the article

8/71 LS2 STROKER GTS
Words by Sam Hollier Pics by Ralf Schubert
TONY HAS HAD HIS SETBACKS ALONG THE WAY, BUT
THE END RESULT OF THIS DEMANDING HSV GTS
PROJECT IS A BLOWN LS2 STROKER MONSTER BUILT
TO SLAUGHTER ALL IN ITS PATH AT MAJOR EVENTS
EXCESSIVE
wWWW.STREETCOMMODORES.COM
27
8/71 LS2 STROKER GTS
e would like to
start this story
by saying that
this is not a
race car. Nor
is this a show
car. And it is certainly not able to get
away with being a street car in this
current confi guration. What it has
become is an event car, the type of
machine built to be awesome and
awe inspiring and rock people socks
off when it gets driven at events like
Motorvation and Powercruise.
The plan didn’t start with that
intention though. In fact the plan didn’t
even start with this car. “What was
supposed to be a head-and-cammed
VZ Clubsport ended up being a blown,
methanol, VE GTS” starts Tony Mazzitelli. “I original had a mate of dad’s
car lined up which was a 2006 VZ
Clubsport which had only 11,000km,
but after mum got her VE SS and I saw
it I knew it had to be a VE or nothing,
but I didn’t want an SS, it had to be an
HSV. So we went looking and found
an R8 and a GTS, but the R8 had a side
repainted so I was unsure if it was
involved with a side-on smash or not.
The dealer cut me a deal if we took the
car then and there he would give the
W
GTS to me for the same price so we
signed the papers without hesitation.”
As you can see the original plan
changed a lot, but it didn’t just skip
to the end result in one fell swoop,
it progressed there gradually over a
few years since that purchase in 2010.
“After having the car two months it
got sent to a mechanic to get heads
and cam put in but it didn’t stop there.
While the motor was out we discussed
a stroker and it started getting rebuilt
with a 408ci bottom end in it with all
the fruit, triple plate clutch, VCM twintank fuel system, etc.”
Tony patiently left the car in the
shop to be worked on and the end result was 520rwhp. Having just spent his
money obtaining that kind of mumbo,
as you can imagine he was pretty keen
to give it a hiding as soon as he got in it.
“After waiting almost 10 months to get
the car back I shattered the triple-plate
clutch that was in it the night I picked
it up. I couldn’t be bothered with the
headaches of a manual and breaking
axles, clutches, etc, so I knew it was
time to go auto. It got sent back to the
same place that built the motor and I
sourced a TH-400 and converter from
my mate Simon and Allfast converters
and a 3-inch tailshaft from Final Drive.
Dad and I fitted the B&M Pro Ratchet
shifter to the car and he made a custom surround that makes the shifter
look like it was a factory fit.”
This all seemed like the perfect
solution, but his plans were thwarted
by mechanical failure once again.
“When I got the car back I took it out
that night and snapped the flexplate.
So I started looking into stronger
and better flexplates and got a TCI
flexplate which fixed the problem of
it breaking and twisting.”
Tony was hopeful that he had
resolved all his mechanical issues and
took the car off to its first event, or so
he thought. “First Motorvation for the
car and the problems started. First was
a leaking gearbox leaving me stuck on
the freeway driving there and no one
wanted to help as they didn’t have time
to get the car in and give it a check overr
as to why it was leaking so much. So a
quick last minute call to Jeff (Johnson)
to see if he could help me out, and he
and the rest of the Streetbuilt crew
were there within 15 minutes, car
jacked up on the freeway sorting the
issue out and getting it running again.”
Tony was thoroughly impressed with
Streetbuilt’s willingness to help, especially since they hadn’t built the car.
The interior is
mostly standar
d (although it
seems wrong
to use that te
rm for an HSV
GTS cabin) wi
th some mino
r additions lik
the harness an
e
d custom gaug
e pods
20in E3 GTS
wheels look
tough in
gloss black
28
wWWW.STREETCOMMODORES.COM
wWWW.STREETCOMMODORES.COM
29
Unfortunately however, other damage
had already been done and no amount of
enthusiasm on the freeway was going to
fix it without the correct part. “I was out
that weekend due to the shifter cable
resting on the exhaust. It melted and I
couldn’t source a cable in time.” So that,
sadly, was the end of that.
