31-12-03, 15:52 GMT+10#1
Craig's Series 2 Calais Turbo 5 Speed
I bought this 1988 Series II Calais turbo in Jan 2000, after spending 8 months to find a manual version. When I saw this one, I had a check done on the car and when there were no major problems with it, I quickly handed over the cash and took the car!
It was relatively stock when I bought it, with no kit, standard Calais mags and it even had the pinstripes! But all that was about to change. The engine had shat itself a year before I bought it, so the previous owner gave it a complete rebuild, with forged pistons, stage II cam, rebuilt turbo, new clutch, radiator, fuel & water pumps. He spent quite a lot of money on it and had the receipts to prove it. He took really good care of it.
The only thing found wrong with it was the suspension had been lowered buy cutting the springs. It was so low that I was pulled over less than 2 hours after getting the car. So I had Wilkinson's suspension in Bayswater fit new King springs and Munroe GT Gas shocks all round. That made the ride height acceptable, and made handling much better. Since I was planning to fit a body kit, I didn't want it too low, but not looking like a four wheel drive.
So I then focused on the sound system. I added a Blaupunkt Acapulco head unit with remote and 10 stacker, with JBL 4' splits up front and JL audio 6.5' 3 ways in the rear. A PPI 600watt RMS amp gives the 2 x JL 12' subs all the power they need, and a Kicker 4 channel amp powers the speakers.
Next thing was getting some mags, and fitting the body kit. I bought a VK group 3 rear bumper spoiler and side skirts of a mate, so I bought the VL Group A front spoiler & letterbox grille and a VL turbo sports rear boot spoiler from the Spoiler Factory in Kelmscott. I also added a BOSS wood grain steering wheel, and carbon fibre gear stick knob. The VS GTS polished tri-spokes off of WHSTLR finished the look off nicley!
2 days after getting the body kit fitted and painted, I had a smash in the car! It was close to a write off and what made it even worse was that I only had 3rd party insurance. So my Calais was off the road for 3 months while I repaired it.
Once back on the road, the bearing in the diff decided to pack it in, so that was rebuilt. The car was unfortunatly stolen, but luckily recovered the next day, with no damage done. Then after getting it back from the panel beaters, someone tried to steal it again at 7:30am from my house! But they didn't get it this time! But that wasn't the end of the bad news. The head coroded and was leaking water into the 4th cylinder, so off came the head. Back on the road and 3 weeks later, the new head gasket blew after 2 much boost. A genuine Nissan gasket then was used, and since then there have been no problems.
The next things to be done is the addition of an intercooler, more boost, 3" mandrel bent exhaust, new clutch, bigger brakes and the list just keeps getting bigger!!
If you would like to know more about the car, e-mail me [email removed]. My ICQ # is 92598999
Some original photos have not been recovered yet.
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