Figured it was about time i made a thread on here, feels like a lot of the old style forums have gone and communities died. Luckily RR still seems very active which cant be said for a lot of motoring forums. I've been on here on and off for years, mainly lurking and browsing never really posting.
I've had a multitude of interesting (to me) cars over the years and now I'm in a position in life where i can actively pursue having a dedicated car for track days and events!
Prior to showing what i own now and the current plans etc i figured id show some of the cars i've previously owned, not all, i cant remember all and some were boring.(Appoligies for the poor picture quality, pictures are 5-10 years old on curse word phone cameras!)
-EG Civic, loved this little car, paid $500 for it from sombody i went to school with, it was a 1.3 Bali model, revved like mad and felt nippy at the time.
-MK1 Mx5 Eunos - J import 1.6, awesome little car paid far too much for insurance being an import and me being young at the time!
-Escort mexico, not quite the right type of mexico I'm afraid but still a fun little car! I didnt actually know they made a MK6 Mexico until i bought this, it was the 1.6 Zetec i beleive essentially an SI with a different seat fabric?
-My first Volvo 340, great cars i loved this, my first RWD car and such a cool shape, the 1.7 Renault engine and a really nice example, it led to me meeting speedy from here at the time when he had his 2.0 F7R Volvo 340! Super nice guy.
-My first Ford cougar, yes.. first.. i owned 4 of these in total! Only one of the four was actually any good mind you, this first one i did a straight swap for the MK6 escort mexico above, it came with a different colour bumper and generally pretty rough, it was the 2.0 Zetec and was gutless!
-My second Ford cougar, this was a great car, it was the rare facelift version, the C2. It was in the gorgeous greeen colour, i beleive it had around 75k miles when i got it, from a retried police officer, the most id paid for a car at the time by a long way at £1500! It was the awesome 2.5 V6 Duratec, really underrated engine in my opinion.
-My third Ford cougar, this belonged to my father for 8 years, probably the reason i liked them so much! I sold him my green one above when i wanted something else and took his blue one off of him at the same time, it was fairly rough when he'd finished with it and i endded up using it breifly and selling it on.
(I bought a fourth Ford cougar shortly after for £400 locally because i cant refuse a cheap cougar, make of that what you will.)
-My second Volvo 340, this was listed on eBay with no pictures 5 minutes down the road in Bath for £500, i had a hankering for a second 340 so i figured whats the harm in looking, i was just hoping it was solid and ran so i could build it into a fun fast road car.. much to my suprise it was immaculate! 31K Miles from new, one owner who sadly passed away and it sat in his sons garage until he sold it, had the original dealer plates from Volvo in Bath had been local its whole life, didnt hesistate to pay him the £500 he was asking and take it away! I used this as a weekend car for half a year or so then sold it to a classic car collector in Bristol. Sad really i wish i still had it but it wasnt feasable at the time to run 2 cars and i didn't want to use it every day!
-LWB Pajero import, still not sure why i bought this.. i just fancied a truck.. and it was awesome. Lovely auto box and brilliantly comfy to drive, awfully slow and when it did eventually reach 70mph once on a dual carridgeway the alternator belt snapped and took the coolant hose with it much to me and my friends amusment! Fixed it and used it for a few more months wafting around in comfort.
-MK4 Escort, technically it was a popular it had an XR3 engine fitted.. this was one of those cars that had been owned by so many people and bodged multiple times.. it was terrible.. but when it worked it was great fun!
-Singer Chamois sport, a friend of somebody i was living with at the time had this tucked in a garage covered in curse word, it had been there for years and they basically said if i can get it out i can have it for free! I didnt know at the time it was a sport and really rather rare.. i got it home and cleaned it up with all the intention of restoring it, i decided reluctantly that being 18 at the time i didnt have the knowledge or skills. I really wish i still had it now but it went to a great home, a chap from Cardiff came down and gave me £1000 for it, he was in the process of restoring a Hillman Imp and he wanted this desperately as i beleive the reg indicated it was a Cardiff car and he beleived his grandad could've built it so it meant a great deal to him rebuild this one over the imp!
Alfa GT 1.9 JTDM, this is much more recent and while i appreciate it's not retro still a great car and will probably explain some of my more recent poor choices! Really a great car if you're looking for a daily hack, they're still currently dirt cheap, do really good MPG, have a great size boot and are lovely to drive! Much more interesting than a Golf.
So that pretty much leads up to the last few years give or take a few boring dailys and other cars inbetween.
