2118 replies to this topic

[Heath]

Thank you guys!  Means the world.

 

lol Daniel I am just relishing this one currently! I think the Street Machine cover was a pretty lofty goal for the car. I really DID want it to make cover, but there was nothing I could do to control that of course. Fortunately I was given the impression SM were keen to feature the car since Telfo came up to me at an event a few years ago and called me an "elite car builder" like half way through the build, haha. That fuelled the fire of course and it felt awesome to know that I'd made some kind of impact with what I'd been doing on my own in this dusty little workshop. It is obviously a thrill to now see they've made it an 8 page spread, the poster, the cover car... that is so awesome but I was of course just a passenger in that. Maybe it was a quiet news week for hatchback Toranas? Who knows. 

 

I also desired to have my car in the Top 60 at Summernats; but it's not like I refinished the car in the 3 months prior to influence it getting in there. I presented it as well as I reasonably could for the car that it is - a car that had already seen track time before judging, lol.

 

Obviously I have no control over a SMOTY nomination (getting cover is obviously a good first step) but we have 11 months' worth of amazing eligible feature cars to see, and I have no idea what'll be considered in flavour by the SM team and the public. You can bet your arse that if I was honoured with a nomination, I would certainly try to run a decent campaign on the use case of the car.

 

Next stop is driving it to Sydney this week. Entered it in the Show & Shine at WTAC. So hopefully it makes it both ways and back into the workshop so I can pull the donk again.

[rodomo]

And it all started here....................I'm so proud! 

 

 

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[Heath]

Wow. I look like much more of a tiprat nowadays when I work on cars than I did back then. So presentable!
 
Thanks for the foot up for this pimply faced kid Rob! I certainly needed it.
 
Well I now have 5 exhaust mount points.
Some more drilled out stainless bar stock, some stainless mudflap washers, and some small diameter stainless tube I had lying around. I made these odd looking brackets up so that I could employ some factory captive nuts on the arm mounts. 

The angled bit of tube is basically a reaction arm to push against the chassis as the weight of the exhaust would otherwise try to bend the mount, and the plane of those two fastening points isn't doing any favours for structural integrity without that reaction arm.

[YellowGTR]

Well Done Heath, I too remember your days of toiling away on BBQ-202 you have created something to be proud of. Also pretty keen on your house and garage design as well.

[LhMusL]

Amazing as always mate! So cool to get the SM cover! Well done  

[Shiney005]

And it all started here....................I'm so proud! 

Toolbox has gotten a bit bigger

[HIBERN8]

It’s been a long while since I’ve been on the forum but when I saw the street machine article/cover and the words ‘radical weight reduction’ I had a feeling I was having a little drool over the results of this particular build and had to come back here and confirm. Well done mate, absolutely top effort!

[claysummers]

Straight to the pool room...

Sent from my SM-G781B using Tapatalk

[MictheAussie]

I had my mum buy this for me to send to the US. Its an issue I needed to have.

 

Such a great car Heath. Its so good to see a cover car that isn't 1846hp with 22" wheels. You have built an awesome street/track car. I wasn't sure about the orange engine bay when you first did that, but I love how it ties the car together now with the interior and stripes.

 

Nice job Mate!!

[Adam77]

Great job Heath,it must be extremely rewarding to walk into a service station and seeing your car in the magazine rack.

[Statler]

Such a great car Heath. Its so good to see a cover car that isn't 1846hp with 22" wheels

& working windscreen wipers .

[Heath]

And the wipers have had a work-out. Well, everything on the car has, really. Just did well over 2,000km on a work + fun trip to NSW. Drove it all around Sydney for a few days and then cleaned it, went to a local kebab meet, and then WTAC when my work was complete. Friday later in the day, Mike Burrough's Ferrari had to leave the Haltech stand to get a new Quaife sequential box installed, and Haltech asked me if I could those boots for the rest of the day... gladly!

It was around this point that Larry Chen discovered the car and asked to mic me up and interview me. Speechless (I wasn't speechless in the interview, but yeah, I was chuffed just to shake his hand let alone have an extended chat on video about my car, lol)

 

More cleaning and did the show & shine on Sat:

 

And then enjoyed the last drive for a while on some great twisty roads coming back to Melbourne:

 

Well Done Heath, I too remember your days of toiling away on BBQ-202 you have created something to be proud of. Also pretty keen on your house and garage design as well.

