Winning “Best Engineered” vehicle at this year’s Winternationals was no easy feat for Queenslander David Morris. Taking a look into Dave’s project will give you some idea as to the passion that has gone into building his tough Calibra.
Morris became hooked on the adrenalin that drag racing provides about five years ago by making the decision that the car he was driving on the street was going to give him grief if he continued to develop it in the manner he desired.
“I had a WRX street car that I managed to get 450 HP from and wanted more,” Morris said
“I thought better to get off the street before I killed myself or someone else so I sold it and built a Datsun 1200 ute BLOWDAT.”
“The ute ran an SR20 on NOS and we got her to run 9.56 @139 and needless to say I got hooked.” he said.
Morris wanted to push the horsepower addiction a little further and decided to build a new car that would provide him the ultimate thrill.
“I looked up most aerodynamic car on the computer and the Calibra came up.” He said.
The car was built by Gavin Hanson of Wizard Fabrication and Race Products. Under the hood it contains a 582 cube BBC that dyno’s 1000HP. The engine was built by Tony Whyatt of Pine Mtn Performance located just near Ipswich.
“I started building the car at the end of 2010 and it took more than 2 years to get it to its current spec.”
“It’s only done 20 passes and I have achieved a best of 8.17/167mph.” he said.
The 8.17 sat Morris in 8th position at the prestigious Winternationals and gave the team a big reward for all the hard yards they had put in.
When asked if this was the end of the development process Morris pondered the question.
“For the future I want to keep it as a hobby and have fun. I will wack a blower on it later though.” he smiled.
“I see many people getting too serious and then there is no fun in it. I enjoy going out the track, Willowbank or Warwick and having a couple of skids and bringing the car home in one piece.”
The reward for all the time and effort put into the car came when the Calibra was judged best engineered care at the 2013 Winternationals.
“It was awesome to win Best Engineered car. I couldn’t do it without everyone that helped out. Gavin,Blaze,Wayne,Tony,Neil,Grant,Craig,Zac,Zoran,Tony,Cameron, you guys Rock.”
