Damo's Series II Redline SSV (A6 Sedan)

[calais190]

Name: Damo
Model: MY11 VE Series II Redline SSV
Colour: Onyx (Black)
Bodykit: SSV
Engine Type: 6L L77
Engine Mods: NJCLSX MAF Tune & VCM OTR
Power: 241rwkw
Exhaust: Full KPM 3" (1 7/8 Pacemakers 4>1s, 100cpi cats, dual 3" stainless with quad 3.5" tips)
Gearbox: 6 Spd Auto
Diff: Stock
Brakes: Brembo front, stock rear
Suspension: Pedders Extreme XA Coilovers (Soon to add HD adjustable sway bars and full void bush kit due to winning the Pedders forum top prize!)
Wheels/Tyres: Redline SSVs powdercoated black (Mansutti Brothers Powdercoating)
Interior: Stock
Other Mods: Black badges (mostly debadged), GXP rear diffuser
Stereo: Stock
Build Period: Another few years
Future Plans: Mid size cam and stall, possibly something like a 224/228 and a 3000-3500rpm stall... 3.45 Diff gears, maybe new wheels (im liking these, especially that they're forged alloy)...
Cost: My entire life's savings...


Hi everyone,

Bought this car in Jan 2011. It was a showroom car at Heartland Holden (NSW). Got the red interior, which was the main selling point of the car in the end. Black exterior was a must, though I do regret that now (I think all of us black car owners think this way).

I had a fairly clear cut vision for this car before I even got it. I wanted:

- Everything Black
- Clean and simple exterior
- Neat engine bay
- Loud exhaust note
- Low stance

This is what the car looked like the day I got it:









I began debadging during my detailing of the car (which was within the first 2 months of ownership, I barely drove it as I was still on my P's).

I pulled all the badges off and repainted the front and rear lions matte black and replaced them.

I changed the diffuser to the GXP (I ordered and received the part before I got the car). I fitted a new 2.5" KPM catback 150kms into the cars life (sounded like a sewing machine, a extremely quiet one...)

Pictures of the progression:












As can be seen by the above picture, the ride height was disgusting. In my opinion, FE3 sits higher than FE2, could be due to the stiffer springs keeping the body of the car up higher? None the less, it looked horrible.

I soon saved enough to put Pedders extreme XA coilovers on and powdercoated my wheels at Mansutti Brothers Powder Coating satin black (60% Gloss).

I ended up with this:









This kept me satisfied for about 10 months. I then decided to buy a 3" KPM catback because the 2.5" was just too quiet. When I changed it, I found I got a hell of a lot more drone! This was partly due to the poor adaptor pieces an exhaust shop made me to fit up the catback. Long story short, the catback was to suit the KPM (Pacemaker) headers and cats, so needed an adaptor piece to fit up to the stock headers and cats.

I then purchased a VCM OTR and had the 1 7/8 pacemakers and 100cpi KPM cats just waiting for me to save money for a tune. Once I had the cash sorted, I took it to NJC in Keilor in January this year. Fishla did the tune and did a fantastic job. Most of the drone has been eliminated and the sound is addictive!!! Couldn't be happier with how the car runs and how it sounds! As most know, NJC have a fairly conservative reading dyno. I dyno'd my car at dynomite performance in footscray who use a dynodynamics dyno and my car spat out 232rwkw with OTR and catback ONLY. I then fitted the extractors and had NJC tune the car to make 241rwkw on their mainline dyno. Read into this what you will. The result was a MUCH smoother drive and a much stronger feeling engine.

Pics at NJC:










I recently won the Pedders forum compeition "show us your cars" and have ordered myself some front and rear Heavy Duty adjustable sway bars with HD sway links plus the full rear void bush kit.
Looking forward to getting everything on and reporting back on how it goes!

Any questions or comments, feel free to let me know!

Damo

[SS317]

About time you made a thread for this thing, redline rims look so much better in black IMO and that ride height looks nice too. Nice work mate.
Have you considered putting brembos on the rear?

