Summer Vacation

Benny Leat’s vh vacationer might not look all that modified, and with 364hp getting sent to the rear wheels, that’s kinda the point.

- Josh Bennis

BEN Leat, the owner of this VH Vacationer wagon, planned to build his car to be a summer cruiser and then flip it when the time was right. Like most car builds, they always begin with the best of intentions. But the old ‘Yeah, nah, I’ll just do a few things to make it a cruiser’ spiel you sell yourself; that never lasts.

If you think you’ve seen the number plates before, you’d be right. Ben used to own a red VH (SM, Jun ’16) that sported a mean Holden 355. Ben tells us it wasn’t long after the red car was featured that he sold it off as a roller.

“I sold it just after I got a roadworthy on the wagon,” Ben says. “I bought it from a guy in Ballarat who obtained it from the original owner, who had passed away.”

The car sat in Ben’s shed for a few weeks until he figured out what he would do with it.

“I began to tidy it up,” he says. “The paint was all original apart from a touch-up on the bonnet, and all it needed to look neat was a massive clean-up.”

Ben fitted up new suspension, as the wagon’s factory set-up had seen better days. A set of new SSL King Springs were put in, as well as Monroe gas shocks up front and Pedders short-travel items in the rear. The rear end also got a new adjustable Panhard rod and adjustable upper arms.

The front brakes were replaced with a set of Wilwood four-piston stoppers, while the rear items were upgraded when Ben swapped out the car’s original diff for a VS Commodore wagon BorgWarner unit built by Matt at Geelong Diffs.