First published in the March 2009 issue of Street Machine

There’s something about the superbly understated look of a clean early-girl Commodore slung low over a sweet set of rollers that really does the trick. It’s even better when it packs the punch to match the presence. With a 355-cube Holden stroker sucking back on a cool 14lb per square inch of compressed air from a Vortech V2 pump, Leigh Whyte’s VH is blessed with equal measures of show and go.

“When I bought the car it had the stock carby 308 and factory SL/E trim with a set of HDT MOMO rims,” Leigh says of the now stunning streeter. “I’ve been playing with it ever since.”

Like so many before it, the build began with what was intended as a quick tidy-up.

“I noticed a bit of rust in the sills, so I booked it into Hattam Street Body Repairs to get it fixed up. They found a bit more rust and repaired some other minor damage, and by the time all that was fixed I said: ‘Let’s paint the whole lot!’”

The Hattam Street boys didn’t need to be told twice, lovingly laying on the Botanica Mica duco the car now wears. Subscribing to the ‘less is more’ approach, they left the body unmolested, just de-badged and arrow straight, and it’s a good look. With the exterior sharp-dressed in an updated colour, the standard issue trim was suddenly very 1982. With its power windows and new-fangled trip computer the SL/E interior was the duck’s guts back in the day but fast forward two-and-a-half decades and it’s about as trendy as your grandma.

Dantrim was chosen for the retrim, and looking at the finished product it’s little wonder that Leigh trusted the crew with the job.

“Adrian, being the bandit he is, couldn’t wait to get his teeth into this project,” Leigh says, “so we purchased the leather, suede and the Monaro seats for the front and rear.”

When you crack open the driver’s door, the custom-trimmed Monaro chairs are the first things you notice but Leigh says they were an easy fit compared to some of the other custom touches that adorn the cabin. The dash in particular is a quality piece of work — it’s the stock item modified almost beyond recognition and filled with Auto Meter gauges.

“The standard SL/E dash was stripped, reshaped, smoothed and covered in leather. We rounded all the corners to keep it flowing, and shaped it to perfection over many hours and a lot of cans!” Leigh laughs.

Kim Tuohey of Grub Performance machined up the shifter knob and matching surround, along with the brake and accelerator pedals and — of all things — a custom hazard light button!

“I saw what he’d done and I said: ‘Jeez mate, you didn’t have to do that for me!’” Leigh says.

A bespoke parcel shelf mirrors the profile of the rear seat, while the flat leather floors and custom door trims round out a cockpit catapulted into the 21st century.

The VH then made a long-awaited return to the street, relying on an injected five-litre transplant with a Vortech supercharger for added mumbo. While it was no slouch, the thirst for more horsepower eventually caught up with Leigh and the decision was taken to shift the powerplant to the next level.

That turned out to be well-timed — when the boosted 304 was stripped to be stretched to 355ci, it was revealed as a ticking time-bomb. “There was play in the cam and the crank. It was ready to chuck a leg out of bed,” Leigh says.

Reliability was the order of the day for the new donk but with no compromise on horsepower; “I wanted to drive it to the drags, race it, and drive it home.” Seems fair enough.

The block was treated to Eagle H-beam rods swinging from a forged Eagle crank, topped with forged Sportsman Racing slugs. The pistons were the Achilles’ heel of the whole process; Leigh struggled to source suitable low compression blower-spec items and the search meant the engine build was held up by a whole month.

Cast VN-style heads flow well from the factory but when ported, flowed and filled with 2.02in inlet and 1.8in exhaust valves, they really step up. A Crow hydraulic cam with 234deg duration calls the shots, while quality valvetrain components keep everything where it should be when it should be there. The V2 Vortech sings to the tune of 14psi, feeding boost into the hungry 355 through polished inlet piping, a front-mounted air-to-air intercooler and a COME twin-throttlebody manifold.

While the engine was being pieced together, Leigh made the most of the empty bay. His mate Harley stripped and smoothed it before Hattam Street Smash was again called upon, painting it as neatly as the outside. Then in went the new engine, backed by a fully manualised Trimatic fitted with a 3000rpm converter.

“Once the motor was in and wired, we took it for a road test with the bonnet off and it went very well — smiles all ’round!”

As it’s still in the run-in stages, the new combo is yet to punish the dyno rollers but Leigh reckons it’s producing somewhere between 350 and 400kW (470–530hp) at the treads. You’d have to be pretty happy with that.

LEIGH WHYTE
1982 HOLDEN VH SL/E COMMODORE

THANKS
Kim Tuohey, Grub Performance; Adrian Kean, Dantrim; Harley Kean; Hattam Street Body Repairs; Jason, Cars Auto Electrical; wife Vicki, daughter Alexis, brother Justin.