[calais190]

About time you made a thread for this thing, redline rims look so much better in black IMO and that ride height looks nice too. Nice work mate.
Have you considered putting brembos on the rear?

Yeah it's been a long time coming! I agree, I really disliked the redline rims when I first saw them. Once painted, I really liked the shape! It's amazing what paint can do to things.

Yes I have considered the rear brembos, last I was quoted was $1200 supplied. Seeing I don't track the car, 1200 seems like a lot of cash for slightly bigger looking rear brakes. It's been on my mind, but I can't justify the expense.

[Wonky]

The new ride height and powdercoated rims make a huge difference!! That's a decent power figure for an A6 because from what I've seen Nick's dyno reads about 10% low. 3.45 diff in A6 really wakes them up!!

[calais190]

The new ride height and powdercoated rims make a huge difference!! That's a decent power figure for an A6 because from what I've seen Nick's dyno reads about 10% low. 3.45 diff in A6 really wakes them up!!

Thanks Wonky! I'll need to get some newer photos up soon, the ride height has been changed several times since the photos. New diff will be the next thing I'll do once i'm "bored" with the power/acceleration again (knowing me, it won't be long).

[evl.346]

really like those wheels in black hey.

really wish i had of gotten the red interior myself, love it...

[DCV1NU]

Very nice ride mate, you'll love the swaybar & viud bush upgrade.

[calais190]

Very nice ride mate, you'll love the swaybar & viud bush upgrade.

I'm really looking forward to the install! Thanks for your opinion on it too. I went to my local pedders and had a chat with the manager and he agreed that swaybars & the bush kit would be the best bang for buck.

[maka5]

Shiiiitt tune!!!

lol jk mate. Been almost a year since nick and fish done my car. could not be happier...

Your car looks realy good...

[Hos]

Good to see a thread on your ride finally. Looks bloody good. Gotta be happy with those results. Haven't seen the exhaust that clean since its been on my car! Do you have any better pics of the painted rims? I am debating whether to paint the rims on mine, and if so in a gloss or matte finish.

[calais190]

Good to see a thread on your ride finally. Looks bloody good. Gotta be happy with those results. Haven't seen the exhaust that clean since its been on my car! Do you have any better pics of the painted rims? I am debating whether to paint the rims on mine, and if so in a gloss or matte finish.

Haha yeah I love shiny exhaust tips! How is the exhaust going for you? I was thinking about it the other day!

I don't have better pics of them, but I'll take a few when I wash the car this week. I love the satin black (semi-gloss) but it can look like matte after a bit of brake dust accumulates. I definately wouldn't get matte, it would never look clean! Gloss is good, if you want them to stand out less, don't wash them

[***VX*R8***]

Love it. I usually hate coloured dashes but looks really good in this car.

[Hos]

Exhaust is good. Contemplating getting rid of it, there is a bit of 'drone' (booming, excessive resonance) when accelerating lightly. But give it a boot full and . And we may be doing a lot of trips to Adelaide or Melbourne with our little daughter in time to come. If that's the case I will probably put the wagon back to standard ride height too....

I thought gloss'd be the go, especially as I rarely get to wash the car by hand. Wish there was a decent detailer over here.

You have done a great job with your car mate. Very tough and menacing. Have you thought about removing the rear wing and painting the chrome strip around the windows?

[calais190]

Exhaust is good. Contemplating getting rid of it, there is a bit of 'drone' (booming, excessive resonance) when accelerating lightly. But give it a boot full and . And we may be doing a lot of trips to Adelaide or Melbourne with our little daughter in time to come. If that's the case I will probably put the wagon back to standard ride height too....

I thought gloss'd be the go, especially as I rarely get to wash the car by hand. Wish there was a decent detailer over here.

You have done a great job with your car mate. Very tough and menacing. Have you thought about removing the rear wing and painting the chrome strip around the windows?

Try doing the Adelaide to melb run with how the car is first and see how you go. A 100kmh, the exhaust was pretty quiet in my car. I liked the fact it qetened down so much while cruising, barely knew it was there.

