UNLESS you’ve been dealing with the fury of Cyclone Debbie and the subsequent flooding, then you’re probably aware that Street Machine has two project cars on the go right now. Here’s some of the gear Haltech has sent us for our six-pot street-and-strip screamers.

In the red corner we’ve got Aiden’s VL Commodore that he’s building up into a fully hectic beast with a high-boost RB30 turbo combo that is being built by Powerhouse Engines and MPW Performance. In the yellow corner we’ve got our Turbo Taxi, which is being built as part of our new video series Carnage.

Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been getting a lot of parts from Turbosmart, GCG Turbos and Haltech, and we’ve been unboxing the gear as it comes in. It’s all Aussie-made premium performance stuff and we’re stoked to have those business involved.

For the taxi, Haltech has sent its top-of-the-range ECU – the Elite 2500. It’s got all the bells and whistles, including the ability to go full sequential on both the ignition and fuel, control a drive-by-wire throttlebody, operate a transbrake and even control up to six stages of nitrous. It’s the big kahuna of engine management systems. The guys also sent a wideband controller to keep an eye on the air/fuel mix and a six-channel high-output igniter for the multi-coil set-up we’ll be running.

Aiden’s VL gets the Elite 2000, which is the very capable successor to the venerable Platinum Sport 2000. The Elite 2000 has more channels, more outputs and can handle more boost than the Platinum Sport models, and it comes with a pre-terminated loom to suit a VL Commodore with an RB30 engine. It’s also got plenty of race features like data logging, boost by gear, speed or time, launch control, anti-lag, long-term learning and dual channel knock sensor input.

In addition to the ECU the VL will also get an IQ3 digital dash to keep track of all the various outputs, such as speed, temp, oil pressure, power and so on. It’s a lot better than having a dozen gauges scattered about the cabin. The VL will also be running a flex-fuel sensor, so the Elite ECU can automatically adjust its tune depending on whether E85, 98 juice or a mix of the two is in the tank. It’s going to make street driving a lot less of a hassle.

All this stuff will be getting installed shortly, and we’ll be giving you a rundown of how it all works in the magazine and video. In the meantime, check out our unboxing video to see the gear in person.