JUNKYARD DOG

LUKE KESTLE'S RATTY HT MONARO HAS BEEN GETTING PLENTY OF SMILES PER MILE STATESIDE

- MARK ARBLASTER

AS AN avid street machiner and owner of Queensland-based fabrication shop Motor Fab, Luke Kestle has always had a bunch going on. A recent highlight was getting to grudge-race his awesome 'Junkyard' 1969 HT Monaro against the famous 'Farmtruck' Chevy long-bed during the Street Outlaws: No-Prep Kings Australian tour in 2023.

But over the past year, Luke's spent a bunch of time in the United States, where he now has the HT as well as his more recent build, a stunning, twin-turbo small-block Chev-powered Torana, which he's been developing for small-tyre racing.

The Junkyard Monaro has come a long way since Luke bought it in Townsville many years ago. "I'd been regretting selling my previous Monaro, and I really wanted another one," he recalls. "An HT was on a list of cars I'd been trying to collect, and as it happened, I bought the Torana and the Monaro in the same week and stuck the Monaro in a shed for a rainy day.

"Back then, we decided to start an event called Aussie Rivals for pre-1971 cars. The first event was great, and for the second, we thought we'd do something cool like drive out west, find a car, get it going and spray it with nitrous until the conrods came out of it."