humbucker's 2004 Irmscher MV6 #irmscherMV6

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humbucker's 2004 Irmscher MV6 #irmscherMV6

Post by humbucker »

As some of you will already be aware, my 2004 Irmscher MV6 project has (finally) kicked off and is being featured in the 'Staff Cars' section of Total Vauxhall magazine. Each month, a detailed report will highlight the ups and downs that I experience as work progresses. Needless to say, I'm hoping for more good than bad!

I have a dedicated Facebook page and a Twitter feed active with sneak peeks and short updates (details that follow magazine publication). Follow/like 'em if that's your bag:

http://www.facebook.com/irmscherMV6
http://www.twitter.com/irmscherMV6

Click here for digital and print subscription options for the magazine.

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Re: humbucker's 2004 Irmscher MV6 #irmscherMV6

Post by humbucker »

Right then, let's get this showboat on the road... literally! #irmscherMV6

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Re: humbucker's 2004 Irmscher MV6 #irmscherMV6

Post by humbucker »

Another sneak peek of The Dark Destroyer! The first full project update will appear in the brand new issue of Total Vauxhall magazine (in stores Thurs 10th April). #irmscherMV6

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Re: humbucker's 2004 Irmscher MV6 #irmscherMV6

Post by humbucker »

I was hoping that attacking the car with a bucket and sponge might reveal something like this lurking beneath the thick layer of mank that had settled on the bodywork. Close, but no cigar! #irmscherMV6

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Re: humbucker's 2004 Irmscher MV6 #irmscherMV6

Post by humbucker »

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! The first full #irmscherMV6 project update has been published in the brand spankin’ new issue of Total Vauxhall. Those of you already in possession of the magazine should turn to page 85, and those of you without one should nip to your local newsagent or supermarket, download a copy at http://is.gd/20gDTM or order one to be delivered direct to your door (at no extra charge) by visiting http://is.gd/mo5rqg. There are loads of fantastic motors in the new issue, so don’t delay – get yours today!

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Notwithstanding the Holden derived Monaro and its totally bonkers successor, the VXR8, the Omega B was the last full-size rear-wheel drive car to wear a Vauxhall badge. That’s surprising when you consider that the final example left Opel’s Rüsselsheim factory almost a decade ago! Unfortunately, a fashionable move towards compact, fuel efficient motors rendered the large barge all but obsolete, and it became the victim of ridiculous depreciation as fuel duty and road tax increased with startling regularity (I’m not sure much has changed in that respect!).

Consequently, the car that had been royally appointed as fit for a soon-to-be king – and one that had worked tirelessly for Her Madge’s law enforcement agencies – was to become a stalwart of the nation’s scrapyards as many owners considered them too cost-inefficient to keep on the road. Occasional sightings of the endangered species would be reported as caravan owners scanned the classifieds for cheap load luggers or as tyre burners tried their hand at drifting, but the Omega became a relic of a pre-global financial crisis motoring world and has yet to be officially replaced by the GM big-wigs.

I’ve owned three V6 Omegas to date, so you can rightly assume that I’m a fan. If you can stomach the fact that you’ll be heading to the pumps more often than you would in your 1.2-litre ADAM, then the Elite and MV6 models can be mighty rewarding thanks to huge amounts of torque on tap, close to 220bhp from the 3.2-litre variant and more cabin space than a 5-Series Beemer. More toys and luxury trim too, and all this from a car that you can pick up for under a grand.

The Omega B that trumps them all is the facelift 3.2 Irmscher edition. Although examples aren’t badged as such, Vauxhall/Opel’s official styling partner developed a wide range of trim including a bodykit, exhaust system, alloys and coil springs specifically for the car. Perhaps unsurprisingly, few punters emptied their wallets for these cost-option extras on top of the £32k that they’d already forked out for their new ride – the upshot being that Irmscher Omega goodies have commanded a premium in recent years due to their scarcity.

I’d always fancied an Irmscher-kitted facelift MV6, but with rare special edition bumpers and steering wheels often costing more than entire cars it seemed an unlikely prospect. That was until I spotted an ad for a black 2004-plate rocking almost every item from the Irmscher catalogue. One of the last Omegas registered, it was on sale for just £500 and available to collect from a Vauxhall dealer in the New Forest. There was the small matter of suspected head gasket failure to contend with, but that wasn’t going to put me off of buying a car that came complete with so many desirable components, an exhaustive service history and masses of potential!

Loading my brother-in-law’s Jeep with a set of pre-facelift Elite rims (to replace the MV6’s apparent mismatched steelies), I trailered up and set off on the 350-mile round trip to collect my new project car. Tune in next month to see what I’ve ended up with! In the meantime, you can follow the dedicated Facebook and Twitter project pages by searching for the hashtag #irmscherMV6.

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Quality steelies. Ahem...

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I shouldn't scoff. The example above is pretty horrific, but Craig Evans has a nicely painted set of these same steelies on his wide body 4x4 Nova Turbo and they look great. Perhaps I should ditch plans for my staggered 18s after all?!

