My history. 80's/90's hatches, RSs, 911s and a few bikes
Discussion
Wawaweewah! Where did that time go??
Not sure who's still around in these parts but loose ends play havoc with my OCD, so I'm gonna get this thread up to date soon.
To be honest we had a sh*t 12 months from summer '15 to summer '16 but that's life eh. When P'heads made my thread Thread of the day and my mate Paul text to tell me, I was actually in Cyprus with my wife as she needed a break badly. Anyway things are calmer at the moment.
Right then so when I started this thread I'd had to sell the GT3 due to the house and had found myself in the Alfa as a daily.
So I naively thought the bulk of the work was done on the house. It sort of was but I'm still busy now on the outside. With that in mind though I thought I could spare a bit for a toy or something to tinker with.
Max budget £3k but preferably less.
Only criteria was RWD, and decent sound even when just cruising about.
That ruled out 4 pots, so I still haven't scratched my MX5 itch and it ruled out 80's hot hatches as I didn't want FWD.
I do want an old hot hatch again soon but not yet.
So browsing this forum one day and this thread pops up.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=147...
So off I went on the train to Cambridge from Northumberland.
I do like a good car buying trip.
328 Sport manual.
Nice car that I paid £2k for. I know where I am with E36s so thought why not.
Matt was a nice lad and the car was as described. Got it home without any dramas and carried on using the Alfa for work while I formulated plans of LSDs, etc, etc.
I renewed the window regulator bushes and did some other small jobs.
I also had my friendly dent guy come out and remove the dents in it. This is a no brainer. He removed every dent, even a bad one in the roof. It's an amazing skill.
Whilst poking about on the World Wide Web, I came across another thread.
http://www.bmwforums.info/bmw-projects/7946-techno...
Sod's law. You wait for a manual 328 Sport then 2 come along at once.
I spoke to Dann the owner of this and we agreed a price of £2800.
So £800 more than my blue one but with every mod I was planning for the blue one.
So off I went on the train to Watford from Northumberland this time.
Again Dann was a great lad. Proper enthusiast and the car was an absolute peach. It drove like a brand new car and sounded gorgeous. Really really nice.
So now I had 2 328s.
So at this point my Alfa had given me it's fair share of bother and it was only a few months away from its MOT, which I didn't know it would fail but I wasn't overly confident it would pass either.
So I sold it for about £800.
That car cost me the most out of any daily banger but hey ho, you win some, you lose some.
So I began using the blue 328 as my daily with the Technoviolet car my good weekend car. But doing this made the weekend car kind off pointless as it was too similar to my every day one.
So I removed the plate from the blue one and sold it, getting my £2k back.
I was using the good 328 as a daily now, just while I found a banger again.
I really wanted an old Volvo V70 as I'd been borrowing my dad's quite a bit for cycling events and they're just proper load luggers.
My mate Craig had a Golf GTI diesel sitting there doing nothing so he said "Don't rush into buying something as look where that Alfa got you, borrow the golf".
It's a cool old car. It's an anniversary or something (I'm not clued up on veedubs) and it's covered 250,000 miles.
Craig's brother bought it when it was only a few years old and put most of those on. He gave it to Craig for free. Not bad.
So what was supposed to be a quick lend, turned into 3 months while I searched for an old volvo that didn't look like it had spent most of its life on the Gaza Strip.
In fact I put more effort in a search for a £1000 Volvo than I had for some 911s.
That's it for now..
Cheers.
Not sure who's still around in these parts but loose ends play havoc with my OCD, so I'm gonna get this thread up to date soon.
To be honest we had a sh*t 12 months from summer '15 to summer '16 but that's life eh. When P'heads made my thread Thread of the day and my mate Paul text to tell me, I was actually in Cyprus with my wife as she needed a break badly. Anyway things are calmer at the moment.
Right then so when I started this thread I'd had to sell the GT3 due to the house and had found myself in the Alfa as a daily.
So I naively thought the bulk of the work was done on the house. It sort of was but I'm still busy now on the outside. With that in mind though I thought I could spare a bit for a toy or something to tinker with.
Max budget £3k but preferably less.
Only criteria was RWD, and decent sound even when just cruising about.
