Vauxhall Cavalier Turbo - Who Remembers?

[willisit]

ToothbrushMan said:

Thinking about it where is Vauxhalls modern day "Calibra"?

Think they need a small/medium coupe again......and no not a Monaro V8 leviathan.

For a while, I had both - there isn't much in it.

[Yanayaya]

willisit said:

ToothbrushMan said:

Thinking about it where is Vauxhalls modern day "Calibra"?

Think they need a small/medium coupe again......and no not a Monaro V8 leviathan.

For a while, I had both - there isn't much in it.

There was talk of a new Calibra: http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/vauxhall/34821/new-ca... I'm not sure if that became the Insignia however.

At least the modern day Cavalier is still on the go aka Vectra

Edited by Yanayaya on Friday 24th January 15:39

[marcosgt]

Yanayaya said:

willisit said:

ToothbrushMan said:

Thinking about it where is Vauxhalls modern day "Calibra"?

Think they need a small/medium coupe again......and no not a Monaro V8 leviathan.

For a while, I had both - there isn't much in it.

There was talk of a new Calibra: http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/vauxhall/34821/new-ca...

At least the modern day Cavalier is still on the go aka Vectra

I still love the Calibra shape (shame it was a pretty ordinary drive and horribly unreliable...), but I don't see me beating a path to Vauxhall's door if a replacement looks like the artist's impression.

On the other hand, it'll be a cold day in hell before I deal with a Vauxhall dealer again...

M.

[Mr GrimNasty]

The extra gauges in the Calibra weren't standard on my Cavalier turbo, and the only ones with them I ever saw had been fitted by the owners.

[Yanayaya]

marcosgt said:

I still love the Calibra shape (shame it was a pretty ordinary drive and horribly unreliable...), but I don't see me beating a path to Vauxhall's door if a replacement looks like the artist's impression.

On the other hand, it'll be a cold day in hell before I deal with a Vauxhall dealer again...

M.

The shape of the Calibra stood the test of time but the floor pan was just the Cavalier. My father owned a Calibra when they first came out (He was one of the poor souls that got the porous cylinder head before it was "recognised" as an actual problem) and I remember the mechanic saying to him "Oh look a Cavalier in a party dress" ha ha.

I have to agree with you about the Vauxhall dealers, I love my car but stay well clear of my local dealer. Their parts department are the worst and I got tired of asking for parts and the guy rolling his eyes at me as if it was some sort of life altering request he'd never recover from. >

Edited by Yanayaya on Friday 24th January 15:47

[willisit]

I might try to find it, but there was a Vectra-coupe spied, then the Insignia concept that became the Insignia. Vauxhall play with the idea with each generation but won't commit. This time around it's the Manta that's suddenly coming back. It won't.

[Yanayaya]

Mr GrimNasty said:

The extra gauges in the Calibra weren't standard on my Cavalier turbo, and the only ones with them I ever saw had been fitted by the owners.

They're not standard on Cavaliers at all nor do the Cavaliers have the wiring for them. The Calibra had the wiring harness plus the altered oil pressure sender on the back of the oil pump (possibly Astra GTE also?? Might need Dave to help me on that one) to give out a reading. They do fit nicely however and wiring them into a Cavalier is quite easy to do.

[Baryonyx]

ToothbrushMan said:

Youve just reminded me of the BBC show called Spender with Jimmy Nail! He had one of those.

Funnily enough, I posted a few pictures from Spender in the 'most 80's car thread' predictably with Jimmy driving the Sierra Cosworth! Much like the Sierra Cosworth, the Cavalier Turbo has quite a connection with Newcastle, they ended up being the police car of choice for a little while, between the Sierra and Escort Cosworth and the Volvo 850 T5, so it wasn't uncommon to see them on the roads going quite quickly!

[s m]

ToothbrushMan said:

andymc said:

me mam wouldn't let me have the magenta cosworth I wanted as they were getting stolen with guns, the lovely Newcastle @1994

Youve just reminded me of the BBC show called Spender with Jimmy Nail! He had one of those.

