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Opel Vectra Track Car


mikuni

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Sweet! apparently allot of work went into those wagons to get them down to class weight, ie pretty much pulled every panel from the car, removed anything unnecessary and welded it back together around the cage. They going to go NA 5cyl or turbs it? there allot of room in those engine bays

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  • 4 weeks later...

Wouldn t it be cheaper to find a real Opel Vectra A 2000 16v I have a 1990 car as my daily driver - I had it now for 6 years and its been a terrific car - after all the BTTC cars were based on that! It uses the same engine as in the 16v Calibra and I heard Lotus had a hand in develop the motor

- the problem with these cars compared to lesser Vectras is they have independent rear suspension - a completely different rack and pinion - My got rebuilt late 2010 via Mendoza Mechanical here in Upper Hutt - there are not new ones!; Fog lamps at front there are 2 different types so you got to be careful what you order I use Andy Clears a Vauxhal Dealer in the UK - the car was fitted with ABS other A's were not and only 100 or so were NZ new 1990-1991 - mine is PP registered built 1990 but 1st registered 1991 and does appear to be a pre-production evaluation model and it was once owned by a GM manager as its first owner as its fitted with air conditioning unit from Dagerville..yee gods (thats never worked in 6 years i owned it)

There was a Blue metallic one that was originally from the Hutt here and I heard around 2008 it was stripped for Dunlop Targa - It will be interesting to know where its gone? - maybe Kamaru the GM Dealer in Hawkes Bay may know

There are probably less then Dozen Opel Vectra A 2000 16v's left and heard of 2 that were squashed in cube 3 months back!!

Even rarer car is 6 or so pre -production cars called Vauxhall Opel Lotus Carltons - offically they were scrapped - 2 are in a CHCH lockup waiting for 20 years to be up and 1 is in Tasmania Australia

Cheers Julian

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Opps ..Sorry ....did not Release you dealt with Nik -and know about 2000 16v he is the son of one of senior salesmen at Karamu who sold most of the Opels in the North Island 1985-1991-so he have a wealth of info (I Used to run an Opel Club in CHCH) I did not realise this blue car had accident damage when i used to see it in Lower Hutt and later in Thorndon it was owned by owner of Software company and mint in condition - Nik reckons 100 were brought in to NZ - I remember arguing with him years ago one time i Reckon myself around 50 and could almost name were at least 15 were at any one time

seem to come only in 4 colours - Maroon metallic (more brown looking - like mine there another in better condition in Wainuiomata -ones of Parts Managers of Brendan Foote owns it!) ; Blue metallic ; Light silver metallic and dark silver metallic all were manuals

there was one private imported 4x4 Turbo version in Hawkes Bay

and you could not get a 1990-1991 Opel 2000 16v from Japan as a used import as only later A version (Facelifted A opel badge on grill not bonnet) mainly i seen CD 8v versions

each Gm dealer I believe had 1-2 2000 16v to sell and usually used as demos to sell the cheaper Vectras rather like Jensen build 300 odd Interceptor FF to sell the Interceptor

They were very expensive cost new 1990 $53000 vs next below it the 2000GLS 8v at $37000

Some Reality the 2000 16v do not rust as much - They are German built - more quality job - the 2000GLS; GL ; 1800 L and 2000GT Liftback were made in England and were Vauxhalls - at the wharfs the logos changed to Opel! quality was not as good

GM brought cars in batches of 50,100 and 150

I have a Manta 2.0GSI liftback 1 of 100 NZ new 1986-1988 - mines the 2nd to last imported although built 1987 registered as a 1988 car

Interesting to note a Tony Haycock who was a travel agent then based in Fielding (seems to be same guy who writes for Classic Driver and Beaded Wheels) owned a white one and his kept breaking down - he used to ring me for advice! - Years later i found out his car was the Opel Manta GM Staff thrashed prior to it becoming available here!

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  • 4 months later...

A bit of an update.

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At the last trackday I broke the rear window, so first on the list of things to do was to tidy it all up a bit.

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This I achieved, but I also took it a little bit further..

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It would appear the cleaning soon turned into weight reduction, so the theme continued.

Started cutting the doors up, will take out the intrusion bars from the rear also, but they are so structural it is a mission. I'll probably leave them in the front just for additional safety.

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And then the wiring loom started annoying me with its hugeness. The majority of the wiring in the car was redundant, so I decided it must be removed!

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Above is over 6kg of wiring, relays and plugs alone, with more to come.

To date, including glass, I've taken out over 200kg from the car (weighing everything as it comes out - a bit anal but it's fun). I expect the kerb weight without driver to be around 900kg now, with still more to be taken from the doors, dash and body panels.

Most of the wiring still works, however I had a slight slip up - I unplugged everything unnecessary from the vehicle and proceeded to remove all plugs that weren't plugged into anything. Unfortunately as with a lot of cars, the hazard switch is the terminal for the indicators and as I thought this wasn't required, it was removed resulting in my indicators no longer functioning. I've just about put it all back in now though (was a tricky 7 wire termination between the fuse box, flasher relay, indicator stalk and the indicators themselves).

Now to the slightly more exciting stuff.

I dummied up a little shock in the dimensions I require. Below is a photo of it next to the horrible old one, so you can see many of the advantages of the new design; more compact, lighter, allows camber adjustment, shock can be removed without removing axle and lower balljoint etc

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(Shock is fully compressed)

I then set it up with an RCA extension of 80mm, which isn't quite enough from the current setup, but my other thread is offering still more awesome ideas and suggestions to resolve this.

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Then it was time to dummy it up with a wheel and the guard on. Suspension wise, there's no real reason I couldn't run at this height once I sort the roll centre and steering. The only thing I'm slightly worried about now if the extreme angle of the CV's with it at this height. I'll look into this a bit more, but there might be a couple of solutions to get around this a bit, such as lifting and tilting the engine forward a little, running a few degrees of camber on the front and reducing the steering lock, which will be required anyway with the large wheels.

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Stay tuned for more updates. Over the last few nights I've been doing more cutting for clearance in the front. On Saturday I will be measuring up some coilovers at Speedtech in Tauranga. Over the next few weeks I aim to have the car ready for the cage work to begin. Relocation of the wiring looms, battery and other under bonnet equipment is also underway.

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yyyyyyyyyyyeeeeessssssssssssss

In that bottom pic is the driveshaft in line or hanging? Is there enough room for the driveshaft to even run on that angle with the 'chassis'

It's hanging but I did have it in for some earlier tests. It sits probably 30degrees from horizontal but does clear the chassis rails.

Notching is an option if required and the touring cavaliers did do this - but they had a x-trac/hollinger sequential siting up high in the engine bay to keep the shafts straight and horizontal.

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