This one starts back in 1989. My first car was a tatty old V plate Renault 18. I loved it though, as it symbolised freedom. One like this, in the same colour red...
I went all over in that. Sometimes on my own, sometimes with my mates, sometimes with my first girlfriend. Edinburgh, the Lakes, York. All over the North and Scotland. Loved having the ability to set out and head where I wanted. Then the big end went on it. I needed my second car. One of the members of the gym I was working in at the time used to sell motors. He had a Datsun, which I said I would have a look at. Turned out to be a touch of something special compared to the Renault. This was it.....VCU 803Y.....1983 Datsun Stanza (code T11)....
(photos taken after I'd modded it 1990 style with red go-faster stripes and 'Gan Canny, Wah Geordies' sticker on the rear bumper!).
I loved that car. It had a 5 speed box compared to the Renault's 4 speed. An autochoke, not a manual one. Variable speeds for the intermittent wipe. A pull down centre arm rest in the back. Stuff like that was normally just in prestige stuff. Anyway, I had that car a year, and in typical manner, despite loving it, I decided on a change, and sold it to Mr Mork in South Shields. I used to drive past it outside his house for years and always regretted selling it. Ironically, sometimes the horrible Mk3 Escort I bought to replace it would even break down near his house to give me a better look. I got rid of the Escort, and replaced it with another Stanza, this time a 5 door hatch in maroon, which was another great car and served me well until I part-ex'd it for my first K10. No car though has ever tugged on the heartstrings like my blue Stanza saloon, and I've been looking for one for the last 20 odd years.
This particular car popped up on this very forum about three years ago up in Scotland, and I kept tabs on the build thread. I actually nearly bought it a few months ago, but it went to someone else. That someone else is a good mate of mine, and local too, so when he bought my S320 recently, then added a 1984 Talbot Horizon to his mint low miler Solara and other older beemers and Cortina, the Stanza was surplus to his requirements. He knew my history with them, and offered it to me. Well, I couldn't believe my luck. It's practically exactly the same as my old one. It's also a 1983 Y plate, and has covered only 53k miles in those 34 years. It's odd, but it actually spent the first 28 years of it's life with the same owner not 5 miles away from where I live. Then went down the coast to Whitby for three years before heading up to Scotland for the last three years. It has tons of history with it, including the original sales invoice from may 1983 (£5,300 iirc). A pic of it after the short drive home tonight...
It's certainly got a cooling issue. It ran very hot on the way home, and steam was escaping from somewhere, as well as a bit of a drip underneath.
Other things. Various bolts missing from the air intake to the filter, wiper blades are falling apart, the battery isn't secure, the 'get-fit' drivers door window handle falls off as it needs a small circlip. Small things for sure. The bottom of at least one door is crusty. I know there's some welding happened in recent times, and hopefully that will see it through the MOT, booked for Thursday. I have a feeling it'll fail, but not on anything major.
Plans once the MOT is sorted? I'm not sure. It was unplanned, but something I couldn't turn down. Do I sell the Maxima to raise funds (and space)? Do I just keep it and park it up for a bit until I know what to do? I've still not decided, but I do know one thing...I'm truly chuffed to have finally found my 'Holy Grail'!! With numbers being so few now, I thought my chance of owning another had gone.
I've bought a couple of old magazines from 1982 which ran road tests for the 'new Stanza'. Overall, they were impressed with them, but were a middle of the pack car. Nothing particularly bad to say, but nothing class-leading for sure. They were noted for understeer, then snap oversteer, not that that will worry or concern me the way I drive!
PS....they can look sexy too......
I went all over in that. Sometimes on my own, sometimes with my mates, sometimes with my first girlfriend. Edinburgh, the Lakes, York. All over the North and Scotland. Loved having the ability to set out and head where I wanted. Then the big end went on it. I needed my second car. One of the members of the gym I was working in at the time used to sell motors. He had a Datsun, which I said I would have a look at. Turned out to be a touch of something special compared to the Renault. This was it.....VCU 803Y.....1983 Datsun Stanza (code T11)....
(photos taken after I'd modded it 1990 style with red go-faster stripes and 'Gan Canny, Wah Geordies' sticker on the rear bumper!).
I loved that car. It had a 5 speed box compared to the Renault's 4 speed. An autochoke, not a manual one. Variable speeds for the intermittent wipe. A pull down centre arm rest in the back. Stuff like that was normally just in prestige stuff. Anyway, I had that car a year, and in typical manner, despite loving it, I decided on a change, and sold it to Mr Mork in South Shields. I used to drive past it outside his house for years and always regretted selling it. Ironically, sometimes the horrible Mk3 Escort I bought to replace it would even break down near his house to give me a better look. I got rid of the Escort, and replaced it with another Stanza, this time a 5 door hatch in maroon, which was another great car and served me well until I part-ex'd it for my first K10. No car though has ever tugged on the heartstrings like my blue Stanza saloon, and I've been looking for one for the last 20 odd years.
This particular car popped up on this very forum about three years ago up in Scotland, and I kept tabs on the build thread. I actually nearly bought it a few months ago, but it went to someone else. That someone else is a good mate of mine, and local too, so when he bought my S320 recently, then added a 1984 Talbot Horizon to his mint low miler Solara and other older beemers and Cortina, the Stanza was surplus to his requirements. He knew my history with them, and offered it to me. Well, I couldn't believe my luck. It's practically exactly the same as my old one. It's also a 1983 Y plate, and has covered only 53k miles in those 34 years. It's odd, but it actually spent the first 28 years of it's life with the same owner not 5 miles away from where I live. Then went down the coast to Whitby for three years before heading up to Scotland for the last three years. It has tons of history with it, including the original sales invoice from may 1983 (£5,300 iirc). A pic of it after the short drive home tonight...
It's certainly got a cooling issue. It ran very hot on the way home, and steam was escaping from somewhere, as well as a bit of a drip underneath.
Other things. Various bolts missing from the air intake to the filter, wiper blades are falling apart, the battery isn't secure, the 'get-fit' drivers door window handle falls off as it needs a small circlip. Small things for sure. The bottom of at least one door is crusty. I know there's some welding happened in recent times, and hopefully that will see it through the MOT, booked for Thursday. I have a feeling it'll fail, but not on anything major.
Plans once the MOT is sorted? I'm not sure. It was unplanned, but something I couldn't turn down. Do I sell the Maxima to raise funds (and space)? Do I just keep it and park it up for a bit until I know what to do? I've still not decided, but I do know one thing...I'm truly chuffed to have finally found my 'Holy Grail'!! With numbers being so few now, I thought my chance of owning another had gone.
I've bought a couple of old magazines from 1982 which ran road tests for the 'new Stanza'. Overall, they were impressed with them, but were a middle of the pack car. Nothing particularly bad to say, but nothing class-leading for sure. They were noted for understeer, then snap oversteer, not that that will worry or concern me the way I drive!
PS....they can look sexy too......
