glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,100
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Nov 23, 2021 11:28:52 GMT
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I was 20 in the summer of 1989. At that point, the engineering apprenticeship I’d been doing for four years was coming to an end, and I’d been driving this for nearly three years. That picture was taken the week I got it. Three years of hard use had, by then, turned it from an absolutely mint 30,000 mile 13 year old example into a good deal scruffier 66,000 mile one, but I absolutely loved it. I ran it until mid ‘92 when I sold it to raise funds (and clear liabilities) in order to go to Uni. By then it was really starting to show its age and I knew I’d not have the funds or the resources to do anything other than run it completely into the ground on student finances. Bikes wise I was riding one of these. A Honda VF400F. I’ve no actual pictures of the bike, so here’s one off the net. My one was very scruffy. Although less than three years old when I bought it, and very low mileage, it had been up the road at least once and repaired with more enthusiasm than skill so had therefore been very cheap. The mis-matched plastics were disguised with a liberal coating of black hammerite, as was the dented tank (which held almost as much filler as petrol). It was actually a really nice bike to ride. A little underpowered for two-up work, but delightful solo. Quick and nimble. It was quite terrifyingly complicated though, to me at the time, and the poor reputations of Honda’s bigger V4s of the period meant that I spent a year or so on it, steadily picking up better secondhand bodywork for it, before painting it and selling it on. I also had the Bantam, and I think this picture was taken about ’88 or ‘89. I’d just finished rebuilding it after the first time I bent it. Straightened the forks and used a secondhand frame. I came off it again fairly big style in early 1992, and the subsequent rebuild saw the original frame straightened and refitted, along with the “wrong” forks that went on as a temporary fix…
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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Nov 23, 2021 12:44:43 GMT
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When I was 20 I had my first classic car.
It was the year 2002 and I had just spent £300 on a Mk5 Ford Cortina 1.6L in Sirius Red with a dark brown interior (JPA 482V). It had a years tax and ticket on it (and a Weber carb') and I felt like the bees knees I can tell you! It only had about 36k on the clock as well!
I wish to the almighty that I still had it.
In fact, I may have had that when I was 19 going on 20!! The mind plays games...
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***GARAGE CURRENTLY EMPTY***
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Nov 26, 2021 19:26:01 GMT
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i started my 20th year owning a 1966 Mk1 Cortina GT. I also had a 1961 all steel frogeye that was running but needing work. In the august a new consul(Granada) 2litre V4 was bought. Shared with my Dad. unfortunately i sold the cortina before finding out the consul was a bag of nails spending inordiante amounts or time back at the dealers with lists of faults. I bought a Mercedes 220se column change to use which was a far better car. It is the only one I can find a picture of at the moment.
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Todos con Lorca
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That'd be around the time I got this old girl. Those were brilliant, as tough as old boots.👍🏻👍🏻 Yep, had it about 10 years, put over 100,000km on it as a daily
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Remade In Australia thereimaginarium.com.au
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Nov 27, 2021 19:19:53 GMT
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At 20 i had a 1.4 mk3 Astra Merit... And a 200sx s13, and a 380bhp 4x4 Sapphire Cossie
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Nov 27, 2021 21:51:18 GMT
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Pretty impressive! How on earth did you manage to insure that lot at that age? At that age, I was struggling with insuring a Morris Minor Traveller whilst at college on paper round income; no cheap classic car insurance in those days (c.1991).
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If I remember right (I'm his brother) the 1.4 Astra was the most expensive to insure out of that
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Nov 28, 2021 13:01:58 GMT
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As astranaut said, The Astra was the most expensive! i was paying £120 for cossie and s13 on a multicar policy, The astra was insured seperatly and was around £110 on its own a month!
The Astra was the most fun though, cheap and cheerful no care given motoring, it was jumped, ragged, crashed, and pulled to bits. £175, 1 elderly owner from new, 70k miles and was only ever serviced at Vauxhall and had 6 months mot. Shame the elderly gentleman had dragged near enough every panel down every wall in the midlands!
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bazzateer
Posted a lot
Imping along sans Vogue
Posts: 3,653
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Not sure if I already posted in this thread but...... I was 20 in April 1986. On my birthday I was driving a 1976 Chevette 4 door saloon in Ford Daytona yellow riding on 6x13 minilites and rally spec suspension. Loved it. Shortly after my birthday I p/exed it for a 1976 VW Scirocco 1588 GLS. Loved that too but sold it to a mate later in 1986 so I could buy a 1981 Audi 80 GLS, also in 1588 flavour, which I also loved.
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1968 Singer Chamois Sport 1972 Sunbeam Imp Sport 1976 Datsun 260Z 2+2 1998 Peugeot Boxer Pilote motorhome 2003 Rover 75 1.8 Club SE (daily) 2006 MG ZT 190+ (another daily) 2007 BMW 530d Touring M Sport (tow car)
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Yours truly, age 20 (1985).
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Currently driving a 1972 BMW 1602 as my daily. Don't ask about previous cars - there have been way too many and I stopped counting at 160!
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Yours truly, age 20 (1985). So what’s the story with that one on a y plate ? Import ?
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Last Edit: Dec 5, 2021 17:25:08 GMT by Mercdan68
Fraud owners club member 1999 Jaguar s type 1993 ford escort
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Yours truly, age 20 (1985). So what’s the story with that one on a y plate ? Import ? Yeah, I think it was a 1976 model - I bought it from a Squaddie, who bought it while posted in Europe (I think Belgium, from memory). It was about 8/9 years old when I got it and I paid £1300 for it - a lot of cash back then!
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Currently driving a 1972 BMW 1602 as my daily. Don't ask about previous cars - there have been way too many and I stopped counting at 160!
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16grit
Part of things
Posts: 213
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Here's a couple of mine from 1987. The bigwinger was a project I had started when I was 16, travelling up to Peterborough to pick up the shell. A year or so later I bought a rotten Mexico and reshelled the running gear into it. Before I had my provisional licence I caught the train from Dorset up to London and across to Burton's, coming home with an A2 cam, High Pressure / High Capacity oil pump and numerous other goodies which went into my bedroom-based xflow rebuild.... Having rolled my daily-driver Skoda 120 earlier in the year in a rude introduction to the inadequacies of swing axle rear suspension on downhill hairpin bends, the Fiat 128 was bought as a replacement, quickly losing most of its interior and with the considerable help of some friends, prepped as a club 12-car / night rally car...with cage and buckets etc. Having fitted a 128 'van' gearbox with the short final drive ratio (after carrying it from Dorset up to London on the train in an Adidas holdall (I can still visualize the EP90 oozing onto the train floor now) with the revvy 1.3 sohc lump it was a nippy little thing. Neither car survived much into 1988 and the financial needs of student life....
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cjhillman
Posted a lot
1979 Capri (Rolling Project) 1985 Escort mk3 (Daily)
Posts: 1,580
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1.1L fiesta at 20 my first legal car 3rd in reality, quickly followed within around 2yrs a 1.6 Ghia then a 1.3L keeping the red-ish ford purchasing going Love the 1.3L . That’s the one I really wanted in Sunburst Red rather than the later Rosso Red. How come you went 1.6 Ghia to 1.3 L by the way? Was it a 3 Door thing or just cheap run around?
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Still one of the only cars I regret selling. A sub 50k Rev2 MR2 Turbo. My first, “proper” car.
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8P1 A3 TDI followed by an incredibly rotten first gen Ka.
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