My 1987 VL Calais Turbo [REVENU] Hello all my name is Shawn and i thought i would post up a little story about my never ending project VL. Originally it was a naturally aspirated but a genuine Calais that i bought back in 2003, i was actually looking for a clean VR/VS 5ltr but after looking at about 10 i found nothing that impressed me. So on the way home from looking one day my mate who's a mechanic told me we should look at one more car that was near our place anyway so we did... It was a VL and a 6cyl at that!!! But, something inside me clicked when test driving it that said this was the car for me! It was kept immaculate inside out, always garaged and all service papers for its entire life were provided... Love at first site, so the money was exchanged and the car was mine! The first mods began almost instantly with the stereo being installed that week, It already had VT SS wheels on it so i kept them for a few years and at that point i was happy for a little while until my mechanic mate bought a VL TURBO and i saw the power these little 3ltr engines could make. The decision was made i had to have a turbo! So i sourced a turbo kit for my car and we fitted it one weekend to the naturally aspirated 180,000km engine. So The actual install wasn't the hardest job in the world but the so called awesome kit i bought wasn't so awesome, it came with a blown turbo... $900 and a rebuilt hiflow turbo later, everything was peachy! By now the car bug had hit me hard and i found myself at autobarn every week getting more cool parts to either make it go harder or look tougher lol. Front mount cooler blow off valve turbo timer boost,oil,water gauges boost controller GIZMO LED shift light with recall Everything was great on 10psi for a few months and enjoyed the cruising scene until one night the stock auto didn't like the boost anymore, time for a rebuild! Always a sucker for a sale i found a "supposedly" rebuilt auto on a website at a reasonable price, so i picked it up and fitted it one weekend... it lasted a week lol. This time i took it to Yarra Valley Auto's who has a pretty decent reputation in JATCO auto's, He told me it did have a 2800 stall in it but that was about it and even that was fitted wrong and everything needed rebuilding! By now i realised something i heard somewhere "THE POOR MAN PAYS TWICE" and this became my new motto when working on my car, so i bit the bullet and coughed up A LOT of money for my auto to be built properly. 2800 stall kevlar bands manualised shift kit a few other special words he mentioned lol. Next on the list was something i had neglected way too long... i was still running a 2.5in exhaust with standard cat, so my turbo was being suffocated! I found Ringwood Performance Exhausts do a lot of work on rally cars so were pretty experienced in Mandrel bending so fitted was. 3in mandrel bent turbo dump to cat 3in magnaflow ceramic core cat 3in mandrel bent cat back system 3in stainless dump tip It started hauling ass by this stage haha. Happy with performance now without blowing the engine i started focusing on interior. New superplush carpet momo millenium evo steering wheel digital gauges custom parcel shelf painted plastics steamcleaned seats while they were out A year or so passed while i saved for custom paint, knowing not to be a tightass i searched forums and found a decent painter who specialised in the paint i wanted. Glasurit metallic red with cinnamon and gold pearl on top brilliant silver metallic on the bottom metallic black for all other bits New badges most genuine (not cheap copies) It turned out pretty dam nice and i couldn't be happier! still looks like the day it came out the spraybooth (always garaged) Now it was a car that turned heads i needed to get some updated rims so i went with 18in alba reef chromies... they lasted a year or so, got bored with them pretty quick and fell in love with 19in BBOSS elanors when they first came out which are still on this car today. I also had it dropped to a just legal 100mm ride hight on pedders extreme rider suspension all round with adjustable pan hard bar for a stiffer rear end. I started to get silly by this stage and got a NISTUNE computer installed with a Z32 airflow meter to handle more boost, got it on the dyno and started with 147rwkw @ 10psi and once tuned it put out to a happy 214rwkw @ 15psi. Everything was great for remember naturally aspirated internals until one day i got a little happy with the left foot and forgot to shift until about 7000rpm (200,oookm engine shouldn't rev that hard lol) so when i shifted and backed off there was some funny crackling coming from my engine "i blew the big end bearings" dead motor. Time for a rebuild: ACL forged pistons ACL race series conrod bearings ACL race series main bearings MLS-R race series head gasket ARP head studs balanced rotating assembly Head stripped flowed and rebuilt stainless exhaust manifold malpassi fuel reg 600cc injectors (yet to be fitted and tuned) Now i have just been cruising up the 1000km wear in period and enjoying the car as it is but soon i will fit the 600cc injectors and get it back on the dyno for a new tune... i might even hold off until i pick up a new turbo as its ready for anything now. Well thats about all i can think of at the moment but if i think of other stuff i will add it later Thanks for reading.... Cheers.

good right up and some awsome pics in there mate. those chromies are shocking looks 1000x better now.

agreed great write up, looks awesome, well done

Nice write up. Clarence's photos are amazing.

Thanks fella's.... few more pic's up of the interior but unfortunately they're pretty average shots. Clarence definitely know's his craft! I would like some more shots without the soft light and maybe a backdrop next time but im not complaining lol.