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    Articles by Iain Kelly

    Iain Kelly

    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.

    The cars of SEMA 2019 are possibly the craziest we've ever seen!

    6 November 2019 by Iain Kelly

    Stolen SEMA show car rams police, but still makes it to the show!

    6 November 2019 by Iain Kelly
    Having a car you built on display at the annual SEMA Show in Las Vegas is an incredible achievement (humblebrag: a car I helped build was on display there in 2016!), but surely the most heart-breaking experience would...Read more

    Cheap good looking cars: 10 best looking affordable vehicles

    20 September 2019 by Iain Kelly

    Owning a car comes with a sense of pride, so people don’t generally...Read more

    Worst cars in the world: Top 10 lemons ever made

    20 September 2019 by Iain Kelly

    Owning a car comes with a sense of pride, largely because it is usually...Read more

    A blown V8 Mustang smoke machine, off-roading in a G63 AMG, drifing a Ferrari, and gassing with Mighty Car Mods; how I survived the shoot of Supercheap Auto's latest oils ad

    18 September 2019 by Iain Kelly
    I’m incredibly lucky to call the Mighty Car Mods homies my friends, and that is how I ended up locked in a Sydney shed building a $3500 Subaru into an ear drum-splitting, off-roading beast this past June. Marty and Moog...Read more

    Miura vs Daytona: classic V12 supercars thrashed hard by their factory test drivers!

    6 September 2019 by Iain Kelly
    The sight and sound of a freshly rebuilt Ferrari 365 GTB/4 "Daytona" being thrashed through rural Italy while dicing with a modified Lamorghini Miura is something incredibly special. What takes it to another level is...Read more

    Bugatti's 300mph Chiron has been over a century in the making

    3 September 2019 by Iain Kelly
    Bugatti’s recent smashing of the 300mph (483km/h) barrier with their modified “long-tail” Chiron has set the world on its ear, but the scale of the achievement only gets more impressive when you consider the history of...Read more

    Kevin Hart injured in crash that destroyed his Hellcat-powered Barracuda

    2 September 2019 by Iain Kelly
    Kevin Hart has suffered serious back injuries when his 522kW (700hp) Hellcat-powered 1970 Plymouth Barracuda left a road in Malibu and rolled over. The famed comedian and car fan was a passenger in the hand-built...Read more

    RIP Jessi Combs: the fastest woman on four wheels

    29 August 2019 by Iain Kelly
    Jessi Combs has tragically passed away at the age of 36 while attempting to break her land speed record of 641km/h (398mph). The professional racer and former Mythbusters TV host crashed her jet-powered car on Tuesday...Read more

    The only factory-built overhead cam Pontiac V8 can be yours right now!

    22 August 2019 by Iain Kelly
    America is known for its love affair with simple pushrod V8s but, long before Ford brought out the Modular V8 in the 1990s, US auto manufacturers were experimenting with overhead-cam V8s. Pontiac were the first to sell...Read more

    Metallica front-man ditches his heavy metal

    22 August 2019 by Iain Kelly
    The lead singer and rhythm guitarist for Metallica, James Hetfield, isn't just a legend in heavy metal music. He's also an internationally renowned car collector who has built a swag of hand-built custom cars to call...Read more

    Car paint protection: Is it worth it?

    20 August 2019 by Iain Kelly

    Everyone wants their new car to look factory-fresh for as long as...Read more

    Abandoned for 50 years, this Hemi dragster was dug out of a forest

    19 August 2019 by Iain Kelly
    The trend of digging old cars out of the bush has really hit YouTube but user blown64vette has just upped the stakes massively. He and his crew of Hot Rod Hoarders recently went through the process of saving a vintage...Read more

    Today's bold statement: this 476kW '49 Hudson is the best classic car in the world

    19 August 2019 by Iain Kelly
    Old cars have style for days, but often they handle as well as a wheelbarrow full of wet cement, don’t stop well, are unreliable, and are pains to drive. Jonathan Ward’s company ICON fixes this by reengineering old cars...Read more

    Driving your vintage NASCAR '68 Charger on the street, with a water pipe roll cage

    19 August 2019 by Iain Kelly
    Our road laws in Australia mean the notion of digging an old, dilapidated car out of a field or junk yard and driving it hundreds of kilometres home just doesn't fly. Thankfully, that isn't the case in America where...Read more

    McLaren F1 proves it's the Mac-Daddy of hypercars, selling for nearly $30,000,000

    19 August 2019 by Iain Kelly
    The McLaren F1 was, for a long time, the most expensive new car in the world carrying a list price of $1,000,000 (plus options). Now it's one of the most expensive second-hand cars in the world, especially for a car...Read more

    Your chance to own the world's most desirable Ford as Steve McQueen's Bullitt Mustang goes up for sale

    15 August 2019 by Iain Kelly
    The Bullitt Mustang is up for sale. As in, THE Bullitt Mustang. Yes, that 1968 GT-A Fastback which Steve McQueen used in the classic movie that features what many regard as the greatest car chase in Hollywood history...Read more

    Car fabric and leather protection: Is it worth it?

    14 August 2019 by Iain Kelly

    Keeping your car factory fresh and well looked-after is a hard task in...Read more

    Forget LS or Barra swaps, you can now LaFerrari swap the world

    7 August 2019 by Iain Kelly
    We’ve gotten used to seeing everything from the latest LS or Barra engines, BMW V10s and AMG twin-turbo V12 engines pop up on eBay ready for a willing nutter to swap them into nanna’s TD Gemini. And now the ultimate...Read more

    Godzilla celebrates half a century of supercar-smashing at GT-R Festival

    5 August 2019 by Iain Kelly
    Nissan’s legendary GT-R badge was celebrated in style at Sydney Dragway this past weekend at the GT-R Festival. Since the top-dog racing model of the Skyline was introduced half a century ago in 1969, it has become a...Read more

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