineered and 100% street legal.
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