Phil Kerjean’s epic man-caves and Smokin’ Roo Bar

Phil Kerjean’s epic man-caves and Smokin’ Roo Bar

By: Street Machine Magazine

When it comes to producing heavy-hitting street machine icons, the Illawarra region of New South Wales has always batted far above the average. Stalwart burnout competitor Phil Kerjean and his family have called the Illawarra home for decades, but that’s about to change as they seek a tree-change in the Riverina. So, what better time for Street Machine to take one last tour through Phil’s legendary Smokin’ Roo Bar – one of the most epic man-caves in the country!

First published in the March 2025 issue of Street Machine

Phil, of course, is famous for his formidable skid machine, TUFFST, the blown SBC-powered, VK-fronted VC Commodore wagon that has taken him to a Summernats Burnout Championship win in 2018 as well as two outright Tuff Street wins in 2009 and 2011. Phil and his wife Nat first built the wagon in a humble two-car shed at their previous home, not far from their current digs.

A burnout competitor for over 20 years, it’s no surprise that Phil has accumulated some serious silverware, but his favourites are all from Summernats. “Winning Tuff Street twice was pretty cool, and the Burnout Championship in 2018,” he says. His favourite gong is his second Tuff Street trophy, hand-assembled by Chic Henry himself using Nolathane suspension components

The sprawling property the family now calls home boasts several sheds that have allowed Phil to build dedicated spaces for both his professional and leisure pursuits. There’s his Fuelworx parts business; a workshop where he’s wrenched on several high-profile customer builds over the years; and the Smokin’ Roo Bar, which has played host to more than its fair share of memorable get-togethers and had countless street machining legends peel a few cold drinks off the timber.

If these walls could talk, as the old saying goes, and Phil has done a bang-up job of giving the Roo Bar’s walls a voice by decorating them with photos documenting his decades in the car scene and plenty of carnage from his buddies in the Pro Burnout Series, as well as drag racing memorabilia from Australia and abroad.

In 2022, Phil had Jake Myers vinyl-wrap the VC’s now-iconic two-tone paint panels in silver, as a throwback to the way it debuted in the burnout scene over two decades ago. He kept the wrap on for the full year, but this front guard didn’t make it past its debut at Summernats 34, when a fire in the catch can blistered the wrap and the airbrushed guard underneath

How long have you guys called this place home?

Twelve years now. It was three times the size of our old place, and back then that seemed like all the space in the world! But we’ve outgrown this one too, so it’s time to cut and run.

Tell us about your front shed, which houses your Fuelworx shop.

Yep, that’s the public domain. You’ll usually see my TUFFST wagon up there. We used to leave it on display there, but recently I’ve been too lazy to even take it off the truck! Having the shopfront allows customers to come in and purchase Speedflow products or our merchandise, but it also maintains a degree of privacy between the public and any customer cars we’re working on in the back shed.

The front shed is home to Phil’s Fuelworx business, selling Speedflow fittings and fuel system components to revheads in the Illawarra region

The back shed is a fully functioning workshop. What’s the set-up like there?

It was a three-car shed when we moved in, but we added the hoist for a little extra storage. We’ve usually got two customer cars in at any one time, whether that’s for small jobs like plumbing a fuel system, fixing up work that has been done elsewhere that people aren’t happy with, or project-managing entire Top 60-level builds.

What are some of the more well-known cars you’ve worked on?

There’s been plenty recently, and we’ve got a few in currently that will be getting unveiled at upcoming events, so I’m tight-lipped about that. But we’ve always worked closely with Howard Astill to plumb all of his builds and customer cars. It’s not uncommon to see one of Simon Kryger’s cars in here, and of course, plenty of our mates from the burnout scene as well.

Plenty of colourful street machining characters have propped up the bar at the Smokin’ Roo over the years, including Howard Astill, the Myers clan, pro street legend Simon Kryger, and even Street Outlaws’ Farmtruck and AZN while they were in Australia for Summernats 30. Pictured here (L-R) are Luke de Main, Phil, Andrew McAllister and Josh ‘JBens’ Bennis

The Smokin’ Roo Bar is easily one of the coolest spots on the property. How long did it take you to deck it all out?

We started hanging stuff the moment we moved in, but a lot of the photos and posters we’ve accumulated over 20 years! There are signs and souvenirs from events both here and over in the States – some of it purchased, some of it not! There are also plenty of photos that bring back a lot of great memories. I always say it’s like my pool room from the movie The Castle!

And that memorabilia has now expanded to cover the walls inside the workshop and shopfront sheds, too!

Yeah, the bar got full, so we started decorating the other two sheds!

This year’s Summernats 37 marked Phil’s 24th appearance at the event. “It’s my 25th event if you count Summernats Slam in Sydney in 2021,” he says. “I’ve been skidding for 23 years now. Summernats is our Grand Final; it’s the Bathurst of our sport. So few people can say that they’ve won it, and I like the challenge”

You’ve got a heap of magazine spreads and other stuff signed by Peter Brock. Was he an idol of yours?

Growing up, my dad was a huge Allan Moffat fan, so I rebelled against him by becoming a Holden man! Brocky was dominating at that time; he was just such a powerful figure in Australian motorsport.

Phil still owns his HB Torana and had been talking about drag racing it again, but he got distracted building a VC Brock replica as his latest street cruiser. “The Torana is in storage for now, and while I wanted to take it racing, we might take it skidding instead,” he says. “We’ll finish the Brock this year and give the Torana some love next year”

You mentioned some of the more exotic memorabilia from your trips to the States. Have you got a favourite souvenir or yarn from over there?

I bought a Top Fuel slick from an NHRA meeting one time, and then had to figure out how I was going to get it back to Australia. I was folding this tyre every which way and ratchet-strapping it trying to get it into my suitcase. It was never going to fit, so I cut it in half to save the section that [NHRA Top Fuel racer] Doug Kalitta had signed, and left half a tyre in a Las Vegas hotel room. When I arrived back in Sydney, right next to my bag on the luggage carousel was another tyre that someone had simply tied up and checked in as luggage! Why didn’t I think of that?

How are you approaching the task of packing up decades worth of memories ahead of the move?

It’ll take a few weeks to pack it all down. It’ll actually be a good opportunity to clean some of the trophies! We’ll inevitably end up damaging some things in the move, but that’s all part of it.

Look closely and you’ll notice the VC’s slightly askew front bumper as it enters the old Summernats burnout pad at ’Nats 16 for Phil’s fourth-ever competitive burnout. “We had an accident on the way down and the car got damaged, but we competed anyway and won the Hard Luck Award – my first Summernats trophy,” he says

Any plans for a new Smokin’ Roo Bar?

It’ll depend on exactly where we settle, but ideally, we’d have the shopfront, the workshop and the man-cave all under the one roof. I hate walking between the different sheds, so having it all in one place will be cool.