My history. 80's/90's hatches, RSs, 911s and a few bikes
Discussion
Ok so as I’ve said it was now 2008. I met my girlfriend in May and I still had the 328 Sport, so the M3 must have been very soon after. I ran that until the autumn as I was never (and still aren’t) too bothered about what I drive for work as if it’s good it’s just another thing you have to pamper, to an extent. It was quick and smooth, but the roof leaked, the soft top didn’t work and I hadn’t even had time to look into that as I’d had a good summer with my girlfriend, enjoying weekends away in the 964 or just lazing around.
My dad had got this Rover 75 in with the obligatory head gasket failure. He fixed it and it stood him £500, which is what he gave it to me for. That was a great price back then.
So as much as I say I’m not keen on Rovers this was Rover number 4.
It served its purpose very well. Big, comfy and smooth although I got some grief at work. 
Even the director came down to see me one day, he’d had a B7 Audi S4 then a V10 M5. he just said “What the hell is that you’re driving around in!? I usually have a bit of respect for the stuff you drive. Sort it out man.”. Gave me a laugh anyway.
So 2009 saw the return of my 964T after its winter rebuild. Any big jobs I need doing on 911s I'd just drop it off at Jamie’s (Nelson Porsche, Stockton) in the autumn and leave it with him until spring. He can then do it at his leisure and that's reflected in the price.
Another couple of gratuitous pics. Why not. (The daft sticker wasn’t on for long.)
That brings us nicely onto Jamie and my next couple of cars. Me and my mate Craig had started out at Jamies as customers with my horrible black Frankenstein car, but we became mates. Jamie said in 2009 he was going to start doing track days. I hadn’t done any yet, despite my mates all doing them and progressing to racing. I had the big bill from the rebuild to get over first though.
Jamie stripped out a 306 GTi6, fitted sparco buckets, solid gearbox/engine mounts, Avo shocks, DS2500 pads, etc. Winter 2009 came and I decided to buy myself a 306 GTi6 to make a copy of Jamies, as it went well.
306GTi6.
I bought it on Ebay from S
horpe and me and Craig went to get it on Boxing day 2009. One of the few times my lass has complained about my car habit. I didn't see the problem though, Boxing day is just a lazy day.
Anyway, I looked at gathering bits in january and was sort of thinking “Can I be bothered?”. I was speaking to Jamie one day and he said “You know what, I actually wanted to do a 205 “GTi6” and still do so if you want you can have my car for £1500". Result. The gold car went on Ebay and I got my money back and I bought Jamies blue car.
I done 1 or 2 days early in 2010 and the car was great fun. It still had the essence of the old 205s but better balanced at the limit. It steered from the rear just the right amount, particularly at places like the Gooseneck at Cadwell when you switch direction and drop down the hill. Really good fun but It was easy and I could have spent another few years just getting a couple of seconds quicker, although I know out and out times aren't what track days are about.
My mate Andy would go out with me in the mornings as a passenger, then he’d drive and show me just how quick the car could actually get round the bends. It’s mind boggling at first. Once I’d seen that, I could then do the same. Is that cheating?
So, maybe prematurely, I decided to sell the pug. A guy flew over from Ireland and drove it away to catch the ferry.
I then bought this. Global GT Light.
Now this was designed and built by Graham Hathaway of BTCC fame for a one make race series. They started out using mid-mounted 600cc bike engines but mine had a 180bhp R1 engine in. With only 390KG, slicks and a big wing it was ballistic……. when it worked!
Even getting this thing home proved hard work. I bought it from Canterbury which is a long old trek from Newcastle. I set off with my dad at 5am in his old Volvo tow car aka “The white horse”. We arrived at 11am ish. Now a condition of buying the car was that we took the trailer. “Great I thought. Who wouldn’t want a free race car trailer?”. When we seen it though, it was more “Farmer Giles” than “Brian James”.
