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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.

Janspeed recreates the Jaguar sports car

29 September, 2026

Thankfully, a few of these cars made it to New Zealand, the odd one being imported from the UK over the years. However, the 1988 British Racing Green example owned by Bill Slater in Upper Hutt was originally sold as a standard car but converted using the full Janspeed kit by the first owner within a couple of years of buying it.
Bill has owned a few other Jaguars. In fact, after he sold his Jaguar XJ12 in 2018, he found himself pining for another and, when the XJ-S came up for sale, he could not resist it. Having just sold the V12, he was not expecting much from the six-cylinder car other than more reliability and it being cheaper to keep on the road. Naturally, he had heard of the influence Janspeed had on the marque, but it was not until he took the car for a test drive that he became aware of just how superior it was to the car he had just sold. The price of a second-hand Janspeed XJ-S and that of a standard 3.6 XJ-S is quite comparable, making the Janspeed version an incredible bargain, even more so in comparison with other performance classic cars — or even modern cars, for that matter — which cost far more bucks for the bang.

The writing on the wall

25 September, 2026

Deven, a digital content producer in his 20s, says it was the rear-drive Nissan and Toyota drift cars that fired his imagination in his not-so-distant youth and soon had him wanting one of his own. However, like most of us, he had to start in something less glamorous – in his case, a 1997 Mitsubishi Galant. After that, he bought a four-litre V8 1991 Toyota Soarer, a big change from the Mitsubishi.
“It was my daily driver, and it wasn’t that bad to run back when petrol was affordable,” he says.
When he got fed up with filling it up, Deven bought a 1989 Ford Laser sedan, a 1.3-litre five-speed manual, to be his daily driver. It’s in very good condition, bought from a careful older driver, and he still runs it – although he will occasionally also drive the latest in a series of Nissan Laurel sedans. His current one, from 1993, has done the lowest number of kilometres yet, at 183,000. It has the single-cam version of the engine in his Skyline.
“I’ve had four different versions of that car. It was just a car I always liked. It’s really comfortable, quite luxurious. I bought it from a 90-year-old in Hamilton. It’s in mint condition, and everything is standard.”