club.liberty.asn.au

Hey Guys, been lurking and reading for a while, if there's any answers elsewhere or links worth knowing about, feel free to point me there.

I've always been a "driver" and loved manual.... the wife however can/won't drive them

Will I hate myself any time I go for a spirited drive / track day if I get an auto??
I've read that some people have had the auto box "modded" (VB ??) in some way to help with the shift lag.... is there anyone in Sydney area who's done stuff like this would be willing to show me?

Wife currently has a '99 base model Liberty so I'm not a stranger to them, and I've been looking at wrx/sti's for a while, but the H6 Liberty is also a very tempting option. I know they are totally different vehicles, just trying to pin down whether to go for all out performance and a "toy only" vehicle , or something a bit more practical at least till I catch the bug and hook up a raptor sc
FYI - at this stage I'm able to get public transport to work, so I have the luxury that my vehicle is only lightly used for now.

Cheers!
Tim

get the manual 100%

its a beautiful gearbox, only downside i would say after having one for two years is that despite having 6 gears, 6th on the freeway at 115 is just shy of 3000rpm which is far too high imo for highway speeds, especially with 6 gears to play with

otherwise it truly makes driving enjoyable

resale will be a lot better as well

teach your wife to drive manual

Teach wife to drive manual

Buy my wagon and play it off as a family car.
Go thrash evos and lotus' and shit in the hills when she isnt looking.

kiks wrote:Teach wife to drive manual

Buy my wagon and play it off as a family car.
Go thrash evos and lotus' and shit in the hills when she isnt looking.

I've actually seen your car in a few places (and I'll be in QLD next month too.....)
Wouldn't be interested in a GU 4.2 rather than a GQ perchance would you.......

Main issue is that its a bit more than I'm really looking to spend, if you still have it when I'm headed up though, I might get in contact to have a chat/look.

Thrash a lotus though.... thats a big call!

mrcrazydude wrote:

kiks wrote:Teach wife to drive manual

Buy my wagon and play it off as a family car.
Go thrash evos and lotus' and shit in the hills when she isnt looking.

I've actually seen your car in a few places (and I'll be in QLD next month too.....)
Wouldn't be interested in a GU 4.2 rather than a GQ perchance would you.......

Main issue is that its a bit more than I'm really looking to spend, if you still have it when I'm headed up though, I might get in contact to have a chat/look.

Thrash a lotus though.... thats a big call!

See....
Here is the thing.

I have never met kiks, but from what he posts on the forum this is the kind of guy who wakes up and decides he's not happy with his girlfriends 4 cylinder in her Carolla so he throws a turbo inline 6 in it just because he can.
If I was looking for my car right now (albeit I wanted a turbo but still) instead of 2 years ago I would buy kiks car in a fucking heart beat because I know it's just basically the best handling it can possibly be because kiks has done everything possible to it without throwing a roll cage in.

G'day Tim,

WARNING: Longish post.

As an owner of a MY06 auto 3.0R-SpecB, here are my thoughts on it (I have said some of this recently in another thread but it is probably worth repeating here):

Firstly, turbo or 3.0 - there is bugger-all in it. Have a look at the 0-100 times and it really is neck-and-neck. Sit yourself in one and then sit yourself in the other and I seriously doubt you would notice the difference (although there is this "little boy" gene that exists in all men that is saying to you, "Yes, the turbo is faster, it has to be, it's a turbo - get the turbo, go on, you know you want one....").

The 3.0 has torque available over a wider range which gives it some advantage in certain situations. It does, however, use more fuel although it is also accepting of lower-octane fuel whereas the turbo will complain if you try it on with it.

Insurance can be an issue although I have heard of some members on here who have found insurance premiums comparable between the two - I'm guessing the conditions of that insurance were also comparable so shop around and see what you get.

Lastly, I understand that servicing can be a greater issue with the turbo over the 3.0 - do your research on this as I'm not certain about it.

Secondly - manual or auto. Seriously, the auto on these things is awful. It can never seem to make up its mind what it wants to do; this is especially apparent on winding roads. Putting it into semi-auto is helpful but even then it can sometimes take a while to make up its mind by which time a new set of circumstances have presented themselves requiring a change of gear. You can play with the gears yourself if you want although up and down is, for me, the wrong way around - I would have thought that to go from, say, 2nd to 3rd would require me to pull down on the gear stick but, instead, I have to push it forwards - I get it wrong every time. My wife, however, thinks it is perfectly sensible (she is missing the "little boy gene", too). Given the choice, I would choose a manual over an auto (so would my wife which, I guess shows that there is a little boy in all of us if we look).

Other issues. Having a 3.0R-SpecB is a real pain if you want to add any body parts - nothing seems to fit. If however, you have a turbo model, the list of parts is endless and considerably cheaper than the 3.0R-SpecB equivalent.

If you want a Liberty, then, for me, it was either/or - for the wife it was a 3.0 (she refuses to have anything to do with turbos). I really think they are both line ball.

cheers,

bj

kiks wrote:Teach wife to drive manual

Buy my wagon and play it off as a family car.
Go thrash evos and lotus' and shit in the hills when she isnt looking.

+1, this is a great idea! Although the kandy-painted wheels may not fall under the misses' radar

Auto is a good thing. Dont be afraid. The 6sp is possibly one of the best 6sp's ever made for a passenger car, its just brilliant. But the auto is well under rated.

With the tuning that KiDo is offering I think there is NO reason left to fear the auto trans at all.

Slip a KiDo tune into it if you do buy the auto and you may well be happy man

kiks wrote:Auto is a good thing. Dont be afraid. The 6sp is possibly one of the best 6sp's ever made for a passenger car, its just brilliant. But the auto is well under rated.

Yeah, that is part of why I would love a manual.... plus, for spirited driving, there is nothing that comes close!
But for 5% of the time for track/spirited driving, vs 95% of the time when I might be on the freeway, traffic etc etc!

On that note, do many people track liberty's, in auto especially I'd be interested in feedback.

Tradewind wrote:With the tuning that KiDo is offering I think there is NO reason left to fear the auto trans at all.

Slip a KiDo tune into it if you do buy the auto and you may well be happy man

Yeah, thats what I'm interested in finding out more about!
Is there anyone in Sydney or the central coast who's done these mod's and would be willing to take me for a run and give me some information about what they've done?



FYI Tim, I'd be interested in finding out a bit more about your extractors as part of potentially a full exhaust, along with a tune. Probably not a SC kit just yet, though the dream is there

Here is the best easy to read source for Raptor Performance header info

viewtopic.php?f=65&t=17262

Tradewind wrote:Here is the best easy to read source for Raptor Performance header info

viewtopic.php?f=65&t=17262

Been there, read that... & all 50 odd pages of the SC thread too
Thanks Tim

The short answer to your question is YES!!!!!

Buy the manual. You'll LOVE the 6sp its AWESOME!

Buy mine. I'll put less noisy tyres on it so it wont piss the missus off :p

I should just make that my signature by now.

mrcrazydude wrote:On that note, do many people track liberty's, in auto especially I'd be interested in feedback.

there's a few who do

had one on the track for last years RSLC national meet here in Hobart (mine was at home with a bung centre diff )
Basically stock 3RB wagon was doing consistently similar times to mildy modified Libs and a couple of WRX's

10 years newer chassis, better suspension geometry and big-ass brakes help keep it quick through the corners