Calais Fave

We first saw this ’01 Holden Calais at the Sydney drags lined up in the staging lanes. Nothing particularly high-profile – just a stylish luxury sedan with an attractive choice of wheels.

Boy, were we fooled!

When the lights turned green for this Calais it absolutely leapt off the line holding a beautiful power-on attitude for the first 50 or so metres. By half track the opposition was well behind and at the traps, well, we were all wondering what the hell had been done to this subtle looking streeter.

A 12.27 ET at 116 mph – on street tyres and with a full sound system – is seriously, seriously fast!

Have a chat with David Zieger about his silver Calais and you can’t help be bowled over by every aspect of its modification. The quality of the idle, the muted exhaust note, the drivability and, of course, the proven grunt. All of this in a sensibly lowered practical luxury car with a classy look that even HSV would be proud of.

The more you look over this vehicle, the more it emerges a bumper-to-bumper dream machine. This is unquestionably one of our favourite feature cars.

David picked up this VX Calais brand-new in 2001. One of the conditions of sale was the dealer fitment of HSV upgrade brakes. Why? Well, David knew he’d need ‘em to go with the engine mods he had in store!

The first mods were nothing particularly out of the ordinary. The exhaust was changed to a twin 2¼-inch into 3-inch arrangement with Pacemaker extractors, a SS cold air induction was fitted as was a SS Inductions throttle body. The engine was then tuned with LS1 Edit and the diff was converted to a shorter 3.46:1 ratio for improved acceleration. David says these mods gave a pretty decent improvement but it was nothing to really rave about.

Next came a supercharger – but not just any ol’ supercharger!

David stepped up for the Starr supercharger kit that’s built around a Whipple huffer. The Whipple is a positive displacement blower, which means – in contrast to a centrifugal blower – it gives boost from very low rpm. However, unlike many other positive displacement blowers, the Whipple uses a sophisticated twin-screw design that offers much improved efficiency. The upshot is boost with less charge-air heat.

The Starr blower kit comprises a Whipple blower unit, the necessary drive system, mounts as well as a neat water-to-air intercooler that nestles in the intake manifold. An electric pump circulates intercooler fluid through a large front-mount heat exchanger.

Not content to stop there, David upgraded the camshaft to “something reasonably wild” and fitted Higgins Race cylinder heads. These might sound like the ingredients for lumpy’n’gluggly monster, but we can assure you that’s not how this machine drives. Starr Performance are credited with ‘case managing’ the build.

Much of the overall refinement can be attributed to the thorough MAF-less LS1 Edit tune - a 2 Bar MAP sensor is now used to determine engine load. The fuel system has also been enhanced with a rising rate regulator, 50lb injectors, a Bosch Motorsport pump and a surge tank – the last thing anyone wants is an engine lean-out when fuel sloshes to the back of the tank under hard acceleration.

Other changes along the way include moving to DeFillipo 1 7/8-inch 4>1 extractors that lead into a Starr Performance twin 3-inch system with high-flow cats and mufflers. A Starr 90mm throttle body and air intake system has also been slipped in.

With a Whipple blower, a cam and head work it’s likely the factory auto trannie would’ve died with a leg in the air. Thankfully, it has been rebuilt to “unbreakable race Corvette specs” and equipped with a shift kit. A large transmission cooler keeps trans fluid to a sane level. A look in the Calais nosecone also reveals a V8 Supercar radiator and power steering cooler – trick stuff.

In the search for traction, David has recently ripped out the previous 3.46:1 Holden diff and swapped to an even shorter 3.73:1 KAAZ LSD. This further improves the lively driving sensation.

In its current mechanical configuration, David’s Calais has roared on a Dyno Dynamics chassis dyno to make a highly impressive 380kW at the wheels. That’s over 500hp at the wheels in old money! And don’t think that the engine is boosted off its brain – 12 psi is all that’s needed. David explains, “We wanted to keep it reliable and part of that was keeping boost pressure as low as possible.”

So that’s the class act under the bonnet – what about the class that shows on the outside?

After much “umm-ing” and “ahh-ing” David chose a set of 19 x 8 HSV VY Senator rims wearing 245/35 Yokohama AVSs front and rear. Sure, the decision to go for an off-the-shelf HSV rim might not be daring, but take a look at our pics and you’ll see they suit the big Holden down to the ground. Literally. The suspension has been lowered a couple of inches thanks to a Koni adjustable/Pedders suspension combo. Dark tint has also been applied to the glass.

David isn’t afraid to add weight to his car if it’ll improve the driving experience and overall comfort. This is used as a family car/work car, after all. The sound system is another all-out approach with a pair of 15-inch Orion subs in the boot, a pair of head-banger amps, Clarion 6 x 9s in the rear shelf and Clarion splits up front. The heart of the system is a Pioneer head unit with a 6-stack CD changer. The cosy Calais-spec interior is further complemented by an AutoMeter oil pressure and boost gauge.

David tells us the needle on the AutoMeter boost gauge flicks upward more in relation to throttle position than anything else. Forget waiting for revs to build – when you nail the loud pedal in this baby you’ve got instant boost, regardless of engine speed!

The LS1 bottom-end is a strong bugger, but with this much grunt on tap nobody would be surprised if it cried enough. Not that David is worried by that. In fact, he sorta wants it to crumble apart so he can rebuild it with a stroker kit. “At this rate, though, it doesn’t look like giving problems – I might have to stop waiting for an excuse and just go ahead with it!”

Can one of our favourite feature cars get even better? It certainly looks that way!

Contacts: Starr Performance +613 9894 8860 www.starrperformance.com.au

Share this Article: 

Digg this story

Seed Newsvine

Post to Reddit

Save on del.icio.us

Email