1985 Opel Monza 3.0 GSE

Took back seats, rear carpet and parcel shelf out of the monza tonight. So its no longer a plush GT. Debated long and hard about this, but I am gonna keep it safe and not going to do any irreversible mods so it can all go back later if need be.


Painted the handbrake aswell





Got the car booked in for MOT on Saturday morning so I better get a move on.

Finished getting it ready for the MOT. I hope As always there are a few niggly things I am concerned about but we will see tomorrow.

Reassembled hydraulic handbrake and fitted that


Wire brushed a few rusty bits and painted/undersealed those.

Fitted a new battery.

Secured some fuel pipes I was unhappy with.

Checked the lights a few nights ago and all was ok. Decided to check again just to be sure. Switched on main beam went to check, yep fine. Then drivers inner main beam went out . Must be bulb try to get one tomorrow, went round back drivers number plate light out.
Was gonna leave both for the morning and try and get bulbs then thought better of it. Checked wiring to main beam but no 12V. So after removing the headlamp unit found dodgy connection on a junction in th elight. Cleaned tested, ok Went round the back and tested number plate light again no supply voltage and again dodgy connection on a junction. This is the worst thing with leaving a vehicle for so long, chasing silly wiring faults. Determined to keep it in regular use once it MOT`ed. 11 hours and counting

Lovely looking car mate, I passed one last sunday on my way back from manchester on the M6,
was same colour as your's too!

Three things count against me:
I live in Ireland
I live in Ireland
I live in Ireland

Oh and I'm 21

Basically - tax on anything under 30 years old is done by engine size.

Engine Capacity (cc): €

Not over 1,000: €151
1,001 to 1,100: €227
1,101 to 1,200: €251
1,201 to 1,300: €272
1,301 to 1,400: €292
1,401 to 1,500: €313
1,501 to 1,600: €391
1,601 to 1,700: €414
1,701 to 1,800: €484
1,801 to 1,900: €511
1,901 to 2,000: €539
2,001 to 2,100: €689
2,101 to 2,200: €722
2,201 to 2,300: €755
2,301 to 2,400: €786
2,401 to 2,500: €821
2,501 to 2,600: €961
2,601 to 2,700: €999
2,701 to 2,800: €1,033
2,801 to 2,900: €1,071
2,901 to 3,000: €1,109
3,001 or more: €1,343

€1 is about 68p so tax on a Monza would be about £750/year. Couple that with the mpg, and the fact that import tax is €315 (£220) minimum and it makes it a very very expensive proposition.

Insurance wise I would be ok - I could get my old man to insure it classically and then I could use my "drive any car" part of my insurance to drive it.

Ireland is the worst European country to try and own a decent car

Cars over 30years old are a much cheaper proposition:
€50/year road tax no matter how big an engine, import tax is €50, and classic insurance is cheap. So maybe I'll start looking for a Monza in 2008

Yup - it sucks living over here - insurance is ridiculous too - lads paying £3000+ for insurance on a 1litre Mini at 17. And my insurance company wont insure me on anything over 20years old!

The best I could do retrowise was my little Mini - insurable, taxable (although even at 1.3 its more than you guys pay on massive cars!), cheapish to run (I live in Dublin and do mostly city driving so get about 30mpg) and I can afford to repair it!

Voting isnt going to change things - the prices have been like that for years - it's just stupid really. New cars are also stupidly expensive - a mondeo is €25000 for the base model (thats £17000).


Plan is to move abroad within the next year - so once I hit UK shores, it should be cheap retro sheds ahoy!

In other news after a bit of a nightmare I got the Monza MOT`ed yesterday. Failed on broken front spring, two broken rear springs, wiper blades and a misted headlamp. One and a half hours later I had it back down for a retest. Taxed yesterday afternoon. Then had grin on my face after that.

Not too happy with exhaust thoughso gonna have to do some work on that to get it a bit quieter. Sounds great been driven hard but a bit boomy through the mid range

Havent done much with the monza for the last couple of weeks other than drive it

Had a bit of a nightmare yesterday I had a fuel pipe burst while I was overtaking a car yesterday spraying quarter of a tank of petrol onto a hot exhaust Luckily it never caught fire although I had a 2 litre bottle of coke shook up ready as a cheap CO2 extinguisher Had to get the wife to come and tow me home.

Spent the day today getting it ready for my first autotest in a rwd car for nearly two years (long lay off due to back problems, work committments and lack of time )

Fitted a new fuel pipe.
Fitted a return spring to the hydraulic handbrake.
Then I have been swapping tyres over onto different rims (thanks to Tonycocacola for the Vauxhall Royale rims). 14" diameter compared to my normal 15`s plus the tyres on their have an overall diameter of around 1.5 inch less than my standard wheels, which makes a big difference to the gearing and accelaration.

A few pics







So I am all loaded up and ready to embarass myself tomorrow, no doubt I will be spending that much time concentrating on how to drive I will forget where I am going

Had a good first event in the Monza not too competitive but great fun.
Heres a few videos I have uploaded. Thanks to Tonycocacola for camerawork.

video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2043097043899158877

video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3093688875045624161

video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-464191430723291114

And one in car one
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4265047361248194555
makes me dizzy just watching it ;D ;D

Each Vid is around 10MB

And here are a few video captured pics.

Thanks for that.
Became a fan of these seeing them at rallys and was surprised at the time how good they were for such a big car.

The GSE`s are a really good car as standard which is just as well as tuning bits are difficult to get hold off. Even standard bits are surprisingly difficult.

I nearly bought one around 10 years ago but bought an AE86 instead. Made the right choice at the time as there would be no chance of getting one of those now were monza`s are cheap and easy to get hold of at the minute, but the rate at which they seem to be getting scrapped I don't think there will be many around in a couple of years time. Although I thrash the nads off this one I intend to keep it and look after it.
All mods I make I want to be able to return it back to standard but it depends how competetive I want to be at events.
Great thing with this car at the minute is I spent the day hammering round a car park sideways on Sunday, then I have done over 200 mile on Monday and Tuesday on the road and averaged just under 25mpg, which considering the roads I use and the way I drive is pretty good.