Unique Cars Australia – September 2019

Ownedsince 2016

Kmsunknown

Ownedsince 2017

Kms215,000

Ownedsince 1982

Kms361,491

Ownedsince 2018

Kms357,988

Ownedsince 2018

Kms57,268

Ownedsince 2012

Kms139,083

THIS MONTH

’79’79 79 RSRSRSRS 20000

’91 9191 LELELELEEXUSXUSXUSXUSXUSUSSSCSCSCSC 00

O dd i 2018

7 KIKIKIKIKIKINGSNGSNGSNGSNGSNGSWWWOWOOWOOWOODDDD

O d ii 1982

80800 HOLHOLHOLHOLOLDENDENDENDENDENVVCVCVCCSL

O dd i 2016

19 0 V0 V OO 22 C

Owneddsince 22017

O

’02 CV8 MONARO

Owned since 2017

Kms 21,289

GARAGE GURUS

OUR SHED, OUR CARS, OUR STORIES

THE^ CARS

198 2 V 2 C SC SL/E

FRESH LEGS

WE’VE HAD a few kays roll by since we

last did an update on Captain Cheap &

Cheerful, aka my $3250 Soarer. It’s a 1991

UZZ31 variant, which means it has all the

whistles and bells, including touch screen,

satnav (for Tokyo...), adjustable airbag

suspension and a TV. It’s the only car of four

I have on club plates that I’ve actually used

for a surprising number of cruises, which

says something about how easy it is to live

with.

These things were a popular grey import

back in the late nineties and this example,

like a lot of them, was rebadged as a

Lexus SC400 because the dealer involved

reckoned they could get a bit more for it

with the prestige brand on board. I’m a little

tempted to return the Soarer badging, as I

much prefer the distinctive Griffin logo.

Despite having 350,000km on the odo,

the 4.0lt 32 valve V8 is pretty well perfect,

running sweetly and using only a miniscule

amount of oil. It did however have the

starter motor give up the ghost, and that

was a pig of a job to replace as it’s hidden at

the back of the vee in the powerplant, under

all the induction plumbing.

The transmission has been getting a bit

gradual to pick up drive at the start of the

day, but a recent service seems to have

cheered it up. It’s still slow, but it works fine.

The big relief was that Mick at Glenlyon

gave it a clean bill of health. You can get

used replacements pretty cheap (around

$600), but I could do without the grief at the

moment.

Next job under the bonnet will be the

cam timing belt. I’m unsure when it was

last done, however I’m told the top end on

the pre-V V T-I engines is designed as a non-

interference set-up, which hopefully means

there shouldn’t be valves trying to hammer

through pistons if the belt does suddenly

let go.

Looking through the online resources at

Soarer Central (which are very good), it’s

WORDS & PHOTOS  GUY ALLEN

GUIDO’S CHEAP & CHEERFUL SOARER/LEXUS

LOSES ITS AIR SUSPENDERS

’03 BMW 540i

Owned since 2016

Kms 156,524

122 TradeUniqueCars.com.au