Update, October 15:
Paul Repo’s supercharged V6-powered VS Commodore is one of our favorite builds. As you’ll read below, the base combination is a mix of cammed Ecotec V6, with L67 heads, a factory L67 blower and a humble 4L60 four-speed slushbox.
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The VS runs on E85, uses a standard ECU and uses a shot of nitrous to run at its best. The only change from the build story below was the recent addition of a new torque converter, which Paul believes is the biggest investment he’s ever made in a car!
And Paul’s PB in the car set the event faster at Sydney Dragway on Friday night at 126 mph to the tune of 10.56 seconds! Incredible things from a building that uses parts that most people throw away.
Paul is also having a lot of success with Vortech-blown Holden 355 combinations – we’ll be contacting him soon to talk about them!
Here’s the story:
When Paul Repo told us his VS Commodore was a 10-second machine when we spoke to him at the Holden Nationals at Heathcote Park Raceway at the weekend, we were amazed.
To date, the VS has run a best speed of 10.7 @ 125mph at Sydney Dragway, and the most surprising thing is that there really isn’t anything special about the recipe Paul used to achieve that number. .
Granted, there’s a 100 shot of nitrous in play here, but even without it, the car runs 12.1 – a fact that will seem even more amazing when diving into the engine specs.
At the bottom is the original Ecotec that came with the 1995 Executive, rather than the lower compactness supercharged L67s that most people swap into. The only modification Paul made to the Ecotec was opening up the ring gaps and adding some ARP main studs and a Step 2 Mess camshaft. The top end is just as basic, with Paul using MLS head gaskets and head studs when he ran the L67 heads, intake manifold and blower to the Ecomang. The supercharger is fitted with a small mess pulley, which Paul said makes about 11-12psi by swapping out the lower balance for the eight-rib item.
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“I’ve been playing with 5.0-liters for most of my life, and this car had a blown 355 stroker from Vortech that I now put into my VS GTSR replica race car,” said Paul. said “So with those engines being expensive, I decided to play with a super six instead.”
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The rest of the driveline is just the original 4L60 ‘box and converter, with some 3.7:1 gears fitted with the original live axle diff. Engine management is also old school, with a Delco ECU that Paul tunes with some basic hacking software – which means no dyno data to report.
“The original MAF is still on display. It actually uses a 2-bar sensor instead,” he said. “We ran it down here on E85, but I think for the trip back to Sydney we’ll tune it to 98 and take it easy.”
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Oh, yeah, have we mentioned it yet? Paul drove the VS down from Sydney, raced it to Heathcote and drove it home. so cool!
Other notable modifications include a 70mm throttle body and intake, dual 2.5-inch exhausts and 28×9 rear slicks for track use.
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Our viewers Massacre The YouTube show will know we’ve been messing around with the 3.8-litre supercharged V6s in our L67-swapped VN Berlina, which was also at the Holden Nationals this weekend and achieved a fresh PB of 12.74@107mph. What did
Paul revealed. “I saw what he did and that’s what led me to Mace, who had everything I needed to build this.”
The 2022 Holden Nationals was Paul’s second run at the event, having competed in last year’s round in his 355ci plastic-powered VS GTSR replica, which runs deep into the nines.
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A replica of Paul’s King215 GTSR at the Holden Nationals last year
We’ll be keeping a close eye to see if he can better the PBs for both his VS Commodores, and we’ll have full coverage from the Holden Nationals in the April issue. Street Machine When it hits the shelf on March 24.
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