MIND THE GAP

THIS PARTICULAR OLD GREY MARE IS AN AWFUL LOT MORE THAN SHE USED TO BE

- STORY TAS MCMILLAN

THE untimely passing of Harry Haig last year had a profound effect on many people in the drag-and-drive community, not least of all his friends and family. Paul Douglas, who'd known Harry for years and joined him on two of his Street Machine Drag Challenge escapades, realised that it was no good having a half-finished race car cluttering up his shed, and got stuck back into it. The result is this beastly Cortina that should carry Paul well into the seven-second zone.

The little TD has been in Paul's possession since 2010, when he chucked a cheeky $400 bid on an eBay auction and woke up later to find he'd won. “It was a shitbox four-cylinder car from Melbourne,” says the New South Welshman. “I did all the panelwork and painted it a really nice silver. I used to run it at Heathcote with a nitrous 380-cube four-bolt Clevo. It eventually ran an 8.9@150mph, but it developed a bit of an oil leak, and when I pulled it apart it was cracked through the webbing.”