Abrowne70
New Member
- Joined
- May 15, 2008
- Messages
- 456
- Reaction score
- 4
- Points
- 0
- Location
- Down South, Adelaide
- Members Ride
- VP Executive S2, VL 5sp Berlina Wagon
The VP S2 Executive - Going Fast, Cheap
Hey guys, a few months ago i bought a granny spec auto VP commodore with 245,000kms on it.
Im currently studying diesel mechanics and am hoping to get an apprenticeship in the next couple of months once my course has finished. So therefor money is pretty tight.
I bought the VP and planned to keep it for a while so thought id spend my money on it.
The Slow Build Up
Bought the car of a family member.
Totally Stock as i bought it.
Start of Modifications
I then proceeded to jump onto these forums and have a look around to find out what the cheapest performance upgraded i could do and found that it was the S/C CAI, so off to Holden i went and ordered one in, by that afternoon i had one in my possession. I bought all of it except for the bottom of the airbox as i thought i'd do that myself and save some money.
While i was searching for cheap performance mods i also found out about removing the bellmouth. So when the S/C CAI got done i decided to remove the bellmouth aswell. This therefor completed my first performance modification to my car.
I believed that the throttle response had improved a bit and it went that little bit harder, could all just be in my head though.
Sound System
Meanwhile i had also installed a sound system out of my old car which consisted of:
1 x 12" Pioneer 400wrms Champion Series Sub
1 x 4ch Soundstream Amp
a pair of 6.5" Soundstream Splits
I then bought a pair of Polk Momo 6.5" Speakers and there for my sub now no longer had an amplifier and was removed from my system.
A couple of weeks later my mate said he wanted to sell his amp and subs and i decided i'd buy them off him. So that added:
2 x 12" Kicker subs and 1 x Alpine V12 amp to my system.
Rims and Tires
I had always wanted to get some 17" VY SS rims on my commodore so i was on the lookout for a set of them, i found a couple but they were a bit too pricey for me as i was pretty low on cash. Then one afternoon i was browsing the forums in the "parts for sale" section and came across some 17" VY SS rims in adelaide for sale, instantly i rang my father and asked to borrow some cash, very luckily he allowed that and off i went to buy these rims.
After i bought the rims, they just sat there for a while as the tires didn't have legal tread on them. With having them just sitting there i couldn't resist putting them up against my car to see what they would look like.
Just couldn't help myself
After a little bit of saving i had managed to pay my old man back and bought tires and got my rims fitted and wheel aligned.
The next lot of performance modifications
The modifications then slowed down for a bit as i started a tafe pre-voc course for diesel mechanic.
By having the ability to hoist my car up i found out that the exhaust had a nice fat dent in it and thought it was time to replace it.
So off to U-Pull It just to have a look around, i eventually ended up scoring a 2.25" Catback exhaust with one luckey muffler for $27 which was a bargain!
So back off to tafe to take advantage of their hoists and up the VP went and came back down with a new catback exhaust system.
I noticed a fair reasonable difference in terms of performance due to having a less restrictive exhaust which kept pulling in higher speeds.
Dash Upgrade
Next came an upgrade from a standard boring Level 1 VP dash into a Level 2 VP dash with some VR gauges and retained the VP level 1 Speedo to keep my original kms on it.
I also added some blue dash likes to give it a bit of a better look.
Scored the dash for $39 from U-Pull It and took 3 trips there to get one that worked.
Blue dash lights were $10 for 2 and i bought 4 of them to completely cover the dash with blue lighting.
Only downside is the temp gauge doesn't work but I'm planning on upgrading to a Level 3 dash in the near future.
Ride Height
Because it was a granny spec VP obviously it wasn't lowered, as a matter of fact i believe it was raised to tow a caravan as it was much higher than every other VP on the road.
So lowering was defiantly on the list of mods to do, but only when i had the money to do it.
Luckily a mate that lives with me decided he wanted to raise his VS ute back up to a bit comfier ride height so i scored a free set of springs off him.
So a couple of weeks later, the rear springs went in which level out my car perfectly, therefore i didn't worry about lowering the front.
Tune
I had been reading for a while about everyone going on about getting into contact with greenfoam from these forums to organize a tune for my car.
So i finally decided i'd pull my finger out and post a forum of a way to try to get into contact with greenfoam (his pm inbox was full at the time).
Many people suggested his ebay but at the time he didn't have anything for sale, luckily 88greenvn got into contact with me about it.
As i wasn't keen to have my car off the road for a little while i bought a memcal off 88greenvn and he helped organise a tune with greenfoam.
At the moment I'm waiting for it in the mail and it seems like Ive been waiting for ages buts its been less that 2 weeks.
Future Mods
Currently I'm looking at converting it to a 5 speed manual as Ive always preferred manual over auto.
I'm also looking for some 2nd hand extractors to suit it.
