With AutoSpeed's feature cars we've always tried to cover a range of exciting road machinery. Rather than locking ourselves into a dated 'eights are best' or 'turbos kick arse' mentality, we've set criteria much more along the lines of - does it look good and go relatively hard? If the answer's yes, then we're interested. And of course, our interest is doubled if the car also has the mix of safety, NVH, cleanliness and comfort that something built in the last 10 or 15 years - rather than the preceding fifty - already has.
Scarlet Scud
An engine swap that many talk about but few do, the RB25DET-into-VL made for a delightful package. Throw in an engine dyno-proved power of 290kW from its big turbo and Autronic management, and you have excellent grunt without it becoming OTT. The effective suspension mods and tuff AP front brakes resulted in a complete package that you could only admire.
Full story: "Scarlet Scud".
NSX in Excess
While the Japanese supercar has always had the looks and handling to rival Euro exotica, it's less than scintillating straightline performance has been a source of concern. But add a couple of intercooled ball bearing turbos, and the 3.2 litre V6 suddenly develops real muscle. How much? - an estimated 410kW! Much to our regret we didn't have the opportunity to ride in this beast before it departed our shores forever.
Full story: "NSX in Excess".
Li'l Red Wagon
There are Rexes and there are Rexes... this one from Melbourne's AVO worked hard at the dragstrip, on the track, on the dirt - and on the road. The ex-Group N rally car had notably different driveline characteristics to locally-delivered cars and the engine was subjected to no less than 28 psi of boost! With around 260kW available - complete with anti-lag - this is one Rex that was no tame dog.
Full story: "Li'l Red Wagon".
Bad BDA
The aspect that really got us about this little car was its engine. Almost antique from an engineering perspective, the 1800cc DOHC (but only eight valve) dual Weber-fed four revved its heart to astonishing rpm to develop 164kW. Against much more exotic machinery, the Escort also performed outstandingly well in bitumen rallying, too. Unfortunately, a year or so after our shoot, the car did some rather hefty end-over-end and barrel rolls while competing in another event...
Full story: "Bad BDA".
Time Warp Torrie
If someone had said that we were gonna get excited by an LC Torana, painted green and wearing Momo alloys, we'd have said that they were crazy. But the combo came together in a mix of retro-but-now styling cues, helped along by the underbonnet grunt of the injected 5-litre bent eight. A low thirteen across the quarter with wheelspin three-quarters of the track also showed that it was more than just a pretty face.
Full story: "Time Warp Torrie".
Try It On
The simultaneous exultation and the frustration of building a marvellous car with a fundamental weak link - that's the story of this Laser 4WD Turbo. One of the relatively rare late-model small cars completely stripped, painted and rebuilt during its modification, the car looked awesome and with a torquey 200kW should have been a dream to drive. If only the gearbox didn't keep breaking... Turn up the boost, use the power - and the 'box was gone. 'Bout that quickly, too...
Full story: "Try It On".
The Italian Connection
We know that we're s'pposed to be concentrating on road cars, but Vince Rigoli's drag racing Datsun 1200 ute has a fascination for us. Powered by a twin cam Fiat/Lancia engine wearing a monstrous turbo, the car - which is still taken on street cruises - is blisteringly quick down the quarter mile. When we featured it, the dragstrip times were in the mid-nines; it's even quicker now. And Vince and his crew are amongst the nicest guys and gals around - a welcome change from the some of the wankers pedalling the fast cars.
Full story: "The Italian Connection".
Scorpion Sting
A great example of a retro approach, this strongly turbocharged Mitsubishi Scorpion was modified with techniques seldom followed by others. The 2.6 litre four featured an intercooled T04 - and about 230kW at the flywheel. With a great wheel/tyre package, sensible interior and exterior detailing and strong performance, it was a sweet package. What never really grabbed us was the locked diff - a deciding factor, it turns out, in a mate understeering the car into a gutter not long after our shoot.
Full story: "Scorpion Sting".
Speed Freak
The photography was poor, the story high on enthusiasm and low in facts (and containing some wrong information provided by the workshop, as it turned out). But this car's one of our favourites - and is the all-time most popular AutoSpeed feature car to boot. Totally impracticable on the road with monstrous lag from its extreme turbo, all was forgiven when the 470kW started to make their incredibly impressive presence felt!
Full story: "Speed Freak".
Reincarnated Racer
One of the best V8s we've run, the effective Walkinshaw aero kit looks positively foreboding in midnight black. Throw in some really extreme brakes for a road car, add to the mix over 320kW at the engine, and stir in a great sound system and exemplary detailing. The result is one helluva desirable car. We were disappointed with the ride we went on - the owner just tickled it when we were waiting for an awesome wail - but we sure weren't disappointed with the car itself.
Full story: "Reincarnated Racer".
Cielo Ensemble
Turbocharged, intercooled, wheeled and tyred, this modest Daewoo struck us as a great example of what's been happening for over a century - someone decides that they love a car and then goes to town on it. But not totally overboard, not losing sight of the fact that it's not a Porsche-beater or an exotic car. Sensible modifications, giving a great cost-effective package.
Full story: "Cielo Ensemble".
Speed Racer
We gotta tell you that Minis don't do much for us - look through all of AutoSpeed's feature cars and you'll find this is the sole example. But what an example it is! From its six-pot front brake callipers to its chopped roofline and programmable management DOHC head engine, this car reeked big dollar spends on exotica. In fact it's prob one of the most expensive cars we've ever featured - certainly on a dollars per kilogram basis, anyway!
Full story: "Speed Racer".
Thunder Clouds
There are plenty of fast VL Turbos around, but none quite like this - apart from maybe its gold brother than we also featured. JPC in Melbourne has the ability to turn out stupendous turbo machinery, and this car's just that. With over 400kW at the flywheel - from just 3 litres of swept capacity - this car had performance to burn. Like a strip time of 10.5 seconds - incredibly impressive from a luxo genuine street car...
Full Story: "Thunder Clouds".
Speed Smuggler
Modified Falcons are a dying race in Australia these days. Perhaps Tickford will turn that round over time, but the lack of a Ford HSV for so many important years is now really counting against modified blue ovals. So to find this 12-second grunting V8 (once a) EA Falcon had us pretty pleased. And the story of how the Australian gymnastics team had brought most of the engine back from the US as hand luggage was even better!
Full Story: "Speed Smuggler".
White Heat
Halfway through the photo shoot the owner of this Lancer GSR apologised because the paint around the bumper wasn't pristine. "I take the bumper on and off a lot," he said, "it's a real car." We knew what he meant - so many really good cars are only driven carefully on and off trailers at shows. But this Mitsi powers down the track, frightens (literally!) babes in arms, and is, for want of a better term - a 'real' car indeed. We loved it from its tasty 17's, through to the 370kW performance good for mid-elevens at the quarter mile track.
Full Story: "White Heat".
A Perfect 10
Finding the fastest WRX anywhere was a thrill; being given full technical freedom to photograph whatever we liked - and have all questions answered - was even better. A huge turbo, stroker crank, good intercooling, a heap of boost and a very strong gearbox - just some of the ingredients in allows this Rex to punch out mid 10-second quarter miles.
Full story: "A Perfect 10".
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