After deciding i wanted to get rid of the diesel Alfa GT i wanted something more fun, MPG wasnt an issue too much anymore and i was earning more at work. I really really wanted an Alfa 147 GTA. The busso engine is fantastic and they're such cool little cars, the sad thing is they're up above £10K now! Which led me back to looking at the GT. They made a 3.2 V6 version and i wanted one, badly.
After a few months of searching i found one for sale owned by an Italian car collector, it was strong money but also looked really good. i went and had a look and to be honest.. once i heard it start and the noise it made i had already decided.
It was a 2004 Alfa GT 3.2 V6, it had some lovely bits fitted like the Q2 LSD, Wizard catback (If you havent heard the 3.2 V6 with the wizard system Youtube it, the sound is amazing!)
It was a great car to drive, let me down a few times and cost me a lot in the time i had it but if i could do it again i would, unfortunately i decided it had to go as it was too much money tied up in something i logically had no neeed for anymore.
I highly reccomend anyone own one, i honestly beleive they'll start to appreciate in value soon and become much harder to get, be warned though.. parts are expensive and some jobs you wouldnt even want to tackle yourself on them. there's a fantastic community behind them though and some wonderful garages such as Autolusso down in Bournemouth! Top guys always willing to help.
Anyhow.. its now sold
Some pictures.
While i owned the second GT i bought a few interesting cars.. a chap at work who loved his old britsh cars had both an MGF and a Jag S-type sat on his drive, he'd given up driving and they'd both been sat there 2 or so years, told me he wanted £700 for the Jag and £100 for the MG... I bought the MG, drove it home with a fresh battery and wafted it around for a summer before breaking and scrapping it, it was fairly rusty and it barely made it through an MOT i didnt feel right selling it on for what i paid and the fun i had in it it was worth letting it go to the scrapyard.
Towards the end of the winter he mentioned the Jag again, i told him i wasnt really interested i had no use and in my opinion £700 for something requiring work was far too much.. he said make him an offer he wants it gone as its just a garden ornament. I said £200 thinking id just sell it on, he countered at £250.. so stupidly i bought an S-Type i had no need or room for. It had a private plate, an exhaust and a few nice bits, i was very tempted to but the work into it and waft around in it.. i was also tempted to frag the engine and scrap it since the ford V6's are quite popular and allegedly the Jag variation was the best.
I decided it would be a shame to kill it off and attempted to sell it, ended up getting £575 for it from a retired gentleman who always wanted a Jag and was going to strip it down and restore it in his retirement!
Just prior to selling my V6 Gt a different chap at work was selling his Civic.. i didnt really know much about it.. it was an EK Civic that looked like it was modified in the 90's and he'd just had it ever since.. funnily enough he'd spent an absoloute fortune (upwards of £10k) in the last 14 years having a huge amount of work done.. again out of my own stupid curiousity i asked him what he wanted for it.. Needless to say i think you all know what happened...
I ended up with this on my drive.. now hear me out, I'm using the same reasoning i tried to explain to my very patient girlfriend.. I wanted a track car and i was going to just buy a Mk2 MX5 as lets face it for the money you don't get much better.. Then this came up.. I decided its a fantastic base for a track ca rand considering what i paid for it id struggle to build a capable MX5 for less!
This is how i got it.. I've done a fair bit to it in the past few months and it no longer looks like this, of which i will update this thread when i get time! I will also try to put together a spec list.. It's far from standard!
On the more boring side of things i needed a sensible daily to replace the V6 GT, so i bought this.. a 2008 Civic.. from yet another chap at work.. for a fairly good price.. I'm getting a reputation at work as that guy that buys everyones cars.. However its not retro or interesting but it'll do! Means i can spend all my money on stupid cars and keep a sensible cheap daily. No pictures because its just a boring modern civic, suprisingly good cars though and lovely thing to be sat in.
Then just when i thought it was all sorted.. i have my track project i have a sensible daily i don't need or want anything else, i'm content, maybe even happy.
Sunday i saw another Alfa Romeo on eBay.. for £550.. 20 minutes down the road... don't do it.. stupid boy.. stupid boy.. stupid boy.
So yeah.. this is now sat on my drive. What am i going to do with it? I don't know.. I really don't. Its pretty though.
So yeah i think that's enough typing for now.. I'm off work until the new year now and planning to get a good amount done on the track car i will do my best to keep this updated, ive done a fair bit so far and will post it here as and when. Shouldl be ready for next year up Castle Combe mostly!
