Zoom Magazine

Whereas the Commodore has dominated as the leading Australian muscle car for most of the past decade or so, it wasn't until Holden started slotting the imported Gen 111 or LS1 into the VT engine bay that total domination was assured.

In fact it was this premise that led Bob Ellis down the Holden trail some four years ago. Prior to this Bob had been a long standing Ford man who in his youth played with big block Broncos and the like before taking a sabbatical from high performance cars to concentrate on work commitments and to also heavily invest in the demanding life of a weekend fisherman… Yep, Bob has wielded a rod for more years than he would like to remember, and along the way accepted the post of President of the Australian Game Fishing Association.

"Whereas I've always enjoyed fine cars, it wasn't until I read that Holden was set to equip the Commodore with the Gen 111 that I decided the time was right to get back into a fast car," explained Bob who went out and bought one of the HSV's first Gen 111 powered VT R8s.

"Not long after I took delivery of the R8 I heard that HSV was intending launching a 300kW version, but rather than sell my car and buy a 300kW version, I decided to have a look around to see if anyone had the right credentials to bring mine up to speed." He found that person in Simon Gischus of Nizpro, Simon having invested heavily in developing the Gen 111 almost before any other workshops had got into the act.

Confident that Simon could do the job, Bob had him equip the R8 with a MoTeC M8 ecu, camshaft, injectors, and exhaust, with 319 engine kilowatts the result; Nizpro reaping the result having pulled the engine from the car and placing on their in-house engine dyno.

The car ran around in this guise for around six months during which Bob became involved with the HSV club and an interest in motorsport flourished. "I chatted to Simon about what could be done and he felt confident he could build a killer package." Hence the real story begins.

Simon typically prefers not to stroke the Gen 111, and instead increases the capacity via rods and liners. For example, when attacking Bob's engine, he stripped it and removed the factory liners (bores), replacing these with 4.125" liners. Short engine work continues with a new stock oil pump retained in the factory sump, he drills and plugs specific crankshaft oil gallery holes, and tops the factory crank with long stroke 6.125" aftermarket H-beam rods equipped with 3/8" ARP bolts. Fly cut forged Cosworth flat top pistons with JE rings are employed to slide in the bores, which when topped with heavily modified cylinder heads delivers a high 11.4:1 static compression ratio.

Not that the compression has proven a problem, irrespective of the engine being tuned exclusively for 98 octane pump fuel. Facing facts, it all comes down to tuning!

Getting back to the mechanicals, specifically the valve train, Simon has designed his own range of camshafts to suit varying levels of Gen 111 performance, and in this instance employed a Speed Pro double row chain driven hydraulic roller that pumps the valves in excess of .600" for a duration of over 230 degrees @ .050". Factory Holden (Chev) lifters top the bumpy parts and are followed by shortened Speed Pro 'moly push rods and stock, yep stock, rockers.

The latter reside on original cylinder heads containing Nizpro configured ports and chambers, and which deliver greater flow than superseded 18° NASCAR heads. The hardware package includes 2.10" and 1.64" stainless Ferrea valves supported with stock collets, titanium Isky retainers and single with damper springs.

A custom Power Ported alloy inlet manifold tops the valley and draws the intake charge through an 84mm Nizpro throttle body, custom 100mm intake pipe, and original air box with a base mounted Nizpro intake tube. 550cc Bosch injectors handle fuel delivery while fabricated Nizpro four-into-one 1-7/8" headers with 75mm collectors expel waste gasses to the rear of the vehicle through twin 65mm pipes leading to a single 75mm outlet pipe. It sounds absolutely amazing!

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