The northern suburbs of Melbourne are a very dangerous place to go for a drive. Especially if you're in a car that you think is unbeatable... You see, Thomastown's JPC workshop has spawned a considerable number of hot VL Commodores that have been slicing off more than a few scalps on Friday and Saturday nights!
Terry Saker - who's recently owned, amongst other things, a Porsche 928 S4 V8 and a Supra turbo - is another JPC customer who is totally rapt in the performance of his Holden VL. Oddly enough though, the lead-up to owning this awesome vehicle only happened by good fortune. Terry previously owned an atmo VL that he intended to turbocharge and paint black. After booking the car in for a mechanical conversion and respray, he then happened to stumble across an immaculate black Calais turbo parked in front of a local business. It was the obvious answer to his needs - and it was sitting there staring him in the face. Terry marched into the office and made the owner some serious offers on the vehicle. The new owner wasn't interested at first. That is, until Terry later parted with $20,000 in cash... (that was back in '94 mind you)
Terry's newly acquired 80,000km Calais was a near-stocker. The only mechanical change was a slight increase in boost pressure (still with no intercooling though). Straight away, Terry started to sprinkle the car with various performance hardware. Amongst this initial barrage of gear was a high-flow T4 turbo, a Stage 2 intercooler, a 3-inch exhaust, an extra injector, forged pistons and a one-piece tailshaft. Was it quick? Yep, its predicted just-into-the 11s performance certainly is nothing to be sneezed at. But it was aggravatingly unreliable. Terry recalls massive over-fuelling and surge problems and, not surprisingly, the motor eventually blew up.
And that's when Terry took his business to Mark at Johnston's Performance Centre (JPC). "Mark", he said, "ol' pal 'ol buddy, I want to run into the 10s - do what you need to do." Mark responded with a combination of components that's virtually identical to another JPC-built VL we featured a while back - the gold Calais known as 1TUFGM. As it turns out, though, Terry's VL has ended up going quicker again. And that can only be considered a bonus!
Following the previous engine termination, Mark and the blokes at JPC started afresh with a new block stuffed with prep'd rods and dished 7.0:1 forged pistons (with chrome rings). Up top, they knew there was no point on going through all the hassle (and expense) of going the twin-cam conversion. All they did was clean up the stock SOHCer with mild porting and slid in their in-house JPC cam. A tried and proven set-up.
With this relatively simple but tough platform, JPC then threw away all the factory stuff that hung off the intake and exhaust side of that SOHC head. The exhaust side received a JPC-fabricated exhaust manifold, which is just the thing to blow into a "640 horsepower" ball-bearing turbo. Terry has set boost pressure to a maximum of 25 psi using the PSR external wastegate. Post turbine and wastegate you can find a 3-inch exhaust with a hi-flow cat and rear straight-through resonator.
After being sucked in through JPC's custom inlet pipe (complete with dual Sumoto filters), compressed air then roars through a JPC Skyline GT-R-based air-to-air intercooler, which does a wonderful job of dragging back charge temps. The inlet side of the head sees the VL's standard manifold (which locates the throttle body on top of the valve cover) replaced by JPC's own cast inlet runners/plenum. This component is said to offer maximum flow and response - largely due to its more direct route for induction air. Throttle diameter is now increased to 65mm.
Each cylinder is fed fuel by a large capacity Bosch 361 injector, which is supplied by dual Bosch hi-volume pumps drinking out of twin surge tanks. As you might expect, a full-house motor like this can chew through fuel when it's on boost - that's why Terry's also equipped his Calais with an 87-litre fuel tank. Injector and ignition control (which is MSD boosted, by the way) is performed by an Autronic SMC computer. This fully programmable unit has been mapped on JPC's in-house chassis dyno.
For the driveline, JPC passed the vehicle on to their mates at Racemetics. They've performed their trick of retro-converting the VL to a Holden Trimatic trans. It's no ordinary Trimatic, though - it's fully tricked. Terry shifts it using a polished and purposeful B&M Quicksilver lever. From the transmission's output spline back, there's a new 3-inch one-piece tailshaft leading to (amazingly) the standard LS diff spinning the factory 3.45:1 gears. What's more, that stock diff doesn't even look like chucking it in!
Onboard Terry's VLGMH is as much outrageousness as there is under the hood. Melbourne's AeroTech trim experts were handed the job of rejuvenating the Calais cabin with some wild colours and a tasteful mix a fabric and leather. In answer to this, the company installed a pair of their own front recliners and covered them in a mix of orange, grey and black trim. The standard back seat also received the same trim treatment.
And then came the door trims. At the bottom of each front door is a VR Commodore speaker pod/map pocket, teamed with more of that orange, grey and black colouring. The AeroTech logo is even embossed into the leading edge of the front door. Other than that, the makeover has seen the fitment of a Momo wheel, Autometer boost and trans temperature gauges, an Alpine deck and an assortment of high quality speakers.
Terry hasn't gone too wild with the body because - in the northern Melbourne suburbs - he says you're just asking for trouble with the police. Therefore, the panels are all stock (though recently resprayed Jet Black by IQ Image) in the attempt to go unnoticed. The only area that may draw unwanted attention are those wheels - but who could blame Terry for fitting them? Each guard is filled out by polished 18-inch AJRs, wearing 255/35 and 235/35 Michelins. And combined with the silver/black body, they look damn fine! Note that Terry's set the car right on the legal ride height minimum. As he says, "Go any lower and that gives the police a reason to pull you over - and once they open the bonnet, you're gone." Rounding out the remaining suspension mods are Koni adjustable dampers, Nolathane bushes and an adjustable Panhard rod.
The braking performance of Terry's streeter is improved markedly (though what brakes are really good enough to slow a car with this much acceleration!?). Up front, you'll now find a pair of big VT Commodore Clubsport discs and calipers, which were installed with the (essential) hubs. The rear retains the stock VL turbo discs. According to Terry the front brakes made a huge difference - he can now lock the wheels while travelling at 140 km/h...
So - after having spent around $85,000 on his weapon (yes, 85k!) - has Terry's wish for running into the 10s been met? You bet - Mark has made 100% sure of that! At the car's latest drag strip outing (at Calder Park), VLGMH ran a best time of 10.4 seconds at 131 mph (running on 12-inch Mickey Thompson slicks and front-runners)! Again, that was feeding in (a relatively mild) 25 psi boost as well as C16 race fuel - just to be safe.
Not surprisingly, though, Terry received the hard word from the Calder Park officials after making the pass. If he wants to run the car again, he needs to obtain a drag racing licence and the car needs to get decked out with such things as a full roll cage. This ruling poses no real problem, however, coz there's always the Heathcote raceway alternative - where they're (apparently) much more relaxed about that kind of thing. With a few more runs under its belt, everyone is quietly confident of VLGMH cracking into the 9s. Not bad for a car that only had to manage 10s!
You've been warned. Be very, very careful when you're out driving in Melbourne's northern suburbs!
Contacts/Thanks:
JPC
+61 3 9465 2244
Racematics
+61 3 9335 1011
Terry also sends a big thanks to Ray at Coberg Mag Wheel Polishing and the guys at IQ Image.
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