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Sod it.

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Puny brakes for such a big car. Will be beefing these up in the not-too-distant future:

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16-inch mini-facelift Elite five-spokes at the ready. Temporary rimmage:

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Looks pretty tidy under there...

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...apart from all that mayo! Here's a handy tip for the GM V6 owners and fans among you. Head gasket and oil cooler failure symptoms on these engines are often mistaken for one another, but as a rule, oil in the water is oil cooler failure and water in the oil is head gasket failure. So now you know! Guess which one I was presented with...

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Time to set sail for home:

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Re: humbucker's 2004 Irmscher MV6 #irmscherMV6

Post by humbucker »

Are you planning to head out this weekend with the intention of taking some fresh photos of your pride and joy? If so, the boys at Fast Ford magazine have some top tips that might help you to get better results. Check it out: http://www.fastfordmag.co.uk/2013/06/25/27136/ #irmscherMV6

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Re: humbucker's 2004 Irmscher MV6 #irmscherMV6

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Excellent service this morning (as usual) from the parts team at Murketts Vauxhall Cambridge. I ordered a new battery for #irmscherMV6 (among other bits) as two juice boxes between seven cars has proved to be a royal pain in the arse. Picked up a Z20C paint stick while I was at it. Everybody knows that a paint stick adds at least 20bhp to a car.

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Re: humbucker's 2004 Irmscher MV6 #irmscherMV6

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Here's a photo from the original #irmscherMV6 classified ad. Note the odd choice of 16-inch Irmscher Soft Star alloy wheels in place of Omega-specific 18-inch Sport Stars. I left these rims behind despite their fantastic condition (they were virtually new). This move also dropped the price of the car down to just £500. I was offered more than that for some of the car's limited edition trim before I'd arrived back home! That's a pretty impressive purchase price when you consider that the car was just six years old and had thousands of pounds worth of Irmscher gear bolted to it.

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Re: humbucker's 2004 Irmscher MV6 #irmscherMV6

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This snippet (lifted from a recent issue of Total Vauxhall magazine) makes #irmscherMV6’s £500 price tag seem like even more of a bargain. And yes, that’s a photo of another one of my Omegas (details in my next post).

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Re: humbucker's 2004 Irmscher MV6 #irmscherMV6

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A few pics of my first Omega. It's a mini-facelift 3.0 V6 Elite. I bought the car in 2004 and still own it today. I don't think I'll ever forget how exciting the test drive was; I'd checked out some real rot boxes, but this one was super clean, very quick and it felt as though I was cruising around in my living room. Such a lot of car for the money. It was low mileage, well maintained, only a couple of owners from new etc. Keeping that cream carpet clean was a bit of a challenge as time went on (and the V6 became expensive to run as petrol prices increased while my journey to the office exceeded two hours each way), but it was a great car regardless. I'm using past tense as I doubt that the ole barge is likely to see the road again now that the Irmscher project is up and running. A shame really, it was/is (delete as appropriate) a bloody good motor, but you've gotta draw the line somewhere.

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Cheeky iPod integration on non-aux OE head unit:

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The council paid for a respray following my six month campaign to get them to shell out after the car suffered damage as a consequence of an encounter with a salt spreader. The front and side panels were battered with perfectly round holes spread across the otherwise mint paintwork. The incident was ruled as being totally avoidable and the car got a fresh lick of Jungle Green Mica. It looked fantastic:

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Re: humbucker's 2004 Irmscher MV6 #irmscherMV6

Post by humbucker »

Here, have an Omega cutaway diagram. You're welcome.

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Re: humbucker's 2004 Irmscher MV6 #irmscherMV6

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More pics of #irmscher MV6 at the point of purchase. Drab cloth upholstery, automatic transmission, crap in-car entertainment system. Each of these 'features' will be replaced with infinitely cooler upgrades.

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Tailored mats have seen some action:

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Re: humbucker's 2004 Irmscher MV6 #irmscherMV6

Post by humbucker »

Ditching weight from your car is the quickest way to make it go faster. Losing this V-badge somewhere along the line has, therefore, made a huge difference to potential 'Ring lap times.

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Then again, adding a shark shaped badge to your motor should add at least 20bhp. Hmmn...

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Re: humbucker's 2004 Irmscher MV6 #irmscherMV6

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Facelift MV6 alu-trim is all present and correct. It's in need of a good clean, but the door cards, centre console and dash trim pieces are in tip-top condition. Note the cloth insert below the alu panel. Each of these will be replaced with leather effect panels to match the rare Recaros that I hope to source.

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Re: humbucker's 2004 Irmscher MV6 #irmscherMV6

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Willow had a few suggestions for the direction of the #irmscherMV6 project following a read through the 'library'...

