Mechanical Stig's new 1200hp 8-second Barra

Iain Kelly

Contributing Journalist

2 min read

Cars today can become celebrities in their own right, and one of Australia's most well-known cars around the world is the 1987 Toyota Cresta owned by Benny "Mechanical Stig" Neal.

Originally built as a 10-second sleeper on Mighty Car Mods the Cresta has been running 9-second slips for the two years since the Barra-powered monster was finished.

However, Benny knew the car had more potential hiding away and the car grew a huge following as Benny chased an 8-second pass both in Australia and after he shipped the car to the USA to take part in Hot Rod Drag Week 2018. While it might sound simple to knock one second off a time slip, but drag racing is a sport of hundredths of thousandths of seconds, and it can take hundreds of passes and years to knock a full second off a time-slip when you're running a street car like Benny.

The good news is that Benny and the Cresta finally cracked the 8-second bracket, and done it in style. The car's weight, its new 1200hp engine and larger turbo got the job done and, with some more suspension tuning, Benny has a new goal that will hopefully see the Cresta get into the 7-second bracket!

Iain Kelly

Contributing Journalist

A love of classic American and European cars drove Iain Kelly to motoring journalism straight out of high school, via the ownership of a tired 1975 HJ Holden Monaro.  For nearly 20 years he has worked on magazines and websites catering to modified late model high-performance Japanese and European tuner cars, as well as traditional hot rods, muscle cars and street machines. Some of these titles include Auto Salon, LSX Tuner, MOTOR, Forged, Freestyle Rides, Roadkill, SPEED, and Street Machine. He counts his trip to the USA to help build Mighty Car Mods’ “Subarute” along with co-authoring their recent book, The Cars of Mighty Car Mods, among his career highlights.  Iain lends his expertise to CarsGuide for a variety of advice projects, along with legitimising his automotive obsession with regular OverSteer contributions. Although his practical skills working on cars is nearly all self-taught, he still loves nothing more than spending quality time in the shed working on his project car, a 1964 Pontiac. He also admits to also having an addiction to E30 BMWs and Subaru Liberty RS Turbos, both of which he has had multiple examples of. With car choices like that, at least his mum thinks he is cool.
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