Snap - also had a 309 SRi at 19! Same engine as the 205 GTi 1.6, but notoriously cheap insurance.

 

My first fast car was a cavalier gsi. I was 21 and the insurance was £900.
a year later I got a cavalier turbo which was stolen a few years later.
I then got an impreza 2000 and things massively changed.
Went to a Mitsubishi charisma, Vauxhall vectra sri130 then company cars

 

There’s A lot of love for the cavaliers, I only ever went in a Sri when I was young and it was bloody quick back then. Owning a gsi and turbo at a young age is fantastic...plus the 900 insurance is great too lol

 

It was awesome.
135 on the my toll.

 

lol @ the body kit, was that from online auto sport by any chance? They were the go-to guys for vauxhall modifications

 

I remember meeting a guy and it being in a corner of an empty barn. Called a combat kit but couldn't tell you the supplier.

 

And wasn't it Irmscher too?

 

irmscher were the in-house styling bits and bobs you could buy through the dealerships. if you look at the pic of my red calibra it has the rare irmscher rear spoiler fitted to it. they did stuff like grills/side skirts/spoilers etc

 

Right

Just googled them. They still going strong by look of it! And some pretty nice stuff!

 

how much were they new Steve?

 

beast!

 

my car history

Nova Sr great first car

Nova Gte very quick as it was so light

three 3 litre 24 valve senators automatics quick

two manual ex police senators both tuned by vauxhall for old bill and really quick

then i started on scoobies

a classic 1999 green wagon

a classic m reg jdm wrx auto wagon

2004 wrx black saloon ppp plus prodrive rear spolier ( i could never see our the back window after having that fitted 🤣&#129315

then i had a 56 plate blue wrx wagon with the ppp first quick scooby

then an 04 fsti 195000 miles later the best all round car i have had ( forged ) 310 bhp

current
05 fsti ( forged ) 330 bhp
07 Fsti ( not yet forged &#128513340bhp
a monaro 5.7 heavily tuned 440 bhp
a maloo 6.2 lightly tuned 500 bhp

 

another good 90’s classic, nova gte.....we’re they better than the nova gsi?

 

Haha 20 valve turbo Weird?! I bet they bloody move...20 valve turbo as in the same as a golf gti? My mate had a remapped golf gti with the 20 valve turbo engine and it use to top out at 135ish and got there quickly but this was 2001..was fast but 19 years ago fast lol..probably slow now

 

the Gte , was older than the gsi , both were fuel injected , it was only a 1.6 but it was very quick , much quicker than the 1.3sr , i think it was trim and alloy wheel differences rather than any thing mechanical , i do remember massive torque steer in it , it was a hoot , i also liked the astra gte , and there was a real sleeper it was a 2 litre turbo astra again a quick car , the thing to consider we are talking fast cars in the 80 s and 90 s that would still be quick now even with all the modern technology , my favourite of that time was the audi quattro rally car, not also forgetting the volvo t5r

 

I did the old k&N induction kit thing on it. the filter was massive and sounded awesome. i couldnt believe the induction sound. Money well spent till i smashed into the back of someone

 

I don't remember the 2L turbo Astra - must have been rare. I thought it was only the Astra VXR that was blown, unless you count the transplants from the Cav/Calibra turbo, some Corsa's even had them!

 

this was pre vxr , i think it was an astra gsi2000 ?

 

There was no turbo astra before the vxr range,the gte was available in 8v or the more popular 2.0 16v redtop.the gsi was 2.0 16v redtop or ecotec.

There was an Astra turbo for the south African market with the c20let lump in it I remember reading about it in total vauxhall.

I remember in early to mid 00's that a popular conversion was the 2.5v6 from the cav/calibra fitted with the 3.0v6 mv6 omega camshafts. Saw that fitted to corsa's/Astra's aplenty.

 

i think it was a mk3 ? there was definitely a 2 litre turbo , but it was very subtle and quick

 

only mk3 that had a turbo was the diesel astra fitted with I believe the 1.7 TD isuzu engine.
the mk4 came with a turbo which was either a gsi 2.0 turbo or in coupe trim ......the coupe turbo. I think maybe there was a mk4 Sri turbo with around 170bhp but very rare.
I think I mis-read your comments. To clear things up there was NO Astra before the mk4 shape that was turbo charged apart from the TD 1.7 and the super rare not available in this country south African version.
in mk4 flavour you get gsi/sri and vxr turbo flavours and the 1.9TD unit aswell.

 

On the downside, bought my first ever Golf GTI at one point

Sadly the mark 3 with 115bhp and couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding...

Solid though....lol

 

Talking of Total Vauxhall, just dug out the first issue:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/7706/7AEDWh.jpg

And here is the Cav Turbo from the Cavalier 1994 models' brochure:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img923/4508/HYt1Wy.jpg

Here's the rest of it:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/6665/K8CVbZ.jpg

It has the same bumpers that the GSi had. I never had a Cav turbo, couldn't find one with a working transfer box, but it was this lack of success that brought to the world of Subaru!

 

i might upset a few people when i say this............i fekking hate vw with a passion, i honestly cant see what all the fuss is about. i can kinda get the mk2 golf or even the mk1 but anything after that..................dog****.

off to hide now lol

 

AWESOME........

i collected total vauxhall for years,i wonder if its still going?

 

So back in the day and I’m talking nineties the cars were

corsa gsi
nova gsi gte
astra gsi gte
cavalier Sri gsi turbo
Calibre 16 valve or turbo

 

Calibra also available with 2.0 8V engine (same for cavalier, the 16V was the redtop (20XE) and then the Ecotec)) and V6. IIRC the Calibra V6 and Turbo had same engine and transmission as the Cavalier V6/Turbo.

 

I’ve got a corsa gsi sat in the garage. Bought it a few years ago with the idea of taking the chav bits off and returning it to standard. So far I’ve bought a standard set of alloys and sold the Astra gsi bonnet vents. It’s only done about 65k, I will finish it one day.

 

Lol.I just thought Golf GTI was where it was at when I bought one.. Worst money ever spent

Think reality is, Mark 1 was where the money should have gone

 

you know what i loved about old vauxhalls was that most parts were inter-changeable with other models, you could even fit the saab b204 turbo lump into most 90's vauxhalls with little effort.
i always fancied a cav gsi on throttle bodies, i believe a company called bogg brothers used to make the conversion kits for them.