BLOWN 427-CUBE HOLDEN HG BROUGHAM PROBRO

Looking back on Suvad Vikic's stunning 1970 HG Holden Brougham, packing a blown Chev 427 big-block

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Photographers: Chris Thorogood

With a blown big-block 427 Chev at its core, streeters don’t come much tougher than Suvad Vikic’s stunning 1970 Holden HG Brougham PROBRO

This article on Suvad’s Brougham was originally published in the December 2008 issue of Street Machine

TOUGH streeters are shit hot – there’s simply no other way to put it. Dropping 400+ cubes of blown, injected or turboed grunt into any family hack is bound to make people sit up and take notice. And streeters don’t come any tougher than Suvad Vikic’s blown big-block Brougham.

Holden -HG-Brougham -motion -rearSuvad – Suey to his mates – picked up this 1970 HG as a roller. And it wasn’t just a spur-of-the-moment purchase; he’d known about this particular Brougham for a while.

“Basically it was painted and it had trim. I put the running gear in it. I saw it about four or five years ago and I kept hounding the guy until I bought it,” he says. “I’ve never seen anything that black, that straight and that perfect.”

Holden -Brougham -interior -seats -stitching -detailSo the car came with the immaculate factory brocade interior and those acres of deep ‘n’ glistening black paint too. Both areas were so good that Suey didn’t even contemplate messing around with them. However, jamming the stretched Holden full of grunt seemed the natural thing to do.

Holden -HG-Brougham -frontSuey didn’t have to strain himself fulfilling that task either. With the help of his business partner Ali, and the rest of the guys at NX Generation Automotive, they had the Brougham rolling in style in record time.

“The way she is here, we had her running in a week,” Suey says proudly. “It’s amazing what you can do when you’re motivated.”

Holden -HG-Brougham -front -2There’s a trick to getting a motor done so quickly – they’d just finished putting together a blown big-block for Suey’s ’68 Chev pick-up. So instead of the American hay-hauler getting the new donk, the steroid-filled big-block found its way into the Brougham’s engine bay.

Holden -HG-Brougham -engineAli put the engine together and crammed it chock full of meaty chunks, starting with a factory 427 big-block Chev as the core. The guys decided to retain the factory steel crank but slipped in a set of Crower rods and JE forged blower pistons to handle the boost. Topside there’s a set of Edelbrock Victor Jnr alloy heads and a Bob Fisher-prepped Moonyham 8/71 supercharger pumping 11 pounds of boost, with a pair of Demon blower carbs as the crowning glory. With a custom Crane roller cam and an MSD 7AL2 handling the valve-timing and spark duties respectively, the pump-gas donk punches out a genuine 827hp to the flywheel.

Holden -HG-Brougham -wheelThat’s a healthy number for any streeter and with a pair of 275/60/15 Mickey Thompson’s on 8.5in-wide Center Lines out back, traction is not one of the Brougham’s strong points.

Backing up the blown power plant is a Dominator 3500rpm blower-spec converter and Suey had Matthew Despirit from Ballarat Performance Parts put together a strong Turbo 400 with a full manual conversion to channel all that power to the rear.

Holden -Brougham -interior -seats“It’s a daily driver,” Suey says with a laugh, “nah, not really.”

Under the back end, the ‘Broomstick’ already sported a nine-inch but that’s since scored a catalogue full of upgrades to handle the axle-twisting torque. A pair of 35-spline Moser axles hanging out of a full spool keeps things travelling nicely, but how do you feed more than 800hp to the ground through such relatively narrow rubber? Very carefully it seems.

Holden -HG-Brougham -rear“I just wanted it black and blown, the only trouble I have is traction. Sometimes we race it,” Suey admits, “to get the aggression out but it just hazes the tyres.”

Even so, this full-steel Brougham can rampage down the standing quarter in just 10.2 seconds and at over 138mph.

Holden -Brougham -interiorThat’s arse-kicking, but unfortunately the big Brougham’s racing career has been cut short.

“No ‘cage,” he laments. “That’s why they won’t let me race anymore. I was going to put a rollcage in and fit some CalTracs but I didn’t want to ruin the body.”

We guess he’ll just have to satisfy himself with some heavy duty cruising instead, and amazingly that’s something the Brougham does well.

Holden -Brougham -interior -steering -wheel“It runs cool but it’s really noisy because of the belt. It definitely sounds angry.”

He also enjoys getting out there at events like Easternats, and says, “With a car like this it’s Easternats every weekend for us.”

Holden -Brougham -AdamBut the Brougham may score a new bent-eight in the near future, with Suey eyeing off something in the region of 572 cubes with a Procharger hanging off the side.

Jeez Suey, doesn’t 827hp worth of blown big-block excite you?

“It’s for something different,” he says. “You get bored quickly.”

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