Guess Which Rotary Drag Racer Just Built a Ballistic Twin Turbo V8 Commodore!

Aussie Drag Racing legend and card-carrying rotary enthusiast Damien McKern has been one of drag racing’s most passionate supporters over the years - his 20B-powered GRUMP2 RX-2 is a flame-spitting, ear-splitting 8sec drag car, and shares the shed with a 3-rotor early RX-7 street car that’s painted to match.

Which is why none of us saw his latest build coming! It isn’t green,nor does it have a rotary engine. Damien has built himself a bad arse, twin turbo LS-powered VL Commodore that he debuted at Jambo’ 2023.

Built in conjunction with ASG Motorsports, the VL is a tubbed radial racer borrowing from a combo’ that’s seen so many other first generation Commodores dominate on the drag strip - two 76mm turbos feed a built LSX engine, into Turbo 400 and finally to a fabbed 9in diff with the whole combo controlled by a Haltech ECU.

The car itself has been fully prepped including the cage and chassis work, and boasts all the good gear you’d expect in the rear end of a radial racecar including AFCO shocks, a triangulated track locator and adjustable arms throughout.

Treated to a full respray in the original maroon over champagne VL Calais colouring, the VL presents as impeccably as Damien’s other cars.

Straight off the trailer, Damien’s first pass using a transbraked auto, the VL collected a 9.6sec slip at only 96mph, indicating that he buttoned off fairly early! Its first full pass was an 8.45sec, quickly followed up by an 8.36sec@158mph.

The car is showing great potential early on, and with Damien’s years of drag racing experience - combined with a great team behind him - we know it’ll be a car to keep an eye on.