It was like an old German farm trailer with huge wheels on. The bed was almost as high as the Volvos roof. It had no lights so you couldn’t see how far past the car it stuck out and we also had to wait for the seller to go and buy a number board for us.
Anyway, we were there and wanted to get it home so off we went by about 2.30pm. Well that’s when the weather turned. Torrential rain meant speeds down to 30mph on the A1, although that didn’t stop the 30 ton artics flying past. Traffic everywhere. I think we were barely past Dartford by teatime. Now I’ve worked nightshifts and mega hours but that trip was a proper endurance test. Me and my dad were wrecked. We got back home at 1am and just went to bed. The car wasn’t really secure having an open cabin and no alarm or locks but I thought “If they can get it off that trailer they deserve the bloody thing. "
So for my first track day I headed down to Cadwell Park with it on my own. My mates were now into racing season so didn’t need track days for setup. I wasn’t bothered. I was far too excited for that.
So we do the warm up laps then get let out, I do about 5 laps then suddenly see loads of steam and get showered with red hot water.
The temp gauge had suddenly shot up and I’d lost the coolant. Now the header tank is conveniently mounted on the rear bulkhead behind the drivers right shoulder. You can see it in one of the pics if you look. It’s also just below the cut out in the rear clam for the roll hoop, so the coolant could spray straight out and land on me. Great.
Back in the pits I rang the seller, a so called motorsport company and he said “It’ll just be the cap on the tank”. So off I went driving around Lincolnshire to find a cap. It was a Ford part. No joy, so back to the track for the afternoon session. PTFE taped the cap, got another 5 laps then it blew again. I’d used a pop bottle to make a shroud for the header tank so at least I didn’t get burned. You can see in the first pic though that I'm leaning to the left just incase. The coolant would also blow all over the rear tyres and cause me to spin. Nightmare day!
I rang the seller again once I'd got home and he said “Honestly it’ll just be the header tank cap”. I bought 2, 1 for spare obviously and booked another track day. Now I can’t remember where but I think it was just at Teesside Autodrome, 60 miles away. Just an old karting track really. Surprise surprise it just did the same again, so I knew it was head gasket. So I’d learnt the hard way that you can’t really safely buy a race car unless you get it to a track. If it’s not road legal you just can't test it.
When we viewed it we’d run the engine but if there’s no airflow through the rad it just heats up. It was a poor cooling system with a tiny almost horizontal rad. maybe ok for the 600 but not for the R1 motor.
Anyway, we swapped the engine for one we’d been given with the car which had apparently come from a low mileage crashed bike. Yet when we fitted it it already had the same mods needed to work in the car and a sump baffle. Hmm. So we didn’t know if we were just fitting the last engine it had killed. Luckily it worked though and the temps could be kept sort of ok.
My first track day at Teesside and the car was flying but I mustn’t have secured the engine harness up to the bulkhead properly. I felt a hick every couple of seconds for a few bends then it just cut out. I suddenly seen a melting wire track its way along the harness from the rear of the car to the dashboard. Basically the harness had dangled down and melted on the exhaust manifold. Bugger, mucho rewiring needed.
My dad helped me strip the harness back and replace any melted wires. it was mainly the single ignition wire throughout the car to be honest, apart from the bunch that had hit the manifold . I got it out again once before winter, did 2 laps and snapped a driveshaft. Home time. AAARRRGGGHHH!
Undeterred me and dad decided to do things properly over the winter. We rewired the whole car adding in proper cutoffs, newer style dash and switchgear, repainted the body in the garage at home as every bodyshop I asked didn’t want to touch it. I only wanted it red and all one colour, not a show car finish, but they were all scared little girls.
I found a supplier of excellent hardly used Michelin slicks, instead of the hard, ancient Avons it was. No wonder it was like driving on a knife edge.
