BACK TO FRONT

CLINT OGILVIE’S ICONIC FRONT/BACK LC TORANA HAS BEEN A MAINSTAY OF THE BURNOUT SCENE FOR DECADES. NOW IT’S TOUGHER THAN EVER BEFORE

- ANDREW BROADLEY

MY MOST enduring memory from Street Machine Summernats 21 was poring over Clint Ogilvie’s new-again LC Torana, resplendent in the Top 60 Elite Hall. There it sat, flanked by awe-inspiring, mirrors on-the-ground show cars, stinking of molten rubber with a pair of freshly slain tyres lying beside it.

“Yeah, we made the Top 60 that year,” recalls Clint. “I think we came third in the Burnout Masters, and then we drove it into the hall on the rims.”

That a car built for the express purpose of sending tyres to bastard hell could go shoulder-to-shoulder with the best show specials in Australia is something that really stuck with me, and as history would eventually show, FRONT/ BACK was first among a raft of show-quality skid pigs that followed.

The car ran on the cover of the May 2008 issue of Street Machine in that guise (its second showing on page one of the mag) – a wild blown, flamed, suicide-doored, hot rod inspired build that blew people’s minds at the time. But the problem with building an elite quality skid car is that they are routinely put in harm’s way. It’s something of an occupational hazard.

“We were up at Mildura Gazzanats, and we had an issue with a fuel line,” says Clint. “We had a big methanol fire, and it cooked the paint.”

The car made a triumphant return with a satin black wrap covering the scorched paint and a screaming, all-motor Holden V8. But when the high-revving donk hurt a camshaft, it prompted Clint to take stock of the situation.