Most of you would imagine the seventh generation Holden Commodore as a simple and reliable point A to point B car. However, don't get fooled by the sleeper look of the one featured in the video below...
Owned by a bloke called Dan, the 1991 Holden VP Commodore in question looks completely stock from the outside except for the sticky wide tires on the rear and the slim rubber shoehorned on the tiny front rims.
Factory fitted with a 3.8-liter EcoTec V6 mill and a Borg-Warner T5 five-speed stick shift transmission, it had 170 horsepower when it was new. Decent figures for the early 1990s, but still a slow coach by modern standards.
Nevertheless, once you pop the hood of this sleeper, you'll be gobsmacked by the simple yet effective steroidization job it underwent on a very tight budget. First of all, there's a Ford Falcon XR6-sourced Garrett GT40 turbocharger there which runs at 25 psi of boost.
Thanks to further go-faster enhancements such as Cometic hi-performance gaskets and studs, an intercooler bought off eBay for pennies and a retuned factory Delco ECU, the drivetrain churns out 360 kW (482 horsepower) at the wheels. It may not sound over the top, but coupled to a Powerglide two-speed transmission and a lock differential spool, that's enough oomph for consistent 10s on the quarter mile run.
According to the owner, the Commodore with all upgrades included cost him about $8,000. Dan's best quarter mile run with the tuned Commodore was a straight 10-second at 139 miles per hour. Heck, it even made mincemeat of a slightly pumped up Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG on the dragstrip.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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