CHRIS Vassilis shares a unique relationship with his good friend and childhood neighbour, Bill Kaglatzis, owner of BK Race Engines. "If it wasn't for Bill, I'd probably have bought a few houses by now," he laughs. "Bill is definitely responsible for my love of cars. As a kid, I rode my bike around to his house one day and saw him piecing together an engine covered in Speedflow fittings and with two giant turbos hanging off it. That day the Lamborghini and Mick Doohan posters came down from my bedroom walls; I fell in love with tough V8s!"
Even so, it would take almost two decades for Chris to snag a muscle car of his own. Easily distracted throughout his teens and 20s by rotaries and motorbikes, he eventually outgrew these toys and found himself staring at an empty shed.
"My dad owned a Torana hatchback before he had kids and always spoke about it, so I pictured myself owning one, one day," the Sydneysider says. "My wife and I were driving to Port Stephens and saw a convoy of Toranas heading to Toranafest. To my surprise, it was my wife who suggested I buy one she probably thought I was just going to slap some whitewalls and venetians on a stocker and cruise it!"
Striking while the Minister for Finance had the war chest open, Chris immediately jumped online and found a prospective project several hundred kilometres away in Mudgee, NSW. There was no point making the eight-hour round trip without bringing the car home, but the gravity of the situation quickly dawned on Chris. "It was literally just a shell - no wiring, no glass, nothing in the doors," he says.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der August 2022-Ausgabe von Street Machine Australia.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der August 2022-Ausgabe von Street Machine Australia.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
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ROYAL CARRIAGE
BENNY ROYAL TOOK A FAMILY HEIRLOOM TOYOTA CORONA, SHOVED A 1JZ IN IT AND HEADED OFF FOR FIVE DAYS OF DRAG-AND-DRIVE
DEBUT TOUR
WITH A SCREAMING HOLDEN SIX, DEAN TROUNSON'S HOME-COOKED HR STEERS WITH THE BEST OF 'EM
FULLY FRANKED
A SNEAKY 670 HORSES OF FRANK MARCHESE POWER MAKES ROB GORGIEVSKI'S CONCOURS XW A PROPER TREAT
NOMADIC LIFESTYLE
DON'T BE FOOLED BY ITS DEMURE APPEARANCE THIS '57 CHEVY NOMAD IS A RAUNCHY RESTOMOD PACKING MODERN MUMBO
PERFECT 10 '!!!!
THE SYDNEY HOT ROD & CUSTOM AUTO EXPO TURNS 10
VAN WILDER
PETER MARRIOTT BUILT THIS TOUGH, 350 CHEV-POWERED HK PANEL VAN IN TRIBUTE TO THE LONG-LOST HT VAN OF HIS YOUTH
EXPRESS DELIVERY
IF YOU'VE ever been to the Bright Rod Run (and you damn well should've), odds are you've seen Joel Beatson lapping in an early Falcon.
RED HOT & BLUE
A REBORN PROGM8 SHOOTS FOR THE TITLE OF AUSTRALIA'S BEST SHOW-AND-GO COMMODORE
PEOPLE LIKE US
WHEN Michael Gonzalez isn't busy making eight-second passes in CHOCTOP, his street-driven, LSA-fed VC Commodore, or cruising one of the many other cars in his collection, he can be found managing Springmount Raceway, home to Far North Queensland's biggest horsepower hoedown, Northern Nats (see p. 48 for full feature).
DRIVING INNOVATION
EVER WISH YOU COULD HAVE A BRAND-NEW VERSION OF AN ICONIC 1970s AUSSIE MUSCLE CAR, FULL OF THE LATEST TECH? DRIVE SOUTH IS WORKING TO MAKE THAT A REALITY