levymetal's VP CALAIS HSV ENHANCED 5LTR

[levymetal]

Yes, I finally got a job and decided to buy a new car. I looked for about 5 minutes, found one, and bought it.

CAR: 92 VP CALAIS HSV ENHANCED 185kw.

Purchase Price: $4500

Interior: Nice tan coloured with leather.

Paint: Fantastic bright colour, chips and dents like normal though.

Engine: Stock as a rock.

Sound system: Nothing.

Kms: 228,000

It has a stage 2 shift kit which bothers me at the moment but I'm sure I'll get used to it. Problem is you can't even drive half fast in the wet because as soon as it shifts, you're off the road... It's a hell of a difference compared to my VN though. This is a beast! Oh and it also has a sunroof.

EDIT on that: love the shift kit now, feels weird driving a car without one! Oh and it's not that much of a beast haha. Quickly got used to it. Lacks down low as well, which is unusual for a 304...

You don't find red vp calais' every day.

I'll get some more pics when it's not raining.





YUCK have to fix that stain

[MasterOfReality]

Awesome.

HSV Enhanced FTW.

[stocky]

It has a stage 2 shift kit which bothers me at the moment but I'm sure I'll get used to it. Problem is you can't even drive half fast in the wet because as soon as it shifts, you're off the road... It's a hell of a difference compared to my VN though. This is a beast! Oh and it also has a sunroof.

looks good. id say the traction issue is nothing to do with the power, but those wheels. looks **** on a calais. get some rims with some decent rubber quick. thought you were on the new Ps or was i mistaken?

[Joey_21]

that red really stands out how many hsv vp calais where made be pretty rare ud think wouldnt be many left get some wheels and lose the spoiler

[levymetal]

looks good. id say the traction issue is nothing to do with the power, but those wheels. looks **** on a calais. get some rims with some decent rubber quick. thought you were on the new Ps or was i mistaken?

nah more to do with the shift kit i think, it "chirps" (so i've read people using that term) most of the time when it shifts, and in the wet it just starts slipping when it shifts! wheels are ok for rwc, need to pay off the car then i was thinking wh granges or something. i've had my p's for 2 years!

[stocky]

i mean the width of the tyre is causing less traction. my VN sucked for traction taking off, a hell of a lot worse than a 5 litre would, but i managed to control the shifts fine with a stage 2 kit, even in the wet.
sounds like its gonna need a few things for rwc. has it got an exhaust tip at the back? hard to see. also, i thought hsv calais's were one colour, or was that an option?

[padrickz88]

i like i like, a red vn/vp without faded paint,sunroof,5L and shiftkit.. cant complain there


looks pretty clean, but its a 15ish year old car so its going to need things replaced.. best thing about replacing stuff is that your 1 piece closer to a car with all new parts

goodluck with it man, looks clean

[hsvpunk]

How many other cars did u look at, before buying this one??

Looks alright either way. reminds me of my old calais as stocky said, get some rims, and some good rubber.

Im sure hastings and franga cops will love the stockies on it

[levymetal]

i mean the width of the tyre is causing less traction. my VN sucked for traction taking off, a hell of a lot worse than a 5 litre would, but i managed to control the shifts fine with a stage 2 kit, even in the wet.
sounds like its gonna need a few things for rwc. has it got an exhaust tip at the back? hard to see. also, i thought hsv calais's were one colour, or was that an option?

haha oh ok, yeah, well once i get something wider on there hopefully acceleration will be a little more pushing me back into my seat rather than frying tyres. would a lsd help as well? i also think perhaps the kickdown cable is too tight. it doesn't shift into overdrive until 90+, crap for economy at 80-90. no exhaust tip as it's running stock exhaust. which sounds alright for the time being. quiet though. might grab a tip for it, get exhaust later. about the colour - the guy said it was factory red, never seen it before though. i'll check what the plates say under the hood to see if that can enlighten me. if they made these in red you'd think more of them would be around though.

