Video: Blown LJ Torana versus twin-turbo Coyote XB Falcon

Our video interview series with the 2021 Milwaukee Street Machine of the Year contenders continues. This time SM editor Andrew Broadley and horsepower expert Iain ‘Marv’ Kelly sit down with Luke Mitchell and Daniel DiBella to chat about their amazing machines.

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The story behind Luke’s Torana is properly baffling, as he and his team built the whole car from the ground up in just four months – and ended up in the Street Machine Summernats 33 Elite Top 10.

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“We managed to load the car finished at 4am New Year’s Day to head to Summernats,” says Luke. “During that period we usually had 10 people working on the car; it took monster hours from a lot of people, but we got there!”

Luke and the boys started with a completely stock shell and kept the original Holden exterior, but underneath, a completely new chassis and floor go all the way back from the firewall.

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Sitting beneath the massive hat and 8/71 blower is a 430ci Dart-blocked LS, which Luke says recently spun up a lazy 1270hp. Couple that with the huge 20x12 rear spinners sitting under new tubs and the custom PPG blue pearl and it’s not hard to see why this car was front and centre on the cover of the September 2020 issue.

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Up against Luke’s LJ this time is Daniel DiBella’s super-tough XB Falcon sedan, packing 1000rwhp worth of twin-turbo Coyote oomph.

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Once Daniel got his hands on the car it underwent a full rotisserie job, but even with the quality of finish this thing has, he still isn’t afraid to use it.

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“The rear quarters are chipped up a bit, I let the kids run around in the interior and the boys and I take it to the pub and stuff,” he says. “I’m not overly worried; I want to use it and that’s what it’s for.”

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Since we ran the full feature on the XB in our February 2021 issue, Daniel has fitted the Coyote with bigger cams, valves and a touch more boost to get it to the 1000rwhp mark. “We got it pretty much there with 16psi, so soon I’ll look at putting around 20psi into it and go chasing an eight-second pass,” he says.

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Give the video above a watch to find out more about these killer builds.