That ruled out 4 pots, so I still haven't scratched my MX5 itch and it ruled out 80's hot hatches as I didn't want FWD.
I do want an old hot hatch again soon but not yet.
So browsing this forum one day and this thread pops up.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=147...
So off I went on the train to Cambridge from Northumberland.
I do like a good car buying trip.
328 Sport manual.
Nice car that I paid £2k for. I know where I am with E36s so thought why not.
Matt was a nice lad and the car was as described. Got it home without any dramas and carried on using the Alfa for work while I formulated plans of LSDs, etc, etc.
I renewed the window regulator bushes and did some other small jobs.
I also had my friendly dent guy come out and remove the dents in it. This is a no brainer. He removed every dent, even a bad one in the roof. It's an amazing skill.
Whilst poking about on the World Wide Web, I came across another thread.
http://www.bmwforums.info/bmw-projects/7946-techno...
Sod's law. You wait for a manual 328 Sport then 2 come along at once.
I spoke to Dann the owner of this and we agreed a price of £2800.
So £800 more than my blue one but with every mod I was planning for the blue one.
So off I went on the train to Watford from Northumberland this time.
Again Dann was a great lad. Proper enthusiast and the car was an absolute peach. It drove like a brand new car and sounded gorgeous. Really really nice.
So now I had 2 328s.
So at this point my Alfa had given me it's fair share of bother and it was only a few months away from its MOT, which I didn't know it would fail but I wasn't overly confident it would pass either.
So I sold it for about £800.
That car cost me the most out of any daily banger but hey ho, you win some, you lose some.
So I began using the blue 328 as my daily with the Technoviolet car my good weekend car. But doing this made the weekend car kind off pointless as it was too similar to my every day one.
So I removed the plate from the blue one and sold it, getting my £2k back.
I was using the good 328 as a daily now, just while I found a banger again.
I really wanted an old Volvo V70 as I'd been borrowing my dad's quite a bit for cycling events and they're just proper load luggers.
My mate Craig had a Golf GTI diesel sitting there doing nothing so he said "Don't rush into buying something as look where that Alfa got you, borrow the golf".
It's a cool old car. It's an anniversary or something (I'm not clued up on veedubs) and it's covered 250,000 miles.
Craig's brother bought it when it was only a few years old and put most of those on. He gave it to Craig for free. Not bad.
So what was supposed to be a quick lend, turned into 3 months while I searched for an old volvo that didn't look like it had spent most of its life on the Gaza Strip.
In fact I put more effort in a search for a £1000 Volvo than I had for some 911s.
That's it for now..
Cheers.
Edited by marky911 on Tuesday 21st March 07:58
God I love this thread. Sorry to hear you both had a tough time but hopefully through the other side of it. I also love the E36!
Why not buy the Golf? It's a known quantity and I quite like the 1.9 tractor lump in them. That looks to be an Anniversary, which are quite sought after too.
Why not buy the Golf? It's a known quantity and I quite like the 1.9 tractor lump in them. That looks to be an Anniversary, which are quite sought after too.
Thanks Liggle, that's some reading! Yeah I loved the late 90's. I aim to add a Fiesta RS Turbo to the fleet one day hopefully but the price of things now is crazy. 205GTi's and XR2s going for £10k. 
Hi Jake, thanks for the comments. Things are ok at the minute. Just life stuff. You have good years and bad years eh.
My mate Craig still has the golf. He has a van for his work and a 911 for weekends so the golf just sits about.
I could maybe buy it but to be honest it's a bit of a young lads car. I'm 40 in August.
Also some aspects of it feel their 250,000 miles. The suspension is crashy which may just be due to the car being small and having 18 inch wheels, but maybe not.
I'd describe the gearchange to be like stirring a bowl of soup, but that would be an insult to bowls of soup everywhere.
Plus you summed it up yourself with the word "tractor". It's just to rough and grumbly for me. I'd rather get half the mpgs in my Volvo but waft along in comfort. Plus I think boxy volvos are cool.
Which brings us nicely onto said steed.
It took me a daft amount of time to find an old shape V70 in decent condition with a manual box. This one popped up on eBay or P'heads one day and I almost dismissed it as it looked a bit chavvy.
No front number plate, funny grille and standard little wheels painted black.
