I beat my mate's VR with my stock as a rock EF, his car has an exhaust among a few other minor upgrades, and his is auto and mine's manual and it was from a stand still, and rumour has it that the VR's are quicker than the VS's, but the VP's well I got chomped by a VP SS once, sounded like it had been worked a bit because the bloody thing took off pretty quick, but as for the VS, I think you're in with a pretty good chance mate

i've had some interesting runs with commodores.
got an ef auto xr6 with mods (see sig) and i've beaten:
VS Clubsport (auto, black, very clean)
VN SS manual (quite convincingly too)
VX SS Ute (hahah, traction?!)
VT XU6 (supercharged 6.. pffft)

hell, i even beat an old VN 3.8l in my 5spd KE laser (NA GL) ahahahaha

all done at traffic light races to the speedlimit (80km/h)

however, i had a run against my mates worked VQ statesman 5.0L
3k spent on headwork, extractors, 3" HSV Race exhaust and we were neck and neck. thats when i had a stock exhaust with a bung cat and shot muffler. plus, i have 17"s and he only has 15"s so it'd be interesting if i give him another run!

I'm not a commodore hater either having previously owned this VN which I loved and was frequently asked to do burnouts in by strangers on the roadside. haha. That said my EF was a nice upgrade after I sorted out the s**t falcon suspension I think you're having yourself on if you think you can chop one in a laser though. Mine had over 250k on the clock with a blown head gasket patched up twice with chemiweld and no mods other than a cat back exhaust and it still went hard, faster than a mates auto 5.0 SS, a few I6 falcons I went up against and a touch quicker than a manual V8 EB/ED I raced from 3 consecutive sets of lights one night. We were VERY close, both chirped off the line together, both chirped into 2nd at the same time and both neck and neck. Even the latest of VNs are 15 years old though now so most of them are probably pretty crap.

Also as far as commodore V6s go
the VNs came out with a 125kw V6 which was upped slightly to 127 in the series II VNs and VPs, but they were pretty light weighing in about the same as a WRX. I think the VRs went up slightly again to 129kw or there abouts (and a few kg extra with the revised body) but then the VS's jumped about 20 kw to just shy of 150kw with the ecotech which continued to get a few kw with each subsequent model through to the new alloytech holden engines.
The VS was a decent improvement over the earlier engines power wise but it must have been only right at the top of the power curve because on the road there is hardly any difference with the heavier VS (aside from refinement etc)

Anyway enough commodore talk, but it's always useful to know thy enemy

i don't think the VN was in the greatest of condition my laser never beat any other VN let alone probably a VB commodore, however, it beat that one VN and i still like to have a giggle about the look on his face as he watched me pull away

also, do u guys reckon its pretty bad if you drag a commodore knowing that there is a camera car further up the road?
dragged a VS s-pack, got to 80 (car length ahead) slammed on the brakes as he did his high-speed loser fly-by straight past the camera car

i'm not a huge commodore hater, but out this way, whenever there is an accident, there's usually a commodore involved / responsible

That's just plain mean!
I did a similar thing to a rice boy though, we were approaching a fixed speed camera and he was doing about 20ks under the limit so pulled out and over took him doing about 5km over the speed limit. Being an asshat he decideds he's not going to let me over take him so puts his foot down and speeds up to pull away from me. I lightly apply my brakes to bring me back to the speed limit and pull in behind him just as we pass the camera and *FLASH* heh. Anyone who gets done by a fixed speed camera is obviously not paying attention to their surroundings and deserves to get booked for being careless.

ive got an ebxr6 and i have beaten many a comodore and torana but i have been beaten by an sti wrx thingy god that thing was fast an a 1986 barina i couldnt bleveit this thing was shagged but he got me it was from 0 - 60 in the long run id have had him but there you are. my xr is slow from 0 - 40 after that it flys to 170 and slows down up to the 200+ mark

i go to tradeschool with a bloke who has a VS V6, makes around 170rwkw, f**k its quick. dunno what he did to it but its definantly good fun!

Maybe if it was 300kgs lighter that commo would be a ton more fun

To be honest the VP, VR and VS SS Holdens are slugs.
They would be lucky to run a 15.5 in manual form even with a decent exhaust.

I came up against one (VS SS manual) at Heathcote a few weeks ago. First run I beat him after playing catch up from the start (AU Auto's are shocking to launch). Very next run we lined up again. It was a caneing. I ran a 15.1x and beat him by quite a few car lengths. I got the better start and just drove away. He went home after that.

Many, many witnesses to this too.

you cant argue with the truth