JUMP IN THE DEEP END

Who’d pull apart a reasonably new vehicle, in perfect working order, with the aim of finding more power and doing all the work themself? Glenn Rae is who, and the car in question is his 2008 Holden VE Commodore SS V. The Commodore runs its standard six-litre L98 engine with a 6L80E trans, to which Glenn has fitted a 2800rpm stall from Roadblaster Australia. But that’s just the start of it, as you’ll no doubt tell by the jewellery sticking through the bonnet. It started with a simple camshaft swap, but, as Glenn puts it, “I figured that since I was fitting a cam, [that I’d] … do everything else right the first time.” Sourcing a cam from Kelford Cams, Glenn is very complimentary to Josh, who provided all the information and advice that he needed, before he’d even started.

“I’ve personally done all the work myself, fitting a [rocker] trunnion upgrade in a vice using sockets as a press,” Glenn adds. “They were sourced from Mace Engineering in Australia, as the original needle-roller bearings are a potential failure waiting to happen.”

This led to hardened pushrods and upgraded LS3 lifters through Crow Cams, along with a Rollmaster single-row timing chain.

But the most obvious modification is the Proflow tunnel ram with twin Proflow throttle bodies, which is something we haven’t seen done here before.

“Would I advise anyone to give something like this a go? No — steer clear. Pay someone to do this for you!” he laughs, adding “I’d like to thank my mum for the use of my late father’s garage — I wish he was still around, as his advice would have been handy. He was a very clever man, mechanically.” With his inherited passion for cars, though, we’re sure that Glenn’s gonna have this thing sorted and ready to make some noise in the very near future.