31-01-10, 18:26 GMT+10#1
You don't see too many VL turbos in this condition. The first thing that strikes you about Chris' VL is how bright and shiny the paint is. Without seeing it for yourself in all of it's glory you're probably not going to really picture how great it is.
The bright body work combined with the timeless appeal of the Simmons FR19 wheels that this car roll's on combine to make even the most die hard WRX fan stop and stare.
However Chris didn't buy the car like this. It's taken a long time to get it to where it is today. He originally bought the car back in 2001 as a stocker with a front mount intercooler and aftermarket exhaust.
He then highflowed the turbo, threw in a set of 13BT injectors, Wolf ECU and cranked the boost up to 18 pounds. This set up was a pretty stout street combo and managed to run 118mph down the quarter mile.
Since then the car has copped a complete respray in a custom red. At the same time Chris also got the wallet out and purchased all new exterior body accessories.
The engine is built for big power and consists of CP forged pistons, H-Beam rods, Nizmo N1 oil pump, bigger mains studs, and a High Energy sump. While the bottom end was being screwed together there was some work being done upstairs too, with the head getting treated to the full race port job, oversized valves, head studs and a large camshaft with aftermarket cam gear.
A standard VL turbo manifold is supporting a low mount T04Z with a split pulse 1.00 rear housing. Also out of sight is a PSR 50mm wastegate and 3.5 inch dump pipe.
At the moment the 'gate stays clamped down until 18 pounds of boost is reached. Chris keeps the boost reasonably low for a high powered car on the street because he doesn't want to ring its neck every time it's taken out.
The combo has punched out 370 rear wheel kilowatts on pump fuel and 430 on C16, with plenty of head room.
Heading from the pointy end of the car in a southerly direction we get to the 5500rpm convertor and 2 speed Powerglide with transbrake, billet internals and straight cut gears. From there the power travels down a 3 inch single piece tail shaft and finally to the trusty old VL turbo diff.
Standard gears, a mini spool and a pair of 31-spline axles are housed back here in a very strong and proven rear end.
Two Bosch fuel pumps and a surge tank feed down to an Aeromotive fuel regulator, larger fuel rail and Siemens injectors. Once the fuel is squirting into the engine, an M&W ignition is making the whole lot explode which propels this VL turbo into the 10 second zone.
FE2 springs with 90/10 shocks up front and 50/50's out the back help the car launch out of the hole as quickly as possible.
Chris has chosen a less is more approach with the interior. It's simple and looks like it was born to be in a VL commodore. The seats are actually VS Senator items trimmed in Calais material.
While inspecting the fuel set up in the boot it's pretty hard to miss the giant trophy that is stuck in there. The boys at EAS stuck this in there as a bit of a joke and it's inscribed with 'Captain Topgear' as Chris was known for leaving the workshop in a cloud of smoke, in top gear.
It's good to see little personal touches like that which create a bit of character about the car and the owner.
As we were packing up and getting read to leave it was hard not to notice a deafening turbo spool down the road. With a quick release of the transbrake button the wastegate opened and the sound of Armageddon screamed throughout the estate... Captain Topgear has left the building.
Some original photos have not been recovered yet.
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