THERE were some seriously quick cars out at Willowbank Raceway for the Jamboree last month, including Brett Benz’s VL Calais. The VL was a Street Machine cover car back in the day, complete with a blown Holden V8.

These days, however, the car is packing a 400ci small-block Chev, stuffed with Callies crank, Oliver rods, JE pistons and boosted by twin Garrett GT42R turbos pumping 37psi. This powerhouse makes 1850rwhp!

The grunt hits the road through a two-speed Powerglide auto and a full-floating, 40-spline, sheet-metal nine-inch rear end equipped with 275 Radial Pro tyres. And the quarter-mile times this thing is laying down are unreal – it does mid-sevens without even breaking a sweat.

Early in the weekend Brett secured the number-one qualifying position with an early shut-off 7.44@164mph, and during the final ran a PB at the Jamboree of 7.18@193mph! However, that wasn’t enough to seal the class win, as Brett’s reaction time of 0.319sec meant he crossed the line just 0.04sec behind Victorian Danny Busbridge, who drilled the tree in his twin turbo LJ Torana.

Still, you’ve got to be happy with that PB – 7.18@193mph on 275 radials! Check out some of Brett’s runs in the video.