humbucker's 1993 Vauxhall Cavalier Turbo 4x4

[humbucker]

Another snap and a link to some of mine/teamSlinky's PVS pics:

Vauxhall Cavalier Mk3 Owners Club | View topic - PVS 2012: your pictures here



Vauxhall Cavalier Mk3 Owners Club | View topic - PVS 2012: your pictures here

[humbucker]

The new Roose cam cover breather hose turned up at long last, complete with a shiny new “JCS Hose Clamp Kit.” Begone inferior generic red hose, welcome shiny new Roose item! It was a surprisingly tight fit, but I guess that’s because the new one is so thick and of such high quality, whereas the old one was a lot thinner. Anyway, all in place now.









I’ve still got the odd blue hose knocking about under the bonnet but slowly and surely they’re being eradicated in favour of these replacement red items. It really is starting to look pretty tidy under there now.

[humbucker]

I haven’t been on the forum much over the past few weeks due to work commitments and other projects, and it’s been difficult not to be glued to the Olympic coverage in between. No major work has been undertaken on the car but there have been a few updates so I thought I’d share a few of the recent pics that I’ve taken.

I realised that while I’d had my alloys refurbished and powdercoated, and sourced what I thought were pretty cool centre cap emblems, I’d totally forgotten to get some wheel bolt covers to finish each corner off. Brand new OE black caps were the order of the day (I didn’t fancy silver ones) and they make a huge difference:



Not long after PVS we had the Cavalier Mk3 Owners Club regional meet which was good fun. A broad range of Cavaliers were in attendance and I’d bought another Satin Red Cavalier Turbo not long beforehand (more on that to follow), so the two you see in these pics are mine. The blue Opel badged Turbo belongs to Maracus (also featured in the PVS pics earlier in this thread):



Unfortunately, nobody had told us that the Cambridge Research Park had a very strict anti-Cavalier policy. To the relief of everyone in attendance, this security guard was only to keen to show us the way out. Hmmn. Lickup.



These are some of the snaps I took that feature my cars. See if you can spot the difference hehe! All the other photos from the day can be found here:
www.cavmk3oc.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=9227



Twin Turbos!







Turbo #1:



Turbo #2:





Turbo #2 again:





Tech1’ing it up on Turbo #1:





teamSlinky had been driving my original Cavalier Turbo, the one that is featured in this thread, and I was driving in the newer one trying to work out all its quirks and identify all the bits that were in need of attention (this had been the cars first proper outing). As we were on our way home from the meet we ended up tailing two MG Montego Turbos. We were waving wildly at one another pointing excitedly at the cars sat in front of us; one MG Montego Turbo is rare enough, let alone two! Driving along in our two Satin Red Cavalier Turbos (and tailing Team MG) all we needed was William Woollard & Tiff Needell and we would have had ourselves one of the best ‘old’ Top Gear episodes ever!

You can also see the new wheel bolt covers in the first pic:





That time of the year came around again; yup, it was time to prepare the car for Billing. A good twelve hour polishing and cleaning session took place on the Friday. The car didn’t need much more than that as it was still relatively clean following the CavMk3OC meet. Nevertheless, along the way I added a new set of Team Heko wind deflectors and some genuine headlamp protectors.















The headlamp protectors really finish off the front end a treat. I know they’re a bit ‘Marmite’, but they fit so flush with the facelift grille that it’s difficult to deny the improvement in appearance that they produce. Besides, these are brand new headlamps that need ‘protecting’!







AstraDan pointed out that my headlamp wiper bump strips were on upside down, so I put them the right way up when I reassembled everything.



Next up, the Heko’s:









By this point we were excited and raring to go to Billing. I was only able to attend the Sunday this year as I had made plans for the Saturday well in advance (I was told that this year’s Billing event was shifted by a week so that it didn’t clash with Silverstone?). Anyway, being double booked turned out to be a blessing in disguise due to the monumental levels of rain that fell on the Friday/Saturday and the less-than-favourable experience everyone had at the hands of the harsher elements of nature. With Billing called off I thought myself lucky that at least I’d only wasted a day cleaning the car.

As it happened, all that work didn’t end up being in vain! I was out on a Total Vauxhall feature shoot at Santa Pod a few days later and the feature car was stuck on the M25. Chris Wallbank, automotive photographer extraordinaire, suggested using my Cavalier Turbo as the test subject so that we could get an idea or two for picture composition while we waited. I’m now glad that I put all that work in the week beforehand. Here are a couple of the pics:





I have a load more that I’ll sift through when I get a chance but I couldn’t be happier with these ones. I took a load of the car on the starting line but I’ve misplaced them (hopefully not permanently). When I find ‘em I’ll stick a couple up.

[humbucker]

Aha, I found some of the other snaps I took at Santa Pod! Hoorah! The last time I was at at the track was at this year’s PVS (see earlier pics) where I was left behind on the run into the place as all the other turbocharged Griffins in our convoy flew past (seemingly unhappy at being stuck behind me aka Driving Miss Daisy). I said to teamSlinky at the time that there just wasn’t any ‘go’ in the car and this was quickly identified as a poorly adjusted accelerator cable, presumably from when I had the cam cover off. I repositioned it and now the throttle is very responsive. The addition of the Iridium plugs, the new coilpack and the KV85s seem to have made a big difference to how well she pulls and since giving the ‘box a thorough flush the F28 feels like new. I'm very happy with the way the car is coming together.

Anyway, at the risk of my WIP becoming an image gallery, here’s another couple more of the pics I took at the Costa del Pod:





As you can tell from the pic, the noise from the crowd was deafening:

[humbucker]

Nothing much to report on atm so in the meantime here's another pic of Turbo #2. It's in need of some attention in the wiring dept, not to mention the replacement interior I have for it, but having two Turbo's the same colour is pretty cool considering how much I like Satin Red. Got plans for this car which I will reveal in the not-too-distant; I bought it specifically for what I have in mind so watch this space...

[humbucker]

Thanks again for the comments chaps.

Not much of an update really, but Muzz assures me that photos of the car looking tip top are all that are required, rather than a detailed account of the the drivetrain overhaul that is yet to take place. So without further ado...

The Irmscher MV6 came out of hibernation ready for a long overdue inspection a short while ago. I’d reinstated a lot of the standard trim (including some stock Elite alloys) before I stuck it in the lockup last winter. The car has been happily keeping quiet in the months that have followed and, to my relief, the local rodent population has not infiltrated the unit (meaning that the wiring loom was in excellent order!).





I haven’t got time to do anything with the car at the moment but I’ve got all the new parts ready to roll for when my workload and home ‘improvement’ projects settle down a bit. The car will then be heading to the bodyshop for a lick of paint. I’ll update the project thread once I get started.

Cavalier Turbo #1 has been out and about enjoying the few days of sunshine that we’ve had in recent weeks, and a bazillion photos serve to prove that we had at least something that resembled summer (even if it did only last a few hours at a time!). Here are a brief selection.

Another one from the Pod:



Vauxhall Owners Club meet at the Heritage Centre in Luton:









Some tidy lip spoiler action!:



With the Astra up for sale it didn't take long for the trusty ol' Turbo to find itself sat outside while the coupé got a service and the polish of its life in the garage. Unfortunately, this coincided with the local farmer deciding to harvest the fields and we spent a few days living in a dust storm. Oh dear. Cue one very dirty looking Cavalier:







I couldn’t really wipe it clean because I’d end up rubbing the debris from the fields all over the paintwork and scratching the curse word out of it, so my pressure washer was called into action. I haven’t actually used it since we moved house over 18 months ago, but it did the job of getting rid of Farmer Giles calling card. Both Cavalier Turbos had been stood for a little while at this point so I gave them both a run to get rid of all the condensation build up in the zorst(s).

Turbo #1 in the foreground, Turbo #2 in the background:



The Astra scrubbed up well though, and I gotta say that we were sad to see it go. Needs must and all that, but we bought its replacement a few weeks back in the form of a Saab 9-5 Aero High Output Turbo estate. The Saab is way more practical than all the saloons we have knocking about(!) and with 250bhp+ out of the box it goes like stink and provides fuel economy that is easily as good as the Astra. A no brainer really and I got it for an absolute steal. One owner from new, full Saab service history, low mileage, a really tidy example. Ebay special:





I did have difficulty explaining to at least one friend that I hadn’t bought it to transplant the engine into a Cavalier...!

The Astra as was:







That interior might have looked quite nice in a Cavalier hehehe! Rude not to mention the other three in the fleet I guess. A green 3.0 V6 Omega Elite and a rare manual 3.0 MV6, both prefacelifts, and a diamond black Cavalier CDX V6 running all the 3.0 bits. The silver MV6 was bought as a donor car and the likelihood is that the green Elite will be stripped too. A shame really as they’re great cars, not to mention the work that went into the green one, but the intention is to keep both Cavalier Turbos and the Irmscher MV6 and use the Saab as the daily hack. I haven't had much time to dedicate to sorting any of them out lately but there's no rush I guess.

















You can read about the facelift Irmscher MV6 at the following link if you’re interested. This will be the next car to receive any serious amount of attention after two years of being in storage, although the silver prefacelift MV6 will be stripped first to donate its interior and manual gearbox:
www.migweb.co.uk/forums/projects-restorations/449402-humbuckers-2004-irmscher-omega-3-2-mv6-project.html

You can read about the Cavalier V6 here:
www.migweb.co.uk/forums/projects-restorations/400026-humbucker-s-cavalier-v6-wip-pic-heavy.html

Anyway, enough of that; back to the Turbo. With the exhaust clear, the bodywork a little cleaner than it had been and the sun blazing down it was time to take a drive out and meet with some friends for a catchup. A good opportunity to take more pics too hehe:





Back home and reunited with its sibling, the car was tucked away back in the dry where it belongs, but not before another pic of the two together:



Anyway that’ll do for now. Not much ‘work’, but a lot of pics to show for it anyhow! Hopefully something more substantial in the not-too-distant!

[humbucker]

I’ve been asked ‘whatever happened to that Practical Classics feature’ a few times in the past week, and the truth of the matter is that you know as much as I do. A year on from the shoot, I have little confidence that it will ever see the light of day, however, I recently obtained a few shots from that freezing December outing in 2011, so here’s a selection.

I have plenty more than those that are displayed here, however, the car has come a long way since then so I won’t post them all as it’s an unfair representation of the car as it is today. Also, comparatively speaking, the engine bay was a mess that I’d rather not be reminded of hehe!

For the benefit of those who haven’t read the earlier posts in this thread, the idea of the feature was to pitch some turbocharged ‘budget beaters’ together, each car representing a different flavour of what was out there for a ‘reasonable’ amount of dollar. Due to a couple of no-shows, there ended up being just four of us; my Cavalier Turbo, a Fiat Uno Turbo, a 3.0 Supra Turbo and a mental Citroen CX25 Turbo. Nice!

[humbucker]

Hahaha, we were asked to have them blazing for full dramatic effect! I guess it worked! :lmao: :face:

[humbucker]

Well the car is now tucked up in the warm and SORN’d for the winter, which will hopefully give me a chance to do a few of the jobs that work has prevented me from cracking on with lately. As I wasn’t too keen on the ol’ girl sitting on the Toyos for months on end (encouraging bulges in the rubber as a result of being stationary), I threw on a spare set of Cavalier Turbo rims that have lesser-quality rubber on them. These wheels have been painted black, and the contrast of the ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots were enough for me to be convinced that getting the original wheels powdercoated silver was the right colour choice by a mile. Not too keen on the black wheel look tbh, although I guess it comes down to the design of the alloy really. Some suit it, some don’t. These don’t imho.











I’ve also managed to get hold of a set of brand new OE centre caps for the wheels, so I’ll put them on as soon as the vinyl ones with the newer Griffin emblem on start to peel/discolour. I put in a number of enquiries at a number of Vauxhall dealers far and wide and they all came back to me months later with one centre cap here, one there so I snapped them all up. I did take a pic, but it seems to be missing in action. I’ll post it in the next update.

Those with a keen eye might have spotted the car in the current issue of Total Vauxhall; there is a small picture of it in the VXR Online meet feature in the print version, although a few people have said to me that there is an error with the digital edition and that the large pic of all the VXRs together has been swapped with a bigger shot of my Cavalier. Oops! I did think it was odd that the caption was on a different pic when I saw a cropped screenshot of the online copy:



Here’s another one taken on the day, looks pretty nifty. Love Satin Red on these cars (as you may have gathered!).

[humbucker]

Had a bit of time to tinker over the last day or two so set about updating my factory Calibra VDO oil/volt gauges with some Graham Goode replacements. I’ve never been a huge fan of the white faced dials, they don’t really match anything else inside the cabin, whereas the GGR items look like they were made for the job - a perfect match for the stock tacho!

The GGR gauges were nabbed from a donor Sierra Sapphire Cosworth (complete with genuine carbon fibre surround and all wiring/hoses/bulbs). I’d already acquired a mint set of the white VDO dials, but the newer Cav Turbo that I bought had an identical set clipped into the dash. I pulled them out and used those as the base for the update, retaining the minters in case it all went tits up. I also had duplicate GGR boost and oil pressure gauges tucked away so I pulled all the bits together and started mixing and matching!











As with most ‘white dials’, the VDO gauges weren’t wired into the Cav, although to be honest it’s virtually impossible to work out how they were supposed to be functional anyway; it looks as though the previous owner handed a soldering iron to Stevie Wonder and asked him to have a bash at hooking them up! The OE four pin connector was nowhere to be seen:





There was absolutely no way of separating them with ease as the enthusiastic use of the soldering iron had fused the white mount to the back of the circuit board! I managed to remove all the old solder and threw away the manky wiring, although I was resigned to the idea of chopping up the OE mount anyway as the GGR gauges were too big for it:



Then it was a constant effort of trial and error to strip the mount back until it was flexible enough to accommodate the larger gauges while still capable of holding them into the fascia:









In the end it was split into two pieces. The battery voltage unit was the one causing the problems:





Got there in the end though, looks pretty OE I reckon. Just got to drill a hole or two in the back of the dash and get them wired in!





