Some of the most inflammatory reactions I’ve ever seen in any kind of auto media involve what are best termed -HACK builds. Made famous by the original, the “Caddyhack” article from the February 1987 edition of Hot Rod Magazine. Caddyhack started out as a 6,071-pound 1970 Coupe de Ville got chopped up into bits and taken down to a flying weight of 2,900 pounds. That weight loss turned the 17-second Caddy into a 13-second Caddy. They revisited the concept in 1997 with the “Pontihack”, which put a 1970 Pontiac Bonneville under the knife, and then there’s the origins of what is now best known as the Vette-Kart, which saw a flooded, desert-abandonded 1985 Corvette get turned into a Thanksgiving turkey at Irwindale back in 2010. Hate mail flowed but the truth was proven: there is an alternative to adding horsepower, and that’s losing weight.

Now, do you really think a few Aussies wouldn’t try this out on their own?

That green thing ripping down the track was, at one point in time, a Ford Territory that had seen a hell of a life before winding up at an auto auction reeking of something bad enough that suits and masks were needed. Wearing a shade of green not seen since a 1975 Ford Maverick, the Territory brought two good things to party with: a Barra 4.0L inline-six, an engine that can party when done right, and all-wheel-drive, great for launching a heavy SUV at a dragstrip. You’ll see the incremental steps in weight reduction, you’ll see the timeslips creep in the right direction, and then…you’ll see a ton of fire. But we have it on good word that the Territory does, in fact, still live and that the Aussies have more in store for this…erm…beautiful creation!