31-12-03, 16:07 GMT+10#1
Igor's 1987 VL Calais Turbo - INFLYT
This is Igor's 1987 Series II VL Calais Turbo. The car was originally purchased in February 1999, with the intent of keeping it as a clean street car, the emphasis being on making it move as quick as possible, with inspiration coming from the VL known as OMY11S. At the time of purchase the car maintained a standard external appearance, which was in immaculate condition, with the car coming with a few performance modification's including a 3" exhaust, Nizpro RIT inlet plenum, T4 turbo (specification's unknown) fronted with a large K&N cone filter mounted in front of the left front tyre, rebuilt Jatco 4 speed trans and engine bay mounted bleed valve set at 9psi. The first modification was to screw on the INFLYT plates after inspiration from a passing plane. After that a brand new 3.91:1 mini-spool diff was put into place for peace of mind when some track work was on the cards. After that the car was taken for a tune resulting in the car starting to move really well, so well in fact that the car was involved in an accident after the car broke traction at 100+kph!
After a 6 month hiatus following the accident the car was stripped, repaired and coated in it's original blue/silver hue, Igor preferring to stay away from any extrovert paintjob's at this stage. However a majority of the existing mechanical package was sold off and replaced with standard fare to fund the repair which meant back to square one.
Not long after the car was discovered to have a cracked cylinder head and blown head gasket, which meant further bad luck. But the fun didn't stop there. A second head gasket called it quit's shortly after then a third leaving Igor out of pocket and out of luck.
This time round a copper head gasket was fitted ensuring no more failures. It is also worth noting that Igor's driving style (read constant burnout's ...) may have had an effect on the car's mechanical integrity.
Once the car was back on track a set of 1 �' lowered K-Mac springs were fitted to the rear to aid weight transfer when lifting off. The car was also decked out in a stereo system incorporating a Kenwood CD Player, Kenwood amp, Kenwood 7 x 10 speaker's and boot mounted Kenwood 10 CD Stacker. A quartet of Autometer gauge's also made there way onto the car, 3 being mounted on the bonnet with the boost gauge being placed on the side of the dash. Not long after trouble struck again with the dizzy, 2 modulators, 2 power window's, blinker stalk, and power steering all calling it quits!
After the repairs were attended to, the mechanical package needed a boost to get things back on track. The car was then taken to V&E Rigoli Racing where the 3" exhaust was dumped after the cat, an 02 Rush filter was fitted, the trans received a service, boost was raised to 12psi and the car tuned. Finally the car was starting to take shape. Once again trouble struck with the car receiving defect's totaling 6 different items including bald tyres, air filter, being too loud, locked diff, external gauge's and being too low. (The defect sticker can be seen in the pics). Not long after the car was returned to standard trim and cleared of the defects. At this point of time it was decided that the car should be sold with Igor vowing to get back into a VL one day!!!
Special Thanks:
V&E Rigoli Racing
Tempe Tyres
Igor can be contacted under INFLYT on #vlturbo
(c) 2002 www.calaisturbo.com (http://www.calaisturbo.com) Write Up and Pics by Igor, edited by Sin.
Some original photos have not been recovered yet.
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