In 1975, the Australian Street Machine Nationals began as a gathering of just 103 cars in a paddock in Griffith, New South Wales. Fifty years on, Greased n Gassed returned to where it all started for a reunion documentary that traces the movement from its regional roots through to today’s Summernats-scale events. Among the builders interviewed is Peter Fitzpatrick, who has attended 48 of the 50 Nationals since 1975 and remembers exactly what those early Griffith paddock meets looked like.
50 Years of the Street Machine Nationals
The episode also follows the personal side of the hobby: Angela Henry’s story behind her family’s beloved 1962 Impala, and Paul Atkins walking through his 1967 Holden Premier — a car he has, remarkably, built twice over the past 40 years. Between the interviews and the history, this one is as much about the people who’ve kept Australian street machining alive for half a century as it is about the cars themselves.
Fifty years of the Street Machine Nationals is a long enough stretch that it now spans multiple generations of the same families, which is exactly what this reunion documentary sets out to capture. Going back to Griffith rather than filming at the current event is what gives it real weight.
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