The car was transformed. It was a flying machine. Still unreliable though. I had the front brakes seize on solid, gear shifter issues, etc, etc. I ran it until August 2011 by which time I was fed up with spending more time crawling around underneath it, than driving it. My last track day was Croft to make sure it was reliable and working properly to sell. It went well and I hardly got passed all day apart from my mate Andy in his 700+bhp Ford Falcon ex-Austrailian touring car.
I sold it and pretty much broke even, obviously not including all my man hours but that’s what hobbies are about aren’t they.
Moral of the story - Bike engines don’t work in cars. You’re giving the gearbox which used to have engine braking from a tiny bike tyre contact patch, forces from two fat slick car tyres. It hammers the transmission, plus the cooling was always a bit close to the limit for my liking. It was like the Ducati. My confidence in it had gone and I was spending all day watching the gauges rather than enjoying the track day.
The other thing I didn't like about the car was that your legs were the crumple zone.
(Pic from day we collected it)
Anyway, if you’re still awake, the Rover had now gone as I had bought the white horse off my dad for towing the Global. At first i’d just leave the Volvo at my mates yard, using the Rover for work, but it seemed pointless so I sold it and used the white horse as my daily driver. £250 of Swedish squareness. 185K on the clocks.
My dad had given £250 for it 7 years before. Cheap motoring for him. He’d towed his caravan all over the country with it and it did me proud with the track car.
The timing belt once snapped on my dad down in Cornwall. He told the AA guy to bring a new belt. They fitted it at the side of the road and off he went again. Non-interference engine. Good stuff!
Right, off to bed.
PS I was going to take the company that sold me the Global, to the small claims court after speaking to my local trading standards people, but decided against it when I weighed up the time off work, hotels, etc, as I would have to attend the Canterbury court. If I did lose it would have been daft.
My dad had got this Rover 75 in with the obligatory head gasket failure. He fixed it and it stood him £500, which is what he gave it to me for. That was a great price back then.
So as much as I say I’m not keen on Rovers this was Rover number 4.
It served its purpose very well. Big, comfy and smooth although I got some grief at work. Even the director came down to see me one day, he’d had a B7 Audi S4 then a V10 M5. he just said “What the hell is that you’re driving around in!? I usually have a bit of respect for the stuff you drive. Sort it out man.”. Gave me a laugh anyway. So 2009 saw the return of my 964T after its winter rebuild. Any big jobs I need doing on 911s I'd just drop it off at Jamie’s (Nelson Porsche, Stockton) in the autumn and leave it with him until spring. He can then do it at his leisure and that's reflected in the price.
Another couple of gratuitous pics. Why not. (The daft sticker wasn’t on for long.)
That brings us nicely onto Jamie and my next couple of cars. Me and my mate Craig had started out at Jamies as customers with my horrible black Frankenstein car, but we became mates. Jamie said in 2009 he was going to start doing track days. I hadn’t done any yet, despite my mates all doing them and progressing to racing. I had the big bill from the rebuild to get over first though.
Jamie stripped out a 306 GTi6, fitted sparco buckets, solid gearbox/engine mounts, Avo shocks, DS2500 pads, etc. Winter 2009 came and I decided to buy myself a 306 GTi6 to make a copy of Jamies, as it went well.
306GTi6.
I bought it on Ebay from S
horpe and me and Craig went to get it on Boxing day 2009. One of the few times my lass has complained about my car habit. I didn't see the problem though, Boxing day is just a lazy day. Anyway, I looked at gathering bits in january and was sort of thinking “Can I be bothered?”. I was speaking to Jamie one day and he said “You know what, I actually wanted to do a 205 “GTi6” and still do so if you want you can have my car for £1500". Result. The gold car went on Ebay and I got my money back and I bought Jamies blue car.
I done 1 or 2 days early in 2010 and the car was great fun. It still had the essence of the old 205s but better balanced at the limit. It steered from the rear just the right amount, particularly at places like the Gooseneck at Cadwell when you switch direction and drop down the hill. Really good fun but It was easy and I could have spent another few years just getting a couple of seconds quicker, although I know out and out times aren't what track days are about.
