[PTA SC] HSV VX @ 864Nm

quote:

Supercharging my LS1 Based HSV

The project, get the HSV to be fast, but not spend too much

In June of 2003 I was starting to get a bit bored of the VX series 1 clubsport that I had owned for the last two years. Being a lover of the low end grunt that only a V8 can provide, I saw two choices before me, upgrade to the VY (new model of my car) or give the old girl a "pep up".
So off to the local HSV dealership for a trade in/upgrade quote... after I got up off the floor, I realised that getting a new beast was going to break my little piggy bank in the order of AUD$40K!
So off to investigate plan B, pepping up the beast...

Being someone that loves to drive fast and knows stuff all about cars and parts and all that crap, I hit up some mates, and they said I should blow it. So a call to the lads at CAPA and I was set straight. The go would be to whack in a 7spi Vortech Super Charger, it would yield the best power output of any LS1 blower (I was told ).
They come in kit form with all the bits you need, but I'm a computer nerd that knows nothing about cars, so who should I get to fit it and how much waas this all going to cost?

The Cost
The kit was around $9K and fitment by a local performance car shop was $1K (an excellent price if you ask me)

Considerations
I had to sacrifice the driving lights (as you can see in the photo above), this is to make room for the air intake that you can see just peeking out from behind the passenger side light. Other than that, and a subtle whir at idle, outsiders can't tell what I've done, it's a bit of a sleeper.
I priced an intercooler for it, but at $4K I decided another 30kw or so wouldn't justify the expence, so I am just running her without one.

The Result
An estimated 400kW and 864Nm of torque (*gulp*) at the flywheel. Sounds great, but what does it translate to in driving terms, I mean, just how much faster is it for the $10K I spent? I couldn't find a single website to tell me how much faster it would be while I was doing my research, no one could tell me how it would feel to drive...
After 500kms of running it in, I took the old girl out to a nice straight stretch of straight highway for some 0-100 runs. This is the kind of performance I notice from a car, how quick can it lauch and get moving. I notice this most when I am at the traffic lights and some little pr*ck in his over worked jap crapper with an exhaust the size of a garbage bin is blaring *dush* *dush* music and wanting to have a run...
Pre blower this kind of launch was 5.7secs on a good day if I got it right.
Post Blower, the beast launches hard, and as the revs go up, so does the boost, but not like a turbo, lagging and then coming full on, just building gradually and smoothly with the revs, from 0 to 100 in 4.6 secs. So it shaved a tad over 1 second of her time, or about 30 meteres (six car lengths) in a 0-100 drag. Quite a lot really.
How does it feel? The first time you run it up, it is truely scary, the rpm needle flashes from idle to redline in a little over 2 seconds in first gear... it starts slow, but as the revs increase so does boost and so does acceleration, so as you go, it just pulls more G's, and more G's and the needle is just leaping forward faster and faster until you freak out and change gears, and when you pop the clutch out and accelerate, it completely looses traction, sending you a little sideways, nothing a jab on the steering wheel can't fix, back off on the pedal a little and you regain traction and it pops nicely upto 100 km/h.
It's a lot more urgent, a lot more brutal and one hell of a fun ride!
Of equal importance to me was that the car behave well as a daily driver, does it idle well and drive around at 2k rpm like the gentleman it was before. To my surprise, it does. It idles smooth and down low it drives like it used to, push it above 2500 rpm and it starts to feel a little more urgent, go higher and the difference gets greater and greater as you go, as does the level of excitment

Worth it?
Every cent, it's taken a fairly fast car that went like a 5.7L V8 and made it a hairy balled beast that is still a joy as a daily driver. I would definitely do it again

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