I thought I'd get in touch anyway and find out a bit more. I'm glad I did as Matt the seller was a real Volvo fan and the car was actually really well looked after having had loads of parts over the years, including recent timing belt, water pump etc. So it was basically good to go for another few years.
It had average miles of 154,000 but was totally rust free as old volvos generally are.
We agreed a price of about £700. It may have been £750 and off I went on the train to Kettering this time.
Matt picked me up and the car was exactly as described. Totally original apart from the bits above.
Actually one part it did have that I was very pleased about was the V70R front bumper. Deeper than standard and a rare part.
I paid Matt and had a lovely uneventful drive home.
Once home I had my dent guy remove about 15 dents from it. I fitted an xc70 grille, a set of Volans (wheels) and a few other items such as mats etc.
The Volans cost £400 and 4 Kumho Ecstas cost £300 fitted. So the wheels and tyres cost the same as the car.
Wheels make a car though, so have to be right, even on a daily banger.
I then gave it a couple of goings over with my D/A and it turned out quite nice.
^^^^
You'll notice my old reg from my GT3. I bought the Volvo in August '15 exactly a year after selling the Porsche and the retention came up for renewal (it now lasts 10 years not 1) . It was either pay more money to renew the retention or assign it to a car for free. So from one red curvy sports car to another.... or maybe not.
I added state of the art iPod connectivity.
..and gave its interior a shave with a beard trimmer.
I still speak to Matt sometimes and he's busy building a big power engine for his latest old V70.
I'd love a V70R to replace my car but again manuals are rare plus mine costs enough on petrol and that's without a turbo.
It's now on 173,000 miles and has cost nothing to run apart from my initial spend, which was all by choice.
Actually it has needed one front and one rear caliper due to the old ones seizing. So £42 and £75 respectively.
It earns its keep -
I hit a deer in it near my village, which killed the deer unfortunately, but the Volvo came away with just a minor bash on the lower edge of the front bumper. Unbelievable.
So no plans to change it as I can't afford anything that I get excited about.
Why put 5 or 10 times more money into a different boring estate?
What would it do that my Volvo doesn't?
Even the stereo is really good.
I'd love a V70R as I've said or if money was no object an M5 V10 touring, but then I think how much do I want to spend running a daily workhorse that I rarely have time to wash, let alone pamper.
So the Ovlov will be here for as long as it keeps passing mots. Which it just did last week.
More to follow. Maybe a slightly more P'heads car again.
Thanks for reading, if anyone is.
Hi Jake, thanks for the comments. Things are ok at the minute. Just life stuff. You have good years and bad years eh.
My mate Craig still has the golf. He has a van for his work and a 911 for weekends so the golf just sits about.
I could maybe buy it but to be honest it's a bit of a young lads car. I'm 40 in August.
Also some aspects of it feel their 250,000 miles. The suspension is crashy which may just be due to the car being small and having 18 inch wheels, but maybe not.
I'd describe the gearchange to be like stirring a bowl of soup, but that would be an insult to bowls of soup everywhere.
Plus you summed it up yourself with the word "tractor". It's just to rough and grumbly for me. I'd rather get half the mpgs in my Volvo but waft along in comfort. Plus I think boxy volvos are cool.
Which brings us nicely onto said steed.
It took me a daft amount of time to find an old shape V70 in decent condition with a manual box. This one popped up on eBay or P'heads one day and I almost dismissed it as it looked a bit chavvy.
No front number plate, funny grille and standard little wheels painted black.
I thought I'd get in touch anyway and find out a bit more. I'm glad I did as Matt the seller was a real Volvo fan and the car was actually really well looked after having had loads of parts over the years, including recent timing belt, water pump etc. So it was basically good to go for another few years.
It had average miles of 154,000 but was totally rust free as old volvos generally are.
We agreed a price of about £700. It may have been £750 and off I went on the train to Kettering this time.
Matt picked me up and the car was exactly as described. Totally original apart from the bits above.
Actually one part it did have that I was very pleased about was the V70R front bumper. Deeper than standard and a rare part.
I paid Matt and had a lovely uneventful drive home.
Once home I had my dent guy remove about 15 dents from it. I fitted an xc70 grille, a set of Volans (wheels) and a few other items such as mats etc.
