The following information was submitted by ex-NDRC start line marshal Phil Brown.

The car belonged to long-time drag racer, Walt Ithel.  All Walt's cars were christened Aggravation.

Aggravation was intended to be a funny car.  The chassis was none other than the original pale blue painted 120 inch wheelbase item used in the rear-engined Castrol sponsored Vauxhall VX4/90 funny car campaigned by Mark Stratton's Hustler Racing Team and driven by the late Ed Shaver.  Stratton's chassis construction featured unique independent front suspension using Triumph Herald components and front springs off a Lambretta scooter.  Another identifiable feature of this chassis was the wide inverted 'U' shaped roll bar which is apparent in the photo.

The VX4/90 chassis ran a number of times in 1973 without its Vauxhall funny car body in top fuel at Santa Pod and Silverstone. Such were the evil handling qualities of the VX4/90, that Stratton constructed a new chassis after only one season of racing, thus allowing the sale of the old chassis - less engine - to Walt Ithel.  By June 1974, it was reported that Walt had already dressed the chassis with a Capri fibreglass body.  I have no idea who supplied the body for this car, as there were at least 4 or 5 different suppliers advertising Capri funny car bodies at this time.

Appearances of Aggravation seem to be rare occurrences, it was never featured in any magazine article, but I can confirm that it appeared doing shakedown runs at the inaugural Aintree meetings in 1975 when solo passes were only allowed on an 1/8 mile track.  The Aintree venue was not a commercial success and the Pennine Drag Racing Club went on to establish Melbourne as their permanent race venue.

I never discovered what engine Walt fitted, or what times were extracted from this Capri-bodied racer. I suspect the engine may never have been a blown fuel motor - as it would have generated some press coverage, so one would assume that it ran as a competition altered.