Hold(en) my beer - Monaro, Ute and Commodore content

[SturdyHSV]

So continuing the 'halve the commute, double the consumption' logic that caused this thread:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

It's probably time to actually give the commUTEr its own thread. To summarise the other one, 45mpg V70 D5 daily duties taken on by Prodrive Brera V6.

2 months and around 2,000 miles in, a post appears in the Holden bits for sale facebook group of a partially JPS liveried Ute complete with spare set of wheels and a ute tent.

I commented on it largely saying "I appear to have bought the wrong daily, stupid question but I don't suppose you're interested in a Brera..."

Seller replied "That is a stupid question... what sort of Brera?"

Long story short, we met for a couple of beers to discuss poor car buying decisions, drove each car and agreed to just swap This was the Sunday before Le Mans, so really perfectly timed as it meant I didn't have to worry about getting my Monaro running sweetly after the big cam install I'd just finished.

So the Alfa's 23mpg for 260bhp has now been replaced with 21mpg for 390bhp (albeit via a slushbox)

There were a wide array of additional stickers and tape to finish the livery, so this was done ahead of Le Mans, the ute tent worked flawlessly, a spare pair of rears were taken to France and sent directly to hell, and all in it has worked as well as you could hope.

I still haven't managed to bring myself to remove the stickers.





Being that it's largely the same interior as the Monaro it's all very familiar, it's supremely comfortable, rather droney with what I assume isn't the original exhaust, the stereo is comically good considering there's nowhere to put any speakers, it makes excellent grandstand seating for 6 people, and is just so much more 'fun' than the (admittedly gorgeous) Brera was.

It has a very playful handling balance, although the LSD is somewhat worn out so it can be guilty of only spinning up an inside wheel on occasion which is a little uncouth.

The slushbox is nice for commute traffic, but it wouldn't be my first choice. As it's a Ute and can carry spare tyres, my ultimate plan has always been to have a supercharged Ute as a 'silly' car. Unfortunately the 4L60E behind the LS1 isn't up to that in stock form, and I'm not interested in spending money improving a gearbox I don't want, so the supercharger will have to wait.

Long term plan is ultimately to replace Sheila (the Monaro is called Bruce, the Ute has a smaller engine and auto box so...Sheila) with a manual equivalent, but for now I'm just having a great time enjoying the simple 'charm' of another Holden product. It has also implanted the idea that the only sensible thing to replace the V70 with is a Commodore estate (manual, 6 litre, obviously) but that would have to be imported from Aus, so not in the near future!

[SturdyHSV]

fred bloggs said:

Perfect daily. I saw the le mans video incidentally. I have a vt2 hsv .
Those cone diffs are rubbish, In fact mine had broken cones. I went with a kaaz ,Im not sure on the torsens, I need a proper lock up.

Perhaps put this in it ….


https://www.tuffcarparts.com.au/vt-vx-vy-vz-v8-hol...

I have a truetrac in the Monaro which works really well (albeit slightly clunky)

If man maths comes in to play, I may put a wavetrac in the Monaro and swap the truetrac into the ute...

[SturdyHSV]

Needless to say Sheila was in full bogan mode at Le Mans

As she seems to be slightly quicker than she feels, tomorrow some friends and I are popping over to Santa Pod to see how she goes.

I'm guessing a low 14 at about 100, feel free to guess amongst yourselves, I shall attempt to update the thread although signal at the Pod is scant at best

[SturdyHSV]

Steve Evil said:

Have I seen this heading into Milton Keynes via junction 14 on the odd morning?

You certainly have, 15 to 14 every morning

[SturdyHSV]

https://youtu.be/9enkIEL-A0A

https://youtu.be/czEtOKs8EvA

Bringing a little touch of 'straya to Le Mans

In the pairing lanes, weather looks... British.

[SturdyHSV]

First run, thought I'd try the PWR shift mode just to give the box a heads up... That was the then the first time it's ever held in to a gear, so got to the top of first and it just bounced off the limiter

14.4 at 95, so optimistically a low 14 but 100 looks out of reach!

[SturdyHSV]

Pit Pony said:

I have 2 opinions and a question.
1st opinion is that i would remove the tabbaco sponsorship, due to my own hatred of tabbaco companies.
2nd opinion. I love the Ute. It's great.

Question.

I own an omega. How much omega is in its make up.

I'm thinking the doors are identical and m a bye the front screen

Certainly the door handles are the same, except the Omega ones are quality metal, the Monaro are also the same (but also plastic).

I think the door window glass may be the same as well, there are doubtless a fair few shared components and the rear of the estate is very similar to the Commodore.

Yeah tobacco companies are hardly to be celebrated but personally it doesn't bother me enough to remove it, it's quite clearly a bit of fun and to be fair, it worked well with the tyre smoking 😂

Sat in the car in the rain, standard Santa Pod!

