Ecotec to VTEC. My Car Beginnings.

Hey guys, VTECpony here, time for my first actual 'post' post, and where better to start than my humble beginnings as a learner driver. Being as keen to drive as any young teenager, I got my learner's licence at the age of 16, and was lucky enough to be given the permission to 'borrow' my parents' old car, a beautiful 1997 Holden VT Commodore in Navy Blue.
Apologies to all but I was unable to dig up an image from the archives of my embarrassing family photos, so instead I've provided an image of a very similar Commodore from the NRMA web site.

(Image source: http://www.mynrma.com.au/media/holden_commodore_vt_s_1998.jpg)

The main differences from the image above would be the wheels, the colours, and the white man in sunglasses.

Now as a first car, or any car, for that matter. The Holden VT Commodore was an amazing car, reliable, cheap to run (parts and servicing for aussie cars is always good), maintenance was a breeze, and you had the power of a 3.6L Ecotec engine for the standard models, which provided great power, but also fairly reasonable fuel efficiency for a V6 at the time. The Holden VT Commodores from 1997-1999 have become an Australian icon, and the workhorse for many families, with low costs to run whilst providing great reliability and power. This was a car I was grateful to drive as a first car and deserves its title as number 1 in Australian sales.

Sadly, the Commodore had grown old and served its time well, and the time came when it inevitably had to be replaced. Bernardo, as he was called, no rests not too far away in a Pick'n'Payless, where he may live on in other cars. In time I had saved up enough money to put towards a new car, and had decided to purchase brand new, to avoid on-road costs and save money on insurance. Enter...the 2012 Honda City VTi.

(2012 Honda City VTi...also known as Patricia)

So, down to the numbers, the engine is a 1.5L i-VTEC inline 4 cyclinder engine which is GREAT for fuel efficiency, using on average, 6.6L per 100km, which is one of the most fuel efficient small cars around without going hybrid. Being a small engine, the 1.5L SOHC engine only puts out 88kW of power, which isn't alot, and on uphills is where you find that out first hand. Standout features are the 503L boot capacity, front-side and curtain airbags, and USB/iPod/Bluetooth connectivity as standard, and its surprisingly tight and smooth handling for a 1090kg car.

In a nutshell, the pros are a great looking car packed full of features, the best of which would have to be its fuel efficient engine and inbuilt connectivity, however if I had to pick out any cons, it'd be its lack of power (which in some cases, may be a good thing).

Outside

Inside

Shasta Strawberry. For that thug smell.

And those are my cars to date from a monster 3.6L Ecotec...to a cute, sensible, 1.5L iVTEC, I still love both cars for their own traits and serve as great first or second cars respectively. The Commodore will always be an icon for the reliable car that can stand up to anything, whilst City goes to show how far we've come for efficient and clean driving, while keeping things simple.

Till next time.

-VTECpony

Welcome! Here is the beginning of my car journey....

Welcome to our blog on the average blokes car! I thought I would kick things off with a little about my car history to give you context of where we are going with this…

So as I’m sure most of the Aussie audience will know you are restricted in terms of power in the cars you can drive up until you obtain your full license at 20. As such many first cars will not be turbo or higher than a V6. This bugged me when it came to the day that I had finally saved enough to go out and buy my first car. I was 17 and as such was restricted under the P’s license. I pondered and after looking at various cars I managed to pick up a cheap 2002 BMW 325ci at an auction. The car had been in an accident and was in need of some TLC. I repaired the front end and had just enough to cover a re-spray, I also had to put a new radiator and engine mounts in as these had been damaged in the accident. After doing all this I felt quite chuffed as the car started to look good! Being a straight six it had more than enough power for me to learn how to drive on and have some fun. In terms of features, for an 11-year-old car these BMW’s are packed with racing leather seats, sunroofs, electric everything and I installed an Alpine sound system with Fusion sub- yes fusion! I kept this car for 2 years and managed to sell it at a profit after fixing it up! If you have never been to a car auction I encourage you to! They are one hell of an experience and you can pick up some amazing deals. 

Following the BMW I decided to purchase a 2010 Holden SV6 Ute, with a staggering 210kw out of a 3.6Litre V6 I was impressed with how far General motors has come along. Being a Ute I was expecting major handling compromises but the Holden surprised me. I did a 4 day drive with a couple of people from the Ferrari club and the Ute put up a fair fight through the winds and turns of thunderbolt way. Of course I wasn’t expecting to keep up the Ferrari’s backside and had some close calls with the rear kicking out but overall bang for buck the SV6 did well.  I kept it pretty stock in terms of mods and only had a X-force exhaust system fitted, pace makers, lowered it on King springs and a migraine trying to install a sound system! Anyone who has tried to install speakers whilst keeping a stock head unit will know what I mean! The VE aftermarket head units are over the 1k mark and it didn’t make sense to replace it as the AC and functions are built into it. Overall the Ute came in handy with moving stock and weekend runs to the dirt bike track, the SIDI motor was extremely fuel efficient on the highway and these Holden’s have come along way!

After the SV6 I got caught in a Japanese craze and was JDM struck! My mate had a DC5 and the VTEC BURRR just made me smile! I got my hands on my first turbo car a 2006 Subaru WRX club spec 9, or affectionately known as Scooby. The sound of that blow off valve and famous rexy purr sold me on the car. It had leather racing seats and all the other fancy bits that these limited edition CS9’s came with. This is when I got ‘the bug’ and started to delve into mods. The first thing I did to Scooby was install Pedders sports ryder extreme XA coil overs and 18 inch Rota Grid Drift rims for that crazy JDM look and stance. Next I got stuck into the engine starting with a 3-inch stainless steel exhaust with cannon muffler. I upgraded the turbo and later added a Fibre
vortex generator, carbon muffler guard, JVC in-dash DVD player with
iPod/iPhone integration with 8-speaker sound + 12' Kenwood Subwoofer
and a few other bits n pieces. Scooby handles like he’s on rails, the AWD boxer really does attest as to why these Subaru’s have become so popular. Of course with owning a WRX comes the EVO rivalry with both teams being equally as passionate and certain that their car is better, one thing is for sure these die-hard fans can get seriously competitive!

-Boost