My mate Andy would go out with me in the mornings as a passenger, then he’d drive and show me just how quick the car could actually get round the bends. It’s mind boggling at first. Once I’d seen that, I could then do the same. Is that cheating?
So, maybe prematurely, I decided to sell the pug. A guy flew over from Ireland and drove it away to catch the ferry.
I then bought this. Global GT Light.
Now this was designed and built by Graham Hathaway of BTCC fame for a one make race series. They started out using mid-mounted 600cc bike engines but mine had a 180bhp R1 engine in. With only 390KG, slicks and a big wing it was ballistic……. when it worked!
Even getting this thing home proved hard work. I bought it from Canterbury which is a long old trek from Newcastle. I set off with my dad at 5am in his old Volvo tow car aka “The white horse”. We arrived at 11am ish. Now a condition of buying the car was that we took the trailer. “Great I thought. Who wouldn’t want a free race car trailer?”. When we seen it though, it was more “Farmer Giles” than “Brian James”.
It was like an old German farm trailer with huge wheels on. The bed was almost as high as the Volvos roof. It had no lights so you couldn’t see how far past the car it stuck out and we also had to wait for the seller to go and buy a number board for us.
Anyway, we were there and wanted to get it home so off we went by about 2.30pm. Well that’s when the weather turned. Torrential rain meant speeds down to 30mph on the A1, although that didn’t stop the 30 ton artics flying past. Traffic everywhere. I think we were barely past Dartford by teatime. Now I’ve worked nightshifts and mega hours but that trip was a proper endurance test. Me and my dad were wrecked. We got back home at 1am and just went to bed. The car wasn’t really secure having an open cabin and no alarm or locks but I thought “If they can get it off that trailer they deserve the bloody thing. "
So for my first track day I headed down to Cadwell Park with it on my own. My mates were now into racing season so didn’t need track days for setup. I wasn’t bothered. I was far too excited for that.
So we do the warm up laps then get let out, I do about 5 laps then suddenly see loads of steam and get showered with red hot water.
The temp gauge had suddenly shot up and I’d lost the coolant. Now the header tank is conveniently mounted on the rear bulkhead behind the drivers right shoulder. You can see it in one of the pics if you look. It’s also just below the cut out in the rear clam for the roll hoop, so the coolant could spray straight out and land on me. Great.
Back in the pits I rang the seller, a so called motorsport company and he said “It’ll just be the cap on the tank”. So off I went driving around Lincolnshire to find a cap. It was a Ford part. No joy, so back to the track for the afternoon session. PTFE taped the cap, got another 5 laps then it blew again. I’d used a pop bottle to make a shroud for the header tank so at least I didn’t get burned. You can see in the first pic though that I'm leaning to the left just incase. The coolant would also blow all over the rear tyres and cause me to spin. Nightmare day!
I rang the seller again once I'd got home and he said “Honestly it’ll just be the header tank cap”. I bought 2, 1 for spare obviously and booked another track day. Now I can’t remember where but I think it was just at Teesside Autodrome, 60 miles away. Just an old karting track really. Surprise surprise it just did the same again, so I knew it was head gasket. So I’d learnt the hard way that you can’t really safely buy a race car unless you get it to a track. If it’s not road legal you just can't test it.
When we viewed it we’d run the engine but if there’s no airflow through the rad it just heats up. It was a poor cooling system with a tiny almost horizontal rad. maybe ok for the 600 but not for the R1 motor.
Anyway, we swapped the engine for one we’d been given with the car which had apparently come from a low mileage crashed bike. Yet when we fitted it it already had the same mods needed to work in the car and a sump baffle. Hmm. So we didn’t know if we were just fitting the last engine it had killed. Luckily it worked though and the temps could be kept sort of ok.
