RETURN OF THE HULK

AN 80s ORIGINAL IS BACK PROWLING THE STREETS OF SYDNEY

- CRAIG PARKER

CRACK open the Aug-Sep '85 issue of Street Machine and you'll be hit by a wave of Gen-X nostalgia so strong, you'll swear you can smell the Impulse body spray. On the cover is Geoff Paton's King Rat LX hatch - our first nine-second feature car. Inside is the enginebuild story for our HQFORU giveaway car, a Plankkman comic strip, and even a couple of scantily clad models.

Included in that mix is Darryl Smith's HG Kingswood, which he called DS-497, a Malachite Green stunner that boasted 80s street machine cred up the wazoo. We're talking wide 12-slot rims and fat BF Goodrich rubber tucked behind pumped guards, just for starters. There was a shaker scoop through the bonnet, a Premier front end and leather trim for a touch of a class. She was tough too, powered by a grumpy, high-comp smallblock, backed by a Muncie four-speed. Tough enough for 9.50s over the old Oran Park short track, in fact.

Dubbed the Green Hulk, the HG scored plenty of trophies during its show career and a heap of ink, too. Besides the SM yarn, it also got a spread in Street Heat, more than a few newspaper articles and was the main feature of an exposé on the street machine scene in the April 1987 issue of Penthouse.

Darryl was the president of the HK-HT-HG Street & Custom Car Club, and a highly active one at that, staging a series of successful Holden vs Ford-themed shows in Sydney's west.