GUN FOR HIRE

THIS 1000HP VH COMMODORE STREETER IS SO GOOD, IT'S CRIMINAL

- STORY LIAM QUIRK PHOTOS BEN HOSKING

THE combination of a few hard bevvies on a school night and trawling the internet for project cars rarely turns out well.

With alcohol quelling our inhibitions, most of us turn into Richard Rawlings from Gas Monkey Garage and spend money we don't have, lowballing innocent sellers. Fortunately for Ricky Toms, his 'refreshed' impulse buy turned out a lot better than most.

"I'd had a few beers and woke up the next morning to find out I was the proud owner of a VH SL/X. What's more, I had to get myself to Shepparton in Victoria to pick it up," chuckles the Canberra-based revhead.

Tough Holdens are something of a fixture in Ricky's automotive history, having owned a VH SL/E as his first car. "I'd also owned a VH SS, and an HQ SS that I'd sold for very little money," he sighs. But during the five-and-a-half-hour journey home, he became fond of his latest purchase.

"It was already black, with an ugly red bonnet scoop and a six-point rollcage that looked like it would have skewered you like a kebab in an accident," he laughs. "It had an HQ 308 in it with a Supra five-speed. It reminded me a lot of my HQ SS, because it made really good noises, but it was so slow!"