MARK PARSONS

LAST issue we delved into Mark Parsons’s formative cruising years in the late 1970s and early 80s, but this time ’round we explore the later 1980s as Australia’s street machine scene was really coming of age and Mark’s builds evolved with the styles of that time. But wait, there’s more! Yep, Mark reckons we haven’t even got to the good stuff yet, which we will cover in the ensuing months.

01: “I DON’T know why I built this; it kind of happened by accident,” Mark says of his one-of-a-kind MkII Cortina. “I was working at Gordon Leven Tyre & Mechanical in Sydney and stumbled across a 186S engine lying out the back. An old mechanic who worked there said he had race pistons and conrods, a Yella Terra head and all this other good stuff, so we screwed together a stout little combo. So I had a hot engine but nothing to put it in.”

Scouring the trusty one Thursday morning on the lookout for an HB Torana or similar, Mark scored this mint one-owner MkII for $600. “It was running a 1600 and column four-speed,” he