I'm sure a few of you saw it for sale on the net (when i called for insurance the bloke i dealt with was an e-series fan and had seen it. small world)
It's a 1996 EL Ghia V8 in Heritage Green with
- XR front
- Ticky Kit w/ no wing
- factory grey leather in excellent condition
- factory sunroof
- Koni shocks
- EL GT wheels
- resprayed at some point (colour-coded moulds)
- LPG installed recently
Apparently had other shit like the sunroof drain pipes cleaned out recently, new windscreen, new AC pump, brakes re-done yada yada... we'll find all that out soon enough
So how i came about this car and moving on from the XR8. I had been thinking about it for a while and spoken to a few people (family, mates, mechanic, etc). I decided if i did move on it had to be better than the XR8, as i've poured too much money into it to downgrade to a heap of shit.
So (as usual) i was looking on carsales and crap on and off. It was actually my missus who saw another EL V8 Ghia, which was super-clean low-km and fully optioned, up here in sydney on my route home from work. I called and it had already had a deposit on it, so i kept looking. I saw mine one night after TAFE and called the seller pretty late. Had a long chat about it and asked if he could hold it for 24 hours to see if i could organise everything. This was when my XR8 was getting it balancer, timing chain and cover replaced and costing me a chunk of cash. Getting the cash sorted, time off work and flying down to werribee was too hard at that point so I left it saying if it's still available after easter i'd look again.
I left it and kept looking at different things, even checking out Fairlanes, concordes and LTD's. It had to be an E-series, had to be V8 and have a sunroof.
As the Ghia was dropping in price i became more interested in it, and eventually called the bloke. Organised a deposit and sat on it for a few days. Booked flights and after a few mates & my gf tried and failed at getting work off, i went down with mum friday morning. Landed at about 9, drove the Ghia for 15 minutes, chewed the fat and bought it. It would've been nice if the guy HADN't put it on an Unregistered Vehicle Permit. drove it back with no plates. Such is life
So we started heading back to sydney straight away. we filled up somewhere between avalon airport and werribee. LPG & Petrol cost me ~$80. It was fucking windy!
first impressions were pretty good. Steering was lighter than my XR8 and i was enjoying the comforts of a Ghia. We got stuck in a bit of traffic near the westgate bridge road (not sure what its called) and the car behaved well
First stop was at Avenel
We stopped at albury and had some shithouse maccas, saw the local ferals and generally just feared for our lives.
Next stop was Holbrook, NSW, where theres a submarine in a park. It's a bit random, but whatever. The car was driving well, it was staying cool, was comfy and was quiet, especially since there's a glass panel in the roof. I found out the tyres it has a noisey, but i'm pretty sure they're gay el cheapos anyway
On the road again, it was obvious were werent in Victoria anymore just by the general shitness of the Hume Hwy truck stops in NSW. The lack of signage in our lovely fucked up state was another obvious thing. In Vic there's a sign every 5 km or so, in NSW it's every 33.7km (or some other random distance), so if you miss it, you have to try your luck later on.
Next stop was Gundagai, for more LPG (it managed 500km on a full tank of LPG), and a general toilet stop etc. Saw the dog-on-a-tuckerbox whilst there. I thought it was bigger than it is, still, it is pretty cool
interior pic for a mate to show wood, chrome & badge
next are random pics of the sunset and the scenery
we stopped and Goulburn for a refresh and then di the final stint to sydney & home
after a quick wash the next morning it was obvious that the front lip had copped stone chips, and the car needed a general polish
SO, plans for this are to keep it clean. It obviously needs rego ASAP and will become daily transport for me and the XR8 will be sold off. The V8 T5 will more than likely be sold off too, as i seriously doubt it'd go into the Ghia.
The front lip will need some attention so i might get some bits and peices re-done too. I'm weighing up what direction i'll eventually take, like keep the EL GT's and enjoy, re-do the chrome in the moulds, some 19" wheels
let me know what you think
