This January’s Summernats 25 turned out to be Australia’s biggest rodding and performance event, as the Canberra venue attracted 1,500 cars and nearly 100,000 people. Aside from the actual car show at the Exhibition Park, Summernats is also home to a massive burnout contest that is divided into two parts. The massive burnout showdown is separated between the “Burnout Masters” and the normal “Summernats Burnout Competition.” Outback local Jason Rose participated in the regular burnout competition, but his blown Holden sedan is anything but.
Rose’s Holden VX SS Commodore may look like a Pontiac Bonneville or something of that nature, but it’s a true Aussie original. The Commodore originally came outfitted with an LS1 but Rose has since overstuffed the sedan with a low-compression 406ci small-block topped with an out of control 671 supercharger. The wild Holden also controls heat and cools the incoming charge with an Enderle methanol injection system. The methanol fed small-block chases a TH400 transmission with a Ford 9-inch rearend.
Watch as Jason Rose and his Commodore make the rounds on the Canberra tarmac, leaving tire marks and a cloud of smoke as far as the eye can see. Rose’s dizzying performance represents the traditional Aussie-style: Radical. In his burnout category, Jason finished 8th overall against some 80 other cars, which really says something about his technique.
Besides the fact that Rose knows how to “ride out” the Holden, anything in the top 10 is considered an excellent finish by the Summernats normal competition standards. With this in mind, Jason Rose’s talents, nor his blown methanol swap on his Commodore, have gone to waste. They have in fact made Rose a Summernats hero!