“After Motorvation it was parked up
for a couple of months until I got around
to sorting the cable and a few other
things out. It got sent to Dim at CPR Automotive who is a good friend of dad’s.
Not happy with the performance and it
running like a pig, Dim gave it a retune,
a new converter from Allfast and a
check over. The car went like an animal;
it never felt so strong and never killed
tyres the way it does.”
By the time Motorvation came around
again everything was fine until the end of
the event. “The car killed tyres the whole
weekend, even after burning top gear in
the box on the Sunday it still went out
and did one last skid in top gear before
loading it on the trailer.”
Used and abused, the car was fi xed
again and then Tony got the hunger
for more. “Three months went by and
I wanted more power” he exclaimed.
“I knew it had to be supercharged
and it had to be big. Our two options
were an F2 Procharger with a custom
manifold or an 8/71. I couldn’t go past
the look of a blower and hat out the
bonnet. So I did a bit of searching and
looking into it and ordered the blower
direct from the States.”
Tony then played musical engines
for a short time. “While I was waiting on
parts I pulled the stroker out and sent
it to my good mate Jeff at Streetbuilt
Racing who stripped it down and made
the necessary changes to the stroker.
While the car had no heart I dropped a
cammed LS2 that Jeff built for me and
that was my daily until I sourced the rest
of the parts. After getting the motor back
I had the hat and blower sitting in my
room next was a manifold I looked everywhere for a decent manifold but couldn’t
find one so I got in touch with Shaun at
Shaun’s Custom Alloy who made me a
full custom sheet-metal manifold suited
for what I needed.”
Up until this point the car had been
silver, and on the outside it still looked
like an original GTS. “After getting all the
parts the cammed LS2 got pulled out,
but before we dropped the stroker back
in myself and good friend Joe at Kustom
Panel and Paint thought it would be a
good idea to give it a new look with the
new combo so the car got rolled into
their shop and it got stripped down to a
shell. We wanted it bright and to stand
out. We went with a House of Kolor
bright yellow then we layed a gold rush
pearl over the top followed by a (PPG)
Vibrance Liquid Crystal top coat. The
rims ended up going matte black as well
as the whole motor going matte black.
After hours and hours of painting and Joe
cursing the colour it got a final brush and
pushed into the sun and it did what we
wanted; it sparkled.”
415 cubic inches of LS2 stroker, an
8/71 Littlefield blower, a complicated methanol injection setup, and so
much power that it just blows the
back tyres off it in any gear
“
I COULDN’T GO
PAST THE LOOK
OF A BLOWER
AND HAT OUT
THE BONNET
– TONY
“
8/71 LS2 STROKER GTS
s the engine
el cell feed -coated braded
The 75L fu
on
fl
Te
0
via -1
There
methanol
sized line.
turns via -8
line and re om 5L surge tank
st
is also a cu
wWWW.STREETCOMMODORES.COM
31
“
8/71 LS2 STROKER GTS
IT’S JUST AN
ANIMAL. TOP GEAR
FRIES TYRES
HARD ON THE
DYNO NO MATTER
WHAT – TONY
NITTY-GRITTY
SUSPENSION:
OWNER:
BRAKES:
Tony Mazzitelli
VEHICLE:
2007 VE GTS
PAINT:
HOK bright yellow base, then Gold Rush
Pearl, then PPG Vibrance Liquid Crystal
top coat
ENGINE:
TUNES:
LS2 V8, now 6.8L (415ci)
ENGINE MODS:
Block machined and cleaned, Manley
crank, rods and pistons (12.7:1 static
comp’), Comp Cams solid grind (0.64in
lift, 250/[email protected] lift, 113deg lobe sep),
Howards tie-bar lifters, T&D shaft-mount
rockers, Rollmaster double timing chain,
billet oil pump, ported heads, Comp Cams
dual valve springs, billet polished valve
covers, dual catch cans, custom inlet
manifold, Littlefield teflon-tipped 8/71
supercharger, Enderle bug catcher, EFI and
mechanical injection (methanol)
“
4-into-1 headers (1 7/8in primaries), XForce twin 3in system with three mufflers
GEARBOX:
Turbo 400 3-speed, B&M shifter, Allfast
convertor, custom tailshaft
DIFF:
Standard GTS LSD, 4.11:1
32
wWWW.STREETCOMMODORES.COM
Armstrong tuned my cam-only LS2 and
he said he was keen to give it a shot.
