Walkinshaw unleashes supercharged duo

Holden car tuner Walkinshaw Performance has announced the next stage in its Holden VF Commodore range, the W457 and W497 supercharged models.

Priced at $18,990 (fitted), the new W457 kit is available for any 6.0-litre VF Commodore model and hikes performance outputs from 260kW/517Nm to a staggering 457kW/780Nm.

Also pegged at $18,990, the W497 kit ups the ante of the 6.2-litre LS3 V8 engine found in HSV GEN-F models to stratospheric levels. It hikes power to a supercar-like 497kW/955Nm.

For the record, that's 67kW and 215Nm more than Australia's most powerful production car of all time, the 430kW/740Nm GEN-F HSV GTS.

The packages for the Holden Commodore and HSV vehicles come with a full driveline warranty "for the balance of the manufacturer’s new vehicle warranty for eligible vehicles", says the aftermarket performance company.

Walkinshaw has not released performance figures for the rip-snorting new vehicles, but based on our test of the naturally aspirated $51,000 W310, which can hit 100km/h in 5.2 seconds, the W457 kit could match the HSV GTS with a 0-100km/h acceleration time of 4.4 seconds, while the W497 kit could crack the four-second mark.

The supercharged W457 and W497 vehicles develop torque much lower in the rev range than their donor cars, resulting not only in supercar-style standing-start acceleration but improved in-gear pace and better driveability.

"These packages represent the pinnacle of Australian automotive design and engineering capabilities. On power figures alone it's impressive, but as we always say; drivability is the number one goal and we believe that these W Series twins are exceedingly well mannered in this key area," said Walkinshaw Performance General Manager, Tony Harris.

"It's hard to hide the performance results and these cars are guaranteed to bring a smile to the face of every motoring enthusiast."

The key to the extreme power boost of the new kits goes beyond just bolting an Eaton Twin Vortice 2300 Series supercharger to the GM V8 engines.

Walkinshaw's new kits also add new high-flow injectors, a water-to-air intercooler, 12-inch intake runners, custom moulded heater and intercooler hoses, a self-contained oil system and a new exhaust system.

The latter is fabricated from stainless steel and features ceramic-coated headers and high-flow catalytic converters. Vital statistics for the two Aussie bruisers are as follows:

W457: 457kWat 5600rpm / 780Nm at3700rpm
W497: 497kW at 5560rpm / 955Nm at 3690rpm

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