SYDNEY bloke Phil Mizzi is a latecomer to the world of Volkswagens, but he has set the online Kombi world alight with his ratty-looking ’54 single cab ute dubbed Grover.

While it looks like a rat, the engineering under the grime is second-to-none and the horsepower quotient is off the charts! The project started life as a rusty stocker, so Phil sent it to the gurus at Das Resto Haus to remove the rust, while carefully retaining the car’s lovely patina.

Then it was off to Paul Sant at Pro Flo Performance to turn the Kombi into a genuine race car. The boys treated Grover to a roll cage, boxed chassis rails, radically modified suspension and plenty of strengthening throughout.

With that done, they set about upping the horsepower quotient. Rather than fitting a V8, Phil opted to stick with the VW heritage and had Paul build one serious flat four. Based around an Autocraft block, the motor displaces at whopping (for a four-pot) 2854cc and is woken up by an intercooled Harrop HTV2300 supercharger.

A dry sump system, under-belly oil cooler and a massive radiator for the intercooler means that the Kombi will be able to handle Powercruise-style events, not just quarter mile dashes. It is an amazing build, so feast your eyes on the picks or check out the whole yarn in the June 2014 of our digital mag.