RE: Vauxhall Cavalier GSi 2000 | Spotted

[s m]

cerb4.5lee said:

It has been years since I've sat in one so I'm not sure. It does seem heavy when I compare it to my xr4x4 though, and that also had 4wd and a heavier(I would have thought) V6 engine.

You’re right they were a fair bit lighter Lee
Bit less sumptuous I guess, less body addenda, smaller wheels and no turbo, cloth interior makes a bit of difference probably

[Welshbeef]

Could the VX red top turbo have bettered the Ford YB in the crazy power class (600bhp?)

[markcoznottz]

s m said:

Previous said:

A guy in our town had a quite tidy blue one on his drive for the last few years. Made me smile every time I saw it. Eventually rust spots started to appear on the rear arches and then one day it was there no more...


Replaced by a tidy cavalier 4x4 turbo!

Seems a logical progression!




Vauxhall had a 200bhp road car to compete with the E30 M3 as well as on the track

My mate had regal put a turbo lump and six speed box in his gte 16v, cost him a chuffing fortune.

[s m]

Welshbeef said:

Could the VX red top turbo have bettered the Ford YB in the crazy power class (600bhp?)

If the turbos hadn’t been effectively outlawed in BTCC
I’m sure they could probably have got close given a factory budget and an evolution engine along the way a la RS500

Trouble is what drivetrain configuration to use for a 500-600bhp Cavalier? The Sierra was rwd for its dominant years

[Welshbeef]

s m said:

If the turbos hadn’t been effectively outlawed in BTCC
I’m sure they could probably have got close given a factory budget and an evolution engine along the way a la RS500

Trouble is what drivetrain configuration to use for a 500-600bhp Cavalier? The Sierra was rwd for its dominant years

The absolute fastest way round a track is all wheel drive. Look at Le Mans - any weather no issue and monstering our of corners when rwd are trailing throttle.

[s m]

Welshbeef said:

s m said:

If the turbos hadn’t been effectively outlawed in BTCC
I’m sure they could probably have got close given a factory budget and an evolution engine along the way a la RS500

Trouble is what drivetrain configuration to use for a 500-600bhp Cavalier? The Sierra was rwd for its dominant years

The absolute fastest way round a track is all wheel drive. Look at Le Mans - any weather no issue and monstering our of corners when rwd are trailing throttle.

I guess, at that time, Vauxhall didn’t want to take the weight penalty of 4wd ( fwd was allowed to be 50kg lighter than the rwd cars and they in turn could be lighter than a 4wd entry )
The Cavaliers often qualified faster than the M3s and usually lost out in the latter stages of races as the tyres went off.
Incidentally, Vauxhall did try out a rwd Cavalier but decided not to go with it for the start of the Supertouring era

[Welshbeef]

Super touring was a great time I remember it fondly on terrestrial TV.

Steve Soper
That privateer Matt Neil(?) winning @ Silverstone and taking the win prize wasn’t it £100/250k?

The flying Alfa
Those Volvos
The different noice I5/6/4/v6 Turbo N/A don’t think anyone had a supercharger.
Shapes all different / actually thinking back nearly all we’re saloons with the odd hatchback and one estate now it’s hatchback only. Marketplace has changed.

Oh how we miss the Ford Orion ......

[s m]

Welshbeef said:

Super touring was a great time I remember it fondly on terrestrial TV.

Steve Soper
That privateer Matt Neil(?) winning @ Silverstone and taking the win prize wasn’t it £100/250k?

The flying Alfa
Those Volvos
The different noice I5/6/4/v6 Turbo N/A don’t think anyone had a supercharger.
Shapes all different / actually thinking back nearly all we’re saloons with the odd hatchback and one estate now it’s hatchback only. Marketplace has changed.

Oh how we miss the Ford Orion ......

They tried all the drive configurations for the racing GSi

Rwd, 4wd and finally settled on fwd as it worked best with the transverse engine

[Welshbeef]

s m said:

They tried all the drive configurations for the racing GSi

Rwd, 4wd and finally settled on fwd as it worked best with the transverse engine

What are those race cars worth now to buy?

[bloomen]

Welshbeef said:

What are those race cars worth now to buy?

I remember stuff like that going for 10-20 grand back in the day.

https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/16245/lot/341/ - £11,500 in 2008.

According to this - http://www.vauxhallcavalier.com/forum/viewtopic.ph... John Cleland bought one of his Cavaliers which was advertised for 150 grand.

There's a couple of supertourers in there around the 70 grand mark - https://racecarsdirect.com/Advert/Search?searchTex...

[blade7]

DoubleD said:

Thats a rather optimistic price

[Welshbeef]

https://racecarsdirect.com/Advert/Details/105229/2...

There was a thread not that long ago best car for the track £15k budget - Id nominate this what a car.

