With five sleeps before the curtain rises on Summernats 27, Banks' Stephen Booth will be burning the midnight oil to ensure his classic 1967 HR Premier street machine is in peak form for the event.
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The 47-year-old former panel beater turned engineering company executive has been going to Summernats since before it became Summernats in 1988. He has owned the car for longer than he has been with his wife.
''But that's all good; she's very supportive,'' he said.
Summernats and modified cars are in the family's blood with Mr Booth's 21-year-old son currently slaving away to prepare an HR ute for Summernats 28 in 2015.
''We're a Holden family,'' he said. ''My daily drive is a Commodore SV6, my wife has a Barina, my daughter drives an Astra and my son's other car is a HSV Statesman Grange.''
Like most Holden fans he is gutted the company has pulled the pin on its Australian manufacturing operation in the same year Ford had announced it is stopping Australian production and predicts Toyota will be the last bottle to fall.
''I'm not impressed,'' he said. ''But you could see it coming. You [General Motors] don't build a manufacturing plant in China overnight. That takes about 10 years.''
He takes issue with the politicians who say it is ''only 8000 jobs''. ''They don't talk about the 25,000 related jobs that will go as part of the flow-on effect.''
The loss of the Fishermans Bend plant will not lead to an end of Holden's presence at Summernats.
For Mr Booth, and thousands of others, the marque is synonymous with a uniquely Australian style of motoring that is deeply embedded in social and family histories.
''Why do I like the HR? I was born in 1967, the year my car was made,'' he said.
''The shape has always appealed to me; it was one of the last models with a lot of chrome inside and out and the styling was similar to that of the Chevy Nova [a US compact] in America and Vauxhalls and Opels in Europe.'' The car, a Premier with a heavily worked 186S engine that now puts out close on double its original horsepower, has been sympathetically modified to retain the spirit of the 1967 vehicle but in a much more hairy-chested form.
''I've tried to keep the look as original as possible,'' he said. ''The paint is the original colour and is called silver mink metallic [a champagne-like tint midway between gold and silver].
''The interior has been retrimmed using a faux leather that was made for sports versions of the Ford Territory. A car trimmer friend of mine had bought a roll to do a repair and there was enough left over for my car. It is red and really suits the car.''
While the under-bonnet view would be familiar to anyone who has driven a pre-1986 six-cylinder Holden, it is light years ahead of the 1967 equipment.
''The 186 was bored out to 192 and then stroked to 235 cubic inch which makes it a big six [by Holden standards].
''The original two-barrel Stromberg has been replaced by triple one and three-quarter inch SUs. With the billet crankshaft it is good for about 250 horsepower.''
SUMMERNATS CAR FESTIVAL
January 2 to January 5, Exhibition Park In Canberra (EPIC)
summernats.com.au