Before I got the car, I was set on a lip spoiler. Once I actually got it, I was really happy with the new wing on the series 2. It's a lot lower than the series 1 and has some moulded pieces underneath to it which I like. As for the chrome surround, I was going to get it tinted, but it's one of the things that makes my car a redline ssv and not a regular ssv, so I thought removing it would be undoing too much. I've already done away with the redline fe3 stuff, the rims are no longer redline chrome, I thought leaving the chrome surrounds was the east I could do if or it haha.

[calais190]

Over the weekend, I got away to Ararat for what they call the "Jail House Rock" festival. It was a community run event, where they had a muscle car show (all types of cars, american, australian and european) and had a dyno competition running. The event was fantastic! Great weather, a few truly special classics and a lot of good people. My mate booked me into the dyno comp the day prior, so I headed down from Geelong Sunday morning.

After 180kms, I arrived in Ararat and 30 mins later my car made its way onto the dyno. My mate put his VU SS ute with Full exhaust, OTR and decked heads onto the dyno. The ute is a manual and made a respectable 242.5rwkw. It was my turn to put the car up. At this point we were unaware of the trend that would soon follow for the rest of the day.

Anyway, first some photos:








They did two pulls per car, your best being the result entered into the competition. My car does its runs and makes a hell of a lot of noise out the KPM 3" - to which the locals were quite impressed haha (apparently in Ararat, the louder the better! Unfortunately, quality of that note isn't important to them).

My car pulled a best of 235.5rwkw. This didn't surprise me at all at first as the NJC dyno sheet showed 241rwkw on their dyno. Anyway, I go up to the tuner whos dyno it was (he was doing all the testing on the day) and has a conversation with me that went something like this (this is a recollection of MY memory ONLY):

Tuner - "Your car didnt make as much power as I thought it would with these mods done, who did the tune?"

Me - "A reputable shop in Melbourne"

Tuner - "A lot of shops in Melbourne don't individualise the tunes very well and you dont get very good returns"

Me - "Well I did a lot of research before I chose my tuner and I'm happy with how it performs"

Tuner - "I rekon it could be a lot due to the KPM exhaust, the headers just don't work properly"

Me - "The headers are pacemaker, thats what KPM use"

Tuner - "I dont rekon the Pacemaker 4>1 work properly. I'd be fitting a set of X-Force or a 1 5/8 - 1 3/4 try Y header instead"

Me - "I understand choosing 1 7/8 4>1s is probably overkill for my engine, but I have cam plans in the future"

Tuner - "The X-Force and try Ys will be fine with a cam, if you want, bring the car down to me, I can retune the car and fit some new headers and make you 260+rwkw. Most VE A6s that i've had come through my shop make between 260-270rwkw"

Me - "Yeah, but i'm happy with how it is. Thanks anyway"


Later on, I discovered the tuner had the EXACT same conversation with my mate in the VU SS. After we had our runs, every car that went on the dyno was followed by disappointed owners who "made 50 more rwhp only a few weeks ago!". I know dynos are only a measuring tool, but many of the guys there did not. As time went on, two stock cars went up on the dyno just for fun. One was a BF XR6 and the other a VE Calais V8. The XR6 made 135rwkw through an auto box and the calais made 175rwkw through it's auto box. Now, I figure, if you allow for a 25% drivetrain loss, the XR6 made 160 fly wheel killowatts and the Calais made 220 fly wheel kilowatts. Both of which were WAY off their factory specs. As I suspected, both of the amounts are off by the exact same percentage from their factory specs. The magic number being 18.5% down.

Now, I know you can make "corrections" with regard to atmosphere temperatures etc, and the mainline dyno sheet shows the numbers clearly. Ill post my dyno sheet bellow. Can any one tell me what this particular correction means? Ive found what SAE J607 means but not the 5.25 in front of it.

My conclusion:

In my opinion, the dyno was fixed to read lower amounts so that the tuner could bring us in to stimulate business. I understand times are hard right now, but this seemed a little out of spirit with regard to the comp being at a community festival. Maybe some one here might be able to shed more light on the dyno sheet.



All in all a great day.

Drove home after the GP and the car ended up like this:


That was fun to clean.