FACTORY FRESH!

FINDING A STOCK HOLDEN VL TURBO OF ANY KIND WOULD BE CONSIDERED A DIFFICULT TASK, BUT FINDING AN UNRESTORED EXAMPLE WITH LESS THAN 3000KMS PUTS THIS CAR IN A LEAGUE OF ITS OWN

- DAVE MORLEY

Perhaps it's happened to you.

Some well-meaning relative buys you a four-pack of Reg Grundies for Christmas. Hey, it happens all the time. Before it's even New Years Eve, you've worn the blue pair, the green pair and the super-practical brown pair, and they're all now either in the wash or on the clothes-line waving at the neighbours.

But the yellow pair? They've somehow worked their way to the deepest, darkest back part of your undies drawer where they become trapped behind a pair of handcuffs and a bible, forgotten and never to be seen again.

Until years later, that is, when an urgent need for a pair of handcuffs (best not to ask) has you emptying drawers all over the place until you find the cuffs in question and surprise, surprise that pair of yellow scungers you'd completely forgotten about.

They've never been worn, they've never been washed. So despite being from Christmas almost 40 years ago, and their blue, green and brown comrades becoming workshop rags three decades ago, Mr Yellow is still in as-new condition. Fresh as a daisy...for now, anyway.

And that, if you ignore the cuffs, religious literature and undergarment metaphor, is kind of what happened to this VL Berlina Turbo.

It was bought new in 1987 in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia-we think-by an Italian gentleman - we think — who clearly prized his new toy. And everything was rosy until very early in the ownership experience when he took his better half out shopping, and returned to the car-park only to discover that somebody had parked way too close to the Berlina for our man's comfort. No damage was done, but to make sure it stayed that way, our friend parked the car in the back of his shed and that's where it stayed with about 2000km on its odometer. You just can't trust anybody, these days. Or back in 1987, it seems.