Regal Splendour

Third time’s a charm for pep minutolo with the latest build of his tubbed and tunnel-rammed vc valiant regal

- Carly Dale

The Snowball Effect. It’s the phenomenon responsible for the majority of rides gracing these pages – including Pep Minutolo’s VC Valiant Regal. “I built the entire car all because I lost my cool when I was taking the engine out,” Adelaide-based Pep says. “I was pissed off when I pulled the hurt motor and I damaged the paint in the engine bay. I shut the bonnet and walked away, but realised the damage when I went to fit the new engine.”

Yep, one heated moment sparked the third build for Pep’s tidy VC, a ride that’s been with him for the past 19 years. Having said that, a VC wasn’t his first pick.

“I was going to buy my cousin’s HX Monaro with a hot 308,” Pep says. “My brother dobbed me into Mum, who told my aunty, so it became the typical Italian family politics and I couldn’t buy it.

“But my mate had this VC, so I bought it instead. Back then it had a 318 and was unsubbed, running Center Lines, and the interior had a red velour insert. As a 17-year-old, I thought it was awesome!”

Over the decades, Pep has progressively twiddled and tweaked the VC – as any good street machine enthusiast with spare cash would. “The first build was more or less as I bought it; the second I added a 360ci Chrysler, tubbed it, and it ran nitrous for a while too,” Pep says.

Yet the third time is always a charm, and once Pep started, he just couldn’t stop. “I saw the paint damage and thought I’d fix that; then I saw a few other marks, and then it became a full respray,” he says.