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Killing Calibra Turbos


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I've never bought a car just to make a profit from dismantling it and then selling the bits. Dare I say it, I don't have enough time or will to spend days taking it to bits. A car that is a common target for it's parts is the Calibra Turbo. The engine now goes for well over 1k (I bought one for 500 quid a few years ago), the five lug suspension, wheels, leather, even some of the loom can be sold for more than what the car is worth as a whole.

 

http://www.migweb.co.uk/forums/car-talk ... bos-5.html

 

Fair play to someone seeing a bit of a money spinner doing it, but there's not going to be many of these left, even less than the Manta of which it replaced. I really like these cars. The mechanically identical Cavalier Turbo is not treated with the same neglect for some reason.

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Its like a cycle isnt it. Back when I lived in Sunderland, my mate bought one of these from a salvage yard, years ago. It had been nicked and partially stripped. He went round loads of other yards buying secondhand bits from folk who were breaking them (no doubt 50% of which were nicked or dodgy in some way), and reassembled his. Eventually it was back on the road, and was a winner. After about 3 months it was nicked. Eventually he tracked the engine and gearbox down to a salvage yard (lord knows how) and found the chopped-up bodyshell not long after. No doubt loads of the bits off it were sold to other folk rebuilding calibras, like a big merry-go-round full of unoriginal dodgy thieving makem bastards,

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Its a shame because Calibras are nice cars.. I had a blue se4 8 valve running on LPG. Did 30k plus in it with no hassle whatsoever.Also had an (apparently) very rare P reg SE7 2.0 16v in magic grey with the cream leather etc.it was very tidy and a decent car but when I tried to flog it I couldn't give it away. I'd paid 600 for it and the best I got offered was around 300 from endless morons who didn't even view the car.In the end I got pissed off and sold the leather and wheels and a few other bits, cashed the tax and weighed it in with 6 months MOT left. I couldnt believe it as at that point most of the ones in the paper were still at around the £1k mark!

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Strange - I can understand the engines and wheels finding new homes in other cars, but surely the rest needs another Calibra to put it in? Reminds me of BX GTis and 406 Mi 16s getting broken for 16v 205 GTi conversions, and going back a bit, various C series Farinas losing their engines for Austin Healey restorations.

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There's examples of it in every marque - inevitably one car in a makers' range is related to another more glamorous model or a distant cousin of another that's fapped over by scene types.For an example that's close to home, I give you the Piazza Turbo.Their engines end up in Chevettes \ Kadetts, as do their rear axles which need to have their half shafts shortened quite a bit to fit. The fact that they have a bit of a tendency to dissolve is made almost irrelevant by the fact that as a car they're completely worthless - but advertise a working Piazza LSD and you'll get shitbox Chevette and Kadett owners ringing you up on a daily basis. Clive of the IPTOC admits this is the only thing that really makes the club any money.If they were a Nissan, Toyota or Mazda they'd have some kind of following, but the only use they seem to have in the UK is making some shagged T car dance round a greasy roundabout. Until they break from being ragged and turn into a open diff.In the Volvo world, 480 Turbos often get chopped up for 'big block' R5GT Turbo conversions, and endless Sierra \ Mk 2 Escorts have met their doom for those bloody Caterfieldcosthood replica things.

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It's the same in the VW world, Beetle GTs were raped for the 1600cc engine and high ratio swingaxle gearbox, Beetle 1303s are less desirable that your swingaxle bugs, so they were culled for the 1600cc motor in the 'S'sMany a '68 Bay window camper was scrapped to donate its front axle (ball joint) to a splitty.

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Another from back in the day was the fiat 131 with the twin cam engine models ending up in a morris minor :shock: I know they could rust badly but with that happing that can't have helped things. I bet there were some decent cars broken up just for the engine.

