Hello from Perth

[Munki]

Hi fellas, great site you have here!

I'm John, an Yorkshireman living in Aus, a member of the ls1.com.au forum (John0) and the webmaster from this great but slightly bizarre Holden site - <a href="http://www.g3wc.net.">www.g3wc.net.</a>

We pride ourselves in owning non-HSV Commodores yet modifying them considerably to blow any HSV off the road hence the club slogan "HSV, i don't need one". heheheh. We run the odd track day and go down the drags quite frequently. Some of our cars are supercharged, have LS1-edited MAFless tunes etc etc and some run 12 second 1/4 miles. One of our ex-members owns a black Monaro with a head & cam job and a Whipple PD supercharger that runs low 11's!

Anyhow, I used to live in Hull before i left 2 years ago, and i used to get my mates in Perth to send me the Autotrader every month or so. I spotted the car i wanted whist reading the mag on the flight over, then bought the car 2 days after i got here!

I'm not sure if you have any of these over there but its a 98 VT SS Commodore, which is basically Holden's fast sedan without all the HSV bits. Its not the 5.7 LS1 but Holdens older 5 litre V8 that they phased out in 1999, with an Eaton M112 positive displacement supercharger bolted on and loads of other goodies. It produces 306KW at the moment, runs a low 13, has buckets more low-down torque than the LS1 but not as much top end....yet. Some would say they prefer the old aussie V8 but both engines have their pros and cons. If anyones interested i have a page with all the mod info and pics here:

<a href="http://solidstate.fws1.com/car/commodore/blownvt.htm">http://solidstate.fws1.com/car/commodore/blownvt.htm</a>

Its great to see you guys driving these wonderful cars around the UK. God how i wish i could bring mine back for a day just to give it a blast down the M62 and whoop some cocky BMW drivers butt heheh. Don't you just hate 'em?

My sister has turned into a Holden freak too, and would love a VU ute but she doesn't want a V8. I notice Lindens have a nice red one in stock but she wants a v6 unfortunately. I'm not sure if they ever imported any 6's but if anyone knows otherwise could they let me know please.

Well i thought i'd just say hi, and if i can help anyone with finding parts etc please ask and i'll see what i can do. I'm also good mates with V-Car on this forum so between us i'm sure we can do someone a few favours. I'll be back in the UK for a couple of weeks in July so can bring stuff over if need be.

Thanks and Cya
John



>>> Edited by Munki on Friday 25th June 11:57

>>> Edited by Munki on Friday 25th June 15:51

[Munki]

Hi Richard

I'll be in Hull from the 11th July to the 21st. Its just a quick visit just to keep the old lady happy lol. I'm hoping to get a brochure for the Vauxhall Monaro while i'm there to give the boys back here.

We've spoken before on ls1.com.au about insurance a while back. My nick on there is john0.

No harm intednded towards hsv drivers by the way, its just over here they can sometimes be as cocky as bmw drivers so it great fun to see their faces when they get thrashed by lesser models. We have a couple of hsvs in our club too. We just figure that its more fun and usually cheaper to mod up a cheaper model than buy the real thing. Some of our cars are even the pov-pack executives with the ls1 engine! An even better way of annoying them is to beat them in the old 5 litre as there is a big 5.0 vs 5.7 rivalry almost as bad as the Holden vs Ford thing. Crazy really but its a good harmless fun heheh.

Thanks for the warm welcome

[Munki]

Mate you're a legend, its still there! Its a 2001 VU S 3.8 V6, 14,000 miles. He's asking £13000+VAT. I gave my sis the details and she's going to have a look soonish i think. Many thanks for that!(Thats the wrong phone number by the way lol)

OK, so i'm just wondering how you guys go for servicing and getting parts. Do Vauxhall supply them or is it a case of phoning dealers in Aus? And who does the best insurance deals? I hear Tesco do insurance these days.

Cheers
John



>> Edited by Munki on Saturday 26th June 15:39

[Munki]

Yeah i agree about Vauxhall dealers, they were never too flash when i had my Omega. That made me laugh about the Movano hahah. Well it must be a GM thing because Holden dealers aren't up to much either. I fitted Monaro headlights into my VT SS despite the dealers saying they wouldn't fit because they were the wrong shape. They are in fact the exact shape and fitted perfectly! Duh.

I tried an online quote on Tescos website but only the GTS and the GTSR came up. No sign of the ute. So i tried her for a GTS and she was quoted £978 with 5 years no claims. Not bad for a 28 year old. I'll try directline tday. Do Lindens just supply parts or do you have to go there to get your car serviced. My sister is in Hull and she gets her car serviced by this reaaly good mechanic but his workshop is in the middle of nowhere near the east coast. She won't take it anywhere else! Don't blame her though, good mechanics you can trust to do a good job are few and far between these days.

Many thanks for the info, hopefully there'll be a new Holden owner born shortly

[Munki]

nah mate,i'll let you tell em We did have some fun didn't we :lol:

[Munki]

Thanks for the info fellas. Looks like i'll be visiting a few dealers with my sis when i get back.

[Munki]

uk hsv said:

"countzodoffski" do you have a number or more details on the guy in Hampshire............. uk hsv

try here

www.holden-utes.co.uk/index.htm

[Munki]

anniesdad said:

Ooooopps ....we're not all bad !!!

hahahah yeah ok, maybe a few exceptions.

[Munki]

can you send them to [e-mail] please? thanks.

By the way, i didn't realise you'd test driven it. Can you remember how much tax and MOT it had? I forgot to ask the guy when i rang. He also said it had a slight dent in the side? Did you notice how bad it was?

Cheers