[levymetal]

How many other cars did u look at, before buying this one??

i'm the biggest idiot in the world but this is the only one i looked at. i rushed into it badly so it will probably backfire in my face when i get a rwc. my other options were vp calais international which was $5800 with rwc and 9months reg, which is probably cheaper than what i'll end up paying. could have even got it down to $5500. interior may have been better in that international too, i'll never know. my interior is in average condition. the old vn on gas was better. i may have been able to get a cheaper v8, but i wanted calais or higher. electrics, cruise, trip computer, and of course having a car that looks nice and not like the guys next to you.

[stocky]

man, i wouldve gone with the international no question. those things are rare to find a decent one. unique interior too.

[levymetal]

just looked then, 2 days after i bought mine he dropped the price on that international - $5000 with rwc and the long reg. looks ok too, glovebox is wrong colour though and it's missing the spats but apart from that it's good. someone buy it!

[STEALTHY™]

I think there were less than 300 Red VP Calais' that were HSV enhanced (this is the 2nd one i've seen, the first was also the only factory manual V8 Calais i've seen). And other than that, i've only seen 2 non HSV enhanced Red VP Calais 5Ls.


Blame me for him choosing this over the international, i convinced him to get the one with the sunroof.


Tops you bought this one man, thos problems could be fixed easily. The aircon might only be the belt is missing (both mine were like that when i bought them), if not, it'd only be $150 or so for a regas.
Powersteering might be a killer tho, if it needs a new rack. Make friends with a decent mechanic!!

[hsvpunk]

yeah international over the stocko calais.

You should have shopped around dude.
I looked at a few statos and caprices bfore i got mine. And the one i have was best outa the lot.

But chin up, im sure it will be all good once things are fixed.

[STEALTHY™]

yeah international over the stocko calais.

You should have shopped around dude.
I looked at a few statos and caprices bfore i got mine. And the one i have was best outa the lot.

But chin up, im sure it will be all good once things are fixed.

I bought my international without looking at any other cars. Sure some things broke or wore out, but thats life (was 10/yo at the time).

[levymetal]

Blame me for him choosing this over the international, i convinced him to get the one with the sunroof. Tops you bought this one man, thos problems could be fixed easily. The aircon might only be the belt is missing (both mine were like that when i bought them), if not, it'd only be $150 or so for a regas.
Powersteering might be a killer tho, if it needs a new rack. Make friends with a decent mechanic!!

that's right i listened to the man WITH an international about buying one! yours may look good but stock i hate it. wheels are ugly, granted so are mine though. and the pinstripe just looks terrible. paint may have been faded too, who knows. and i love red cars, i just can't get enough of them. whatever my next car is, that's going to be red too. nothing more pleasing to look at than red.

Well the belt is there, regas will be coming up but hopefully it doesn't have a leak. Power steering definitely isn't the rack (yet) because the leak is under the radiator. LOOKS like the pumps may be leaking, onto some unrelated hose which goes under the radiator. either that or the auto trans cooler. nothing big.

[STEALTHY™]

I just read, that inter didn't have the spats. Glad i turned you away from it then. Its hard to get them looking factory once there off. Sure its a limited edition, but so is a HSV enhanced Calais. Being red was the sealer, if it was white or blue or something, i would've said go with the inter. But red is special (being that its VERY rare for Holden to paint one of their luxury models Red, eg, the 1 WH Grange thats red, now thats RARE)




Power steering is probably just the high pressure hose. They are common to leak through the fittings that screw into the back of the pump. Make sure you don't run it dry, otherwise you'll **** the pump aswell.

[stocky]

sounds like tranny cooler leak then

[STEALTHY™]

sounds like tranny cooler leak then

He said unrelated hose, which led me to believe it was eaing out the back of the pump (where the fittings screw in) and going down the hose. Mine did the same.

