1987 Holden Commodore VL SL review from Australia and New Zealand

Front brake pads were 95% worn so I had to replace them as well as the rear drums, and the rear right drum was leaking brake fluid so I had to replace all that at 210 000 kms, which cost just short of $300.

The water pump had to be replaced when I first bought the car at 200 000kms.

As well as this the cat and first muffler had to be replaced at 200 000kms.

Also the locks in the front doors started to play up, so I had to reinforce the sliding door locks because they are made of plastic and the metal push rod had pulled through after 13 years.

Only little things really, but extremely good I think for a 14 year old car.

I bought my VL in September 2000 and I've had it now for 6 months. It is my first car and I couldn't have asked for a better machine. It is absolutely fantastic. When I bought it it was completely standard. So I got to work on it right away.

First job I did to it was to take off the venetians from the rear and side windows which improved the visibility for me because I don't have the best eye sight as it is.

Then I decided to change the wheels. The wheels when I first bought it were completely standard steelies and the tyres were a really hard compound and absolute "cheese cutters". I decided to get a set of 16*7 Racing formula Group R's mainly because I love the look of 5 spoke mags and my insurance company wouldn't insure anything over 7 inches wide. On those I wacked some GT radial 225/50 Formulas. They are a beautiful soft compound tyre and when they warm up they actually get sticky. In other words I've taken a corner in town at 130km/hr without losing traction (fleeing from the cops I might add).

Then I fixed up the exhaust for the moment as cheaply as possible. I took off the rear baffler and replaced it with a 2 1/2 inch pipe and put a chrome ti on the end. The result is a much better sound and the engine is actually running better. The original 2 inch system with cat and 2 mufflers absolutely chokes the crap out of the engine. There is way too much restriction, and I find there still is too much even with only one muffler. All in all it cost me about $50 to get done.

Later down the track I want to take the cat off and run 3 inches straight through with one low-restriction muffler.

Then I went to work on the interior. I replaced the steering wheel with a new black leather Autotechnica racing wheel and Bosck kit I then put a black and grey gear knob on to blend the grey interior with the new black steering wheel and replaced the gaiter around the gear knob to grey leather.

Then I replaced the original air box with a finer filter kit which has improved the sound of the engine out of sight - especially at high end revs, the engine roar is fantastic.

At the moment I'm working on the sound system. I've built two subwoofer boxes with 10 inc JL audio subs in them for the boot and I'm installing them facing backwards. I'm running them and a pair of 6 inch earthquake splits at the front through a Sencor SCA-4000 amp and a pair of Blauplunkt 6*9 GT7's on a new parcel shelf which I've made from 18 mm MDF and covered with some black fabric, just for some rear fill and I'm going to run them off the head unit. Speaking of which I've got a Pioneer 3150 to play all the music because they are brilliant head unit for their price.

After all this I'm going to tint the windows 30% and put a sports rider kit all round because I find the suspension too soft and the rear bottoms out with 2-3 people in the back and lower the car about 2 inches.

Well that is about all I have to say about my baby. As you can see I absolutley love her to bits and I spend every cent I earn on her. Unfortunately I have run out of money and I don't have a job at the moment so I'll have to wait a while to get the suspension done.

Please, if you have any ideas or helpful hints on things you can do to a VL to enhance the performance, please let me know. My e-mail is the_soddish@yahoo.com, I would love to hear the advice.

-SoddisH-