Seeing Double
You could be mistaken for thinking there is a mirror between these 2 cars. To the untrained eye they are almost identical. Both black. Both 1971 HQ 2 door Monaros. Both tough as nails. But there are some subtle differences. TUF 454 belongs to Les Kerlin from Fat Pipes. It is an original GTS 2 door. However, as the plates suggest, it has had a slight upgrade in the engine bay to a 454 chev that has been boosted to 500 cubes. As for Mark Booth’s SUSPCT, it is an original LS 2 door, with the original donk replaced with a 383 stroker.
Now for a couple of works of art like these classics, we were going to need a girl who is all class as well. Enter Melissa. Melissa is a girl from the bayside and is brought to us by Promo Angels.
Let’s start with the engines. As I said, Les is packing a 500 cuber. It has a Scat crank and rods, 4 bolt mains, SRP pistons and Edelbrock Victor Series heads, which have been o-ringed. The valves get opened via a Chet Herbert full solid roller cam and Race Series Yella Yerra rollers. The fuel comes in through a Holley Black fuel pump to a 950 Barry Grant Mighty Demon and an Edelbrock Airgap manifold. This thing has been good enough to pump a very impressive 462 horsepower out at the back wheels on the dyno, and a very impressive 917 footpounds of torque at 86 km/h. Yep 917. As for Mark, he is packin a 383 Stroker Chev High nickel 4-bolt 010 350 block with 11.5:1 Compression, High Flowed Heads, High Energy Sump, Eldelbrock High Flow Polished Water Pump, Double Row rollmaster Timing kit, Romac Balancer, crane gold roller rockers, Moroso Polished Alloy Rocker Covers, double valve springs, beam polished & shot peened rods, HPC Chrome Coated Victor Jr Manifold, 830dp Holley, 11″ K&N Filter, MSD 6AL Igntion, Mallory Distributor and an MSD Blaster 3 Ignition Coil. WOW - What a mouthful.
Both cars run Turbo 400 gearboxes and 9″ diffs. Mark runs a 3.55 LSD and Les a Tru-Trak 3.55. Both run 31 spline axles. Shifters are a B & M Pro Magnum for Les and a Pro Ratchet for Mark.
Only Les has been to the racetrack so far, managing a very impressive 10.82 @ 125 mph in full street trim, although Mark is very keen and don’t be surprised to see him out at Willowbank in the not too distant future.
Les owned TUF454 for 7 years before she ever saw a road. It was red when he bought it. It was unleashed for the first time at Powercruise 5. Now Les has always been a good law abiding citizen, unlike his wife Lisa. Les has never got a ticket in the big HQ, but Lisa has been caught with a slightly heavy right foot a few times. She has been known to leave a bit of rubber in her wake.
Mark’s car has some history too. He put out a $500 reward for anyone who could find him a HQ Monaro. After looking far and wide, he found one. 3 doors from home. An elderly lady who’s husband had passed away had it sitting in the shed doing nothing. Mark got stuck right in and built the car to it’s current state in only 5 months. Mark still stops by to show her the progress on the old girl occasionally.
There are a few people that these guys would like to thank for the input into the cars. I will start with Les: All the boys at Fat Pipes, Scott from Strathpine Smash Repairs, Young Mal and his wife Lisa and his boys Mitch and Zac. A special mention goes out to Chris Hollingworth. For Mark, he just wanted to thank Les and the guys at Fat Pipes and Aaron from Caboolture Automotive. He would also like to thank his girlfriend Chloe and her brother Todd.
One thing I know from years in the car scene. You go a long way to find a genuine Monaro of the quality of either of these cars. From a photographer’s point of view, it was a rarity and a pleasure to get the opportunity to cover 2 of them at once. Thanks guys.
