The title of “Australia’s quickest street car” is often a disputed one. Some people believe the car should be regularly used as a street car, while others are happy to see cars come off a trailer and bomb a single pass.
But in our opinion there is no greater test of street car cred than Street Machine’s Drag Challenge, a five day event based on Hot Rod Drag Week. Over 200 teams started at Calder Park and then drove to Swan Hill, Mildua, Swan Hill once more and back to Calder Park, accumulating over 1300 road kilometres.
This year’s edition was the biggest yet and saw the most impressives times of any Street Machine Drag Challenge so far.
Taking the overall win as well as the Radial Blown victory was Frank Marchese’s Ford XW Fairmont. The twin turbocharged Dandy Engines 427ci Ford Windsor-powered sedan ran a new quickest time yet for the event, a 7.36 at 192mph at Swan Hill, which delivered cool conditions very suitable for quick times on day four.
Harry Haig finished second in his Holden HQ, another twin turbocharged rig. The big block Chev survived the week and his pass of 7.50 seconds on day two became the quickest Drag Challenge pass in history, until Marchese’s run later in the week.
One of the most impressive cars of the week was Lorenzo Gullotto’s Holden Commodore, equipped with a twin turbo LS motor. Gullotto ran the quickest time of the Mildura stage, hitting a 4.97 – the only car in the fours at the eighth mile venue.
Stops for the week were varied, from old train stations, to massive salt lakes – all showing off the edge of the Australian outback. Thankfully conditions remained relatively cool for the week.
Check out more pics in the gallery below. Full results from the event are available here: https://www.whichcar.com.au/events/drag-challenge/drag-challenge-2018-day-five-results
