The other day we showed you a Holden Ute burnout machine that was powered by a blown Holden inline-six, and admired the fact that being two cylinders down compared to the normal tire-fryer didn’t seem to impact the performance one bit. In fact, if anything, it seemed to help, because the six didn’t pitch a fit like some V8s that we’ve seen over the years. Shortly after that story was run, we got a message from a Mr. Chris Degering, pointing out that even six cylinders were overkill. You see, Degering owns “Turtle”, an early 1960s Vauxhall Victor, and that 3-71 supercharger you see poking out of the engine bay is hooked to a Holden Starfire engine, a 1.9L four-banger (it’s basically a Holden six with two cylinders hacked off).

That’s right, a four-cylinder burnout car. The mint-green Victor looks rather pedestrian and stock, but once the go-ahead is given by the marshal, the bullshit stops and Degering gets to work in short order. Does it sound like the heavens are ripping apart? Nope. But the four has more than enough grunt to get it done when the Quickfuel 500cfm carb opens up wide…how about 220 horsepower and 500 ft/lbs of torque on methanol and 15psi of boost? That’s a stout amount of twist in a street-going V8, but in the little Victor it has to be a wild ride! To put it into perspective, this four is in the ballpark of a Cadillac 500ci V8’s stock figures! All of the power is pushed through a Trimatic three-speed auto and out to a R31 Skyline rear diff that is packing 3.70 gears. Unfortunately, Degering got a little too wild at Summernats this year, and managed to do some damage to the head after spooling up the Starfire to around 11,000 RPM. Whoops…

Don’t worry too much about it…the head has been repaired for the moment and Chris has a “big block” four-banger in the wings. If it weren’t for the sponsor advert on the doors, the Victor could easily be mistaken for a clean restoration…so long as you’re looking at the car from the back and don’t ever walk around to the front. We don’t know how popular Victors are around the world, but that blower certainly wasn’t factory-ordered. Not everything needs a V8 swap to be interesting or entertaining, and the proof is sitting right here, in two tone paint, wearing hubcaps.

(Lead Photo: Street Machine. All other photos: Turtle’s Facebook Page)