‘Rock Solid’ was Howard’s first serious effort at building a street machine capable of consistently winning trophies. Debuted in 1986, the sedan was a 1972 XA series Ford Falcon powered by a lightly modified 5.8-litre (351ci) Ford Cleveland V8. Howard learned very quickly about detailing when displaying this car at events and learned constantly from judge’s comments and feedback. This provided Howard with the knowledge to create modified cars that had the detail built-in, not added-on. ‘Rock Solid II’ added extra detail to items such as flat-paneled floors, subtly modified dashboard with three gauge pods rather than two, and the painted, rather than polished intake.

“I built this car to compete and the thing I really learned form that car was to listen to the judges and to modify the car to suit the judging criteria if I wanted to win trophies.”