Vehicle Tests > The Incredible Hulk: Commodore Ute

To really poke eyes out at shows (and to make it more capable offroad) the Holden has been lifted using a catalog of Rancho and King suspension components, further enhanced and installed by 4WD specialists Wizard Performance on the Gold Coast. Just about everything in sight - and with the height of this Commodore, there's plenty to see - has been painted in either black or Hothouse. No one could miss those 15x10-inch American Racing wheels, either, wrapped in 39.5 Super Swampers. Soon to come is a bank of Lightforce day-makers.

Muscling up
There's not much comparison between a cast-iron Nissan diesel and Holden's 5.7-litre all-alloy LS1-spec V8. This relatively light and punchy engine, shared with the US Corvette, has a solid reputation with vehicle modifiers, including a growing number of 4WDers who transplant them into Patrols and LandCruisers. The engine isn't a 'transplant' in this body, as such, but its fitment to the Patrol's five-speed transmission and chassis rails is. Off-the-shelf, Mark's 4WD Adapters adapter plates were used for the engine/gearbox interface. Gary made the mounts to shift the transmission forward and up by several inches for engine to firewall clearance and the Patrol's shifter required work to enter the cabin in the right place. New driveshafts were required, too. Apart from the second lever up through the floor, the interior is the SS's standard plaid green and black cloth.

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As if being powered by one of Australia's healthiest factory V8s wasn't enough, Gary's has a supercharger. Designed in Melbourne and installed by Michael at Elite Performance the Harrop Engineering upgrade uses a replacement intake manifold, complete with intercooler, to mount a positive-displacement 'charger in the 'V' of the V8. Harrop's design mounts the blower back-tofront, driven from a jackshaft within the standard LS1's accessory drive loop. This layout eliminates the need for extra pulleys and retains the throttle body in an almoststandard location at the front of the engine. Local Gold Coast performance specialists ChipTorque tweaked the Holden management computer to deliver the extra fuel required to stack around 50 percent more grunt onto the 250-ish kilowatts of the factory SS.

And yep, it goes. Despite his desire to keep it clean for shows (judges deduct points from dirty cars) Gary showed no hesitation in blasting us around the roads near his rural home and out into a nearby 4WD/motocross park. Gary was keen to keep his custom body panels away from damage, so avoided deep ruts, but stabbed the big green monster up a couple of loose, rocky hills.

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