Sick of Barra and LS swaps? Then how does a 13B rotary-powered VN Commodore sound?

The brap-happy creation is the brainchild of the Low Standards YouTube channel, led by Jay Duca. Jay loves his rotaries and is no stranger to going against the grain, having previously competed in the Street Machine Summernats burnouts in a 2JZ-powered Cressida.

Our resident TikTok-er (and videographer for the above vid) Paul ‘Gus’ Cronin reckons Jay builds “just about anything, as long as it’s a little bit different. He’s driven by doing the wrong thing.”

The plan for a rotary-powered VN started when Jay found himself in possession of a 10APP rotary from an Bathurst-blooded RX-3 race car. Jay had also got his hands on a fairly unmolested VN Commodore Executive, and decided to merge the two.

With the help of some mates and a forklift, the boys ripped the dunger Buick V6 and auto slushbox out of the mang machine to make way for the 10A and a six-speed manual from a Mazda RX-8.

The 10A’s size meant fitting it into the VN was pretty easy, and given it’s an aspirated, carby-fed deal, getting it running was a cinch.

All was going well with the swap until Jay determined the 10A he was using was junk and badly haemorrhaging water. But never fear! Jay simply dumped in an aspirated 13B bridge-port rotary he had spare and MacGyver-ed the VN tailshaft to the RX-8 gearbox.

From the outside, the VN looks like a completely unassuming sleeper.

“I almost hope people hate it; I aim to upset sometimes,” Jay enthuses.

From here, the plan is to take the VN to as many car shows as possible (lucky ducks in South Oz with their freedom!) and fully enjoy all the reactions ‘General Rotors’ will surely elicit.