What do you think? HSV VN SVLE

[waveman1500]

Trawling through the used car ads online, as one does, I've just spotted something which rather caught my eye. In fact, I'm slightly thinking of buying it. I give you, the HSV VN SVLE.





The one for sale:



www.carsales.com.au/all-cars/private/details.aspx?R=10977243&__Qpb=1&vertical=car&__Nf=p_PriceRange_Range|BTWN%200%2015000.0&__Ns=pCar_RankSort_Int32|1||pCar_PriceSort_Decimal|1||pCar_Make_String|0||pCar_Model_String|0&SearchAction=N&__N=1246%201247%201252%201282%201216%20901%201622%20246&silo=1011&seot=1&Cr=15&__Nne=20&trecs=50&__sid=12D8120AE446

It's a 1990 VN Commodore with a 5 litre Holden V8, 5 speed manual, leather seats, power windows and a sunroof. So pretty much fully loaded, and it comes with HSV headers and exhaust. So it should sound nice. The only downsides are that I'm not really crazy about the rear spoiler and brake light arrangement, and the rather more major disadvantage that in South Australia this car is pretty much the absolute perfect magnet for attracting unwanted attention from the Police, vandals and car thieves. VN Commodores are the most stolen car in Australia and I imagine that one with a V8 and HSV badges would be especially attractive. They're not very secure. Should I buy? (Awaiting an unsurprising answer...)

[ejenner]

Depends on what it costs. Alright, looked it up... I have to say, it seems a bit expensive. And if it might get nicked then it would have to be a second-car rather than your primary transport. I guess the cost to insure one of these is high if they are always getting stolen?

Otherwise, combination of 250hp V8 engine and manual gearbox is a winner. Won't be that fast, but pretty quick!

[ejenner]

Check what we got as our 'special' version of that car.

Lotus Carlton

v6 twin turbo with 377hp

Cheapest one you can buy is £15,000 - but one for that price has been to the moon and back.

[waveman1500]

Well, with 185kW and a kerb weight of approximately 1400kg this car has a power to weight ratio of 132kW/tonne. I'm pretty sure that it will feel fairly quick compared to my current daily driver at 96kW/1200kg giving 80kW per tonne, and my Beetle which would be lucky to make that much.

I'm not sure how much insurance would actually cost. If it's going to be particularly expensive then I would just get third party insurance. Driving it to work would probably be more of an issue with fuel consumption rather than security. My commute is 100km per day but the work carpark is probably more secure than most of the places that I would park whilst using it on the weekends. I actually work at the Holden factory so I would hope that my colleagues would have enough respect for the product not to knock off a Holden right there in the carpark!

The question of expense is an interesting one. In terms of a VN Commodore it is very expensive, but for a V8-powered car in decent condition it is very cheap. It's already got a sports exhaust and new tyres so there shouldn't really be too much to spend on it. Except fuel, of course. Lots of fuel!

Oh, and the Lotus Carlton is very nice. It's a significantly higher calibre of car than this though. There were other faster VNs available at the time, including the Group A version with a twin-throttlebody manifold which made 215kW and came with a 6 speed gearbox.

[usedabused]

Straight six......

With a huge hotspot between 5 and six.

[screech]

^ i was just thinking that, 3L inline six.

to be fair show me an inline longitudinal six that dosent have 5 and 6 heat management issues.
the most worrying thing about the lotus is the bell housing cracking/breaking up.

[tragic]

Aug 19, 2011 16:44:40 GMT screech said:

show me an inline longitudinal six that dosent have 5 and 6 heat management issues.

I'll leave this one here



The venerable Jeep 4.0 ;D

[ejenner]

Just assumed it was a v6 because of the twin turbos and because GM have always liked a v6. TBH good that it's a straight 6 though. More straight forward than a v6.

[mrflibbles]

they are a nice car waveman as long as they have been looked after, i have driven a used and abused one that still looked reasonable but it was horrible to drive, clunky rattly and not very nice on the road. i have also driven one that had been looked after it was great! problem is at the end of the day its still just a vn commodore. If you could get it for decent price yeah maybe, but the fuel is going to cost you! i was doing 120km a day in a new BA falcon and that was using 2.5 to 3 tanks of fuel a week, i was working to pay for the fuel to get to work!
Get the car checked out look for cracks around the strut towers, the top mounts should be flat or have a slight dish to them (if they are domed they are shagged), check the panhard mounting bracket that attatches to body hasnt been re-welded (sure sign some yobbos put it side ways into a curb!), also do a general check of the car does the condition match the kms? do the numbers on the odometer line up (if they are all up and down its possibly been tampered with), does the dash have any rattles in it?
Good luck mate!

[jader1973]

I occasionally think about getting an early HSV or a VR/VS SS Commodore.

The problem would be finding one that hasn't been modded, hooned and trashed, so if that VN has been looked after as per the ad then it would be worth a look.

How rare are they? Does it have a build number like other HSVs?

[theprong]

Not that bad a price for Aus. But with 285000 km's on engine would be needing a freshen up shortly. Would probably have standard GM rust preventative rear main leak.Freshen on engine not neccesarily bad thing, so much potential. Agree with mrfibbles re panhard rod mount. Personally would prefer VP, VR as VN has narrow front track carried over from VL IIRC. If really as advertised I would buy.

[jnoiles]

For the money I think that's probably great value. Go for it!

Interesting that the actual car in the ad is wearing the SV5000 wheels, not the typical 5 spokes. If I remember correctly the LE was essentially a manual version of the SV5000.

Just had a peek at the HSV classics website (http://www.hsv.com.au/e3/see/ClassicList.aspx?sID=VN) and the LE isn't listed there yet. Although that page does show the VN Group A, which is squarely at the top of my want list.

[devilishdesigner]

My uncle had a VN HSV wagon that he ran into the ground at a billion miles, I still have a real soft spot for that car, impressively fast and well planted for such a big simple brute

[jnoiles]

Well? Updates man! Did you got for it?

[bortaf]

What do you think? HSV VN SVLE
Are all aussies allergic to vowels ;D
oh no hang on, there's one at the end



sorry

[waveman1500]

Aug 21, 2011 15:38:11 GMT jnoiles said:

Well? Updates man! Did you got for it?

No, I didn't bite just yet. I was put off by the fact that it's a VN Commodore with 280,000km on it. In any case, I'm still waiting to get my Superbug back from getting the twin Webers set up, so I thought that I'd better drive that first and see what it'll be like! ;D

[ajs000]

I know I'm 10 years late to this party. But I know a lot about the SVLE.

My dad had one when I was a teenager. Build #29 of 125 I think. One of 25 manual sedans.
They've actually just bought another one.

They're pretty rare as they were made in'89 pretty much using left over parts from SV89s and 5000s and other VN HSVs.

They had wagon versions too with a slightly darker red.

The factory wheels were Red, "Walkinshaw" 5 spoke designs.

Great car, great sound and great memories.

Ironically My 2007 VE SV6 has more kw but is much heavier a car.