[squareflops]

I bet another 20k that the clutch pedal still squeaks

[s m]

bloomen said:

I remember stuff like that going for 10-20 grand

According to this - http://www.vauxhallcavalier.com/forum/viewtopic.ph... John Cleland bought one of his Cavaliers which was advertised for 150 grand.

Turns out it wasn’t the car he was expecting according to the thread!

It was a pretty old car when it won the championship in 95. The new shape Vectra had come out by then

[Davie]

s m said:

It was a pretty old car when it won the championship in 95. The new shape Vectra had come out by then

Hmmm, not sure on that one... Cavaliers ran till late 1995 and the Vectra was launched and thus campaigned in 1996.

As for the £20k price tag this one has or had, it does seem dear but then again all 90's stuff has gone crazy so why shouldn't a rare and appreciating Vauxhall not go the same way. If I had copious amounts of money and space, I'd have this purely because I have a fondness for Cavalier Mk3's and I'd be that nostalgic guy who has good memories of days gone by but if I only had £20k to spend on a weekend toy / hobby then no, I don't think I could put it all into a Cavalier GSi.

Like many, growing up I had little interest in supercars or F1 and so on and instead, loved the 90's BTCC championships and being of sound Scottish stock, Cleland became a bit of a boyhood hero and so the whole Cavalier thing started. Though it was a close run thing between the Vauxhall and the Volvo campaigns for me. In 1999, having got fed up with an unreliable 309XS, I bought a 1992 Cavalier GSi2000. It was grey, 2wd and completely standard and thinking back, was only 7yrs old at the time which given I was 18, seems a bit mental! And yes, I told my Mum it was a 1.6...

I loved that car, adored it in fact but being 18 I had a slight ignorance to the mechanical side of things and instead was blown away but it sheer pace. It was a true 140mph car and oddly, cost a fraction of what the likes of a Nova GSi or Caibra cost to insure. I spent a fortune keeping it immaculate and being 18, lowered it 30mm, fitted 17" Fox 6 alloys and the requisite Laguna splitter. That transformed the handling (not the splitter) as they were always a bit soft and floaty on their original 55 series tyres and comedy spring heights. I then ruined it (looking back!) by lowering it 80mm and fitting 18's on 35 series tyres. It looked great but drove appallingly! In three years, it never put a foot wrong despite the abuse it got however it's life was cut short having been heavily rear ended by four big girls in a Citroen Saxo. That as they say, was that.

By then I was 21 and had some NCB and a cheque from the insurers. I looked at a few things, including a Diamond White Sapphire Cosworth 4x4 sat on RS 7-spokes. It was still a bit dear insurance wise and whilst it had a great drivetrain and yes, huge tuning potential... compared to the Mk3 Cavalier the Sierra just felt old, cheap, plastic and fragile. Whereas the Cavalier was all soft touch plastics and wrap round door frames, the Sierra just felt like it'd been built on a budget of about forty quid. In the end I didn't do a buy as the cool kids say. From memory it was a K plate car and up for £4000 back in 2002... looking back now, part of me wishes I'd just bought it and kept it given the way their prices have gone of late but I didn't, so that was that.

Instead, I bought a K plate Cavalier Turbo in Spectral Blue. I paid £3500 from a dealer in Aberdeen and it was utterly fabulous in my eyes. It was a quick car back then, still is even by today's standards with 0-60mph in about 6.4secs and it was also capable of 150mph and then some. I drove it daily for years and god knows how many miles and pretty much rebuilt it along the way. I believe it was the first UK car to get a "locked" transfer box, doing away with the complex and crap accumulator system and mechanically locking the drive to the rear which transformed the car. It was mapped, front mounted intercooler, Bilsteins and 30mm springs and was around 250bhp. It went all over the UK and to Germany with me several times.

The beginning of the end was when it got the rear wing dented, that lead me to get a full respray which made it stunning but I was still using it daily and so it started to look less stunning all too quickly again. I took it off the road in 2008 with a view to doing a light restoration and then painting in, which I started but life took me on various paths over the next few years which meant the car spent more time sat gathering dust in various units then actually being worked on. During my ownership, I also ran countless T5 Volvos and other Cavaliers... several SRi 16's included and I started to realise that the Volvos were just better in every sense. The Cavalier Turbo was moved from storage to storage for years whilst I debated what to do with it and eventually, about two years ago I took it home with a view to at least getting it running again.

However, a few weeks in and I realised that I no longer loved Cavaliers and with a new wife and baby, found myself asking if I wanted to spent the significant time and money it needed to be "right" again. I needed structural work, a respray and almost every moving part replaced and ultimately I figured that like this white GSi in the article, what the hell would I do with an immaculate Cavalier... I don't do shows, it'd get ruined using it and it wasn't suited to modern life at all so in the end, after almost 15yrs and 100,000 miles in my hands, I sold the engine and running gear and debated crushing the shell as I didn't think I'd want to see it live on in new hands. But I changed my mind and sold the rolling shell and it was last seen up for sale, complete for £8k but strangely, it didn't bother me.

