1996 HSV GTS Series 2 VS review from Australia and New Zealand

The only fault I have had is the car has shut down when at idle.

It was eating the inside of the rear tyres due to the lack of camber adjustment, but this is fixed by fitting an after market 4 point camber kit. The cost of the kits is around NZ$150, and fitting is about $450.

All these & similar earlier models leak water into the boot via the rear quarter lights, and the fix is to remove them and reseal them. There is an excellent photographic step by step guide in the www.streetcommodores.com.au forum.

I can't rate these cars high enough. I had a 1996 HSV Clubsport with the 5 litre motor, but these cars are something else with the stoker set up. For the money they cost and the performance and reliability you get, there is little out there to compare.

I have not & won't be modifying the engine other than the fitting of a K&N filter.

It seems to run smoother when I fitted a HotEarth hyper grounding kit to the car; dyno testing shows around 5 extra KW from this simple mod. I guess it shows what a poor job the factory earth grounding was doing.

I have done quite a bit to improve the handling, which I thought was a bit soft, and find the car is now a revelation to drive. Improvements included KMAC's front camber caster kit, Koni adjustable shocks and new low King springs all round. Also the new kinked sway bar link pin were added. If your car has not had these done, they will be stuffed, a very cheap and simple job to replace. Bendix Ultimate pads I would recommend as well.