STAGE WRITE
BOB KOTMEL
ILOVE naturally aspirated street cars that run quick, and Robert Valastro’s VL Commodore is an outstanding example. Bobby made the first eight-second pass for a street-driven, factory-holden-block V8 at Willowbank in May, when it went 8.97@148mph on ETS P14. The car has since run a best of 8.96@148mph on VP QM25.
What makes this car so incredible is the way it hooks up. The VL runs two-tenths quicker than it should for its mph. According to the Moroso calculator, the 2850lb, 355ci Holden-powered Commodore is making 750hp by ET and 720hp by mph – an honest 2hp per cube any way you look at it.
Tony Brinkley at Brinks Performance in Townsville has had a lot to do with getting the Holden to hang together at 9000rpm. A VS block was fitted with M&W four-bolt caps, a knife-edged and lightened Scat billet crank, sixinch Oliver I-beam rods, 30thou-over forged CP 13.1:1 custom pistons, and file-back rings. John Barbagallo fitted the lifter bushes to the VS block, which was grout-filled to the Welch plugs.
The Holden –9 heads were done by Bullet Race Engineering, and the 2.1-inch Del West titanium intake valves flow 365cfm at .700in lift. Manley 1.6-inch stainless valves are fitted to the exhaust. The Tony Brinkley-selected custom-grind Crane cam has around 260 degrees duration at 50thou and .700in lift on 108-inch lobe centres. Jesel 1.7:1 intake and 1.6:1 exhaust shaft-mounted roller rockers open the valves.
A Ray Edwards modified 1050cfm single fourbarrel carb on a modified two-inch, four-holed spacer sits atop the Torque Power Pro Paw 4150 intake manifold. The MSD crank trigger is set at 29 degrees and fires the NGK-8 plugs via a MSD6AL-2, MSD coil and MSD leads.
Holden V8 strokers are notorious for oil issues, so Bobby uses a belt-driven Savy external oil
pump with an ASR wet sump fitted with mesh, windage tray, gates, crank scrapers and –12 lines. When the VL was raced initially, Bobby filled the ASR wet sump with 9.5 litres of oil for a best of 136mph. The oil volume was then dropped to seven litres, and the reduction in oil drag was so significant, the carb needed to be re-jetted – and the car then went 142mph. The vacuum pump is a three-vane Star unit.
Tony Brinkley organised a lightweight threespeed Pro Trans TH350 from the States. Behind the stock TH350 bellhousing is an eight-inch Dominator Eliminator 6200rpm stall converter set up so tight that it pushes through the brakes at 2000rpm. Out back is a Pro9 nine-inch fitted with Strange 35-spline axles, Strange carrier and 4.57:1 gears. The 15x9 Weld rear wheels are shod with 28x9in Mickey Thompson radials, while up front, 15x4 Weld wheels are fitted with Moroso front-runners.
The VL has been fitted with Pro9 adjustable brackets top and bottom, Pro9 control arms and anti-roll bar. The Afco coil-overs in the rear are Gazzard Brothers-supplied, along with the Santhuff front struts.
The jump from low nines into high eights came from an experiment with collectors. The headers are custom-made stepped four-into-ones – 1/8inch
7 out of the head for the first eight inches, then two inches for around 26 inches. Bobby initially used a Burns 3½-inch merge collector, but when he swapped it for a modified Aeroflow three-inch item, the Commodore responded with 8.9s. A twin three-inch system with Hooker SS resonators is fitted for street duties. At the track these are easily disconnected using turbo V-clamps.
Lionel Durre built the chrome-moly rollcage, and RCI plastic front seats are used to comply with ANDRA safety rules on race day, along with a parachute, but on the street the Commodore runs on pump 98 and rocks the factory seats. The car still races with the factory rear seat, wind-up glass windows and carpet. To lighten the car, a non-genuine Calais front fibreglass panel was fitted, and a fibreglass bonnet is used for the track. The rest of the panels are factory.
An $80 ebay alloy V6 radiator with plastic tanks is all that’s need to stay cool in the summer heat on the street. The fuel cell in the boot is connected to a high-pressure Aeromotive A1000 fuel pump with –12 lines; –8 fuel lines feed fuel to the front of the car.
These days seven-second turbo street cars are getting all the ink; no one seems to notice the naturally aspirated cars going quick on nature’s own 14psi of atmospheric pressure. It takes a lot of work to make a Holden combo go hard, and Mike at KTMR has spent many hours on the dyno over the past 10 years finding the 700 horses to get Bobby’s VL into the eights.
The Commodore has raced at Willowbank, Benaraby and Palmyra, and even the Holden Nationals in Victoria. One of these days Bobby wants to race at Drag Challenge. If you see him in the pits, say hello and tell him you read about his car in Street Machine.
ROBERT VALASTRO’S VL COMMODORE MADE THE FIRST EIGHT-SECOND PASS FOR A STREET-DRIVEN, FACTORY-HOLDEN-BLOCK V8