Natural-Born Killer

This 800hp Pump-fuel Small-block Hg Monaro Does It the Old-fashioned Way

- Andrew Broadley

THESE days people cringe when Troy Vugs tells them he paid just $4200 for this genuine HG GTS Monaro. But that was 21 years ago, and those were different days. In the 90s, if you were to suggest that pristine examples of these cars would one day command prices north of $300,000 at auction, you’d have been carted off in a straitjacket.

Troy was wise to secure his HG GTS before prices got out of hand, and he’s spent the ensuing two-and-a-bit decades cruising, racing and relentlessly wrenching on it. It’s been through a number of rebuilds to get to where it is today, and it’s to be admired for a number of reasons.

Firstly, it makes over 800hp and runs in the nines, while still retaining the factory-esque configuration of a naturally aspirated, pump-fuel small-block Chev, teamed with a Powerglide transmission and a leaf-sprung rear end. Think of it as being just as The General prescribed, only hopped up a little bit.

Secondly, this beautifully presented car gets driven most weekends, even though Troy lives on a corrugated, pothole riddled dirt road. Yep, he gets it filthy-dirty and risks having it peppered with stone chips every time he rolls it out of the shed, but what’s the point of having a nice car if you don’t enjoy it at every available opportunity?

Troy was just a young bloke with a tough 308-powered HQ Prem when he saw the HG’s previous owner drive it into Jefferson Ford in Mentone, Victoria, to trade it in on something newer and flashier.

“She was an elderly lady, and I tried to convince her to sell it to me, but she wouldn’t be in it,” Troy says. “The sales guy ended up taking it home to sell it, and I bought it off him.”