[levymetal]

yeah well the p/s fluid was low, i topped it up (been living with the p/s leak in my vn for 1 and a half years now anyway haha). trans fluid looks ok but it's always halfway up the dipstick anyway. steering is squeaky on sharp turns, mech thinks the belt may be slipping.

here's the links to both cars:
1992 HOLDEN CALAIS VP II Private Cars For Sale - carsales.com.au

1992 HOLDEN CALAIS VP Private Cars For Sale - carsales.com.au

you can see it's missing at least 1 spat, looks ok though. but so does mine!

[Tibokan]

For a 16 year old car, it could be a lot worse than how you have got it, but geez can looks be deceiving.
I actually saw this car on carsales a couple of days ago and it looked absolutely mint, and I was considering buying it.
Looks like hes stooged you on the exhaust though, ive seen it driven around my area (St Albans) before, and it sounded awesome, i think it had a dual pipe exhaust and some decent extractors (you can see the exhaust in the pics on carsales). Maybe you should have a chat with him about that as he seems to have removed them from the car before handing it over.
In regards to the RWC, the problems you are describing are pretty common, although the auto tranny sounds like its stuffed, although they're cheap and relatively easy to replace ($400-$500 from deer park wreckers).
Dont worry too much though, the price is pretty cheap (it was advertised at $10000 at one stage from what I've heard) and you have a great looking car, i wish my vn looked like that.

[Cobez]

Ahhh Christian got himself a 304!! Nice!! It looks clean as dude. Bit of a step up from the old 3.8 litre V6 on duel fuel hey?

[levymetal]

For a 16 year old car, it could be a lot worse than how you have got it, but geez can looks be deceiving...

haha, nah i saw the car first and he's basically taken everything out: exhaust, extractors, had the ride heightened, i think all because he got canaried. he told me about the exhaust, wasn't massive, just a 2.5inch with a hotdog at the back. too loud for the cops. how long ago did you see it? it appears like he did all the work to get it fixed up, then decided to sell it. why would someone do that i don't know, unless there are major problems which i will find out tomorrow. also the WAF plates confuse me, unless that's when he got canaried and needed new plates. which would be what, 6 months or so ago? i dunno about the transmission. it feels nice and tight but i wouldn't know, i've never driven a car with a shift kit before. i'd need someone who has to check it out. it does 'clunk' into reverse but so did my vn. sounds bad but sounds can also be deceiving. when (or if) it ****s itself i'll get a normal transmission.

Ahhh Christian got himself a 304!! Nice!! It looks clean as dude. Bit of a step up from the old 3.8 litre V6 on duel fuel hey?

haha like you wouldn't believe, well actually you would because you went from your v6 which was faster than mine, to a 304 as well (which would be faster than my 304!). damn it's fun though. looks like you got a sweet pickup too, i had a look over it. fantastic seats in yours they look brand new

[STEALTHY™]

haha, nah i saw the car first and he's basically taken everything out: exhaust, extractors, had the ride heightened, i think all because he got canaried. he told me about the exhaust, wasn't massive, just a 2.5inch with a hotdog at the back. too loud for the cops. how long ago did you see it? it appears like he did all the work to get it fixed up, then decided to sell it. why would someone do that i don't know, unless there are major problems which i will find out tomorrow. also the WAF plates confuse me, unless that's when he got canaried and needed new plates. which would be what, 6 months or so ago? i dunno about the transmission. it feels nice and tight but i wouldn't know, i've never driven a car with a shift kit before. i'd need someone who has to check it out. it does 'clunk' into reverse but so did my vn. sounds bad but sounds can also be deceiving. when (or if) it ****s itself i'll convert it to manual.



haha like you wouldn't believe, well actually you would because you went from your v6 which was faster than mine, to a 304 as well (which would be faster than my 304!). damn it's fun though. looks like you got a sweet pickup too, i had a look over it. fantastic seats in yours they look brand new

Fixed your post for you.

On the plates, the car could've come from interstate recently. My Inter had brand new plates when i got it.

[Cobez]

They need a good condition though, not totally screwed, but some really high quality leather stuff would bring them back up, like the stuff you rub into horse saddles to keep them nice.

I dunno man your VP wouldn't do too bad, it's alot lighter than my car with not far off the same stock power.