[SturdyHSV]

Calling it and heading home. Will fight again another day!

[SturdyHSV]

OXCiD3 said:

Previous owner here.

Here's a pic from when I took it to Le Mans in 2018:


That's a full sized Mattress in the back.


With a fluffy cotton duvet and memory foam pillows. Because just because you're a bogan at heart it doesn't mean you can't be comfy.

Edited by OXCiD3 on Monday 8th July 22:20

Cheers mate the ones I took were obviously far too big to upload and it's such a faff resizing them with a phone.

I slummed it in comparison, I'm thinking of heading in to Europe with it during the summer shutdown so I may copy your (excellent) idea...

[SturdyHSV]

aka_kerrly said:

Love it, a very versatile vehicle, I'm planning on sending a picture of the tent setup to a mate of mine as that would be ideal for him as he is the laziest camper i know.

Im lucky to have had a go in a few Holden/HSV Utes an saloons including Walksinshaw racing specials (inc a ex Walkinshaw owned car) as my former boss is a mad Holden fan, although currently Holdenless as he sold a few to Elite/Precious Metal on here - i can highly recommend buying either of them.

Oh an the JPS livery HAS TO STAY or how about for next year doing a TWR tribute as Walksinshaw has quite the history of racing Holdens, the Griffin part in particular stretched down the side to look like it's leaping out the truck bed into the door !!

Agree the JPS livery is probably staying for the foreseeable future, it just works so well

[SturdyHSV]

markone2 said:

14 seconds ? for standing 1/4 mile...WTF are you guys playing at ?, you already have one VX Commodore Ute road car
in your fine land,..........affectionately known as LBT , ex Aus , belongs to a gent named Darrell and runs a genuine 10 second
1/4 mile all day every day...then again it was built and tuned in Aus....Cheers M

It's had a remap at best and I've no interest in drag racing it, if it ran 10s I think we'd all be pretty surprised

Continues to serve as a comfy daily, tank to tank worked out as a touch under 21mpg, ultimately not too bad for the amount of fun it is.

Occasionally warming to the auto

[SturdyHSV]

Popped over to Santa Pod again to support some friends racing at Bugjam. Obviously it rained all weekend so not a whole lot of use, but the tent did its job and I gave them a hand towing the 'rat-a-van' back to the lockup





Getting about 450km from what seems to be about a 60 litre tank. Apparently it's 65 litres, but the last 5 are used to cool the fuel pump so you can't actually use them.

No problems to report, uses no oil, desperately needs the LSD replacing, in the wet it's literally preposterous

Planning a 2 week European road trip during factory shutdown mid August, may need to up the mileage on the insurance at this rate!

[SturdyHSV]

So in the interest of building up enough social pressure that I have to, I have been informing everyone of what I'm doing over the summer shutdown, which starts at the end of this week. General plan is 'to drive off in to Europe'.

It is a 'plan' in the loosest possible sense of the word, other than a few things...

The first weekend a friend is visiting his parents' in France, so I'm driving down there at some point so I can at least start the 2 weeks with a shower. I want to go to the Alfa museum, thus Milan is inevitable, Monza is thus nearby, and Lake Como also. The final weekend there's a WRC round in Germany and a friend lives in Cologne so that seems a good place to stop. I found out the other day that the Monday is a bank holiday too, so that means I don't have to drive back on the Sunday = result.

I've decided as a rather silly way of picking places to go that I'm also going to take a few watches back to visit their headquarters (sorry, the thread should have a 'pompous watch prick' disclaimer ).

A colleague recommended the automobile museum in Mulhouse too, so that's on the cards. I'd also like to go near Grindelwald and Eiger simply for Gran Turismo reasons

General plan is some France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany. I have no plans on where to stay, but the Ute tent will always be available, and fortunately as I'm not 'inside' the vehicle hopefully there won't be any issues with interesting rules in Switzerland. Expecting roughly 3,000 miles.

I will try to update the thread with anything interesting that happens, I imagine it won't be as action packed as some people manage on these sorts of things, but I'm hoping that a JPS liveried pickup with a V8 should at least generate some good will amongst the odd local, because Allah knows my personality certainly isn't going to

[SturdyHSV]

Well I've booked the chunnel for tomorrow at about half 1. Mate's parents' place is about 7 hours South of Calais, interestingly the route there takes me right through Le Mans, so I may well crash there for Saturday night as I know my way around and it'll be interesting to see it outside of a 24 hour week.

There was also a little bar in Spay near where we camped with a lovely barmaid called Marine

But who am I kidding, I'll be sleeping next to an open air stter on the side of a motorway, at least I've got a few books to read

[SturdyHSV]

Well it's time for an update... To put it concisely, the diff is fked

I'm staying in Le Mans this eve but it'll be a recovery job tomorrow. Baaaaad noises around roundabouts / in a straight line, generally everywhere. Who would have thought that all my wanton abuse would come back to bite me

I have managed to randomly end up in the hotel the (non-mechanic) corvette team use during the 24 heures, the most friendly receptionist said to come see her during next year's race as she gets a few passes, we shall see!

