Powercruise Special, Elvis

With Powercruise 50 about to take place near Brisbane from September 11-14 we felt it appropriate to look at the car that headlined the show for so long, the promoter Gup’s own turbo big block HQ called Elvis.

Michael ‘Gup’ Gilbert is the man behind the excitement-filled Powercruise events and this 1974 Holden HQ sedan, now known by many simply as Elvis, was specifically built to be a mascot for these events.

The plans to build this car came about after an unsuccessful attempt to sponsor a car build. Thanks to the efforts of Mark Arnold and Phil Laird, the simple solution was for Gup to go ahead with the build of a car for himself. He is reluctant, however, to describe the HQ as his ‘own’ car, “It’s more of a car for the people”, he says.

“It was built using some of the Powercruise revenue and I try to take as many enthusiasts for a spin in it as possible during the events.” And when he does many seem quite surprised. “Most people simply haven’t been in a car this powerful before, especially in an environment where all that power can be put through to the ground”.

That’s not the only thing he does for the benefit of Powercruise attendees. After the Powerskid had effectively been invented for Powercruise, Elvis is best known for doing the longest, most spectacular Powerskids in the world, as demonstrated in the amateur clip above.

The engine built to produce that power, almost 1300rwhp in fact, was a turbocharged Chev-style 540ci Big Block V8. It started with a Dart block that received, among other things, a custom roller cam, Pro 1 heads, a custom manifold, a set of 165lb/hr injectors, and boost comes from a Turbonetics 106mm Pro Thumper turbocharger via a big front-mount intercooler.

The transmission is a 2-speed Powerglide and Gup says “the engine doesn’t build boost until around 100km/h, so it’s just a normal V8 cruising around town. And with the diff ratio of only 3.25:1, the thing only needs 1500rpm and it’s doing the speed limit, so it’s very easy to just cruise around”.

It’s relatively comfortable to cruise around in as well. It has padded race seats in the front and very nice custom upholstery. In the interest of safety there is also a padded cage and the front seats get RPM harnesses for when the demonstrations get serious.

“The way we run the car, it’s only mildly stretching the car’s legs but still powerful enough to have fun in” Gup says of how under-stressed the motor actually is. It has also been very well looked after when it traveled the country to be at Powercruise events.

“Mark checks up on the car very regularly. During Powercruise events, the oil is changed every day for instance, and that’s the same with the tuning, the car is tuned for the area” Gup explains.

“We setup the car for different locations around Australia, taking into account the local weather characteristics. For instance, down in Tasmania, the air is very cool and relatively thick. On just 14-15psi we are making 1300hp at the wheels quite easily. Actually, the wastegate can’t be set to release any more air come to think of it. It couldn’t have been any less powerful in those ideal conditions!”.

But how did the car get the name of Elvis? The story goes that a mate of Gup’s held up the huge 106mm turbo one day during the build and said “Elvis Is Back”. Speaking of the build it took three years to create this Powercruise mascot and Elvis made its debut at Powercruise 6 in Sydney in 2006, wearing a lighter shade of green we should also point out.

For a little while Elvis’s 1273.1rwhp engine was put in Gup’s mate’s race-prepped ’69 Camaro for some drag racing, but it found its way back into the HQ sedan before the first Powercruise Tasmania back in 2008.

Elvis has become synonymous with Powercruise events and countless people have witnessed it turn perfectly good tyres into thick plumes of smoke. It’s not the only car that Gup has created for his events, but this bright green turbocharged Big Block HQ sedan is the very definition of what Powercruise is all about.