31-12-03, 16:12 GMT+10#1
John's VL Turbo: OMY-30L
There are quite a few stories involved with this bright yellow VL, owned by John from the western suburbs of Sydney. The car was purchased nearly 2 years ago, as a non-turbo, auto, Calais-fronted executive. This was still the case when driven to Summernats 2002, when he was pulled into the Marulan RTA/EPA weigh station for their annual blitz. Lets just say a good time was not had by all, ending with the car going home on a tow truck with a major canary, all because of a rear seatbelt that would not retract. This instance was recorded by John and his 'adventure' through Marulan and Goulburn (and 9 km of the Hume Hwy) was featured in lengthy Street Machine and Street Commodores articles.
It wasn't long after some low life thief tried to steal it, although he was busted doing it. The damaged resulted in the door locks being broken and some very minor panel damage under the lock. Fortunately the thief had not succeeded taking the car and any accessories.
After all that, John decided it was time to convert it to turbo. He already had almost everything to convert it to turbo lying around at home (spares and remains from his brother's car), so he decided to do it. Everything was bolted on and it wasn't long until it was running, but not without half a dozen small problems - all fixed thanks to the guys at RMK Automotive.
A custom Hyperflow intercooler was bolted up, along with all polished alloy piping. A Turbosmart type 2 BOV was installed as well. Due to the high compression running in the motor, boost was set at a conservative 6 PSI. A mandrel bent 3" exhaust from the turbo was installed as well, with a high flow cat and *gulp* no muffler. The sound is certainly different to most other VL's�.
John decided the VL needed to look a bit better, so he bolted on a set of brand new Simmons FR18 high polished wheels, coated with 225/40/ZR18 tyres. Lowered springs were added all around. Autometer boost and oil pressure gauges were relocated to the bonnet and an Autometer silver face monster tacho put inside.
It was then decided to hook up Microtech's laptop tunable LT8 computer. A Malpassi high pressure rising fuel regulator was hooked up also. Even with the VLT injectors and pressure screwed up, max injector duty cycle was reached on 10 PSI - such is the difference with the high compression. Power delivery is certainly different to a normal VLT, and the wave of torque makes drivability awesome. Some minor polishing was done to the externals of the motor, including the plenum, intake runners and rocker cover. The polished oil/air separator has been lying around for some time and is still waiting to be put in.
It wasn't long until the VLT auto cried enough, and the option of either a big auto or manual was on the cards. John hooked up with Matt (PSI-03L) and acquired his MX7 box and 5 puck brass button clutch. The box was freshened up and the diff converted to a mini spool. This certainly made the car a whole lot more fun to drive.
The interior is standard apart from the re-trimmed doors, but a full leather interior is being devised now. A Momo carbon fibre 'Raptor' gear knob makes changing gears more comfortable. Stopping power has been improved with DBA cross drilled discs on the front, with VR V8 calipers and Bendix Performance Pads. The back brakes are still the executive drum, but John will be eventually changing them to a disc to disc VLT LSD unit.
The stereo consists of a Sony X-Plod head unit, Sony 4 inch coaxials in the front, Sony X-Plod 6x9 3 ways in the rear, MTX Thunder 4 channel amplifier and a Single 12" Schneider sub in the boot. Twin subs were in the boot, but John had enough of the limited boot space and rattling panels associated with big bass.
Having a beaten up Holden Astra for general duties, John doesn't get to drive the car that often, but has a blast and pulls some looks when it is taken out. The car was also an entrant at Summernats 16 2003. He only cruised around a little bit on Friday morning and Sunday afternoon, and didn't even bother taking it in on Saturday, preferring to cruise with his brother, have a drink and take some photos. With his brother (JET-88C) the pair of VL's came down for the second Calais Turbo Sydney cruise which was a relative success, as seen below. This was when everyone met up at Homebush Bay in the morning.
A small video of it driving past (3/4 throttle) can be downloaded here:
Future plans include a full respray, custom interior and some more motor work, the goal being Summernats 2004. Hopefully it might be on the road for the next Calais Turbo Sydney Cruise.
Parked with his brother's VLT at Summernats 2003 (Sunday afternoon)
John would mostly like to thank his brother for all his hard work, and the guys from RMK Automotive at Casula.
(c) 2003 www.calaisturbo.com (http://www.calaisturbo.com). Written/Photos by John Gorman. Edited by sin.
Some original photos have not been recovered yet.
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