1994 VR Holden Commodore Executive Sedan

5.0 litre, 8 cylinder, fuel injection, 4 speed auto

Purchased new from R&B Smith Holden, Geelong.

Options fitted :

• Cruise control, Power antenna, Calais instrumentation (incl trip computer, tacho), Aircon, Auscar cobra 15" wheels with 215/60 tyres, heavy duty Heyman Reese (is that how you spell it?) towbar and auto transmission cooler kit, Independent Rear Suspension, Limited Slip Diff, ABS brakes, body kit, tinted windows, Kenwood stereo with 10 disk CD stacker.

Engine Specs : 165Kw @ 4400RPM, 385Nm @ 3600RPM

Fuel economy : could only get around 450Kms from the 80 litre tank. Less if cruising around town, a fair bit more if travelling on the highway.

Could have done with a bit more power! :-). Could usually beat most 6 cylinder commodores and falcons in a traffic light grand prix, but did not have much hope in keeping up with a Falcon XR6. I think that the weight of the V8 motor was a bit of a handicap against the lighter Commodore/Falcon 6's.

Problems encountered :

• Almost impossible to drive in the wet. Car would break traction way to easily either in a straight line or going around corners. I believe the limited slip diff was the major culprit in the poor wet whether handling. Even while trying to apply power in a straight line the car would snake wildly as torque was channelled from one wheel to the other. Had one experience applying power in the wet after turning right through traffic lights and having the car immediately spin 180 degrees and go up on the median strip in the middle of the road. Ended up facing back into the oncoming traffic. My girlfriend Melissa was in the car at the time and she was not impressed.
• Ran out of petrol once right in the middle of the busy Barrabool roundabout in Highton (about 100m short of the servo that I was going to..). Actually this was my fault, the trip computer has a distance to empty function and I had been watching it read 20Kms, 10, 5,4,3,2,1 and then it said 0 and the car just stopped. I thought there would be some fuel in reserve but this thing was 100% accurate. Couldn't push the car out of the traffic as I was on a slight incline and the car was too heavy to push. Just a bit embarrassing. Had to ring my sister on my mobile and tell her to bring me some petrol. She could see the car from the balcony at the back of our house and thought it was pretty funny.
• Once the body computer cracked the sads and wouldn't let the doors power lock and left the interior lights on. R&B Smith pulled out the power relay to the computer for a few seconds (they said they had seen the problem before) and never had the problem again.
• Body kit had low dam at front of the car that was all too easy to catch on gutters etc
• IRS totally chewed the inside edges of the rear tyres out (and to a lesser extent the fronts) within 20,000K's.The outside edges of the tyres were fine but the inner edges were completely bald. I guess my harsh treatment of the accelerator pedal and ABS brakes didn't really help things though!
• Brakes. ABS was great, but brake fade came on pretty strong after 1 hard stop - particularly if stopping from high speed.

Happy memories :

• Excellent vehicle - extremely comfortable to drive with all of the options specified - especially cruise control, upgraded stereo, V8 motor.
• ABS brakes are an excellent idea. Pulled the car to stop in very short distances in wet, dry or on gravel. Had one emergency stop in the wet from around 40Km/Hr in heavy rain that would have been a panel bender for sure without ABS.
• LSD & IRS worked beautifully in the dry, you could apply full power while going around a tight corner and not be worried about arcing up the inside tyre.

I got a good laugh the other day when I saw the guy who bought this car off me. He was sitting in the V8, waving his hands around and talking rapidly, as a policeman was writing him out a speeding ticket. Ha Ha.

Car was traded for VL Sedan