“Every month we ask the NZV8 cover car owner for the concept that they’d most like to build, or see built.”

If I could build any car, it’d be a tubbed and blown burnout machine,” NZV8 Issue No. 131's cover car owner Ricky Ireland tells us — and his choice comes as no surprise. 

“My all-time favourite car is Steven Loader’s ‘UCSMOKE’, which is a ’69 Holden HT Premier, but I’d go for a ’73 Holden Monaro coupe. 

“I’d love it to have a 540ci Powerhouse-built big block, with a 10-71 blower and Enderle Big & Ugly injector hat, and electronic fuel injection. I’d probably stick with E85 for fuel, and run it around 12psi — that should be a safe level of boost — and still crack 1000hp. Why I really want one is to be able to put that ‘Powerhouse Engines’ sticker on my windscreen! 

“Transmission would probably be a Chuck Mann–built TH400, although I’d love to have a manual transmission behind it. I’m not sure exactly what would hold up behind a 1000hp blown big block, but one of those Liberty five-speeds would be really fun — doing a burnout in an auto does get a little boring once you’re into third gear.

“Although I love the blacked-out look, I’m torn between whether I’d black out all the chrome or keep it polished. I’d probably choose to keep all the brightwork shiny — it would stand out a bit more, and that’s what you want with a burnout car. 

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“That ‘MRBADQ’ HQ is a seriously cool car, and I’d go for a similar sort of finish — an orange that’s a little lighter with really heavy metal flakes in it. 

“The rear end would be tubbed so I could fit 18x12-inch rims under there, with 18x8s up the front. I’d have to go for the Simmons FRs, with a polished centre — I’d love black centres, but they’d possibly look a little lost, and the polished centres would match the motor.

“A roll cage wouldn’t really be necessary, but I think [that] it could be cool to have one, as it would mean I could take the car down the drag strip if I wanted, without getting kicked off. However, I’ve done a bit of drag racing in my time, and I enjoy the burnouts more than the actual racing, so it would be mainly used for burnouts. 

“That would be my dream car, but hopefully we’ll actually be placing an order for a Powerhouse engine at the end of the year to put into the ute …”

Watch this space!

This article was originally published in NZV8 Issue No. 131. You can pick up a print copy or a digital copy of the magazine below: