lol.....at least i am sticking with vl's, just a little more than what i had first anticipated Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

So today, the car in this thread found its way to a new home here locally in the gong. Will be coping a rb30 and jatco combo and be a race car only from what i am being told. I did also end up selling the brakes since I don't need them anymore. I did purchase another VL, this time a Calais, nearly two months ago which has everthing I was going to do, see some previous posts, and a little more. Once I finish off some back orders and the house reno's I will get stuck into it. Now, finally i can get serious with moving this project along. Turbo's, wastegates and some minor engine components are first on my shopping list......so let's see what the new year brings. Ariel

Nice work Ariel. Can I ask why you sold the Berlina and bought a Calais instead?

It was a toss up between spending some $15k on the Berlina or simply buy the Calais which had all the work done (plus a lot more), spend less money, and the bonus was it being a Calais. I sold the Berlina, the brakes, and looking at selling the two Evo 7 Recaro front seats that came with the Calais, and I have saved myself some $10k......I just couldn't let it go

Pics !!

So by work are you referring to driveline components, or body preps? I was under the impression your Berlina was pretty much 100% body wise?

coming soon Steve ;-) Yep all in the driveline and suspension. Apart from that, there is not much else to the car. No intrerior, no wiring, the best place to start from absolutely scratch. It sure was almost 100%. I spent a lot of time in the engine bay, getting it the way I wanted...but its time to do it all over again and learn from the mistakes which cost too much time the first time around.

did you buy james calais?

did it look something like this?

did he give you the dog that lived in it with the puppies?

thank f*ck no......the inside was immaculate when i picked it up

haha mad. that thing has been sitting around for so long. cant wait to see some progress on it mate and running in the future Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Majority of work was carried out in '08 and was still getting work done on it start of '09. Still needs some tweaks, but its an excellent baseline to work with. From what I can tell James didn't really do much to it, it was mainly done by a macco, Tony who is currently trying to get his other VL ready for the nats. Engine was dummy fitted in yesterday and I am trying to get some dummy turbos ASAP so I can get the placement of them sorted to get the manifolds/piping/cooler/radiator done.

This is it with the engine dropped in. No mounts made, just sorting out positioning at the moment. I love how far back it sits, give me plenty of space to work with. Encountered minor clearance inssue with started motor and position of alternator. No major issue, just a couple of little things I have noticed so far.

Will it really sit that far back!? Looks like it's not even over the sway bar!

wish my motor sat like that in the ke

Yep, thats the idea. That bit of wood is sitting on the two front toe hooks, so the front of the sump clears the sway bar by about 70mm (just guessing as I haven't measured it yet). I need all the clearance I can get for two turbo, two radiators and all the associated piping in the front. I will pull it back out soon and put my bellhousing and gearbox case on to make sure it all fits. The idea is to sit it as far back as possible and if it requires a new tunnel, so be it....The less factory parts remain the happier I will be. What are you complaining about ANK? you have already recessed the firewall an absolute sh1tload. No reason why a narrow V8, like a Windsor, cant fit into yours.

yeah but v8's are for guys with small diks the sump pan and the cross member dont get alot this is why i have had to go dry sump now an inch has cost me an extra 1000 bucks...the 26 factory plenums are rather large also

so what is taking you so long?? well not really, remove the butterflies and you have saved yourself some 40mm Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

already done that even smothed it its just a pain plus i dont want to chop up the front grill and stuff still want to keep the front end factory looking with out the cooler and cooler pipe look Some original photos have not been recovered yet.