Cavalier GSI... who remembers?..
Discussion
Sir Fergie said:
stuff
Truth is Vauxhall are no better or worse than any other brand out there. Also keep in mind that the Insignia is 4 years old already, so its over halfway through its life.I have a mate who works for Audi, ten years ago there wasn't enough warranty work to keep one guy busy full time. Never saw a gearbox out, a head off an engine.
Now, he can't move for warranty work, engines being changed at 30k because the rings are shot and have damaged the bores, the ones that aren't too bad get re-ringed. Inlet manifolds falling to pieces, wiring faults, ECU software bugs - you name it, they've got it.
A while after the A7 came out he arrived clutching a pile of papers - it was a list of tech service bulletins (i.e. common faults), just the list covered 4 pages of A4. This was just the stuff that they were admitting to!
I have no doubt that other makes have exactly the same issues.
Back to cavaliers.
My dad had an '84 Mk2 1.3 (!), replaced by a '87 1.6 which was red, amazingly the only paint that faded was the bonnet, which had been blown over prior to purchase. It in due course was replaced by a '91 Mk3 2.0 8v.
I had a 2wd '91 GSI and an early '93 Turbo, I just did a search for the reg and found it !
I purchased the car from an older gent, he'd spent a fortune - exhaust, hybrid turbo, charge coolers, suspension, 4 pot brakes, poly bushes, custom mapped.
He moved on to a mk3 golf VR6 which lasted about 3 weeks
, then to the Impreza community where be became a very renowned mapper and I believe has since moved to porsches.The cavalier was about 260hp and 270-280lb/ft and had a wonderful torque curve. Those wheels I imported from Germany, made by a company called Autec, good quality and importantly had a decent offset (unlike the cheapo wheels I had before them). The grille was a Kamei one, again from Germany.. helped to let the car run cool and looked far better than the stock one. The cut up laguna splitter was done by the previous owner. It originally had the middle bit, until he figured out that it was blocking airflow to the chargecooler (in the link pipe that run along the bottom of the radiator) so he chopped the middle out - airflow restored!
Weak points ? rear arches for rust and 4wd transfer boxes.
I sold my GSI just in time, I saw it a short time later and the arches had gone - I knew they were on the way when the turbo came up for sale so decided to go for it. The turbo as 10 years old when I sold it, but had been looked after so the arches were completely rot free.
4wd transfer boxes were a weak point because people didn't understand how to look after them, if you didn't it drastically shortened their life. My turbo (was wasn't stock) had 100k on the box when I sold (180 on the car!) and it was fine.
Oh and wiper linkages, I replaced mine in both cars!
When I sold the turbo I was gutted - the car needed to be rebuilt and have a good bit of money sunk in to it - In hindsight I should have done it but decided to move it on. Problem was there was nothing to move to in the early 2000s. Everything was crap. I came to the conclusion there was no direct replacement (least not in budget).
Ford were making horrendous cars, VWs had nothing remotely interesting, Vauxhall had the mk4 astra GSI but the engine wasn't a world away from what I had (but less power etc), did I really want to just re-tread old ground ? not really. I settled on an Audi S3, but really it was a bit too much money and was concerned about maintenance bills. I ended up with the poor cousin to the S3, the Leon Cupra R 210hp, 1.8T. It was an okay car but being the golf platform had plenty of understeer and build quality wasn't that great. 4 years later that went in favour for a Astra VXR, which I've still got.
The Mk3 cavaliers were very good cars - not much went wrong and when it did it was pretty cheap (barring transfer boxes on gsi/turbos). Taxi drivers loved them because they'd just keep going forever. There was one locally that kept going for years and well over 200k on the clock. The Vectra was simply not ready to replace the Cavalier but it did so because many thought the cavalier had been around too long. Big mistake.
I never liked the V6 engine (it was a damp squib compared to a turbo) and expensive to tune, it was better than the later V6 in Vectras with the "octopus" manifold though.
I always though a 2 door mk3 cav would look cool.
ETA: The blue car next to mine in that pic was a mates car, 2.0 8v 4x4 shell, he built a XEV engine for it - LET pistons, about 8:1 with a T34 bolted to it and then mapped using an aftermarket ECU. It ate F20 gearboxes because of the torque, eventually an F28 went in Went like s
t off a shiny shovel. The shell was ok but he wanted to use the engine in something kit based, so the shell went to another friend (and eventually scrapped). I think he's still got most of the engine.Edited by Crafty_ on Friday 17th May 21:49
I worked for an IT company in the early 90's and the reps had a choice of one of these or a Granada 2.0. The majority went for GSI''s. The only problem was that head office was in Derby and they would get nicked at a ridiculous rate in broad daylight from the multi storey car park opposite the office. Many of them eventually got sick of he hassle and ended up in A Granada.
They were an OK steer. As we're some of the other Cav's. eg SRI,s and CDX's. The cheaper ones were pretty gash, though.
They were an OK steer. As we're some of the other Cav's. eg SRI,s and CDX's. The cheaper ones were pretty gash, though.
Crafty_ said:
I purchased the car from an older gent, he'd spent a fortune - exhaust, hybrid turbo, charge coolers, suspension, 4 pot brakes, poly bushes, custom mapped.
He moved on to a mk3 golf VR6 which lasted about 3 weeks, then to the Impreza community where be became a very renowned mapper and I believe has since moved to porsches.
The cavalier was about 260hp and 270-280lb/ft and had a wonderful torque curve.
Was that Bob Rawle?He moved on to a mk3 golf VR6 which lasted about 3 weeks
, then to the Impreza community where be became a very renowned mapper and I believe has since moved to porsches.The cavalier was about 260hp and 270-280lb/ft and had a wonderful torque curve.
