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Concept corner: SEMA–worthy streeter

17 April, 2015

Every month, we ask the cover-car owner for the concept they’d most like to build or see built. Here’s the concept from Johnny Burkhart, owner of the amazing Plymouth Road Runner that graced the cover of NZV8 Issue No. 120. 

Take another look at the amazing Road Runner on the cover of Issue No. 120 — the bloke behind the build clearly ‘gets’ cars, right? He’s absolutely nailed it with this one. So, what would happen if Johnny Burkhart were to go all out and build the car he’s always wanted to?

“An idea I’ve had — well, one of them, anyway — is to build a seven to eight second–capable, street-driven 1968 Charger,” Johnny says.

“It would start with a full, custom tube–frame chassis, with a street-friendly interior, including a semi-race version of an original dash. Outside would get a three-layer pearl Lamborghini Arancia paint — orange is cool!

“Wheels would need to be huge double beadlock Weld Racing 15×15 billet rears with 33×16 Goodyear rubber, and a front runner set-up like on my Road Runner.

“Engine wise, I’d do a fuel-injected and twin F2 procharged set-up, with the prochargers mirrored and facing forwards, so the belt drive faced the rear. Set up like that, the compressor housings would sit just out of the bonnet, and each would have its own integrated bonnet intake. I’d run a Nelson Racing Engines Elephant twin fuel intake, so I could run 98 octane on the street tune, and switch to run C16 and over 2300hp on a race tune. 

“The base engine would be none other than a Hemi, displacing 572ci and detailed in black with silver fittings. It’d push out around 2000hp on a street tune, so would require a four-linked Strange Dana 60 rear, with a Rossler TH400 three-speed transmission.” 

While the Charger would certainly be a bit of a handful to build, and would likely cost far too much, we really want to see it done. Come on, Johnny, get building!

What are your thoughts? Would you do anything different? Post your ideas in the comments below.

You can read about Johnny’s amazing Procharged Hemi–powered 1969 Plymouth Road Runner in NZV8 Issue No. 120, on sale now, or it can be purchased online here.

The butterfly effect

18 June, 2026

The man on the mountain bike pedalled over, taking it all in. Gazing in wonderment at this small Japanese coupe with butterfly doors, he said, “Wow, I have never seen one of these before. What is it?” When I told him it was a Toyota, he nearly fell off his bike.
The Toyota Sera is unique amongst ’90s Japanese coupes. The Sera, which is Italian for ‘evening’, can trace its roots back to Toyota’s AXV-II concept car. Launched as part of a trio of Toyota concept cars at the 1987 Tokyo Motor Show, it shared its underpinnings with the P70 Toyota Starlet. The similarities ended there, thanks to the AXV-II’s low-slung and rounded coupe styling with butterfly doors. These doors were held upright by gas struts when fully open. Glass covered the upper section of the doors and the rear hatchback.
These features, much to everyone’s surprise, were carried over to the production Sera in 1990. Toyota marketed the Sera, which means ‘will be’ in Spanish and ‘princess’ in Hebrew, as a funky alternative to the much-loved MR2.

Racing Mazdas

12 June, 2026

Both Rod Millen and Ron Kendall were rotary racing kings, emanating from the North Shore of Auckland, where I grew up. And the ultimate rotary techno guru was Bill Shiells, who developed the engine into a rocket ship while working out of Gulf Mazda in Takapuna from 1969, and later in his own business, Rotorsport. He began to extract some phenomenal horsepower from the enigmatic rotary engine. Bill was one of the first to race the Mazda RX-2 Coupe in 1971 and achieved immediate success, causing others to sit up and take notice, particularly the North Shore’s racing elite. They included Robbie Francevic, Rod Millen, Ron Kendall, John Woolf, John Le Feuvre, and Rex Findlay.