Black Gold

Brendan cherry breaks out some flash new moves with his show-worthy, big-grunt twin-turbo HK and gets set for SM drag challenge.

- Simon Major

THEY say that change is as good as a holiday, although I’m sure many would happily embrace the status quo if it meant owning an eight second HQ coupe. But if the passion for a certain build has run its course or there’s the burning feeling of unfinished business, maybe it is time to change things up.

Street Machine Drag Challenge stalwart and burnout enthusiast Brendan Cherry was at these exact crossroads earlier this year. “My AGRO01 HQ Monaro was in a great place with its twin-turbo 408-cube LS combo and a heap of cruising and racing under its belt, but I was starting to get a little bored,” he explains. “My ultimate car has long been an HK Monaro, but owning one just plain eluded me. If the right car popped up I couldn’t afford it, or if I had some cash to throw around there was nothing decent on offer.”

So one evening Brendan decided to post a wanted ad for an HK on Facebook, just to casually see what may have been up for grabs. Next minute he’d laid down a healthy deposit on this show ’n’ go Monaro from Queensland dubbed SIRHK, and his HQ was on the market.

“It all happened so fast,” he says. “When the original owner, Scott Bliss, sent me photos of the car I couldn’t say no. I bought it sight unseen and immediately advertised the HQ; that sold within 18 hours of listing it!”

The now-candy green HQ found its way to a new home – minus his trademark AGRO-01 plates of course – and Brendan readied himself for the arrival of his new ride. “The two-week wait was a killer,” he says. “It was a fresh car on the scene and built in Mackay; Scott had shown it at MotorEx in Sydney, but that was it. I knew it was a quality thing, but the finish in the flesh knocked me for six; you just know it’s been done right. It is probably a bit too nice for me and how I treat cars though!”