<\/span>\u201cAs a joke my wife said: \u2018Why don\u2019t you put a V8 in it?\u2019\u201d Con says. \u201cThat got me thinking, so I asked my mate Elvio Gonzalez what he thought and he said: \u2018It\u2019ll be cheaper to put a V8 in it than rebuild the two-litre.\u2019\u201d They bought a VH Commodore to strip out the five-litre engine and trans, then got Peter Cleary to fit it all into the van. Throw in a nine-inch diff from Craft Differentials and all of a sudden the guys had the quickest plumber\u2019s van in Sydney. Over time the carby 308 was swapped out for an EFI VN-headed five-litre tuned by Injection Perfection, and with a 125hp nitrous shot the L300 was blasting its way to low 11-second quarters \u2013 the best run was 11.2@122mph.<\/p>\nWith a 625rwhp twin-turbo iron-block LS setup, this has got to be the fastest tradie van on the planet<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":10397,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3177],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/mitsubishi-van-turbo-ls-6-nw.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10396"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10396"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=10396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/span>As quick as that was, Con didn\u2019t take too long to get used to the power and started looking around for the next upgrade. Elvio suggested they put an LS engine into the van, so the little bus went back to Peter Cleary\u2019s for the heavy engineering. Elvio built a stout engine combo using a cast-iron truck block and filling it with all the good gear from Eagle, SRP, AFR and FAST. On the dyno the engine made 625hp, tuned by Gokhan at LSX Tuning \u2013 it\u2019s no slouch.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Back at the track the van went 10.10@131mph, but Con still wasn\u2019t satisfied. \u201cI was going to put nitrous on it,\u201d he says, \u201cbut Elvio suggested we go with two turbos. \u2018Twins are more fun,\u2019 he said.\u201d This kicked off a fresh three-year build that would see the Mitsubishi getting a major upgrade; it headed back to Peter Cleary\u2019s again, then off to NSC Racing, where Con and his mates Dennis and Gerry pulled it down, and now they\u2019re in the process of putting it all back together. The whole thing has been resprayed with a fresh coat of white and there\u2019s a full \u2019cage to suit its eight-second potential.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Twin 62mm turbos have been mounted to the chassis underneath; one either side of the Powerglide\u2019s output shaft. The turbos are just cheap Chinese units, and their low position under the van dictates the use of a Tilton differential cooler pump to drain the oil away. With the turbos positioned away from the engine bay, there\u2019s no real need for an intercooler.<\/p>\n
<\/span>The guys reckon the van has the capability to get into the eights, but they\u2019re not quite sure how hard they want to push the wild little machine. After all, its short wheelbase and tall height means it\u2019s not the most stable of race cars. Whatever it runs, it\u2019s sure to be a wild ride.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"