STEVEN ADOLPH
Hi Steven, that’s a tough Crewman you’ve got. Why’d you go for it? Thanks. I wanted something different. I was brought up in a V8 Holden home — Mum and Dad always had V8 Holdens, like the good old factory 308 HQ. In 1979, Dad bought his first brand-new Commodore — an SL/E with a factory 308. When the VZ Crewman was released in 2004, there was something about it that I loved, as a four-door V8powered ute, and I just wanted one. Having been a builder — although I don’t work as one now — I’ve always liked the idea of a practical ute like this, and, with it being a V8, who wouldn’t?
Did you buy this one back then, or was it a more recent acquisition? Oh, I got this one a couple of years ago. I spotted it for sale at one of the dealerships, and went in to have a look. I didn’t intend to buy it, but, an hour later, it had found a new home with me.
Meant to be, huh? Yeah, I’d had a look at a few, but they were all wrecked and had had a hard life. This one was in mint condition and stock standard, with an LS1, four-speed auto, and LSD. After I’d bought it, I found out that I knew the mechanic who had done all the work on it previously — Wayne at ProTune Automotive. Since then, he has done all the tuning on it, via Chris at Pro-Street Performance.
Sounds like the perfect blank canvas. Obviously, it didn’t stay stock for long? Nah, I hadn’t owned it for too long before I got a lowering kit installed. I drove it around for about a month, but the kit didn’t really work. I took it to Chris at Pro-Street Performance to sort out, and it’s actually been raised to stop the driveshaft from rubbing on the fuel tank — these utes were built to carry heavy loads not as hot rods. That was maybe a year ago, and Chris has sorted the suspension out. It’s been raised a little more to make the ride better, but it’s still got the nice lowered look that any Holden ute should have — and, of course, that exhaust is music to the ears!
It sounds really angry for what it is, so our guess is that it’s now had more than just exhaust work done to it? Oh yeah; about seven months ago, it went back to Chris. He installed the big cam package with a few goodies, did even more work to the exhaust, and installed an over-the-radiator [OTR] intake and a set of Gilmer belt drive pulleys. It’s had the headers done, and a full retune by Wayne.
That’s a pretty decent upgrade. What was done to get the exhaust tone it’s got now? It’s now running Pacemaker headers, with a Coby exhaust. The overall system was changed around five times before we got an exhaust tone we were happy with. Because it’s a Crewman, we had to try