Never had the GSi but did have the engine in a Mk2 GTE
Ag51bye said:
I literally had a cavalier Sri 16v (pretty much the same mechanically except the rear suspension) until last month.
Great fun car, ran it for 2years, 40mpg on most runs and at the risk of sounding like a dreamer would easily keep pace with BMW 325i and Honda type r's. it surprised a lot of people myself included!
I had a lovely SRI 16v with the GSI engine in white, it was the second car I ever owned and I loved it. Was going to put the GSI kit on it until someone crashed into it and wrote ot off Great fun car, ran it for 2years, 40mpg on most runs and at the risk of sounding like a dreamer would easily keep pace with BMW 325i and Honda type r's. it surprised a lot of people myself included!
Had the SRI 16v. Great car really liked it a lot engine just kept reving - to me at the time is upgraded from 80bhp to 155bhp at the age of 20 I was the taxi for all my mates. Had it in a dark off grey colour.
Listed after the GSi but ins was silly and te GSI turbo was way out of my price range.
I recall one. Drive where I tempered all 4 discs on the public road..... My dad changed them he gave me the biggest arse kicking for doing that ad evidently driving like a tool on the road to achieve that....
One question - did everyone's have a squeaky clutch pedal? They all do that sir so I just changed te was unit and put a massive bass box in the boot to drown it out.
Listed after the GSi but ins was silly and te GSI turbo was way out of my price range.
I recall one. Drive where I tempered all 4 discs on the public road..... My dad changed them he gave me the biggest arse kicking for doing that ad evidently driving like a tool on the road to achieve that....
One question - did everyone's have a squeaky clutch pedal? They all do that sir so I just changed te was unit and put a massive bass box in the boot to drown it out.
I remember when I was a kid, a neighbour who also happenes to be a mate had one it was in that maroon colour they came in. The sounded so good, and i used to love how low you can make the steering wheel go right to his kneez.
He then sold it, bought another one. They both were 'G' reg's. The guy that bought the 1st one came back for the other 2 months later as he crashed the 1St!
There was a black modified one bring driven by a lady in our town up until last year. Never seen it agen!
They are gorgeous car's.
He then sold it, bought another one. They both were 'G' reg's. The guy that bought the 1st one came back for the other 2 months later as he crashed the 1St!
There was a black modified one bring driven by a lady in our town up until last year. Never seen it agen!
They are gorgeous car's.
heres my old one. always wanted one from seeing them back in the day. finally had chance to get one after having a calibra for 3 years. this was a lemon, head gasket went just after i got it but i replaced it and sold it for a profit a few months later. it was pretty rotten under neath. think i had it about 5 years ago, they were quite rare then.
Thing is they "only" had 204bhp same as the Cossie today they would be smashed by any hot hatch.
The Nova GSi boys always wanted the 2ltr "red top" engine for conversions....
Why the 2ltr turbo didn't feature in the Carlton is beyond me instead a thirsty slower 3ltr v6 did the job.... Economies of scale as all that should have been obvious
The Nova GSi boys always wanted the 2ltr "red top" engine for conversions....
Why the 2ltr turbo didn't feature in the Carlton is beyond me instead a thirsty slower 3ltr v6 did the job.... Economies of scale as all that should have been obvious
Anyone remember the Vauxhall Cavalier Calibre ?
I had one in the early 90s. I thought I was so cool. At the time it was the best car I'd owned. Looking back it was a bit crap.
Mine looked like this one from Google Images (They all looked like this, they were all the same colour and all 'E' reg)
What I really wanted was a GSI2000 but back then they were, IIRC, about 8k for a decent one. Waaay out of my price range.
I had one in the early 90s. I thought I was so cool. At the time it was the best car I'd owned. Looking back it was a bit crap.
Mine looked like this one from Google Images (They all looked like this, they were all the same colour and all 'E' reg)
What I really wanted was a GSI2000 but back then they were, IIRC, about 8k for a decent one. Waaay out of my price range.
Jaldi said:
Anyone remember the Vauxhall Cavalier Calibre ?
I had one in the early 90s. I thought I was so cool. At the time it was the best car I'd owned. Looking back it was a bit crap.
Mine looked like this one from Google Images (They all looked like this, they were all the same colour and all 'E' reg)
What I really wanted was a GSI2000 but back then they were, IIRC, about 8k for a decent one. Waaay out of my price range.
Change the headlights on that and some better wheels that would be a cool car even todayI had one in the early 90s. I thought I was so cool. At the time it was the best car I'd owned. Looking back it was a bit crap.
Mine looked like this one from Google Images (They all looked like this, they were all the same colour and all 'E' reg)
What I really wanted was a GSI2000 but back then they were, IIRC, about 8k for a decent one. Waaay out of my price range.
My first fast car was a mk2 cav SRi, a perfect power to handling ratio, never once got me into trouble, but had a golf GIT crash behind me on a rural road. Next to impress me was a red top 2.0L Calibra, it would exit a round about before the chase car entered it, especially in the wet. Still none of these can match my wife's first MGF, which my Chimaera can't corner like, but makes up for it on the straight. Before the Chimaera I had a v6 Vectra, which I enjoyed.
If I hadn't got the Chimaera I would have gone for a Monaro.
Disclosure: my Dad was a time served Vauxhall mechanic, so I'm biased.
If I hadn't got the Chimaera I would have gone for a Monaro.
Disclosure: my Dad was a time served Vauxhall mechanic, so I'm biased.
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