There are many reasons people build a hot streeter. For some, it’s restoring a family heirloom or completing that dream build. For others, it’s simply to have some fun with mates. Sabri Besim’s VK Calais build started as the latter category, but it’s since evolved into something much bigger.

First published in the May 2026 issue of Street Machine

Sab was a regular at Performance Car Mania and Easter Car Mania — two massive events of yore held at Winton Raceway in northern Victoria. “Back around 2017, I was looking for an all-’round street car that could be used for track events like PCM and ECM,” he explains. When a green-over-silver VK Calais was listed in Sydney with an LS1 already fitted, Sab bought it almost straight away and had it delivered to MNS Automotive, operated by his mate Emilio. For a bit more grunt than the standard LS1 had to offer, Emilio and the guys pulled off the top end and gave it a lumpy cam, ported heads, a carby set-up and MSD ignition.

“It worked flawlessly,” Sab says. “It did event after event, and even some burnout competitions. It was old-school style, and it was loving life until one of the last events of the year, where we hurt the engine.”

This sidelined the Calais for a few years, until a conversation with Street Machine regular Danny Howe got the creative juices flowing again. The Howe Automotive boys suggested more cubes, a big turbo and a switch back to EFI. “There was always one rule,” Sab says. “It had to always stay a street car, no matter what.”

Sab didn’t want some stripped-out monster that wasn’t a joy to drive, especially with his growing family — he wanted something he could enjoy with others, including his kids.

“I knew it had to be a ground-up build, so we put a plan together,” Sab says. “It would stay LS, but turbocharged with a fat rear end, clean paint and a complete rewire.”

With this in mind, Sab knew which shops he wanted involved, starting the VK’s whirlwind tour at PSIDUP Fabrications. There, the team fabricated a full ’cage and a new rear end with big tubs, a 3.5:1-geared nine-inch diff and some pretty slick-looking sheet metal. They also fabricated a basic turbo kit, using flipped LSA exhaust manifolds and a G42 turbo.

With the metal complete, the shell was shipped to Foxy at Avondale Motors for bodywork and paint. The Avondale crew started by shaving all the door locks and deleting the fuel cap before smoothing everything off and coating the lot in a custom blue that looks sharp as hell, especially when combined with the silver underpinnings that help define a VK Calais.

New glass from EW Windscreens and Weld V-Series rollers completed the outside, while Chris from Race Wires went through the whole car to ready it for a new LS combo. Con at Pro Race Engines was building the new combo in the meantime, using top-shelf stuff. A Callies crank, Oliver rods and CP pistons went into an LSX block, with a custom Crow cam completing the bottom end. Up top are Brodix heads and a Plazmaman billet intake.

Everything went back to Howe Automotive to be pieced together, and then Sab’s brother, Sam at Proclass Detailing, worked his magic to get it up to the standard you see here.

With the Calais up and running on a factory GM ECU, the new 408ci mill punched out more than 940hp at just 16.5psi on pump E85. Anyone will tell you that’s a solid number for the street, but it wasn’t too long before Sab wanted to give it a hit at the track, so he headed up to Heathcote. The results didn’t disappoint.

“Literally on the first pass, it went 8.80 or something,” Sab recalls. “I would have been happy with a nine; I was thinking a nine-second VK on the street would be plenty, so I was rapt.”

After a few more passes and some tweaks via the eBoost2 controller from Jason Kenny at LS1PWR, the Calais was down to an 8.5@158mph, but the G42 turbo was starting to hold the car back.

“Since we were up for a bigger turbo, I thought we might as well do some upgrades while we had some downtime and then chase a seven-second pass,” Sab says. Naturally, the upgrades included more than a turbo; extra Dodge Hellcat-spec Walbro 525 pumps were added to the fuel system, plus FuelTech injectors and a Haltech R3 ECU. “That’s the best thing I ever did,” Sab enthuses of the R3. “A Haltech in a car like this — mate, I couldn’t believe it. The way it runs, the safety of it, just everything.”

Sab also had Curt’s Performance & Fab build a new turbo kit, incorporating some KillaBoost manifolds and a Jonny Tig intercooler. With the Haltech wired in and a new Pulsar 8894G turbo bolted up, Ben at D’Annello Performance in Hallam got to tuning, and it wasn’t long before the guys saw over 1341hp at around 24psi on Tunnel Vision’s hub dyno. Sab headed back to Heathcote to see what the beast was now capable of, but things weren’t as smooth as last time.

“We kept losing cam sync at the track,” Sab says. “So, we had to make a decision to pack it in or risk it for the biscuit, and on the last pass of the night, it all came together — 7.85@171mph through the muffler, and still with some misses due to sync issues. I didn’t even pull the ’chute because it felt like it was slow-as, and I was disappointed, but then I came around the corner and everyone was going crazy.”

Sab reckons the crew has solved the issue now, tracing it to a front timing cover that was just a tad too thick, which in turn positioned the cam sensor a little too far out. Now they’ve got that sorted, he’s ticked off a Powercruise and done plenty of fun driving.

“We’ve just been enjoying the car, putting thousands of kays on it,” Sab says. “It loves Powercruise. Our only problem was getting kicked off the track for making too much smoke,” he laughs. “We were in the naughty corner!”

Like many Melbourne racers, Sab is waiting for the ex-Heathcote Park Raceway to re-open as Victorian Motorsports Park, so he can make one or two more solid passes and maybe add some gas into the mix.
“All I want is one clean pass,” Sab says. “I don’t even care if it goes slower — it just needs to do one clean pass, and if we’re happy with it, we’ll chuck some nitrous at it.” And while we’re not sure the car needs any chemical assistance, who are we to say what should happen next?

Sab reckons he might retire the VK from racing after its next mission. “It’s a street car — that’s one rule we’ve kept from the beginning,” he says. “The car weighs over 1550kg without me in it, and we don’t change a single thing to race it, besides hooking up the parachute. So after this, I might throw a sunroof in it and cruise the wheels off.”

SABRI BESIM
1986 HOLDEN VK CALAIS

THANKS
Sam at Proclass Detailing; Danny at Howe Performance; Ben at D’Annello Performance; Jason at LSPWR; Con at Pro Race Engines; Paz at PSIDUP Fabrications; Chris at Race Wires; Matt at GJ Drivelines; Curt at Curt’s Performance & Fab; Jengiz at Dominator; anyone else who lent a hand during the big nights!