The Volans cost £400 and 4 Kumho Ecstas cost £300 fitted. So the wheels and tyres cost the same as the car.
Wheels make a car though, so have to be right, even on a daily banger.
I then gave it a couple of goings over with my D/A and it turned out quite nice.
^^^^
You'll notice my old reg from my GT3. I bought the Volvo in August '15 exactly a year after selling the Porsche and the retention came up for renewal (it now lasts 10 years not 1) . It was either pay more money to renew the retention or assign it to a car for free. So from one red curvy sports car to another.... or maybe not.
I added state of the art iPod connectivity.
..and gave its interior a shave with a beard trimmer.
I still speak to Matt sometimes and he's busy building a big power engine for his latest old V70.
I'd love a V70R to replace my car but again manuals are rare plus mine costs enough on petrol and that's without a turbo.
It's now on 173,000 miles and has cost nothing to run apart from my initial spend, which was all by choice.
Actually it has needed one front and one rear caliper due to the old ones seizing. So £42 and £75 respectively.
It earns its keep -
I hit a deer in it near my village, which killed the deer unfortunately, but the Volvo came away with just a minor bash on the lower edge of the front bumper. Unbelievable.
So no plans to change it as I can't afford anything that I get excited about.
Why put 5 or 10 times more money into a different boring estate?
What would it do that my Volvo doesn't?
Even the stereo is really good.
I'd love a V70R as I've said or if money was no object an M5 V10 touring, but then I think how much do I want to spend running a daily workhorse that I rarely have time to wash, let alone pamper.
So the Ovlov will be here for as long as it keeps passing mots. Which it just did last week.
More to follow. Maybe a slightly more P'heads car again.
Thanks for reading, if anyone is.
Edited by marky911 on Tuesday 21st March 23:43
Great thread! These are my absolute favourite type of Readers Cars threads which is why I had a go at doing my own. Reading yours gave me lots of laughs particularly as it all feels so reassuringly familiar! Especially the early memories, unfortunate incidents, not to mention us both owning a VFR400 and '99 R1 - can't wait to see what you're going to have next 
Cheers MD, yes we've had a few similar machines and no doubt experiences.
Next for us is a little pocket rocket. Not too dissimilar to your Mini maybe, in ethos anyway.
Thanks Jake and yes the Volvo is staying. It's on 173k now. We are selling my wife's Focus soon and even though it's only done 62k miles, has every mot and tax disk from new and we are the second owners buying at 3 years old, I'm still choosing to let it go over the Volvo. The old Volvo is just great and for some weird reason I just really really want to keep it.
Ok, this week is an exciting week.
We are collecting a new car on Saturday morning for my wife, but I'm rather excited too.
She’s had her ’08 Focus for years now. She’d usually change much more often but we’ve had bigger fish to fry, what with doing the house up for over 3 years etc, plus her and I having health scares and things.
Anyway it's funny how things go and certainly how our car hunting went last Friday.
We had a test drive booked on an Infinity Q30 and completely believed we’d be buying it.
They are to Nissan, what Lexus is to Toyota, using Merc components and built at Nissan in Sunderland, so we thought “quality car and we can buy British”, what with Brexit an’ all that.
Anyway, long story short, bad budget creep kicked in, no car available in our ideal spec and it was very sluggish (1.5D). Nice interior but the car itself was generally bland and just didn’t excite us. Disappointing as we honestly thought that we'd have been leaving a deposit.
So it was almost closing time at the Silverlink, which is a big area of car dealers in the north east and we popped into a different manufacturer dealer on the way past. Great sales lad. No slavver, just honest and helpful. We ran out of time so booked an appointment for 9am the next morning, to test drive a bog standard car, as my wife was changing cars to save on fuel and running costs primarily. We then drove the version I liked. The result? Well we left a deposit on this.
The pics don't do it justice. Loads of nice little touches and styling bits.
Press pic.
So bear with me…
It’s a Fiat 595 Abarth. These have been a guilty pleasure of mine since they were launched. They look cool, have Italian flair and sound like old skool 80’s RS Turbos and Renault 5 GT Turbos, which I grew up around.
