TIME TO Shine

MICHELLE WHITE’S SUMMERNATS TOP 60 BLOWN HZ IS THE GLEAMING END RESULT OF A 40-YEAR AUTOMOTIVE ODYSSEY

-  IAIN KELLY 

PROJECT cars scar your hands, cause sleepless nights, push your patience and stress-test your bank account like little else in life. But they can also bring amazing, like-minded people together, and the satisfaction of overcoming a difficult automotive problem is a hit of dopamine you can’t buy in a back alley.

Cars have been a life-long passion for Sydney’s Michelle White, culminating in the five-year build of her beloved HZ Holden. Unveiled at Summernats 34, Michelle’s blown, Elite-level streeter is a car she has envisioned since her formative years.

“I’ve been into cars since I was about 14 years old,” Michelle says. “There was a guy down the end of my street with an EJ wagon. He’d be out the front every Saturday working on it or washing it. His parents were friends with my grandparents, so we hung out a lot.”

Michelle found early love with a tough 350 Chev-powered HQ Statesman, and while that toughie met its end in the hands of an ex-boyfriend, it lit a fire in her for the big-boned H-series Holdens.

“Holdens were the cars I liked from a young age,” she says. “When I got divorced, I decided it was time to get another HQ Statesman, but a friend of mine told me about this HZ at Punchbowl Auto Wreckers. It had a 253 and Trimatic, the original brown interior and gold paint. As time went on, I did things to it like putting in a 308 after I blew up the 253 racing it at Eastern Creek.”