2008 Vauxhall VXR8
Discussion
I bought this in February 2023 as a treat after a pretty torrid 2022. It’s a 2008 VXR8 fitted with a 542hp NA LS3, manual box, Wavetrac diff, Wortec switchable exhaust, Wortec 400mm 8pot front, 6pot rear brakes and a few other goodies.
After a couple of months smoking around in it I took the car up to Doncaster via the Peak District where it decided to lose oil pressure completely somewhere in the middle of nowhere with no phone signal. After a lovely walk up the nearest mountain in the (thankfully) glorious weather I’d summoned the AA
Having got it home I set to investigating the issue - turns out it was a goosed oil pump. The engine was only a few thousand miles old at this point - if I’d paid for it I wouldn’t have been too happy. PWP who provided the lump were quite helpful so I ordered a genuine pump (from Rockauto) and the problem was solved.
That issue took a couple of months to resolve so I managed to get some decent days out in the car before the weather turned, doing a thousand miles or so. During the winter of 23/24 I decided to do a little work to rectify some issues, namely a saggy headlining, some slight crazing on the front bumper and binding brakes.
The brakes worked really well but I’d noticed a slight shimmy getting worse and worse so off they came…. The pads were pretty well glazed and were not sitting squarely in the caliper. After contacting Wortec who were very helpful, they told me the calipers can be a pain to bleed which can result in uneven brake force across the many pistons. I ordered new pads and sent the discs off to them for skimming. Once back I bled the calipers 4 times and they now worked as they should.
I pulled the headliner out and sent the car to a customer of mine to repaint the front bumper and skirts which had got scratched on the AA truck. I stripped the material off the headliner backing and spent a week gluing and stretching the material to the board.
For what it cost I’m quite pleased with the results though refitting it was a horrible job!
The next job (which brings the story up to date) was the suspension. The car had Pedders Sports Ryder shocks and springs which were ok, but having had a lot of money thrown at the rest of the car I felt it deserved a bit better.
I spoke to the chaps at Meteor motorsport but couldn’t bring myself to spending half the value of the car on a custom setup so I ordered a set of BC Racing ZX coilovers, Superpro top mounts, Pedders suspension arms and Whiteline ARB links.
I bit the bullet last weekend and set to stripping the front end and rear shocks out. It had all been off before so came apart nicely. I took the opportunity to give the underside a bit of TLC so cleaned and undersealed it all, giving the cavities a good waxing while I was there.
The front end went together quickly but the rear end needed a little modification to enable on-car adjustment of the dampers. The rebound is adjusted by a small Allen key on the top of the shock which, when mounted on the car, sits inside the rear chassis rails. To get around this I punched two 12mm holes in the boot floor and joined them together to form an oval hole that allows a remote adjuster to pass through into the boot. I chose an oval as I had some neat oval blanking grommets from the inner sill of a Panda 4x4 I broke 25 years ago - they look more factory than a standard round blanking grommet.
I’ll have the car back on its wheels this week but having had a proper poke around underneath I’ve come up with a list of improvements - the main ones being the front and rear subframes. Over this winter I’ll strip the front and rear end in turn and powder coat the bolt on bits and fit new bushes to the rear end. I also need to replace the valves in the exhaust as they’re stuck open - it sounds epic but is a bit silly on the school run.
More pics soon
Edited by entwistlecymru on Tuesday 15th April 21:22
That appears to be a complete hooligan, none of the supposed civility of its competitors; sod the tarts frock, full on heavy metal rock chick, although hiding its sophistication, it’s easy to see the appeal, it looks basic and brutal, in a good way!
Is one perchance a bit of a fan of the GM brand, any other readers car threads, pictures of the fleet, I would imagine there’s a fair amount of love on here. What spawned the Vauxhall fascination?
Is one perchance a bit of a fan of the GM brand, any other readers car threads, pictures of the fleet, I would imagine there’s a fair amount of love on here. What spawned the Vauxhall fascination?
The gearbox needs a certain amount of technique to shift nicely but that s part of the reason I like this car - you can t just get in and go. It s mainly down to the engine - it thrives on revs. There s not much below 2k, it pulls well to 4k then goes wild up to 6.5k. It s not what you d expect from a car this age. The engine feels like something out of a 60s muscle car, all lumpy and obnoxious. It needs to grabbed by the scruff and told what to do. It doesn t thank you for being hesitant. It s a proper bruiser
As for my garage, yeah, I do like GM. My old man was a rep and he always had the most basic L-spec Cavalier, Astra, Vectra and hankered after a CDX or a GLS but he was too tight to spec one
I bought my first Manta at 18 (I’m 41 now and still have it) and have owned around 60 RWD GM things from Victor to VXR8 with Carltons , Senators, Omegas, Vivas, 30 Mantas, a few CFs and a Rascal. I ve had fast Mercs, an XJR, VAG does nothing for me, but I like the thuggish nature of big, fast Vauxhalls.
I ll start a thread on each of my vehicles when I start working on them, but in the meantime here are 2 projects to finish after my VX220 and Opel Rekord van
As for my garage, yeah, I do like GM. My old man was a rep and he always had the most basic L-spec Cavalier, Astra, Vectra and hankered after a CDX or a GLS but he was too tight to spec one
I bought my first Manta at 18 (I’m 41 now and still have it) and have owned around 60 RWD GM things from Victor to VXR8 with Carltons , Senators, Omegas, Vivas, 30 Mantas, a few CFs and a Rascal. I ve had fast Mercs, an XJR, VAG does nothing for me, but I like the thuggish nature of big, fast Vauxhalls.
I ll start a thread on each of my vehicles when I start working on them, but in the meantime here are 2 projects to finish after my VX220 and Opel Rekord van
Edited by entwistlecymru on Friday 6th June 20:37
Edited by entwistlecymru on Friday 6th June 20:39
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