In Queensland they brew their super-fast VL Commodores differently to their Melbourne cousins. The Melbournians use the turbocharged Nissan sixes to propel their beats to low 10- and even 9-second quarters. Queensland VL pilots such as Brett and Jason Benz run similar times but rely on the outrageous beauty of eight Holden cylinders in a vee formation to make their grunt. Banana bending car dealer Brent Kratzmann has also opted for the V8 option for his eye catching sedan.

Brent has owned a number of fast street cars for a bloke his age, including a trio of Walkinshaws, a pair of VK Group A's, a Gen III powered VT SS, a WRX and a couple of BMW's. He also has some significant experience on the strip, running a 12 second Monaro, an 11 second Torana, 11 second VK Calais and a 10 second VN SS!

George knew that capacity would be an important part of low quarter mile times and decided to go for as much capacity as a 30thou' oversize bore would allow. Combined with the right conrod length, bore size and crank offset, the result was a monster 380 cubic inches. Haddad and his cohorts used every trick in the book to make this engine strong and reliable and as such, there isn't much they will tell us about the engine's internals. However they did tell us that the conrods are Manley, the pistons are custom blanks from Special Piston Services and the rings are JE Plazma Molly. Clearances and gaps to make all this hardware work are undisclosed.

For more than two years, cylinder head development for this car included experimenting with different port and combustion chamber shapes to get the ultimate mix of driveability (this is still important along the quarter mile) and strip times. The blank castings were Yella Terra Dash 9s, with "special" sized valves, K Motion K-1000 springs and K Motion guides. Flow is in the vicinity of 630 hp, but we reckon George is throwing a curveball here. It's the same deal with the camshaft - it's a roller and it's solid - but that's all that was revealed. Rocker gear is Yella Terra, the timing chain is Rollmaster and the alternator, cooling fan, oil pump and water pump are stock.

A 1050 Holley Dominator shows the true potential of the engine sitting atop a single plane Harrop long runner manifold. Not only does it look though, it is also effective for the strip, with almost perfect mixture control able to be gained across a strip pass. Fuel supply from the boot mounted RCI cell is the job of a Paxton 400 Race Series low pressure pump, via a length of Dash 10 line with matching Paxton replaceable fuel filter. An ICE distributor with lots of timing keeps the Avgas ignited well into the rev range, as do the matching CIE leads. Southgate Auto Electrical did the wiring instal.

Primary pipe diameter is a whopping two inches, which slows the exhaust gas velocity down slightly, but allows masses of gas flow potential. Handcrafted in a 4 into 1 design by the Haddad engineers, the pipe lengths and sizing is the result of precise calculation rather than an educated guess. The main system body is of 4 inch mandrel tube and finishes in a dual system by the diff. The mufflers are Race Magnum.

Transmission is a fully manualised Race Glide by the aptly named "Raceglides" transmission specialists. With the "tough as nails" internals of a fully tricked Powerglide, the launch prowess of a 5000 rpm Dominator converter and the grab of a transbrake, there is no excuse for the potential of the Haddad engine not to be realised. Nestled at the VL's rear end is a full Romac spool centred 9 inch, with 31 spline axles and a 4.3 final drive.

Looking at the gleaming paintwork, it's hard to believe that Brent purchased the car as an insurance company write off He took the smart approach to renewing his panelwork and simply bought all new hanging panels to keep all of the bog where it belongs - in the crash repairer's tins! Once all the bodywork was bolted into place, Greg Carlson applied the current model VW Yellow hue. Brand new Calais nosecone and tail light assemblies provided difficult to find but they give the car a classy appearance. A hornet scoop finishes off the Vl's look perfectly, as well as supplying a decent amount of cold air to the engine air filter.