Ironically, the 2wd one they used in the first series of "Spender" ended up getting stolen and was found burnt out in Newcastle

[marcosgt]

Yanayaya said:

marcosgt said:

I still love the Calibra shape (shame it was a pretty ordinary drive and horribly unreliable...), but I don't see me beating a path to Vauxhall's door if a replacement looks like the artist's impression.

On the other hand, it'll be a cold day in hell before I deal with a Vauxhall dealer again...

M.

The shape of the Calibra stood the test of time but the floor pan was just the Cavalier. My father owned a Calibra when they first came out (He was one of the poor souls that got the porous cylinder head before it was "recognised" as an actual problem) and I remember the mechanic saying to him "Oh look a Cavalier in a party dress" ha ha.

I have to agree with you about the Vauxhall dealers, I love my car but stay well clear of my local dealer. Their parts department are the worst and I got tired of asking for parts and the guy rolling his eyes at me as if it was some sort of life altering request he'd never recover from. >

Edited by Yanayaya on Friday 24th January 15:47

Yes, it was just a Cavalier in a pretty frock, but back then (for all the misty eyed love for Sierra Cosworths) vanilla Vauxhalls had Fords beaten hands down on build quality.

The 16V Calibra had that great F3 engine too, was economical and fast (had mine OFF the 140MPH speedo once on an Autobahn), but they had dodgy electrics (supposedly the loom didn't really work for RHD), the dealers (mostly) were incompetents and they didn't handle very well (lots of understeer).

I still loved mine for all that

M

[Crafty_]

Calibras never drove as well as cavaliers, the headlights were worse (and cavs were bad enough!), visibility was awful and they always felt more vague and floppy to me.

[Davie]

For a while I wanted a Calibra Turbo for her to sit alongside my Cavalier Turbo... a couple came up recently, one Spectral Blue on white, both standard and very tidy. I couldn't decide if it was a brilliant idea or a really crap idea. In the end the £3,500 asking price put me off so got her a last of line SE8 instead. It sits alongside a 1995 Cavalier SRi and the Turbo which the less said about that, the better.

Currently pondering what to do with my Turbo... time, money, 2.4 lifestyle have out it on the back burner for a long long time now but I have a huge desire to get it back on the road this year. Paint is the biggest issue, whilst it isn't rusty in any way, shape or form it does need a full respray (again) and not sure I want to spend the guts of £3,000 doing so. Plus I'd be paranoid about driving it and well, that's never what the car was all about. It was always for driving.

Soooo, might opt for a mates rates tidy up, get it running and looking presentable and then head out on a mission to crack 200,000 miles in it.

Maybe...

[thedirector]

marcosgt said:

Yanayaya said:

willisit said:

ToothbrushMan said:

Thinking about it where is Vauxhalls modern day "Calibra"?

Think they need a small/medium coupe again......and no not a Monaro V8 leviathan.

For a while, I had both - there isn't much in it.

There was talk of a new Calibra: http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/vauxhall/34821/new-ca...

At least the modern day Cavalier is still on the go aka Vectra

I still love the Calibra shape (shame it was a pretty ordinary drive and horribly unreliable...), but I don't see me beating a path to Vauxhall's door if a replacement looks like the artist's impression.

On the other hand, it'll be a cold day in hell before I deal with a Vauxhall dealer again...

M.

I think that the new calibra became the Cascada which has only just been released.

[s m]

Davie said:

Currently pondering what to do with my Turbo... time, money, 2.4 lifestyle have out it on the back burner for a long long time now but I have a huge desire to get it back on the road this year. Paint is the biggest issue, whilst it isn't rusty in any way, shape or form it does need a full respray (again) and not sure I want to spend the guts of £3,000 doing so. Plus I'd be paranoid about driving it and well, that's never what the car was all about. It was always for driving.

Soooo, might opt for a mates rates tidy up, get it running and looking presentable and then head out on a mission to crack 200,000 miles in it.

Maybe...

It does look a nice one, your plan sounds good though.

You want to be able to drive and enjoy it

[s70rmp]

I had one for about 3.5 years - L65ARY a white one.

Cracking car, only real issue I had was speedo failed and had to have a complete new instrument panel
felt like I got a new car as the mileage read 3 miles when I got it back from the garage :-)

Was a great motorway stormer