Yes, they were flawed in many ways and a rather numb drive unless modified but the Mk3 Cavalier was a very good bit of kit and the performance models were some of Vauxhall's greatest efforts in my opinion. As much as I loved my Turbo, the 2wd Redtop equipped GSi2000 and indeed the standard SRi models were probably the best - simple, quick, cheap and surprisingly well made and resilient and given the glory days of the BTCC campaign, first in GSi kitted cars and latterly in SRi bodied cars, I can see why an immaculate white 2wd GSi with low miles could command such a premium. Granted, performance Vauxhall's of this era will never be on par value wise with the equivalent old Fords of this era, such is the joy of the RS scene tax but I don't see why they can't be held in high regard and valued accordingly... even if £20k seems a bit keen. I think being a Volvo man too, I'd struggle to see past an immaculate red Volvo 850R estate or Gul 850 T-5R estate and about £10k change but that's not the point.

Back in the day indeed.

Edited by Davie on Saturday 10th August 13:18

[blade7]

Davie said:

I think being a Volvo man too, I'd struggle to see past an immaculate red Volvo 850R estate or Gul 850 T-5R estate and about £10k change but that's not the point.

Can you buy one an immaculate one for £10k now? I looked for one few years back, and most were very tired.

[seveb]

The GSi2000 4x4 was a bag of sh*te. I had one -silver 1992 car. Was marginally slower than the Cavalier SRi of the same period (The M6 was a lot less busy than it is now and there were no speed cameras !)

The electrical faults were many and eventually I could remove the key if the headlights were on and it would carry on running, but with a locked steering wheel.

It went back to Vauxhall when the 4x4 transfer box cracked open on the M1 at 5am and left plumes of smoke behind. It wasn't as fast as it was supposed to be, noisy, thirsty, unreliable and expensive.

The 405Mi16 was equally sh*te - the interior fell apart, it was noisy, gearbox was a bit cheesy and felt like it and everything rattled.

One of the best cars of that era I drove (I was about 22-25 years old) was a Rover 220 GSi - I think that's what it was labelled. The Astra SRi of the same period was very good too - firm handling without being uncomfortable and the 1.8 16v engine was lovey - given what else was available at that time - one of Vauxhall's best cars of that period.

[Davie]

blade7 said:

Can you buy one an immaculate one for £10k now? I looked for one few years back, and most were very tired.

A chap on here had his red 850R for sale fairly recently for around that figure and it (to my eyes) looked like an absolute stormer.

But I agree, most are a bit ropey and don't get me started on the influx of washed out, baggy stuff coming from Japan with fantastical price tags as dealers try and jump on the bandwagon and make a fast buck... however, from what I can tell a lot of said stuff isn't selling and thus, much like this GSi, I suspect the demand for such cars is very, very small and in the case of the Volvos, it's like supply now outweighs demand and thus cars aren't moving. In that respect, at least the GSi remains a rarity these days as most have long since died so nice ones are like rocking horse crap and well, I guess that's perhaps where the price tag stemmed from. Once all the baggy Volvos have died, maybe a good one of those with be similar money. Assuming they stop dragging more over from Japan.

[markcoznottz]

seveb said:

The GSi2000 4x4 was a bag of sh*te. I had one -silver 1992 car. Was marginally slower than the Cavalier SRi of the same period (The M6 was a lot less busy than it is now and there were no speed cameras !)

The electrical faults were many and eventually I could remove the key if the headlights were on and it would carry on running, but with a locked steering wheel.

It went back to Vauxhall when the 4x4 transfer box cracked open on the M1 at 5am and left plumes of smoke behind. It wasn't as fast as it was supposed to be, noisy, thirsty, unreliable and expensive.

The 405Mi16 was equally sh*te - the interior fell apart, it was noisy, gearbox was a bit cheesy and felt like it and everything rattled.

One of the best cars of that era I drove (I was about 22-25 years old) was a Rover 220 GSi - I think that's what it was labelled. The Astra SRi of the same period was very good too - firm handling without being uncomfortable and the 1.8 16v engine was lovey - given what else was available at that time - one of Vauxhall's best cars of that period.

The vauxhall 4x4 system wasn't the best, it was the same as on the cav turbo, calibra turbo as well. I think some people removed a fuse and it ran in 2wd?.

[blade7]

markcoznottz said:

The vauxhall 4x4 system wasn't the best, it was the same as on the cav turbo, calibra turbo as well. I think some people removed a fuse and it ran in 2wd?.

Was the Volvo system any better?