SWAP & GO

MOST car people will have at least one photo somewhere of themselves and/or their mates smiling next to a dangling engine. I'm not sure where it started or why, but it's a decades-old tradition that's extremely cool, if a little odd.

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So here's a few engine-swap pics and old-school build shots to warm your nostalgic hearts. Personally, they make me long for a pair of inexplicably filthy overalls and simpler times.

01: NORMAN G Booth Holden was a dealership in Dee Why, Sydney back in the day, and the longhaired lout wielding the spray gun was pioneer Aussie panel vanner John Schouten. "I worked in the panel shop at Booth's in the early 1970s, and decided on a quick lunchtime detail of black wheels for my FB van," John explains. "My mate Tony was there for moral support and to cast his eyes over the FB's hot grey motor running twin Strommies and extractors. Custom was king back then, so I fitted an upside-down LJ grille and LJ indicators to the van, along with HQ Statesman tail-lights. The battery triangle on the front guard wasn't just for show; I was in the North Shore Sporting Car Club and used to sprint the FB around the dirt short circuit at Amaroo Park Raceway. It did very well, too, which surprised a few people!"

02: TWO pioneering street machines in one photo is enough to get many a wrinkle unfolding, but especially so when both are early 1980s home builds sunning their tunnel rams. Perched on David Dann's driveway is his legendary red-with-graphics PRO65 Pontiac Tempest, rubbing shoulders with Andrew Holdsworth's iconic Windsor-powered XR Falcon (Legend, SM, Feb '20) prior to its yellow-with-graphics incarnation. "That's Keith Sutton checking out the engine bay in my car, with Andrew leaning against his Falcon and his cousin, Spud, in between," David says. "They were such great times when we just lived and breathed our cars."