THE LONG RUN

THE GEMINI THAT ROCKED SUMMERNATS 2 IS STILL WINNING TROPHIES TODAY!

- SIMON TELFORD

IN JANUARY 1989, a young Holden mechanic by the name of Todd D’elboux drove a Holden Gemini from Tamworth to Canberra for his second tilt at the Street Machine Summernats. After rubbing shoulders with such legendary cars as Rob Beauchamp’s Calais, Howard Astill’s Rock Solid and Ivan Hans’s Mr Hyde, Todd drove home with trophies for Top Sedan and Top Custom Paint in the Gemini’s boot.

“It was a bit of a shock when they called my name out at the trophy presentation,” Todd recalls. “The real surprise was the cheques for $300 and $500 as well. I almost fell over!”

Fours and rotors are pretty well accepted in Canberra these days – and have even won the Grand Champion sword a time or three – but it was a different story in 1989. “We went in the Supercruise and got bagged all the way,” Todd told SM for the Gemini’s feature story in the June 1989 issue.

Todd wasn’t bothered; he just liked doing things his own way. The TE Gemini dubbed Gizmo was his first car, and was his daily driver until he joined the Tamworth Street Machine Club and started to tinker. “I didn’t have a goal at the start,” he says. “Everyone else in town was playing with V8s. I just wanted a fancy paint job and to enter a few shows.”

Todd got the paintjob of his dreams, with local painter Alan Wright laying it down to Todd’s design. “There was no spray booth; we did the whole thing in my parents’ garage, wetting the floor down,” he says.