Current drive consists of
Civic EK track car
Boring modern Civic daily
Alfa Romeo GTV Spider
There's something wrong with me. Help.
I've had a multitude of interesting (to me) cars over the years and now I'm in a position in life where i can actively pursue having a dedicated car for track days and events!
Prior to showing what i own now and the current plans etc i figured id show some of the cars i've previously owned, not all, i cant remember all and some were boring.(Appoligies for the poor picture quality, pictures are 5-10 years old on curse word phone cameras!)
-EG Civic, loved this little car, paid $500 for it from sombody i went to school with, it was a 1.3 Bali model, revved like mad and felt nippy at the time.
-MK1 Mx5 Eunos - J import 1.6, awesome little car paid far too much for insurance being an import and me being young at the time!
-Escort mexico, not quite the right type of mexico I'm afraid but still a fun little car! I didnt actually know they made a MK6 Mexico until i bought this, it was the 1.6 Zetec i beleive essentially an SI with a different seat fabric?
-My first Volvo 340, great cars i loved this, my first RWD car and such a cool shape, the 1.7 Renault engine and a really nice example, it led to me meeting speedy from here at the time when he had his 2.0 F7R Volvo 340! Super nice guy.
-My first Ford cougar, yes.. first.. i owned 4 of these in total! Only one of the four was actually any good mind you, this first one i did a straight swap for the MK6 escort mexico above, it came with a different colour bumper and generally pretty rough, it was the 2.0 Zetec and was gutless!
-My second Ford cougar, this was a great car, it was the rare facelift version, the C2. It was in the gorgeous greeen colour, i beleive it had around 75k miles when i got it, from a retried police officer, the most id paid for a car at the time by a long way at £1500! It was the awesome 2.5 V6 Duratec, really underrated engine in my opinion.
-My third Ford cougar, this belonged to my father for 8 years, probably the reason i liked them so much! I sold him my green one above when i wanted something else and took his blue one off of him at the same time, it was fairly rough when he'd finished with it and i endded up using it breifly and selling it on.
(I bought a fourth Ford cougar shortly after for £400 locally because i cant refuse a cheap cougar, make of that what you will.)
-My second Volvo 340, this was listed on eBay with no pictures 5 minutes down the road in Bath for £500, i had a hankering for a second 340 so i figured whats the harm in looking, i was just hoping it was solid and ran so i could build it into a fun fast road car.. much to my suprise it was immaculate! 31K Miles from new, one owner who sadly passed away and it sat in his sons garage until he sold it, had the original dealer plates from Volvo in Bath had been local its whole life, didnt hesistate to pay him the £500 he was asking and take it away! I used this as a weekend car for half a year or so then sold it to a classic car collector in Bristol. Sad really i wish i still had it but it wasnt feasable at the time to run 2 cars and i didn't want to use it every day!
-LWB Pajero import, still not sure why i bought this.. i just fancied a truck.. and it was awesome. Lovely auto box and brilliantly comfy to drive, awfully slow and when it did eventually reach 70mph once on a dual carridgeway the alternator belt snapped and took the coolant hose with it much to me and my friends amusment! Fixed it and used it for a few more months wafting around in comfort.
-MK4 Escort, technically it was a popular it had an XR3 engine fitted.. this was one of those cars that had been owned by so many people and bodged multiple times.. it was terrible.. but when it worked it was great fun!
-Singer Chamois sport, a friend of somebody i was living with at the time had this tucked in a garage covered in curse word, it had been there for years and they basically said if i can get it out i can have it for free! I didnt know at the time it was a sport and really rather rare.. i got it home and cleaned it up with all the intention of restoring it, i decided reluctantly that being 18 at the time i didnt have the knowledge or skills. I really wish i still had it now but it went to a great home, a chap from Cardiff came down and gave me £1000 for it, he was in the process of restoring a Hillman Imp and he wanted this desperately as i beleive the reg indicated it was a Cardiff car and he beleived his grandad could've built it so it meant a great deal to him rebuild this one over the imp!
Alfa GT 1.9 JTDM, this is much more recent and while i appreciate it's not retro still a great car and will probably explain some of my more recent poor choices! Really a great car if you're looking for a daily hack, they're still currently dirt cheap, do really good MPG, have a great size boot and are lovely to drive! Much more interesting than a Golf.
So that pretty much leads up to the last few years give or take a few boring dailys and other cars inbetween.
