When it comes to supercharged burnouts, George Separovich was combining tyre smoke and blower whine before it was cool.
Now he is back with a vengeance in NUTTR, a Holden Commodore with a ridiculously big PSI supercharger towering above the bonnet. Motorvation 32, taking place from January 27 to 28 at Perth Motorplex, will mark the car’s official competition debut.
“The time is right and with the Motorplex only five minutes from home Motorvation 32 was the choice,” Separovich said. “It’s at Motorvation where it all started in 2004, doing something no-one else had done.”
Separovich was referring to a now legendary burnout some 14 years ago in his supercharged Holden Monaro. While it was a beautiful show car, the Monaro had no problem melting tyres. The noise, the flames licking from the exhaust and the huge amounts of smoke were at a level no one had seen before and the performance set the tone for the next decade of burnout competition where superchargers were suddenly in vogue.
Separovich has been an on-and-off participant in that growth driving wise, but he has been constantly behind the scenes putting together many of the engine combination of top contestants including recent Summernats winner Matt James, Justen Brown and Jason Fletcher.
“A lot of my clients are burnout orientated and with the way prizemoney has risen, well, why wouldn’t you want a shot at $10,000 or more?” he said.
“When I first started there were only a few big competitions and when you couldn’t drive or cruise anymore it meant you had all this money tied up in something you couldn’t use.
“But now with the number of competitions all over the country you get more time in your car and more events.”
The NUTTR plates were formerly on a Holden ute, but for Separovich new is the way to go.
“This is the first new car I have ever had, so you have power steering and big brakes and it goes where you want it to,” Separovich said. “I’ve only done the one practice skid so far but it was easy to move around the burnout pad.
“As for why a Commodore? Steel bumper cars are harder to find parts for now so when you can just ring up Holden and get whatever you need it is easier.”
The high horsepower package Separovich has assembled has created a stir in the burnout community and fans at Motorvation 32 will be the first to see if it works.
“It seems to be like the package is working so far,” he said. “I think a few people have tried the PSI and gone back to the 8-71 superchargers everyone is using.
“I just wanted to be different. Who wants to be normal? Everyone has a blower now but not everyone has a PSI.
“I know everyone is expecting something – do a burnout, blow the tyres, fly to the moon maybe?”
Motorvation 32 runs from January 27 to 28 at Perth Motorplex featuring show cars, burnouts, cruising, trade stands, the Livewire AC/DC tribute band and more. Tickets are available online at results.motorplex.com.au.