Some Pictures of the car at the moment
That just about wraps it all up, all comments are welcome, on things like what else i should do, suggestions on looks etc.
Thanks,
Anthony
Hey guys, a few months ago i bought a granny spec auto VP commodore with 245,000kms on it.
Im currently studying diesel mechanics and am hoping to get an apprenticeship in the next couple of months once my course has finished. So therefor money is pretty tight.
I bought the VP and planned to keep it for a while so thought id spend my money on it.
The Slow Build Up
Bought the car of a family member.
Totally Stock as i bought it.
Start of Modifications
I then proceeded to jump onto these forums and have a look around to find out what the cheapest performance upgraded i could do and found that it was the S/C CAI, so off to Holden i went and ordered one in, by that afternoon i had one in my possession. I bought all of it except for the bottom of the airbox as i thought i'd do that myself and save some money.
While i was searching for cheap performance mods i also found out about removing the bellmouth. So when the S/C CAI got done i decided to remove the bellmouth aswell. This therefor completed my first performance modification to my car.
I believed that the throttle response had improved a bit and it went that little bit harder, could all just be in my head though.
Sound System
Meanwhile i had also installed a sound system out of my old car which consisted of:
1 x 12" Pioneer 400wrms Champion Series Sub
1 x 4ch Soundstream Amp
a pair of 6.5" Soundstream Splits
I then bought a pair of Polk Momo 6.5" Speakers and there for my sub now no longer had an amplifier and was removed from my system.
A couple of weeks later my mate said he wanted to sell his amp and subs and i decided i'd buy them off him. So that added:
2 x 12" Kicker subs and 1 x Alpine V12 amp to my system.
Rims and Tires
I had always wanted to get some 17" VY SS rims on my commodore so i was on the lookout for a set of them, i found a couple but they were a bit too pricey for me as i was pretty low on cash. Then one afternoon i was browsing the forums in the "parts for sale" section and came across some 17" VY SS rims in adelaide for sale, instantly i rang my father and asked to borrow some cash, very luckily he allowed that and off i went to buy these rims.
After i bought the rims, they just sat there for a while as the tires didn't have legal tread on them. With having them just sitting there i couldn't resist putting them up against my car to see what they would look like.
Just couldn't help myself
After a little bit of saving i had managed to pay my old man back and bought tires and got my rims fitted and wheel aligned.
The next lot of performance modifications
The modifications then slowed down for a bit as i started a tafe pre-voc course for diesel mechanic.
By having the ability to hoist my car up i found out that the exhaust had a nice fat dent in it and thought it was time to replace it.
So off to U-Pull It just to have a look around, i eventually ended up scoring a 2.25" Catback exhaust with one luckey muffler for $27 which was a bargain!
So back off to tafe to take advantage of their hoists and up the VP went and came back down with a new catback exhaust system.
I noticed a fair reasonable difference in terms of performance due to having a less restrictive exhaust which kept pulling in higher speeds.
Dash Upgrade
Next came an upgrade from a standard boring Level 1 VP dash into a Level 2 VP dash with some VR gauges and retained the VP level 1 Speedo to keep my original kms on it.
I also added some blue dash likes to give it a bit of a better look.
Scored the dash for $39 from U-Pull It and took 3 trips there to get one that worked.
Blue dash lights were $10 for 2 and i bought 4 of them to completely cover the dash with blue lighting.
Only downside is the temp gauge doesn't work but I'm planning on upgrading to a Level 3 dash in the near future.
Ride Height
Because it was a granny spec VP obviously it wasn't lowered, as a matter of fact i believe it was raised to tow a caravan as it was much higher than every other VP on the road.
So lowering was defiantly on the list of mods to do, but only when i had the money to do it.
Luckily a mate that lives with me decided he wanted to raise his VS ute back up to a bit comfier ride height so i scored a free set of springs off him.
So a couple of weeks later, the rear springs went in which level out my car perfectly, therefore i didn't worry about lowering the front.
Tune
I had been reading for a while about everyone going on about getting into contact with greenfoam from these forums to organize a tune for my car.
So i finally decided i'd pull my finger out and post a forum of a way to try to get into contact with greenfoam (his pm inbox was full at the time).
Many people suggested his ebay but at the time he didn't have anything for sale, luckily 88greenvn got into contact with me about it.
As i wasn't keen to have my car off the road for a little while i bought a memcal off 88greenvn and he helped organise a tune with greenfoam.
At the moment I'm waiting for it in the mail and it seems like Ive been waiting for ages buts its been less that 2 weeks.
Future Mods
Currently I'm looking at converting it to a 5 speed manual as Ive always preferred manual over auto.
I'm also looking for some 2nd hand extractors to suit it.
Some Pictures of the car at the moment
That just about wraps it all up, all comments are welcome, on things like what else i should do, suggestions on looks etc.
Thanks,
Anthony
Last edited:
any inside pics?