Of course they're so girly I could never own one for me and my wife generally needs a decent boot as she's a teacher. So why now? Well we wandered around the dealership when we first passed on Friday night and were like kids in a sweetshop. These cars are just so much fun. Not mature, not a premium product, but they just make you smile. Then sitting in the corner of the showroom was a brand new Trofeo model. It has telemetry for trackdays, different wheels and most importantly a mental exhaust. Honestly I don’t know of any cheapish hot hatch that makes a noise even half as good. It’s bonkers. It has a few other bits too like Apple Car Play, full digital dash with loads of screens for telemetry, sport mode etc. Sport mode moves the speedo out the way and the rev counter appears in the centre of the dash. Very 911.
We paid £500 for the metallic Record Grey paint and it comes with yellow accents, centre caps and calipers. Apart from that, thats it. It’s bordering on chavvy but you know what, I don’t care. For once we are going with our hearts not our heads and it feels bloody great.
Anyway, we both just loved that exact car so we’ve bought it. It’s honestly the most excited I’ve been about a car for years and years, 911s included. It’s like being 18 or 19 again. Obviously I love my 911s but buying a 911 for me is one half “excitement”, other half “I hope this thing doesn’t bankrupt me”.
Buying this Abarth is just pure excitement, worry free. It feels good I must say. I knew I’d own one one day and that time has come.
So like I say collection is Saturday then I'll spend the day giving it a good polish etc as we didn't go for the supaguard or whatever it is.
First job over the bank holiday weekend was to make an Abarth sized hole in the garage.
An Infinity or anything normal would just live outside but because I'm as excited as my wife about the Fiat then I'll give it some garage space.
It works out better for her to, as because I like it a lot, it will get pampered more than something dull would have.
Anyway I have my own stuff to update this thread with but that's where I'm at this week. Roll on Saturday.
Cheers.
Next for us is a little pocket rocket. Not too dissimilar to your Mini maybe, in ethos anyway.
Thanks Jake and yes the Volvo is staying. It's on 173k now. We are selling my wife's Focus soon and even though it's only done 62k miles, has every mot and tax disk from new and we are the second owners buying at 3 years old, I'm still choosing to let it go over the Volvo. The old Volvo is just great and for some weird reason I just really really want to keep it.
Ok, this week is an exciting week.
We are collecting a new car on Saturday morning for my wife, but I'm rather excited too.
She’s had her ’08 Focus for years now. She’d usually change much more often but we’ve had bigger fish to fry, what with doing the house up for over 3 years etc, plus her and I having health scares and things.
Anyway it's funny how things go and certainly how our car hunting went last Friday.
We had a test drive booked on an Infinity Q30 and completely believed we’d be buying it.
They are to Nissan, what Lexus is to Toyota, using Merc components and built at Nissan in Sunderland, so we thought “quality car and we can buy British”, what with Brexit an’ all that.
Anyway, long story short, bad budget creep kicked in, no car available in our ideal spec and it was very sluggish (1.5D). Nice interior but the car itself was generally bland and just didn’t excite us. Disappointing as we honestly thought that we'd have been leaving a deposit.
So it was almost closing time at the Silverlink, which is a big area of car dealers in the north east and we popped into a different manufacturer dealer on the way past. Great sales lad. No slavver, just honest and helpful. We ran out of time so booked an appointment for 9am the next morning, to test drive a bog standard car, as my wife was changing cars to save on fuel and running costs primarily. We then drove the version I liked. The result? Well we left a deposit on this.
The pics don't do it justice. Loads of nice little touches and styling bits.
Press pic.
So bear with me…
It’s a Fiat 595 Abarth. These have been a guilty pleasure of mine since they were launched. They look cool, have Italian flair and sound like old skool 80’s RS Turbos and Renault 5 GT Turbos, which I grew up around.
Of course they're so girly I could never own one for me and my wife generally needs a decent boot as she's a teacher. So why now? Well we wandered around the dealership when we first passed on Friday night and were like kids in a sweetshop. These cars are just so much fun. Not mature, not a premium product, but they just make you smile. Then sitting in the corner of the showroom was a brand new Trofeo model. It has telemetry for trackdays, different wheels and most importantly a mental exhaust. Honestly I don’t know of any cheapish hot hatch that makes a noise even half as good. It’s bonkers. It has a few other bits too like Apple Car Play, full digital dash with loads of screens for telemetry, sport mode etc. Sport mode moves the speedo out the way and the rev counter appears in the centre of the dash. Very 911.