Our biggest issue was too much fuel
with the jets I had in the hat so we got
the smallest ones we could and after 60
hours of getting it to idle with the setup
and regulate the fuel properly - with the
way it was setup and still run the factory
computer was our goal - but Luke did it.
It’s just an animal; top gear fries tyres
hard on the dyno no matter what.”
By now it was just weeks before Motorvation was due to come around again,
but unfortunately another problem decided to occur. “The balancer decided to
sheer the keyway off the crank and spin
itself off the crank bolt and all. That was
it, couldn’t get a replacement in time.”
They did get the engine fixed again
though. “Two weeks after Motorvation
Rob from House of Power sourced me
another ATI balancer and the car got
sent to Jeff yet again to get it installed
and the crank and balancer got dual
pinned. After firing the car up late on a
Friday night it was alive again.” And with
any luck, this time it will stay that way
for a while.
INTERIOR:
Bonnet removed
EXHAUST:
Now that the body stood out it was
time to get the mechanicals back in. “I
finally got the car back home and myself
and dad dropped the 415ci stroker in
and started putting the manifold and
blower on, getting all the driveline back
into the car. I went and saw Adam at
Cronic Customs to get all the fuel side of
things sorted for it. I sold off the VCM fuel
tank the car had and got a 75L fuel cell
and made it fit in the boot and made a
false floor around it to make it look neat.
Cronic made a 5L surge tank and supplied
me with the Magnafuel fuel pump, filters,
regulator and the Aeroflow fuel pump to
supply a steady flow of methanol. I ran
Teflon braid throughout the whole car and
was almost ready to fire up.”
The fuel system on the engine is
interesting too. “Being a one-off setup
that no one has done before the car is
running eight injectors in the manifold
but it’s also running mechanical injection
in the hat with 10 nozzles and jets and
a K-barrel.” And we’re not the only ones
who think it’s unique, the next challenge
was “I had to find someone willing to
give it a shot and try to tune it. Luke
WHEELS/TYRES:
HSV E3 GTS 20x8.5in and 20x9.5in, Achilles 245/35 and 275/30
Standard GTS black leather, RCI 4-point
harness, custom shifter surround, custom
gauge pod
Untested (but definitely quite a lot)
A custom
shifter surr
ound mak
the B&M ra
es
tchet look
neat
HSV 365mm and 330mm discs with 4-piston calipers
STYLING:
POWER:
The paint is a triple-layered exercise, starting
with HOK bright yellow as the base, then Gold
Rush Pearl over that, then a PPG Vibrance Liquid
Crystal top coat to finish it off
K-Sport coilovers front and rear
Standard head unit, two Pioneer PRS1000D monoblock amp and one Pioneer
PRS-4000 4-channel amp, Pioneer PRS-171
front speakers and Pioneer PRS-131 rear
speakers, two Pioneer iB-Flat subs in
custom ported enclosure
ANYTHING ELSE:
75L fuel cell (false floor around it), custom
5L surge tank, Magnafuel fuel pump,
filters, regulator, Aeroflow fuel pump,
Teflon-coated braided lines (-10 to engine,
-8 return)
WHO’S RESPONSIBLE:
Jeff, Matt and Chad at Streetbuilt Racing
for all the time and effort they have spent
on the car and all the late nights Jeff
has put into it, Joe, Kym and the crew at
Kustom Panel and Paint, Adam Cara and
Dean at Cronic Customs, Luke Armstrong
for tuning the car and solving a few issues
we had, Gonzo at Allfast Converters, big
thanks to dad - couldn’t have done it without him, my good mate Trent for helping
with building the car, Dim at CPR Automotive, and Rob from House of Power
Tony built his
blo
tarmac at even wn GTS for tearing up the
ts like Motorva
tion
wWWW.STREETCOMMODORES.COM
33