Of a more PH vibe her Peugeot 307 has so far been all over France, Austria, Germany and England, and she's having it flown (at no small cost!) to America next year, fascinating people's attachments to metal boxes!

Currently sat by a lake with a beer so it could be worse, Sheila will be getting a truetrac as she deserves and all this one wheel peel mess will be resolved once and for all.

[SturdyHSV]

Turn7 said:

elevenses for fun......

The temptation to send it to hell is strong, if she's happy for me to kill it in the morning then I shall upload the video

[SturdyHSV]

Well despite snapping the heel off one of her stilettos, Sheila got me home at 21:00 last night, she just really moaned about turning left

All in a 1,400km round trip with relatively little to show for it other than a new friend in Le Mans

Will get the rear end off the ground and see what's going on, although the weather doesn't look helpful...

After looking at what euro breakdown cover would involve, and it being a Sunday in France, I opted to head for Le Havre as a relatively close port with a ferry.

Alas, it was full, and it turned out Monday's ferries were also full...

So another few hours back to the Chunnel, splashed for a flexiplus ticket which was an absolutely joyous revelation as I drove past all of the queues and straight on to whichever train was boarding when I arrived.

One benefit of the UK road network is the surface is so poor it drowns out some of the diff noises

Currently looking at the quickest way to source a truetrac diff, it was something I wanted to do anyway as one wheel peels are awful, and the locking / unlocking of the knackered old diff when 'a bit sideways' made it like riding a bucking bronco at times.

Plus the money I've saved on fuel over the next two weeks will comfortably pay for the diff, so it's free, right?

[SturdyHSV]

So on jacking it up and having a poke about, the driver's side rear wheel bearing is shot, there's a lot of play (think random toe in / toe out!) and this would go well with the unpleasant noises...

So that's the good news. Bad news is it's an absolute pig to replace apparently, the GM book method is to remove the whole suspension arm and use a special tool to press it out, thought I'd phone Walkinshaw to get an idea of cost... Let's just say last one they did earlier this year was 6 hours labour, so it's not cheap...

Looks like I've got some fun on my hands!

[SturdyHSV]

So as an update, a few things transpired, the rear wheel bearing is an absolute pig of a job so poor Sheila did spend a few weeks with her backside unceremoniously up in the air. This coincided with the Monaro getting its tune sorted and thus I slipped in to 6 litre daily driving instead, which was hilarious fun

Anyway, I eventually decided fine, I'll take the bloody suspension arm off and try to get the stub axle out on a press. Oh except backing the last bolt of the trailing arm out, it presses into the bodywork and cannot be removed.There's no way I'm dropping the subframe. After considering drilling a hole through the side (that would have been covered by the skirt and seemed to be half done anyway as there was a rubber bunged hole through the outer layer of the bodywork ) I instead just opted to put it back together and give it to some grown ups to do as ultimately I wanted her back on the road and my motivation was dwindling to keep hacking away as the weather got worse...

Bolted everything back together, oh, no, of course, that bolt that wouldn't come out now also won't go back in all the way. Well sod it. Oh and the big nut to hold the stub axle to the driveshaft flange on the other side of the bearing also wouldn't go back on from all the hammering (I know, I should have put the nut back on to hammer it...) so with bearing and replacement stub axle in the passenger seat, I crawled the Ute around the corner to my local garage.

I use them to MOT all my cars and they love having interesting stuff to work with, so I just left it with them to look at whenever they got a chance.

When finally done, it was apparently an absolute nightmare and comfortably the worse wheel bearing the guy has ever had to do, they had to drop the arm (I didn't ask how they got it out), the brake line was so corroded it couldn't be detached so they had to replace the rear right section of the line, the studs in the stub axle were too short so they had to replace those, and all in all they charged me for 4 hours of labour

So a few hundred quid lighter Sheila is back in daily use. I'd had plans to manual swap her, but I think for the moment the difference between the two cars is part of the fun, and I'll just waft around in the auto for now.

[SturdyHSV]

Nunga said:

Thanks for the update. As a Holden man through and through (thanks mainly to my father having had a few Kingswoods during my impression so youth) I love this, especially since it stands out like a sore toe. Shame you didn’t make it to Germany, as chances are you’d have passed close by to Karlsruhe on your way to Köln.

Off to the classifieds.

I had a fondness for the Aussie stuff as a result of having the Monaro (nearly 9 years now and it still makes me giggle like a child), but now having explored the Alfa thing a bit more, I have realised that they really don't do the right stuff for me, and it's the big, dumb Holdens that just make me all warm inside

There's a fair few reasonably priced Monaros over here, if you take a fancy and want someone to go and cast an eye over one drop me a PM