A tale of two Monaros
Discussion
Specifically LS1 VXR models.
As most of you know over the last 3 years I spent a lot of time and money getting my Monaro LS1 VXR to where I wanted it and I enjoyed almost all of the experience. On 5th March I had it booked in with NWJ for its MOT, so I left and got a little way up the road and lost power, looked at the dash for any warning lights. Nothing. Then looked up and saw flames coming out of the bonnet. Stopped car, got out and proceeded to call fire brigade and see my pride and joy burn itself to a Cat B wreckage. 3 years of blood sweat and tears destroyed in a little under an hour. MOT not required at this point. Pictures below:
Gutted didn't even cover it. Luckily my foster son and I were ok, and I was feeling terrible about it all.
So a couple of weeks passed, calls to insurance company, and the search for a new car started. Considered a number of options, but I kept coming back to the Monaro, and so ended up getting a train to the west country to get this one, my second LS1 VXR. So far so good, love the car so far, looks well looked after. So now I'm back in a Monaro and actually own 2 at the moment. Needs some minor bits and pieces but nothing major, just loving it once again. I'll do some better pics after a clean and polish of it....
As most of you know over the last 3 years I spent a lot of time and money getting my Monaro LS1 VXR to where I wanted it and I enjoyed almost all of the experience. On 5th March I had it booked in with NWJ for its MOT, so I left and got a little way up the road and lost power, looked at the dash for any warning lights. Nothing. Then looked up and saw flames coming out of the bonnet. Stopped car, got out and proceeded to call fire brigade and see my pride and joy burn itself to a Cat B wreckage. 3 years of blood sweat and tears destroyed in a little under an hour. MOT not required at this point. Pictures below:
Gutted didn't even cover it. Luckily my foster son and I were ok, and I was feeling terrible about it all.
So a couple of weeks passed, calls to insurance company, and the search for a new car started. Considered a number of options, but I kept coming back to the Monaro, and so ended up getting a train to the west country to get this one, my second LS1 VXR. So far so good, love the car so far, looks well looked after. So now I'm back in a Monaro and actually own 2 at the moment. Needs some minor bits and pieces but nothing major, just loving it once again. I'll do some better pics after a clean and polish of it....
Thanks everyone.
Yes it's the same car, here hasn't been two go up in Medway recently thankfully!
The new one has quick rack, coilovers, wortec exhaust and APs. I'll try the other wheels when I get mt car back and I'll see what I like the look of.
Thanks for the previous pics, it doesn't look much different now. I was a little unsure about the grey bits but seeing the car for real I think it looks good. I'm going to put my DEPO lights on it if it ever stops raining and see how they look...
Generally speaking the car looks to be in great condition.
Yes it's the same car, here hasn't been two go up in Medway recently thankfully!
The new one has quick rack, coilovers, wortec exhaust and APs. I'll try the other wheels when I get mt car back and I'll see what I like the look of.
Thanks for the previous pics, it doesn't look much different now. I was a little unsure about the grey bits but seeing the car for real I think it looks good. I'm going to put my DEPO lights on it if it ever stops raining and see how they look...
Generally speaking the car looks to be in great condition.
Thought I'd give a quick update on this.
I've had the former Top Gear Monaro for 4 months nearly now, and as most Monaro owners will confirm, the first few weeks of ownership tend to be the ones that test us the most, and this is none more apparent than this one!
I initially thought that getting the car somewhere near the standard my black one was would take a few weeks at best, as I'd already done the work and roughly knew what to expect. I was wrong. For various reasons, time has been at a bit of a premium, along with the fact that it's impossible to squeeze 3 years worth of mods, paint, and tlc into 4 months! This was soon apparent.
I've reinstated the original wheels as I preferred them, this was probably the easiest thing to do. It all goes downhill a bit from here. A number of issues I've found with the new one:
Alignment was out by a mile
The coilover suspension was too hard for everyday use and too low to go on my drive. Nice that it's adjustable, not so nice that it was all seized solid. So decided to revert back to normal VXR springs and pedders dampers as I liked this set up on the old car. Seems ok to do, back was easy, the front was a nightmare, the camber bolts were seized in the hub, the strut bolts on the hub were seized solid (they defeated my mains powered impact wrench) and so it was a lot more hard work than planned. However the car is now riding a lot better with a very small trade off in handling and now goes over my drive ok and into the garage.
The paintwork needs a bit of tlc, like most 12 year old cars I guess, but I go back to my point about the other car I had....
