There’s no denying that early model Commodores are making something of a comeback these days, especially the VK of 1984/85.

Reasons are varied, but cost is a big factor and not just the relatively cheap initial purchase price of the car in the first place.

All sorts of parts are readily available for the early model Commodores, and many enthusiasts find the all up cost of a restoration project can be less than the purchase price of say, a brand new VT. Get the restoration right and that ‘old’ VK could go as hard and handle as firm as the latest VT.

Barry in Perth certainly likes the look of the older Commodores, but  a 350 Chev in a VK is a little unusual.

The 1985 VK arrived in Barry’s hands with the Dart headed, four-bolt mains 350 already on board, utilising a kit from the renowned Castlemaine Rod Shop. But if you think that the conversion would have been a relatively straightforward affair because the donor and recipient are both from the General, think again.

The proprietor of Active Automotive, Eddie runs a 10-second SL/R 5000 Torana on the strip and is involved in numerous performance projects, many Commodore based.

Early work on Barry’s VK saw the Dart heads tidied up and a decent cam added, which was enough to see the power figure reach 268 horses at the rear wheels.But even the best of engines can get tired, and when things started to become a little smoky at the rear, it was time to whip the Chev donk out and sort it from top to bottom.

The original Chev crank and X rods were retained, after receiving the usual balancing, shot peening and re-sizing work. With the barrels honed, Hypereutectic pistons went in and the compression ratio is said to be, "at least 10 : 1"

Those Dart heads now play host to some top quality valve gear components, while the cam itself started life as a solid Bracketmaster. Not surprisingly, the camshaft is an area of on-going development and by the time you read this, it will probably have been changed again!

And just as we were putting the final touches to this story, word came through that Barry had spent some serious money on a new set of extractors. The old ones were in the car when Barry bought it and were, to say the least, long overdue for replacement.

Of course, the Turbo 400 tranny has been built to handle the increasing power, with a stage 2 shift kit and 3,000 rpm Dominator convertor. From the back of the 400, a custom 2" tailshaft then runs out to a 3.5:1 Salisbury LSD.

Elsewhere on the undercarriage reside fully rebuilt VK discs on all four corners, not to mention Monroe gas shocks and Lovells springs.

As can be seen from the photographs, Barry hasn’t just built his VK purely for go – it can stake its claim in show as well.

The car is clean, neat and straight, with a fully re-done interior and the original Capricorn Green paintwork re-applied. Much of the work had been done before Barry bought the car, but a fair bit of it was in need of tidying up and is only now coming good.

In fact, the amount of hard earned currency spent on this VK only became apparent when Barry loaned us all the receipts for the vehicle to help with this report. We’d probably run out of server space if we tried to list everything that has been replaced, repaired, upgraded, changed, re-vamped ... we even found receipts for individual nuts and bolts !!

The future is clear for Barry now though, and it’s all about performance.

Once the power package is fully sorted, it’ll be onto the strip and hopefully some decent numbers will result. 12s would be good, but 11s would be better - and that’s not being considered unrealistic either.

Makes you wonder what the VT will be doing when it reaches Sweet 16 …

Nuts`n’Bolts