HOT-TUBBED TIME MACHINE

A CHILDHOOD FASCINATION FOR MASSIVE TUBS AND WILD GRAPHICS INSPIRED CHRIS DICKER TO BUILD THIS TOUGH-AS-NAILS HQ

- BORIS VISKOVIC

CHRIS Dicker is a serial offender when it comes to getting his cars featured in Street Machine. The first was an HQ Monaro coupe (SM, Aug '07) which was silver with orange stripes; then 'Sandbarra' (SM, Nov '18), the polarising Barra-powered HZ Sandman tribute, also with orange stripes. There was also a VS ute that made the cover of Custom Utes & Vans and was - you guessed it - silver and orange, this time in a two-tone scheme.

Chris's latest creation is this HQ Kingswood, a throwback to the wild 80s pro street monsters he drooled over as a teenager. It carries on that silver/orange theme but incorporates it into 80s-inspired graphics.

It all started when Chris had a hankering to build some kind of events car - he wasn't sure what - and spotted an ad for an HQ that might fit the bill.

"It had a turn-key LS and auto, the floors were stuffed, it had a heap of parts and the guy wanted $7K, so I went for a look," Chris says. "I actually should have walked away, but I asked him what would take it home, and he replied '$4000', so I grabbed it. I'd no sooner got the car in the shop when my son's mate grabbed the LS set-up for $4000."

As luck would have it, a ladder-bar rear end came up for sale with a set of 15x15 wheels "and I had my way forward laid before me," says Chris. "I immediately thought of Howard Astill's XA, Brian Willis's HK and Bam-Bam Martin's HQ with their big rubber. It also brought back memories of my first job in the early 80s unpacking newspapers; the owner would pay me in US and occasionally Aussie car mags with the top of the cover ripped off. The cars were all pro street - big rubber with wild paint jobs and motors."