It’s that time of the month again, or should we say, the best day of the month as the latest issue is in store today!

Gracing the cover is one of the coolest Mopars in the land – the freshly built mega power Dodge Super Bee of Andrew Storey.

Other feature cars include an in-depth look at the Shapes Roadies Top Doorslammer, a wild VL Walkinshaw replica, and a tough 1947 Chev.

On the event front, there’s the ITM400 from Pukekohe, the annual Nostalgia Drags, the final round of Central Muscle Cars and all the action from the Leadfoot Festival.

Our favourite article is the in-depth look at Mickey Thompson – the man behind the name. Of course, there’s plenty more than the above in there, so grab a copy today and check it out. If you’re too lazy to head to the shops, hit the ‘Shop’ button at the top of this page, and get a copy delivered to your door.

Well-known funny car racer Morice McMilin will be out in a new vehicle this season, the Ex Mark Thomas Ford Customline Top Doorslammer. The deal came about through a bit of friendly banter (as you can find out more about in Morice’s new monthly column in our next issue) but is set to see one of the most competitive drivers in a highly competitive vehicle. While the change from funny car to doorslammer will no doubt be an interesting one, Morice is looking forward to the challenge. Existing funny car sponsor Shapes Roadies, will be on board with the vehicle for the season also. We wish him all the best for the change, and you’ll be able to keep an eye on his progress and see what it takes to run at a top level through his column.

A press release from The Shapes Roadies Team is below.

Major Changes For The Shapes Roadies Drag Racing Team

After a successful 2011-2012 season; winning the New Zealand Top Alcohol championship in the Shapes Roadies Funny Car, Drag Racer Morice McMillin will return to the track for the 2013 season once again in the Arnott’s Shapes Roadies livery.

The big difference is that the team will not be out to defend their New Zealand Championship Title they earned last season. Instead, the team from Hamilton will be joining the crowd favorite; Top Doorslammer division. The big goal for Morice is to become the first person to win a championship in both classes.

“To be the first person to win both Championships would be amazing” says McMillin of the goal. “There will be some tough competition out there so we know we have our work cut out for us.”

To achieve the goal, Morice and his young crew have teamed up with John Neilan Racing to campaign a 1956 Ford Customline powered by a 3000 horsepower Hemi V8 engine. With this package, the team will be looking for mid 6-second quarter-mile times at speeds of over 350kmh. The Customline had previously competed under the John Nielan Racing banner with Mark Thomas at the helm, who will now move into the role of Crew Chief for the team.

Of the partnership, Debbie McGowan from Arnott’s says “The Shapes Roadies Team at Arnott’s are really proud to be associated with Morice and his team after a really successful 2012 season, and are looking forward to another successful partnership in the new Roadies Doorslammer. We wish Morice all the best for the season ahead.”

Morice is naturally very excited about the season ahead, saying “I am very happy to be driving the Roadies Doorslammer for the 2013 season; to sign with Roadies for another season was huge for our team and we can’t thank Roadies enough for their support. I have always had a love of Doorslammers, so to drive a car of this quality and work with John, Mark and the entire Neilan Racing team will be a real pleasure and a great learning experience.”

The Roadies Doorslammer Team is aiming to debut at the Nostalgia Nitro Reunion in Taupo on December 29, followed by the first round of the 2012 New Zealand Dragracing Championships on January 2-3, also in Taupo.

The team will have plenty of Roadies samples and team posters to give away, so drop in and say “Hi” to the team at an event near you.
The Roadies Doorslammer team is proudly supported by Arnott’s Shapes Roadies, Digga NZ, Nostalgia Motors, Jonesy’s Garage, Haas Machinery, Century Batteries, iSign It and Pixelsaurus.

Check out the teams Roadies-Racing FaceBook page for more info.

Built with five-second aspirations and plenty of patience, Parry Hunt’s Camaro is the latest doorslammer to hit the Kiwi scene.

There’s this cheesy ad on the idiot box, in which two old codgers go on about doing not much of anything, and the hook or catchphrase is that good things take time. They do, and no one understands the concept better than drag racers.

Time is the essence of drag racing. Which is probably the most obvious and simplistic statement ever, but also the truest.

Measuring how quickly the vehicle covers the first 60 feet, then the next 600, then everything in between and after that determines how well the chassis, clutch or converter and engine are working together, and if any changes the crew have made were a small step forward or a giant leap backward. Even that mph figure at the bottom of your time slip is a calculation on how little time your drag strip missile or fun-time rollercoaster took to travel the last 66 feet before the finish line.