After deciding i wanted to get rid of the diesel Alfa GT i wanted something more fun, MPG wasnt an issue too much anymore and i was earning more at work. I really really wanted an Alfa 147 GTA. The busso engine is fantastic and they're such cool little cars, the sad thing is they're up above £10K now! Which led me back to looking at the GT. They made a 3.2 V6 version and i wanted one, badly.
After a few months of searching i found one for sale owned by an Italian car collector, it was strong money but also looked really good. i went and had a look and to be honest.. once i heard it start and the noise it made i had already decided.
It was a 2004 Alfa GT 3.2 V6, it had some lovely bits fitted like the Q2 LSD, Wizard catback (If you havent heard the 3.2 V6 with the wizard system Youtube it, the sound is amazing!)
It was a great car to drive, let me down a few times and cost me a lot in the time i had it but if i could do it again i would, unfortunately i decided it had to go as it was too much money tied up in something i logically had no neeed for anymore.
I highly reccomend anyone own one, i honestly beleive they'll start to appreciate in value soon and become much harder to get, be warned though.. parts are expensive and some jobs you wouldnt even want to tackle yourself on them. there's a fantastic community behind them though and some wonderful garages such as Autolusso down in Bournemouth! Top guys always willing to help.
Anyhow.. its now sold
Some pictures. While i owned the second GT i bought a few interesting cars.. a chap at work who loved his old britsh cars had both an MGF and a Jag S-type sat on his drive, he'd given up driving and they'd both been sat there 2 or so years, told me he wanted £700 for the Jag and £100 for the MG... I bought the MG, drove it home with a fresh battery and wafted it around for a summer before breaking and scrapping it, it was fairly rusty and it barely made it through an MOT i didnt feel right selling it on for what i paid and the fun i had in it it was worth letting it go to the scrapyard.
Towards the end of the winter he mentioned the Jag again, i told him i wasnt really interested i had no use and in my opinion £700 for something requiring work was far too much.. he said make him an offer he wants it gone as its just a garden ornament. I said £200 thinking id just sell it on, he countered at £250.. so stupidly i bought an S-Type i had no need or room for. It had a private plate, an exhaust and a few nice bits, i was very tempted to but the work into it and waft around in it.. i was also tempted to frag the engine and scrap it since the ford V6's are quite popular and allegedly the Jag variation was the best.
I decided it would be a shame to kill it off and attempted to sell it, ended up getting £575 for it from a retired gentleman who always wanted a Jag and was going to strip it down and restore it in his retirement!
Just prior to selling my V6 Gt a different chap at work was selling his Civic.. i didnt really know much about it.. it was an EK Civic that looked like it was modified in the 90's and he'd just had it ever since.. funnily enough he'd spent an absoloute fortune (upwards of £10k) in the last 14 years having a huge amount of work done.. again out of my own stupid curiousity i asked him what he wanted for it.. Needless to say i think you all know what happened...
I ended up with this on my drive.. now hear me out, I'm using the same reasoning i tried to explain to my very patient girlfriend.. I wanted a track car and i was going to just buy a Mk2 MX5 as lets face it for the money you don't get much better.. Then this came up.. I decided its a fantastic base for a track ca rand considering what i paid for it id struggle to build a capable MX5 for less!
This is how i got it.. I've done a fair bit to it in the past few months and it no longer looks like this, of which i will update this thread when i get time! I will also try to put together a spec list.. It's far from standard!
On the more boring side of things i needed a sensible daily to replace the V6 GT, so i bought this.. a 2008 Civic.. from yet another chap at work.. for a fairly good price.. I'm getting a reputation at work as that guy that buys everyones cars.. However its not retro or interesting but it'll do! Means i can spend all my money on stupid cars and keep a sensible cheap daily. No pictures because its just a boring modern civic, suprisingly good cars though and lovely thing to be sat in.
Then just when i thought it was all sorted.. i have my track project i have a sensible daily i don't need or want anything else, i'm content, maybe even happy.
Sunday i saw another Alfa Romeo on eBay.. for £550.. 20 minutes down the road... don't do it.. stupid boy.. stupid boy.. stupid boy.
So yeah.. this is now sat on my drive. What am i going to do with it? I don't know.. I really don't. Its pretty though.
So yeah i think that's enough typing for now.. I'm off work until the new year now and planning to get a good amount done on the track car i will do my best to keep this updated, ive done a fair bit so far and will post it here as and when. Shouldl be ready for next year up Castle Combe mostly!
Current drive consists of
Civic EK track car
Boring modern Civic daily
Alfa Romeo GTV Spider
There's something wrong with me. Help.
