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COREY SANT BUILT HIS DREAM COMMODORE AT HOME IN THE GARAGE WITH HIS MATES – TO THE TUNE OF MORE THAN 800HP

- KIAN HEAGNEY

BUILDING cars with mates in the garage is a favourite pastime for us gearheads. But while the sharing of beer and breaking of bolts can sometimes result in great things, it’s not often that it results in an 870rwhp, nine-second, street-driven monster.

But that’s exactly what went down in the case of Corey Sant and his LS-powered VH Commodore. “I’d always had a thing for the VHs, being the last of the chrome-bumpered Holdens,” he says.

Corey grew up in a Holden family, his love affair with Commodores beginning with a V8 VS Berlina. “I got it when I was 19, and I built the engine for that and had a lot of fun. Then after a quick break I got into this VH.”

He searched high and low for a suitable starting point, before a friend brought this SL/E to his attention. “A mate sent me a link to the ad; I called the owner and told him I was pretty much sold before I’d even looked at it,” says Corey.

The VH had been pulled apart and resprayed by the previous owner, so all Corey had to do was piece it back together, but he never intended to leave the boat-anchor 202 in it for long. “I wanted an LS for this build, and specifically I’d been searching for an iron-block LQ9 for ages,” he says.

However, the decision to throw some boost down its throat didn’t come about until Corey spent the weekend at Summernats riding shotgun in a force-fed VZ Maloo: “After that, the thing needed a turbo and it was going to run nines!”

With that on the brain, Corey finally got his hands on an LQ9 before building it up with some help from the fellas at Flowcraft Heads & Engines. “I did some research online about what guys are doing in the US with iron blocks, and then Flowcraft did all the machine work and helped spec out the engine package for me,” he says.