A casual conversation among mates was the unlikely seed that sprouted Josh Sergi’s stunningly executed VK Brock tribute. “I was talking with some friends, and the discussion came up that we hadn’t seen many Brock replicas done in black,” Josh says. That was all it took – in an instant, his entire vision for the car changed.

First published in the March 2025 issue of Street Machine

At that stage, Josh had already owned his VK for five years, during which time he’d transformed it into a tidy Blue Meanie tribute sporting a tubbed rear, white Simmons FRs, a very healthy tunnel-rammed 383ci Iron Lion, and TUFGMH plates. Certainly nothing to sneeze at.

But that convo changed everything. Three days later, Josh had the VK stripped to a bare shell. There were so many parts strewn around his garage that the car could barely be rolled out. But Josh knew there was method in the madness; not only was he dead-set on re-inventing the car in black, but he was also determined to have it ready for Street Machine Summernats 37 – then just six short months away.

“My first call was to Mick at Old Skool Restos,” Josh says. “I told him it had to be done in under six months, and he said, ‘I’ll make it happen’.”

Despite the relatively short timeframe Mick had to iron out the VK’s body and dress it in a smart new black suit, he didn’t cut any corners – you simply can’t with black, as it exposes even the tiniest imperfection. The photos speak to the quality of his work; the VK’s paint is mile-deep; the bodywork, flawless.

Even though Simon Judd at Elite Custom Interiors had kitted the car out with an all-new, Group A-style interior just two years prior, Josh was determined to have the inside match its now-impeccable outside, so he tasked Simon with giving it all a thorough clean-up while also incorporating a few new additions, such as the custom boot fit-out.

Chassis-wise, the Commodore was already fully sorted. The rear had been tubbed to accommodate the big Simmons wheels and 335-wide rubber, which hung from a custom four-link set-up by Profab with QA1 coil-overs, abetted by XYZ coil-over struts up front.

Similarly, the lump in the engine bay was already plenty tough. “I wanted to keep the car all Holden; that’s why I stuck with the Holden V8 and BorgWarner diff rather than the usual LS and nine-inch,” Josh says.

Built by the late Sam Fenech from Westend Performance, the weapons-grade Iron Lion had been stretched to 383ci via a COME forged crank swinging Callies rods and CP slugs. Other goodies included a solid-roller cam, –9 Yella Terra alloy heads, Ferrea valves, PSI springs, Smith Brothers pushrods, 2200cc injectors, a Bain Racing sheet-metal tunnel ram and a pair of 4150 EFI throttlebodies.

However, Josh shrewdly took advantage of the engine being out to ship it back to Rob at Westend for a freshen-up, which naturally incorporated a few upgrades. Rob certainly gave it the business, as the refreshed stroker twisted the needle past 700hp on the dyno while spinning to a glorious 8500rpm redline.

Josh also gave the mill a whole new look. The old black was stripped off the heads, fuel pump, oil pump, intake and every possible bracket, and all of it was then buffed to a mirror finish by Paul from Cortyas Metal Polishing. The exception was the new rad from South Coast Radiators, which was painted two-pack black and finished to the same high standard as the body.

The Profab crew had done a host of fab work for the VK’s first build, and in the push to the finish line for the second one, they dropped everything to get the re-installed engine and rebuilt TH400 plumbed up and ready to rumble.

The wheels were one of the final pieces of the re-imagined VK’s puzzle. “I wanted something different, something nobody else had, so I started talking to Showwheels,” Josh says. “Settling on their forged, three-piece Dial design wasn’t the easiest of decisions, as I hadn’t seen them on any car before; it was hard to imagine what they would look like.” We’re sure Josh has no regrets, as the striking 20×8 and 22×12 rims firmly establish that this VK is not to be trifled with.

The last item on Josh’s very long to-do list was sending the car to Blake at Wicked Reflectionz, who worked non-stop to get that sexy black body looking a million bucks before sealing it with ceramic coating. He also blackened the underside and gave every painted or polished part a fastidious going-over until every inch had that attention-grabbing pop.

Blake also decided that the car sat too high and needed to be dropped for its big reveal, so Josh gave him the go-ahead to wind down the adjustable coil-overs to slam the car as close to the ground as possible.

Five weeks out from the VK’s Summernats 37 debut, Josh got an email asking if he wanted to unveil the car at the event. “I was over the moon, as I’d never thought of my VK as an Elite car,” he says. “But getting a car unveiled was on my bucket list – as was getting featured in Street Machine!”

If BLKTIE is indicative of what Josh and his talented helpers can achieve in only six months, we can’t wait to see how his ongoing, Elite-level EH wagon build turns out! Josh is determined to have that unveiled at Summernats in 2027, so watch this space!

JOSH SERGI
1984 VK COMMODORE

THANKS
Old Skool Restos; Westend Performance; Elite Custom Interiors; Profab; Elite Electrical; Showwheels; Muffler Centre; Wicked Reflectionz; Cortyas Metal Polishing; Figtree Automotive Transmissions; South Coast Radiators; Tony’s Prestige Smash Repairs; Tic Automotive; all my close friends; most importantly, my wife Niassa and daughters Madi, Ayla and Indie.