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Re: humbucker's 2004 Irmscher MV6 #irmscherMV6

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Whoo-hoo! The new issue of Total Vauxhall magazine is out now and features the latest full #irmscherMV6 project report; find out what I’ve ended up with following an early evaluation of the black battle bus! Subscribe to ensure that you never miss an update (http://is.gd/sLShvy), have the new issue delivered direct to your door at no extra cost (http://is.gd/YcJ6nC) or download it right now to your digidevice (http://is.gd/20gDTM). Oh, and you can pick up a copy of the mag in all good newsagents and supermarkets. Don’t delay – get yours today!

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To say that I was excited about getting the MV6 home is an understatement. Not even the six hour drive caused by Friday afternoon traffic on the M25 could dampen my spirits, although damage sustained to that oh-so-rare front airdam as a result of the car shifting forward in transit and making contact with the trailer jack did its best to wipe the smile off of my face. Fortunately, Irmscher kit is made of strong stuff, and the seemingly destroyed front end popped back into shape once my new Griffin was back on solid ground (albeit with a little less paint than it had worn earlier that day). Phew!

The previous owner had shelled out for almost every item in the Irmscher catalogue at the car’s original point of sale – options amounting to thousands of pounds worth of updates when new and gear that is worth a small fortune today. Key items include the aforementioned front bumper/airdam with integrated mesh grilles and fog lamps, matching side skirts and a rear bumper designed specifically to accommodate the car’s special edition dual exit exhaust system.

A set of mint condition 16-inch Soft Star alloys also made an appearance. I’m not sure why these rims were picked in favour of the 18-inch staggered fitment Sport Stars that were fashioned exclusively for the Omega (wheels that feature an offset of ET30 and a width of 9-inches at the rear) as they look lost in the MV6’s huge arch cavities. Suffice to say, I left these at the Vauxhall dealership that I bought the car from in exchange for a heavily discounted purchase price. A set of Sport Stars are now on a rapidly expanding shopping list, along with the notably absent upgraded front grille and an uber-rare rear wing.

Inside the car, Irmscher reigns supreme thanks to an aluminium effect steering wheel, sill covers and door pins that are designed to match the standard issue MV6 centre console and door cards. In fact, I was offered more than I paid for the whole car for some of the cabin trim even before I’d set sail for home! Unsurprisingly, none of the special edition bits and bobs are for sale, but inherited interior items that I am happy to part with consist of a boot full of plastic forks, a lone glove and a split bag of mint imperials. Oh, and there’s a half-eaten Kit Kat if you’re interested? Call it a fiver and it’s yours.

The drab cloth seats were always living on borrowed time, and I whipped them out as soon as I’d finished eyeballing my new purchase; I’m now driving in and out of the garage using a ‘granny spec’ wooden stool for comfort until I can park my arse on minty fresh MV6 leather. I’ll add the rare Recaros to my wish list, along with a fault free 3.2-litre V6 engine and a manual gearbox to replace the automatic factory transmission.

Y’know, it sounds as though a donor car needs to join the party before my next project update – watch this space!

Off the trailer...

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...but not before discovering this. Not cool man, not cool:

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Re: humbucker's 2004 Irmscher MV6 #irmscherMV6

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Cloth seats ripped out almost immediately. Irmscher steering wheel looking pretty smart:

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Irmscher stainless steel sill covers:

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Irmscher flat-top engraved door pins:

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Re: humbucker's 2004 Irmscher MV6 #irmscherMV6

Post by humbucker »

The amount of crap that people leave in their cars when selling up never ceases to amaze me.

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Re: humbucker's 2004 Irmscher MV6 #irmscherMV6

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Prototype Recaro 'granny spec' stool. Dya think it'll catch on?

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Re: humbucker's 2004 Irmscher MV6 #irmscherMV6

Post by humbucker »

I had a couple of messages from members saying that pictures weren't displaying on this thread. I was linking them directly from Twitter, but have now uploaded the images to my domain instead. They should now appear here without fail :)
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Re: humbucker's 2004 Irmscher MV6 #irmscherMV6

Post by Envoy CDX »

Looking forward to seeing this progress.
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Re: humbucker's 2004 Irmscher MV6 #irmscherMV6

Post by Lowrider Dave »

The dealership - was it the one in Lyndhurst out of interest?
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Re: humbucker's 2004 Irmscher MV6 #irmscherMV6

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lowrider dave wrote:The dealership - was it the one in Lyndhurst out of interest?
'Fraid not. It was in Liss if I remember correctly.
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Re: humbucker's 2004 Irmscher MV6 #irmscherMV6

Post by Lowrider Dave »

Okay, the one in Lyndhurst was the only one I could think of in the New Forest.
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Re: humbucker's 2004 Irmscher MV6 #irmscherMV6

Post by Cavalier342 »

humbucker wrote:Here's a handy tip for the GM V6 owners and fans among you. Head gasket and oil cooler failure symptoms on these engines are often mistaken for one another, but as a rule, oil in the water is oil cooler failure and water in the oil is head gasket failure. So now you know! Guess which one I was presented with... #irmscherMV6

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:lol: :lol: Sod me, that brings back memories!!!! My old Citroen ZX, that I was presented with everytime I went to check the oil... :lol:
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