Blow torch!
HSV to enter performance parts market
By BRUCE NEWTON

HOLDEN Special Vehicles will launch spectacularly into the aftermarket business next year with its performance parts line-up headed by a supercharger kit for the Gen III/LS1 V8 engine.
The Roots-style blower will be the most expensive offering in a line-up initially expected to comprise 25 items. It is expected to retail for around $10,000 with 800-1250 forecast to be sold per annum.
But the most spectacular numbers are the potential performance the supercharger will extract from the third generation small-block Chev.
HSV’s initial dyno testing using the now defunct 300kW Callaway C4B engine extracted around 350kW and 600Nm, with 500Nm kicking in from 2000rpm.
Those figures set new benchmarks in local mainstream performance terms. They outdo HSV’s own newly launched Z Series LS2 6.0-litre range for kilowatts (297), and the brand new FPV F6 Typhoon turbocharged six-cylinder for Newton metres (550).
But those fi gures are only preliminary, based on a relatively low 5.5 psi of boost and without any real attempts at calibration.
The final engine and transmission calibration work has been handed over to Bosch as HSV struggles with its own workload.
The suggestion is that more power could be extracted, although that will obviously vary depending on which Gen III/LS1 V8 is used as a base.
The supercharger is not an in-house HSV development, rather it is the work of Queensland-based PWR Performance and its US partner Magnuson.
The money man behind PWR is Queensland businessman Kees Weel, who established the company with son Paul back in 1998. Weel senior also owns a V8 Supercar team for which his son races.
PWR Performance specialises in the design and manufacture of high-end radiators, oil coolers and the like for racing and aftermarket applications. In 1998 it turned over $30,000; this year that figure should top $7 million with substantial overseas sales.
PWR initially got involved in the supercharger project because Magnuson needed a water-to-air intercooler for the supercharger it was developing
for the Australian-built Pontiac GTO.
One thing led to another and PWR became intrinsically involved in the project – so much so that Mr Weel contacted HSV managing director John Crennan in mid-2003 to ascertain his interest in adapting the unit for use by HSV.
“We are just going to offer a range of products that I think will do a hell of a lot better job in terms of quality, pricing, back-up, service etcetera than
what some of the – if you like – ‘amateurs’ are doing,” Mr Crennan said.
“If we have 25 key products in our tuning portfolio, one or two are under Kees and one or two are from other specialist companies, and another two or three from other specialist companies, then some from our own organisation. These are the things that will make it up.”
Along with the supercharger, PWR will supply Alcon brakes to the HSV line-up. PWR is the Australian distributor for the British braking system.
While ‘HSV Tuning’ has been the working name for Mr Crennan’s after-market ambitions, don’t expect that to make it through to sign-off.
“It probably won’t be. It will be from the House of Clayton or the House of HSV, because we will want to keep the pure brand name in the OE product,” Mr Crennan said.

Tuning up for more

THE supercharger kit for the third generation Chev small-block engine is potentially only the start of a HSV-PWR engine tuning relationship.
Next up is a plan to develop an aftermarket kit for the LS2 V8 just launched by HSV in the Z Series.
But further out is the prospect of developing a supercharged version of the Alloytec V6 engine for HSV’s VE Commodore-based range due around mid-2006.
According to PWR Performance business manager Mark Roworth, that is “the carrot at the end of the vine” which has been dangled in front of PWR by HSV owner Tom Walkinshaw and Mr Crennan.
“Tom Walkinshaw identified very strongly to us that … his focus was going to be a V6 program,” Mr Roworth said.
“So I guess one of the key goals for us is to utilise the development process for the LS1 and then embark on a joint development program for
a (FPV F6) Typhoon killer.”
The significant difference compared to the V8 projects, according to Mr Roworth, is that Mr Walkinshaw sees the supercharged V6 as a production model rather than as an aftermarket kit.
“PWR is a development company, and if you are going to try and develop something, you want to try and develop it to its full potential, which means having it as an OE product would be highly desirable,” said Mr Roworth.
“However, we are not sure whether HSV would want to go down that path completely yet. It’s certainly been given to us as a task to evaluate whether this is at all feasible.”
And what about HSV turbocharging the Alloytec? After all, Holden has revealed its intentions with the Torana TT36 concept car, complete with twin turbos. Wouldn’t it be easier for HSV to launch off that program rather than go off on another tangent?
Two main reasons are against this, argues Mr Roworth – as a point of differentiation with FPV which has embraced turbocharging for the F6 Typhoon and Tornado, and the long predicted lead time on a twin-turbo V6 becoming available.
“At the moment they have a single-turbo 2.8 for the Saab program and obviously that does not apply to what Holden and HSV would want,” Mr
Roworth said.
“But the twin turbo they have developed from within GM is not planned to be in production until around 2008.”
– BRUCE NEWTON