Motor Magazine takes the Autotech's
APS Twin Turbo LS1 for a spin...
Sometimes, you just know a particular
thing or experience won’t let you down. Be it
sex with an ex, Uma and Angelina’s girl-girl
home vids, cold beer on a hot day….you get the
idea. While this veil of tears is all too often
characterised by experiences where the reality
falls short of the expectations, every now and
then, though, life comes up with an absolute
cracker.
The same goes for cars. Now, I have had enough
birthdays to be suspicious about most manufacturer’s
claims. Harsh experience has taught me that
much. But the same, hard-earned experience lso
suggests that when Peter Luxon at Air Power
Systems )APS) reckons he has something MOTOR
might like to drive, then, as Prince Charles
once said, I’m all ears.
And when that thing turns out
to be a VZ Monaro with not one, but two turbochargers
bolted on, I reckon I’d crawl right over the
top of Camilla to get my grubby scone-grabbers
on it. No, really.
Time for some numbers, kids. There’s
300-odd new or replacement parts and nine psi.
Add that to 5.7-litres, multiply by 5,500 rpm
and roger me rigid if you don’t get 430 kW and
850 Nm.
Okay so they’re not unheard of
digits and they’re pretty much the sort of numbers
you’d associate with a Ferrari or Lamborgini.
A fit one mind. But in the context of a Holden
Munro, they suggest a definite disturbance in
The Force.
The APS forced-induction treatment
as it applies to the Monaro, or, in fact any
LS1 Commodore, is a comprehensive rework of
the bugger, yet it involves absolutely no major
modification to the engine. The cylinder heads
aren’t lifted at any stage and the whole shebang
is more or less a case of adding components
to, rather than replacing or modifying those
that already live beneath the fairly hideous
bonnet nostrils.
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2004-2005 AutoTech Engineering