 

Haha, yeah. The next big challenge is trying to bring that together, but like the car, it'll take a while.

 

Toolbox has gotten a bit bigger

 

lol I think back then I had a Sidchrome socket set from Cash Converters and a few loose tools, that was Rob's motor, and Rob's toolbox in the photo. When I was 21 I bought my big roller cab and have been using it every day since. 

 

It’s been a long while since I’ve been on the forum but when I saw the street machine article/cover and the words ‘radical weight reduction’ I had a feeling I was having a little drool over the results of this particular build and had to come back here and confirm. Well done mate, absolutely top effort!

 

Haha! That is awesome. Cheers.

 

I had my mum buy this for me to send to the US. Its an issue I needed to have.

 

Such a great car Heath. Its so good to see a cover car that isn't 1846hp with 22" wheels. You have built an awesome street/track car. I wasn't sure about the orange engine bay when you first did that, but I love how it ties the car together now with the interior and stripes.

 

Nice job Mate!!

 

Ahhhh, that is mint to hear! Love it.

 

Yes, the obsession with "more is more" is not what I was seeking. I'll leave that to the next guy.

 

Great job Heath,it must be extremely rewarding to walk into a service station and seeing your car in the magazine rack.

 

It is awesome!!! Seeing those promo posters on the outside of newsagent windows and stuff. So good! I am looking forward to randomly seeing the posters hanging up in various places I visit, lol.

 

[skap]

Picked up me copy today.  I expect an autograph on it at the next Toranafest !! 

 

(If i can fight my way through all the pussy lining up for titty autographs.. lol.)

[SHEEL]

Has anyone in service stations noticed your car filling up and connected it to the picture on the magazine stand? that would be a funny moment!

[SmacT]

They did a good job with the story - 500words and some breakouts isn't much room to expand, but I reckon they did a good job of summarising what this car is all about. Hope you're happy with it.

[koalasprint]

Seeing it at the servo reminds me that it's dedicated LPG. Have you had any issues finding LPG servo's? Some of the servo's here have stopped selling it. And if you run out, the jerry can solution might not work without some magical Heath engineering.

 

Cheers, Steve.

[Bigfella237]

If you buy (or make) a hose with the appropriate fittings on either end, you can use an inverted 9kg LPG bottle as a jerry can. It just takes a while to transfer because once the pressure equalises it's only gravity feeding the liquid in (and of course you have to hold it higher than the tank).

[Shiney005]

And I think the new external thread you see on 9kg bottles is the same as the automotive one???

[a9x868]

top effort Heath 

i would love to have that interior trim in my A9X 

but alas 

i can,t change it

[klevliend]

Good write up in the mag (though I can't compare to all 81 pages on this forum    ).

 

Easily my favourite thing was seeing the photos pre-stripe, camping and at the Optima Challenge, next to the current photos with stripe. Seeing the photos side by side really drove home how elite the stripe and colour combo is, absolutely nailed it, takes it to a whole new level.

[Uncle Chop Chop]

Eight pages in SM, or 81 pages here. I'll stick with this option.

 

PLUS questions are answered much quicker here!

[Shiney005]

 Seeing the photos side by side really drove home how elite the stripe and colour combo is, absolutely nailed it, takes it to a whole new level.

I thought exactly the same thing.

[Ice]

Well done Heath 2 years ago i told a mate this car would be on the front cover of Street  Machine one day 

i was right 

He went and bought the magazine just to read up on your car and loves it 

Congrats on a great build son 

[FLY_LX]

just saw fullboost vid.

sure looks like it holds the road like a champ

[to fly]

Gday All, Heath watched you on youtube last night, you have done a fantastic job with the Hatch, you spoke well and I enjoyed the bloopers at the end. Mate , im 61 now, and still playing with old cars, infact I started at 17 with a HR, so you never outgrow the passion, but im so impressed with the engineering on the old sunturd, i have a few problems with the cable clutch set up on my sons Hatch, keep busting the top off the cable, I might hit you up with a few questions, when your not out filming,lol, still got the old SS, my sons UC hatch, a mint old HR that handles like a sausage on a bbq plate,, and a tuff old bullnose Bronco, it never ends,lol