The leather on the seats has split, so another repair needed.
Neil had the gearbox out, done the usual bits there, and all was good, until I found a leak from the reservoir and pipe that meant the clutch was non operative. Thanks to Neil for his help here.
There have been a number of other minor issues that need to be resolved, all of which were not present or had been dealt with on the previous one. I'd forgotten how basic and rubbish the standard Monaro stereo is, and I had a decent Pioneer USB/DAB unit on the old one that again was destroyed in the fire.
So although the problems have been fairly minor, I haven't really felt very enthused about the new car and at times have been looking at the classifieds quite closely and getting rid of the f
king thing. However, I think I'm at the point where once the reservoir is fitted (tomorrow hopefully) then I'll be on the road to enjoying Monaro ownership once again and so got through the whole pain of first few months ownership.
I've had the former Top Gear Monaro for 4 months nearly now, and as most Monaro owners will confirm, the first few weeks of ownership tend to be the ones that test us the most, and this is none more apparent than this one!
I initially thought that getting the car somewhere near the standard my black one was would take a few weeks at best, as I'd already done the work and roughly knew what to expect. I was wrong. For various reasons, time has been at a bit of a premium, along with the fact that it's impossible to squeeze 3 years worth of mods, paint, and tlc into 4 months! This was soon apparent.
I've reinstated the original wheels as I preferred them, this was probably the easiest thing to do. It all goes downhill a bit from here. A number of issues I've found with the new one:
Alignment was out by a mile
The coilover suspension was too hard for everyday use and too low to go on my drive. Nice that it's adjustable, not so nice that it was all seized solid. So decided to revert back to normal VXR springs and pedders dampers as I liked this set up on the old car. Seems ok to do, back was easy, the front was a nightmare, the camber bolts were seized in the hub, the strut bolts on the hub were seized solid (they defeated my mains powered impact wrench) and so it was a lot more hard work than planned. However the car is now riding a lot better with a very small trade off in handling and now goes over my drive ok and into the garage.
The paintwork needs a bit of tlc, like most 12 year old cars I guess, but I go back to my point about the other car I had....
The leather on the seats has split, so another repair needed.
Neil had the gearbox out, done the usual bits there, and all was good, until I found a leak from the reservoir and pipe that meant the clutch was non operative. Thanks to Neil for his help here.
There have been a number of other minor issues that need to be resolved, all of which were not present or had been dealt with on the previous one. I'd forgotten how basic and rubbish the standard Monaro stereo is, and I had a decent Pioneer USB/DAB unit on the old one that again was destroyed in the fire.
So although the problems have been fairly minor, I haven't really felt very enthused about the new car and at times have been looking at the classifieds quite closely and getting rid of the f
king thing. However, I think I'm at the point where once the reservoir is fitted (tomorrow hopefully) then I'll be on the road to enjoying Monaro ownership once again and so got through the whole pain of first few months ownership. Thought I'd update this as things have moved on somewhat. As I mentioned earlier it was looking like I missed my black one a lot and so anything that I bought was always going to struggle.
So I decided to sell the silver one, and by chance another Monaro came up for sale....
It's a car that's not known on here as far as I know, but one that I've seen around for a few years and rather liked the look of.
It has a 112 supercharger, coilovers, and a few other mods. You'll notice the wheels, they are 275 tyres on the back, with the arches rolled. The jury is still out on these for me but I'll give it some time. It's an LS1 VXR, so the third one I've owned.
It has cut outs on it, and when they're open, it's very loud, and I mean proper loud.
Think I'm going to enjoy this one!
So I decided to sell the silver one, and by chance another Monaro came up for sale....
It's a car that's not known on here as far as I know, but one that I've seen around for a few years and rather liked the look of.
It has a 112 supercharger, coilovers, and a few other mods. You'll notice the wheels, they are 275 tyres on the back, with the arches rolled. The jury is still out on these for me but I'll give it some time. It's an LS1 VXR, so the third one I've owned.
It has cut outs on it, and when they're open, it's very loud, and I mean proper loud.
Think I'm going to enjoy this one!
ARAF said:
Granby said:
Very nice Vince, i actually like the wheels 
So do I. I commented to Paul about them, and he gave me the details of the guy he got them from.They look to be replicas of the BBS SR
BTW, Medway Monaro, shouldn't think be re-titled as "A Tale of Three Monaros" ?
I think you might be right though....
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