Most people into cars will have one daily for trouble free motoring and then something else stashed away in the shed for weekend fun. And to constantly tinker with. And to endlessly throw money at. And to provide constant frustration. But everyone will admit there is something special about having a nice, tidy weekender.

For Kris, it was the Mazda 3 that gets him to and from work that drove him down the path of owning something a little more lively. Kris admits that the VN / VP Commodores weren’t always his first choice but after planning to modify a VT and picking up a V6 VN daily he was sold on the older model. With the VT idea retired it came time to shop around for a project car and Kris knew exactly what he was after. Lucky for him he found it and lucky for us we get to add one very nice VP to our feature car ranks.

As is nearly always the way with picking up a modified Commodore a little TLC never goes amiss. This particular example already wore the Sports Blue and the Senator body kit and someone had taken time to bring the interior in line with the VP Senator offerings. However when Kris first picked it up it was fair to say the body kit was little rough and the whole thing wasn’t helped by some rust peeking out from behind the rear windshield rubber. CK Smash Repairs in Hornsby got the job of bringing the car up to the current level of quality.

With the kit and a complete interior fit out, the only way to know this Senator isn’t the real McCoy is the lack of a HSV build tag and no build number on the dash pad insert. The 17 inch Senator wheels were given the flick in place of the 20 inch Zenetti Kaotics that complete the look.

But of course all the body work and big wheels means nothing without plenty of punch to back it up. In this case a 355 stroker with extractors and a dual 2" crossover exhaust mated to a fully rebuilt auto gearbox with stage two shift kit and Dominator torque converter pushes it down the street. The auto box wasn’t always as full of the good stuff as it is now, but when the box in the car at the time of purchase let go it was the perfect opportunity to make it a little more performance orientated.

The plan is to add a bit more go to the mix down the track, however Kris isn’t sure exactly which direction to take yet. With an eye on some quarter mile work that could very well mean some forced induction.

Kris says that one of his favourite things about the car is the noise it makes when you fire it up but even still there is a quality sound system installed. A Pioneer head unit feeds a signal to one Kicker four channel and one JL Audio mono block. The amps make sure the Kicker splits and twin 12 inch subs have plenty of voice.

With Summernats on the horizon the VP is sure to get a workout but until then Kris is content enjoying the occasional cruise and continuing to build the car up to his own standards. One of his big regrets was not having the gear box manualised when the first one let go so it looks like only a matter of time before it heads into the workshop for a little more tinkering. Maybe after Summernats it might need a little more than just a new box...

Words by Mick

Pictures by Kris