We paid £500 for the metallic Record Grey paint and it comes with yellow accents, centre caps and calipers. Apart from that, thats it. It’s bordering on chavvy but you know what, I don’t care. For once we are going with our hearts not our heads and it feels bloody great.
Anyway, we both just loved that exact car so we’ve bought it. It’s honestly the most excited I’ve been about a car for years and years, 911s included. It’s like being 18 or 19 again. Obviously I love my 911s but buying a 911 for me is one half “excitement”, other half “I hope this thing doesn’t bankrupt me”.
Buying this Abarth is just pure excitement, worry free. It feels good I must say. I knew I’d own one one day and that time has come.
So like I say collection is Saturday then I'll spend the day giving it a good polish etc as we didn't go for the supaguard or whatever it is.
First job over the bank holiday weekend was to make an Abarth sized hole in the garage.
An Infinity or anything normal would just live outside but because I'm as excited as my wife about the Fiat then I'll give it some garage space.
It works out better for her to, as because I like it a lot, it will get pampered more than something dull would have.
Anyway I have my own stuff to update this thread with but that's where I'm at this week. Roll on Saturday.
Cheers.
marky911 said:
Cheers MD, yes we've had a few similar machines and no doubt experiences.
Next for us is a little pocket rocket. Not too dissimilar to your Mini maybe, in ethos anyway.
Looks absolutely fantastic! I think you dodged a bullet (the Infiniti) and found a diamond... I hope you enjoy the small-and-punchy experience as much as I am Next for us is a little pocket rocket. Not too dissimilar to your Mini maybe, in ethos anyway.
Cheers lads.
Hi RC -
I've read the fiesta is better in a few ways, maybe more useful sensible ways, but the Fiat makes up for it in fun or character. I guess you'd have to sample to one to see if it works for you.
Being able to say it's mainly for the daughter is a great excuse though. I think an unwritten rule in owning one if you're male and over 25 is claiming it's actually for the wife/daughter/any other female in the household.
Anyway, 2 more sleeps.
Hi RC -
I've read the fiesta is better in a few ways, maybe more useful sensible ways, but the Fiat makes up for it in fun or character. I guess you'd have to sample to one to see if it works for you.
Being able to say it's mainly for the daughter is a great excuse though. I think an unwritten rule in owning one if you're male and over 25 is claiming it's actually for the wife/daughter/any other female in the household.
Anyway, 2 more sleeps.
Thanks for updating this thread OP. 
Sorry to hear things haven't been great, but it looks like they are improving - especially for your OH!
I know what you mean about the Fiat - I was secretly thrilled when my Mrs bought an R56 Mini Cooper at their launch! I wouldn't buy one for myself, but it was great to drive.
Looking forward to developments!
Sorry to hear things haven't been great, but it looks like they are improving - especially for your OH!
I know what you mean about the Fiat - I was secretly thrilled when my Mrs bought an R56 Mini Cooper at their launch! I wouldn't buy one for myself, but it was great to drive.
Looking forward to developments!
marky911 said:
Thanks very much for commenting, RD.
I recognise your name from the Porsche forum. I love your RS's.
Enjoy those awesome cars.
Very impressed with your posting..sorry you had a rough year, but it does happen. About 25 years ago I got divorced and was flat broke and had to rebuild in my forties, not much in the way of cars to say the least. Yes, lean years. In the end, I figured out to to build a better career and it was goodI recognise your name from the Porsche forum. I love your RS's.
Enjoy those awesome cars.
...hopefully all is looking up now for you!.Thanks MrTidy. The Minis are great fun and the R56 moved things on a lot from the earlier model.
There must be a load of us blokes sneakily borrowing the keys to our wife's cars whenever we can.
Hi RD, that break up must have been a grim time. It must make you appreciate what you have now even more. Well done for succeeding. Inspirational stuff!
There must be a load of us blokes sneakily borrowing the keys to our wife's cars whenever we can.
Hi RD, that break up must have been a grim time. It must make you appreciate what you have now even more. Well done for succeeding. Inspirational stuff!
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