But the 14 or 11 or even six seconds you spent riding down that ribbon of asphalt are infinitesimally tiny compared to the hours, days, weeks, months and years put into every other moment of your drag racing hobby/obsession.

Everything takes time, whether it be the time put into the building, working on or repairing your wicked ride, or the secondary job you have to help fund it, or even just waiting to obtain the best bits you can, when you can afford them. (more…)

Carl Wilson shows us how to handle a 650kg, 900hp sprint car at Western Springs, Mopars at Meremere tear up the strip with some American muscle, and we check out this season’s new cars at the test and tune day at Meremere, including Parry Hunt’s new doorslammer. Other drivers include Tony Massey and his 1971 Escort Mk1, Anthony Marsh’s rail, Todd Vincent’s Top alcohol machine and Ross Taylor’s doorslammer.

Carl Wilson shows us how to handle a 650kg, 900hp sprint car at Western Springs, Mopars at Meremere tear up the strip with some American muscle, and we check out this season’s new cars at the test and tune day at Meremere, including Parry Hunt’s new doorslammer. Other drivers include Tony Massey and his 1971 Escort Mk1, Anthony Marsh’s rail, Todd Vincent’s Top alcohol machine and Ross Taylor’s doorslammer.

Chris Tynan was happy with the Century Batteries 55 Chev’s debut in the first round of the new ANDRA PRO Series at Willowbank Raceway but now the team are looking to better their 6.20 performance and edge closer to the 6.0 ET’s needed to qualify in the tough Doorslammer field.

Not qualifying was a likely event at the cars debut given that the team needed track time to accumulate data. Chris still rated the event as the best way to start racing in such a competitive bracket, noting that the car still has only five full passes in Australia!

“I need to find a tenth and a half in elapsed time,” said Chris. The daunting prospect of qualifying for the Fuchs Australian Nationals is in front of the team, and that means the team has to find performance from a rootes blown sedan that only Sean Mifsud and Grant O’Rourke have demonstrated in Australia.

Servicing of the race car between meetings has shown no real danger areas for the team, and although there is still some work to do, Chris is confident that the team will put on a fantastic show at the Fuchs Australian Nationals.

“Again, I must mention the support of Victor and Ben Bray and the entire Castrol Edge team for their support with this operation and the support of Century Batteries NZ,” Chris said.

With a huge contingent of kiwi fans living in the Sydney area, there is no doubt everyone will know when the NZ built ’55 Chev rolls out onto the racetrack.

Chris Tynan the undisputed king of New Zealand Doorslammer Racing has unveiled a complete new car, just one day before the start of the 2008/09 NZDRA drag racing series.

Like his old car, the new car is based on a ’55 Chev. Apart from the fact the old car was a street car that had evolved over the last 30-years, the new car is 150lbs lighter and has 4-square foot less frontal area than the old one. Chris’s son Robert was responsible for building the new chassis and the majority of the build, while Brett from Future Performance along with Chris tended to the swoopy new body. The engine from the old car has been rebuilt and fitted with a new injector hat, and the old 4-speed gearbox has also been used.

The car’s first public outing will be tomorrow at the Prestone Northern Drag Nationals at Fram Autolite Dragway Meremere.

Check out the exclusive full feature on the car in the next issue of NZV8.

It was a cold, wet night. Hell, they all had been for weeks. But the voice on the other end of the phone was insistent, and if I was gonna make the rent on my run-down office this month, I guess I was taking this case, whether it was a shitty day or not. That’s the way we impoverished private investigators make a living ” by listening to voices on telephones and doing what they ask. Truth was, things had been more than a little slow lately and if I wanted to keep Sam Spayed (no, not Spade), Private Eye across the opaque glass at the top of my door, I needed to start listening to whatever this voice wanted. “There’s this guy who used to run with the Top Alcohol mob on the other side of the pits. Seems he’s gone and got himself a Studebaker Top Doorslammer and he’s making plenty of waves over there. I want you to check him out and see how he’s doing it. Don’t leave any stone unturned. His name’s Yearbury, Wayne Yearbury.” Then the caller hung up.

With around 3000 horsepower and plenty of Funny Car influences on its build, we needed to find out more — and hired a super sleuth to dig out the full details on Wayne Yearbury’s six-second Studebaker Doorslammer.

Something in my mind had clicked when the voice said Yearbury¦ wasn’t he racing an Alcohol dragster back when I was in short pants and pretending I still believed in Santy Claus? Time to check out some old hot rod mags and see who this guy hung out with ” after all, chances were he’d had some help in throwing this weapon together, and some of those associates might not be as close-mouthed as they should be, maybe they’d let something slip that they shouldn’t. I could only hope. (more…)