I’ve spent the last 18 months making the car roadworthy after it was rescued by a new tv show on mototrend called ‘The Lazy Car Dealer’ that has been shown in USA and Canada and is due to transmit in the UK.  The show got the car running and water tight and the chap that bought it from the show had a motorsport background and wanted to make several touring car replicas but fortunately his business took off so he sold off the cars he was going to turn into replicas.

I have spent a fortune on returning this to the road plus making a few modifications that I would have personally done in the early 2000’s without making it ‘Max Power’.  

I’m a bit of a Vauxhall nut and owned most of the performance versions of Astra’s, Cavalier GSi and 2 Monaro’s one of I still own.  I didn’t want to sell the Calibra but unfortunately I now spend my weekends ferrying my 2 children around the east of England for Basketball and Rugby and am racking up on average 400 miles a week so need to upgrade my daily driver or add another car.

When I got the car it ran great but had every warning light lit up on the dash and needed bodywork as it been sat in a field and hadn’t been on the road since 2004 which is where the TV show acquired the car, As such I’ve carried out the following since I got hold it:-

Engine wise I’ve replaced fitted a new Gates cambelt kit, new water pump, radiator, crank sensor (genuine GM), oil pressure switch, fan switch, new plugs and upgraded magnecore leads, new Bosch fuel pump, Fuel pump relay, Cat back Stainless steel exhaust and currently has a ram air induction kit but I can easily refit the original air box but it does sound nice.

Chassis has been treated to new lowering springs, all rubber bushings, wishbones, track rod ends, top mount bearings, rare fully refurbished 17” AEZ alloys with new Toyo proxes tyres.

Drivetrain has had new driveshafts, ABS sensors, Discs and pads, new Front callipers, traction control motor.

Bodywork wise it’s had PDR to remove various dent’s although 2 required more attention so it ended up needing a replacement bonnet and as such had a partial respray including front end, doors and rear quarters and the plastics were also painted to look new.  It also had new windscreen and side repeater lenses.  It’s never been welded and is totally rust free and being a late model was galvanised when built so they tend to fare better.

Interior isn’t original as the rear backrest on the original black leather seats had perished and I stumbled across a complete and sought after cream leather interior including a good headliner so now it has a fairly unique combination of white paint with cream leather.  I also fitted a NOS clock, new Kenwood DAB radio with Alexa, new Alpine speakers.

The car starts and drives fantastically and flew through its first mot in 19 years with zero advisories, I’ve done around 200 miles since then on dry sunny days and it now looks beautiful and always turns heads and gets thumbs up.  All the electrics work including the sunroof, all the gauges are functioning correctly and more importantly no more warning lights!  Unfortunately the heater control cable has detached so the flap cannot be controlled by the slider on the dash however the flap lever is positioned by the clutch pedal so it can be moved to warm or cold but I’ve reduced the price to cater for this

I took it to its first show on May bank holiday and received a lot of attention and it seems that quite a few pictures have been shared on social media of the car.  I was also surprised at how little wind noise there is with the sunroof fully open compared to modern cars which are actually quite noisy!

These are an appreciating asset with Turbo’s going for 5 figures,  the V6’s are the next desirable variant and most low mileage cars are automatic and it’s quite rare as most Calibra’s are 8v or the ecotec 16v.  I’m not in a rush and really want it to go to someone who will appreciate it so please no time wasters but I’m open to offers or possibly a deal with a modern hot hatch.