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How many Marinas have died to make a Minor stop? Makes Top Gear seem like angels.How many Princesses have died so the delightful four-pot calipers can be nicked for, well, pretty much anything?BX 16 valves for Pug 205s is pretty well known, but the BX has been replaced by Pug 306 XSi now - and I've driven a 205 so equipped. Rather good fun what...Metro death for Mini power? I guess the Metro has just taken over from the BMC 1300 there...

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25 V6 Turbos engines/box for stupid dream on kit cars that never get finished....11 turbos for crap boy racer 5 turbos(Anyone know of an 11 turbo for sale??)

I'm the most popular/unpopular Renault Alpine GTA killer, scores on the doors Isla are 3 broken and 2 saved so I can sort of hold my head up :lol::lol: Engines have gone to deloreans and a GT40 kit car so far.
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Yeah i know,at least you have saved the last remaining few,it was about 10 years ago i remember every 25 selling cheap then the remains going back on e-bay minus the running gear,Just been told that another 25 turbo had died due the mechanical failure and rust,so maybe its down to single figure survivors in the U.K,i was recently told that 16 where imported into the u.k a month in its production years(85-89)so that means only 768 odd came into the country and where only sold by Renault performance centres,not any old Renault dealership.

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but advertise a working Piazza LSD and you'll get shitbox Chevette and Kadett owners ringing you up on a daily basis. Clive of the IPTOC admits this is the only thing that really makes the club any money.

How so? Are they advertised on a number like 0898 PIAZZA LSD? :!::?::wink::o:o Perhaps you should, and have some young lovely lady explain how many miles is on it in a deep husky voice in a particularly lascivious manner?
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but advertise a working Piazza LSD and you'll get shitbox Chevette and Kadett owners ringing you up on a daily basis. Clive of the IPTOC admits this is the only thing that really makes the club any money.

How so? Are they advertised on a number like 0898 PIAZZA LSD? :!::?::wink::o:o Perhaps you should, and have some young lovely lady explain how many miles is on it in a deep husky voice in a particularly lascivious manner?
I'm sold. Take me now :D
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but advertise a working Piazza LSD and you'll get shitbox Chevette and Kadett owners ringing you up on a daily basis. Clive of the IPTOC admits this is the only thing that really makes the club any money.

How so? Are they advertised on a number like 0898 PIAZZA LSD? :!::?::wink::o:o Perhaps you should, and have some young lovely lady explain how many miles is on it in a deep husky voice in a particularly lascivious manner?
I'm sold. Take me now :D
What I meant was, if you have one, and advertise it, it won't hang around for long.
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A Piazza axla was my most profitable ever ebay deal. Saw a terrible advert for a piazza in Manchester, no pics, lousy description, though you could glean enough to know that car was in appalling condition. Won the car for £45, had a local scrapyard go round the guys house, pick it up and take it back to their yard. I go round to the scrapyard on Saturday and nick the axle out of it, which i then put on eBay, it sells for £300! Ker-ching! ANd the scrapyard kept the rest of it so they were happy too.

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A Piazza axla was my most profitable ever ebay deal. Saw a terrible advert for a piazza in Manchester, no pics, lousy description, though you could glean enough to know that car was in appalling condition. Won the car for £45, had a local scrapyard go round the guys house, pick it up and take it back to their yard. I go round to the scrapyard on Saturday and nick the axle out of it, which i then put on eBay, it sells for £300! Ker-ching! ANd the scrapyard kept the rest of it so they were happy too.

Yeah! So if a complete one was to say.......appear.......in not so bad nick..........would £400 be fair?
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25 V6 Turbos engines/box for stupid dream on kit cars that never get finished....11 turbos for crap boy racer 5 turbos(Anyone know of an 11 turbo for sale??)

Hey just noticed your comment and i might know of one that is for sale. Think it is an 88 E reg so facelifted model in silver standered car. I spoke to the old boy who owns it last year had try'd to sell it but got messed about. Wanted £400 i think but has no mot, passed it last week and it has reapeared must have been hidden in his garage so looks like he has't been able to sell. If anyones intrested i might be able to find out more. Car is in tamworth ,staffs. Just off junction 10 M42.
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