Some people just don’t know where to stop.

While the Street Commodores featured VS ‘PREDATR’ in the build, Chris picked up a tidy white over grey VN Calais to take over the daily duties. With 170,000kms and virtually stock appearance down to the factory 15inch Calais rims a 2.5inch exhaust, Unifilter air filter and HSV 185i memcal provided a little more poke over stock.

While this sufficed for a little while, a blown auto lead to a manual box conversion and opened the door for building the Calais into something a little special. As is usually the way, it all just spiraled out of control from there.

VN SS skirts give the car a lower appearance and the addition of a single slot grille takes the package in a tougher direction. With the skirts needing colour matching and paint around the existing bumpers beginning to flake, there was no better time to send it in for a lick of colour . Applied by Highlander Crash, Contrail Silver from the Mazda line up was chosen and proves to be a much brighter alternative, adding more pop while keeping in line with the stock look.

King springs and Pedder’s short stroke Sports Ryder shocks bring the car lower to the weeds and a whole lot closer to the 18 by 8 inch Series II Monaro rims. VT Front brakes with a 1” master cylinder provide the stopping forces and got a coat of green paint to give a cleaner appearance. Green walls were added to the tires with the colour matched to that used on the calipers to tie the theme together.

VP Calais window trims are used in place of the standard items that add a bit of class however you can never have too much chrome. Chrome exterior door handles replace the factory black which can look a little tired after all those years in the sun. Polished sheet backs up the custom plates. A green strip replaces the factory chrome and continues the green theme. Nearing 20 years old, new tail lights were fitted and the striping on the rear garnish given a freshen up by Stripemaster.

HSV badges and later model Calais badging on the rear doors complete the exterior changes.

While the Calais gets it go from a largely stock 304, a diff stuffed with a 4.11 ratio and the short throw shifted manual gives it an unfair advantage over other V8 Calais. Never being manufactured with a five speed, thankfully the majority of required parts for the conversion are available on other VNs that had a manual option making it a cheap, effective alternative to a built performance auto. Something tells me that the tires might have a hard life ahead of them!

In addition to the existing 2.5inch exhaust system, HSV extractors were added to give the note a bit more depth. A Crane Fireball coil is used with Top Gun 9mm leads to get the spark to the cylinders. A Greenfoam custom tune replaces the 185i HSV item that was in the car at time of purchase and helps the car punch out 160kw at the rear bags on the Boost Worx dyno. Thermo fans from an EL Falcon keep the temperatures under control while deleting the clutch fan neatens up the engine bay and does away with the noise they tend to create.

The interior remains largely unchanged with the only immediately noticeable additions being the sports steerer, alloy shifter knob and Isotta gear boot and stereo. Closer inspection reveals a neat little mod that lights the indicator on the power window control.

The old stereo was given the flick and replaced with a Kenwood head unit mounted in the lower pocket that provides signal for 4.5inch speakers in the front and six inch items in the rear. The size chosen allow the factory speaker placement to be used and keeps things stealth. An Schneider 1000watt mono block amp powers twin Kenwood 12inch subs in the boot and lends the system plenty of thump. A flip out screen is mounted in the typical stereo pocket and connected to a glove box mounted slim line PS2, which keeps any passengers, occupied.

With the VS completed and the VN now retired from daily duties it’s safe to say that there’s plenty more on the way for this Calais. At the moment nothing is set in stone but talk of a smoothed and detailed engine bay and the addition of a turbo will take the car to the next level and ensure it’s got the grunt to back the looks.

Words by Mick

Pictures by Chris

VN SS kit with letterbox grille - always popular

The Mazda silver gives a custom touch

All Alien's are green, right?

Shifter housed in factory manual console

Plenty of thump from Kenwood 12s.

Tastefully modded and plenty of go from a 304