Ah, and a pic of the brand new genuine centre caps!

[humbucker]

...and that pretty much brings us up to date. The car has been tucked away in the warm over winter and I've been getting on with other things - house renovation and work commitments have left little time to tinker, but with show season fast approaching it will be time to dust off the polishing cloth and wield the spanners again! Hope you've enjoyed the pics/updates thus far

[humbucker]

Mar 11, 2013 15:08:24 GMT roshambow said:

not many of these left,ive always had a major want for one of these as my dad had cavalier company car at the same time john cleland was competing in one in the btcc

Yeah they have had a bit of an unfortunate recent past; the C20LET engine and F28 six speed 'box have been commonly ripped out of these Cavaliers to be transplanted in other Vauxhalls, invariably 2wd variants. It's meant that the numbers have dwindled down and there are very few of us keeping them on the road. Fortunately we're a fairly dedicated bunch and many of us have more than one Cavalier Turbo locked away!

Mar 11, 2013 15:28:15 GMT `state said:

Nice thread dude and good to see you over here on R&R. Is this the same car you came to pick the gsi kit up from me in Beverley? Couldnt believe you got it all in the car!!

Hey! Yes, I've enjoyed spending hours gawping at the scale of other people's projects so thought I'd post up a few snaps of my own. This isn't the car I was in when I popped by yours, that's the other Satin Red Cavalier Turbo featured in the pics above, due for a complete strip down and rebuild, bare shell styley! In fact, I was on the journey home after buying it when I stopped by to see you (I was in Turbo #2, confusingly the one on the left of this pic!):



And here's evidence that all the kit went into Turbo #2 (taken after I arrived home from yours!):

[`state]

I figured it was number two after i read all the post,my fault for jumping in before you`d finished!
Yeah you can deffo loose afew hours on here reading other peoples threads theres some amazing builds.
You need to get yourself to the Gathering this year your cars would be well appreciated.

[optimusprime]

Wow ....... excellent stuff.
Ref your comment about 'cleaning it, cos you know its there'
Yep that would drive me bonkers if i didn't, so i'm with you on that one.

Why is it that these motors always seemed to be overshadowed by the 'Ford turbo mob?

[slammage]

wow good stuff i love my vauxhalls, more so these 4x4 turbos , and i bet your local vauxhall parts and accessories dealer loves you with all those genuin ebits and bobs

p.s have you registered to the vauxhall masterfit plan get a free £40 to spend on parts

[humbucker]

Mar 11, 2013 16:01:05 GMT `state said:

I figured it was number two after I read all the post,my fault for jumping in before you`d finished!
Yeah you can deffo loose afew hours on here reading other peoples threads theres some amazing builds.
You need to get yourself to the Gathering this year your cars would be well appreciated.

Ooh yeah that sounds like a plan, I will have to check out the date etc and work out what's required for me to pop along with you seasoned pros!

Mar 11, 2013 18:44:12 GMT optimusprime said:

Wow ....... excellent stuff.
Ref your comment about 'cleaning it, cos you know its there'
Yep that would drive me bonkers if I didn't, so i'm with you on that one.

Why is it that these motors always seemed to be overshadowed by the 'Ford turbo mob?

Thanks for the positive feedback! Glad to know I'm not alone in the OCD stakes hehe! I know what you mean re Vauxhalls being (historically) sneered at compared to the Blue Oval. I think that it has a lot to do with the lack of a 'badge' that hung around long enough for people to align themselves with - while Ford stuck with the RS brand, Vauxhall went through HS, SRi, GTE, GSi, VXR to name but a few. I think the VXR badge is here to stay as people go potty over it, which is great, it's just a shame that it's taken so long for it to happen.

Mar 11, 2013 19:14:43 GMT slammage said:

wow good stuff I love my vauxhalls, more so these 4x4 turbos , and I bet your local vauxhall parts and accessories dealer loves you with all those genuin ebits and bobs

p.s have you registered to the vauxhall masterfit plan get a free £40 to spend on parts

My Trade Card comes in handy and most parts end up costing less than the aftermarket equivalent! A further free £40 does sound enticing though hehe...

[MK2VR6]

Amazing intro and stunning Cav turbo. I believe I sold my old morettes to you on mk3oc when I sold my old white 92 Cav gsi last summer. Keep the updates coming!

[Brigsy]

Stunning, always liked the cav turbo's. A rare sight these days!

[griffindai]

Lovely

I've always fancied one, you don't see many (if any!!) about these days.

[prab]

This car is just all kinds of awesome, its so nice to see a survivor thats in such fantastic condition, its a real shame these cars were used as donor vehicles, the same way 405 mi16s were

Prab