RB30ET-Powered Vs Wagon

After first upgrading from V6 to V8, Danial Newman then used a number of VL components to convert his VS wagon to RB30ET turbo 6-cyl power.

Emissions regulations are often the subject of misunderstanding in the modified car scene, and this very impressive RB30ET straight-six turbo-powered 1996 VS wagon is a good example of something that many would believe you’re not allowed to do, and that is put an older engine in a newer car.

In this case we look at ADR 37/00 for vehicles manufactured between Jan 1986 and Dec 1996, and that is an 11 year window where they all had exactly the same standards to pass. As such, any body and engine manufactured in this period can be mixed and matched so long as all the other criteria, like capacity limits, can be met as well.

For his VS, if there’s one thing Danial says he would do differently it is this; “Instead of going with the VS V8 engine first I would have went with the RB30ET straight up”. Physical fitment isn’t as complex as you might think either, with VL parts like the K-frame, gearbox crossmember, the clutch cylinder and even the power steering hoses making the job easier.

Danial firmly believes in “giving everything a go myself”, so he actually built this motor at home, and wired it all up to work in the VS. The engine's current hardware includes a set of Hypatech liquid-forged pistons, a ported head, a Crow TX2 cam, a custom intake plenum with a 90mm throttle body, plus a big front-mount intercooler and a decent-sized Garrett GT42R turbo producing up to 18psi. E85 fuel gets in via a set of 880cc/min injectors and the engine has been professionally tuned by Michael Payne at On-Road Performance.

It’s certainly not all about the engine with Danial’s wagon though, this street cruiser is the whole package. It has Morpheus Purple paint on pristine-looking panels as well as a very neat, smoothed engine bay, and it has a modified interior with new leather and velour trim plus a custom dash fascia with Auto Meter gauges that Danial also wired in himself.

There is a full feature on Danial’s VS as well as 11 other awesome Commodore wagons in a new compilation magazine called Street Commodores Wildest Wagons, available now.