Street Machine Magazine October 2026

Street Machine October 2026 issue on sale now!

The October 2026 issue of Street Machine launches straight off the startline with
Stephen Micallef’s LJ Torana filling the cover with 632ci of big-block Chevy grunt.
This freshly built beast is looking to set some records at Drag Challenge 2026, with
over 1000hp naturally aspirated. You can learn all about it before the big event,
which is coming up in late October – spectator tickets available soon!
For the Blue Oval fans, we’ve got Tony Marakis’s glowing green XY GT, which is
punching out over 700hp. This Falcon is packing the best that modern technology
has to offer up front with an EFI 417ci Clevo, but it’s backed by an old-school Top
Loader four-speed and integrated with the classic look of Australia’s most iconic
muscle sedan. It also features on this issue’s poster, with the Melbourne skyline in
the background.
Kian heads all the way up to Far North Queensland for the 10th edition of Northern
Nats – three days of mayhem and madness amongst the special breed of car nuts
that inhabit Australia’s warmer latitudes. There was drag racing and show cars
galore, but with $35,000 in prize money and a Summernats Wildcard ticket on the
line, the burnouts were next level, as entrants went for broke for a taste of the spoils.
We bring you all the action and the results.
If burnouts or crazy quarter-mile demons aren’t your thing, we’ve also got Jim
McLaren’s beautifully built HQ Monaro, which won Red CentreNATS Champion last
year. It’s got the looks and the mumbo to take the fight to the best show cars in the
country and win – and just wait until you get a look at that colour-shifting paint.
For the Mopar faithful, we’ve got Matt Dietrich’s VF Valiant hardtop that’s packing 6.4
litres of modern Hemi horsepower. With extra-meaty rear rubber and a ground-
hugging stance, this mighty Mopar is looking to take on Drag Challenge for the very
first time, and we can’t wait to see how it goes.
Then we head over the ditch to the Land of the Long White Burnout Cloud, to see
how the Kiwis do it at this year’s Chrome Horsepower Festival. The event is centred
around Hampton Downs Motorsport Park on New Zealand’s North Island,
conveniently located right next to a drag strip, which means they have drifting,
burnouts, drag racing and a whole lot more, and we’ve got 10 pages of all the action.
Brian Galea’s Mustang is sure to tempt show-car fans, muscle car fans, Ford fans, or
just anyone who loves cool cars with V8 engines. Abandoned in a Californian barn,

the car was shipped to Australia so Brian could undertake a rebuild that defies belief;
it’s an immaculate build that is equally at home in the Summernats Elite Hall or your
local cars-and-coffee.
We’ve also got something for those who like their rides powered by triangles – and
we certainly don’t mean that in a negative way. Jared Romeo’s 1969 RT40 Corona
has been built with modern attention to detail but using some decidedly old-school
methods. For example, the Mazda 13B rotary has been boosted with the help of a
draw-through turbo set-up using a Weber and a T04 hairdryer. If you want to know
more, you’ll have to grab a copy of the mag and check it out – it’s definitely worth a
look.
Our Young Gun this month is Joel Sammut with his cool 6.0-litre LS-powered UC
Torana. At just 21 years of age, Joel might be young, but his dad David has been
around the scene for a couple of decades, once again proving that building cool cars
often runs in the family. Who knew that a UC Torana could look so good?
And that’s just scratching the surface of what we’ve packed into the October issue.
There’s also an in-depth look at the ins and outs of forged pistons; the return of
Darryl McBeth’s SMOTY-winning humpy; Dan Case’s small-block Chev-powered
Drag Challenge Torana; Arby chatting to John Vesnaver about his impressive seven-
second HR ute; and Brad Jenkins’ killer ProCharged Clevo in Mill Of The Month. Not
to mention the latest hot-car news and amazing stories from across the globe.
It’s all in the October issue of Street Machine, so head down to Coles, Woolies or
your local newsagent and grab a copy now!