The Weekly Reekie: David’s Down Under Deal Makes Drag-and-Drive History
We’ve just witnessed history. Last weekend, David and Aimee Gallimore became the first Americans to complete an Australian drag-and-drive event in their own vehicle. The intrepid explorers from Durham, North Carolina, accomplished the feat at the first-ever Hardass 1000 in an Australian-built Ford Falcon panel van powered by David’s beloved boosted Barra six. Lewis and Clarke, eat your hearts out!
David and Aimee’s sweet Ford panel van. These were popular trade vehicles (plumbers, electricians) and common in police fleets (the rear became a mobile prison).
First, a little history. Australians have been heading Stateside to observe and race at Hot Rod Drag Week since early times, but it’s rare for anyone to go the other way. The first known expedition of this type was undertaken in 2017 by drag-and-drive OG Eddie Miller of purple Duster fame. Eddie flew down and followed along with Street Machine Drag Challenge that year, but he didn’t compete.
After him came Nick Wayt from Iowa, who rode shotgun in Dylan Mcgavigan’s Ford Cortina at Drag Challenge 2018, but he didn’t race.
Next along was Californian Jesse Adams, now co-owner of Redding Dragstrip and co-organizer of the Redwood Rally. Jesse was the first American to cut laps at an Australian drag-and-drive, which he did at Drag Challenge 2019 as part of a co-drive deal with Queensland racer Jamie Farmer in Jamie’s ‘Dirty Bird’ XH Falcon ute. Which means David and Aimee are the first ones to do it in their own car, and the level of commitment required is something worth writing about.
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An Australian who lives in America in Australia with Americans.
David is an unabashed Australophile, if there is such a word. He loves koala bears just as much as the next guy, and he took Aimee there on their honeymoon last year. He also admits to being into “really weird stuff”, which explains how he developed a fixation with the Aussie-built Ford Barra engine. An inline-six with legendary boost-handling capabilities, this engine powered a trillion taxis throughout the 2000s. It’s not considered rare or special Down Under, but in the Carolinas, it’s thrillingly exotic.
David first learned about the Barra through Aussie Ben Neal of Benny’s Custom Works, who has shipped his turbo Barra-powered Toyota Cresta to the States multiple times for events like Drag Week and Sick Week.
“I just thought it was cool, instead of the usual small-block Ford or Coyote or LS or something like that,” said David. “So I had Benny bring me over a Barra.”
You want to talk about really weird stuff? David and Aimee rocked up to Drag Week 2023 with a turbo Barra in their yellow ’71 Chevelle after its old big-block had eaten a lifter the previous year. Henry Ford would die laughing to see it.
Next, the pioneers set their sights on Australia and its premier drag-and-drive event, Street Machine Drag Challenge.
“A lot of Australians come over here for drag-and-drives so I’m surprised there aren’t as many Americans that want to do one in Australia,” said David. “Australia has a car scene like in America and they have a bunch of cool cars we don’t have here. I figured I’d get to see more of the country and get to know more people than I would just being a tourist driving around sightseeing.”
As it turned out, the dates for Drag Challenge 2023 didn’t line up with David and Aimee’s schedule, so they decided to tackle the inaugural Hardass 1000 instead. Since it wasn’t viable to ship the Chevelle all the way to Oz just for a single week of fun, they shopped around for something local.
“I made the mistake of browsing Facebook Marketplace in Australia until I ran across this Barra-swapped panel van,” David said. “It was a project that was mostly done, it just needed a few things finished up.”
The chariot of choice is a white 1996 Ford XH Falcon Longreach GLi panel van. The XH was the last model of panel van that Australia ever made, and while it most certainly ain’t the prettiest thing on the road, David and Aimee have fallen in love with it just the same.
Benny Neal assisted with the purchase and was instrumental in prepping the van for the Hardass. The Gallimores also had help from Sydney-based Empire Mechanical & Racing.
Not everything went smoothly. Around a month out, the car went on the Empire dyno for testing but the transmission didn’t like it and spat fragments of driveshaft all over the shop floor. Undeterred, Empire replaced all the broken bits and threw it back on the rollers, where it made 469rwhp on 98 pump gas.
To get Down Under, David and Aimee flew from Raleigh to Dallas and then from Dallas to Sydney, where they met their van at Benny’s garage in Mittagong, New South Wales. They then drove it roughly seven hours and 450 miles to Heathcote Park Raceway in Victoria to start the Hardass 1000. The tires were down to the cords when they got there, which prompted a trip to nearby Bendigo for new rubber and a wheel alignment, but other than that the van gave them no hassles. It carried them somewhere in the vicinity of 1700 miles over the whole trip and ran consistent mid-12s, peaking with a 12.34@115mph. “It needs a good converter,” David concluded.
The Gallimores had planned to leave the van in Australia for future drag-and-drive adventures down there, but they’ve since changed their minds after riding around in it for a week.
“We don’t really stand out in Australia with a Barra and a panel van but we’ll stand out at home with it,” Aimee said. “We had talked about leaving the car in Australia so we could do the event again next year, but we fell in love with it too much so it has to come home ASAP and hopefully we will pick up something else for next year. Hopefully a wagon so we can bring more friends with us.”
Cheers to the pioneers!
Written by Matt Reekie.
