Master OF DESIGN

HOWARD Astill is, without question, one of the all-time greats of Aussie street machining. Howard has spent decades on the tools building countless top-shelf show cars, both for himself and for customers. He has won just about everything there is to win, including our own Street Machine of the Year in 1995, and Street Machine Summernats Grand Champion in 1991, 1992 and 1997. He’s also won the Master Craftsman award and is a Rare Spares Legend, so he’s about as highly decorated as they come.

Howard got his start in the sport in the late 70s, and he’s still hard at work as a one-man band in his Astill Designs home workshop, churning out high-end builds for customers at an impressive rate of knots. But with two interesting and very contrasting builds on the go – one of which is a personal passion project recreating his dream version of his first car – we thought it was high time we caught up for a chat.

Give us the highlights reel of your involvement in street machining.

I’ve been at it a long time! I started back