My first track day at Teesside and the car was flying but I mustn’t have secured the engine harness up to the bulkhead properly. I felt a hick every couple of seconds for a few bends then it just cut out. I suddenly seen a melting wire track its way along the harness from the rear of the car to the dashboard. Basically the harness had dangled down and melted on the exhaust manifold. Bugger, mucho rewiring needed.
My dad helped me strip the harness back and replace any melted wires. it was mainly the single ignition wire throughout the car to be honest, apart from the bunch that had hit the manifold . I got it out again once before winter, did 2 laps and snapped a driveshaft. Home time. AAARRRGGGHHH!
Undeterred me and dad decided to do things properly over the winter. We rewired the whole car adding in proper cutoffs, newer style dash and switchgear, repainted the body in the garage at home as every bodyshop I asked didn’t want to touch it. I only wanted it red and all one colour, not a show car finish, but they were all scared little girls.
I found a supplier of excellent hardly used Michelin slicks, instead of the hard, ancient Avons it was. No wonder it was like driving on a knife edge.
The car was transformed. It was a flying machine. Still unreliable though. I had the front brakes seize on solid, gear shifter issues, etc, etc. I ran it until August 2011 by which time I was fed up with spending more time crawling around underneath it, than driving it. My last track day was Croft to make sure it was reliable and working properly to sell. It went well and I hardly got passed all day apart from my mate Andy in his 700+bhp Ford Falcon ex-Austrailian touring car.
I sold it and pretty much broke even, obviously not including all my man hours but that’s what hobbies are about aren’t they.
Moral of the story - Bike engines don’t work in cars. You’re giving the gearbox which used to have engine braking from a tiny bike tyre contact patch, forces from two fat slick car tyres. It hammers the transmission, plus the cooling was always a bit close to the limit for my liking. It was like the Ducati. My confidence in it had gone and I was spending all day watching the gauges rather than enjoying the track day.
The other thing I didn't like about the car was that your legs were the crumple zone.
(Pic from day we collected it)
Anyway, if you’re still awake, the Rover had now gone as I had bought the white horse off my dad for towing the Global. At first i’d just leave the Volvo at my mates yard, using the Rover for work, but it seemed pointless so I sold it and used the white horse as my daily driver. £250 of Swedish squareness. 185K on the clocks.
My dad had given £250 for it 7 years before. Cheap motoring for him. He’d towed his caravan all over the country with it and it did me proud with the track car.
The timing belt once snapped on my dad down in Cornwall. He told the AA guy to bring a new belt. They fitted it at the side of the road and off he went again. Non-interference engine. Good stuff!
Right, off to bed.
PS I was going to take the company that sold me the Global, to the small claims court after speaking to my local trading standards people, but decided against it when I weighed up the time off work, hotels, etc, as I would have to attend the Canterbury court. If I did lose it would have been daft.
Edited by marky911 on Saturday 24th January 16:56
Great read! Looking forward to the next episode...
How refreshing to find somebody not afraid to hide his Max Power roots! When I was reading it, back in the early to mid 90s, it was fairly respectable and it was a dream come true to have two of my letters published! Sad sod! Then imagine my elation when an ex MP writer turned up to take a job in our press department at work!
You say that you can match the cars you had to music you were listening to at the time. I can match music I was listening to or holidays I was on with the Max Power edition I was reading! I might start a petition to revive it, but without the t***ts!
How refreshing to find somebody not afraid to hide his Max Power roots! When I was reading it, back in the early to mid 90s, it was fairly respectable and it was a dream come true to have two of my letters published! Sad sod! Then imagine my elation when an ex MP writer turned up to take a job in our press department at work!
You say that you can match the cars you had to music you were listening to at the time. I can match music I was listening to or holidays I was on with the Max Power edition I was reading! I might start a petition to revive it, but without the t***ts!
I was always into the max power era as well, i actually watched one of the old max power dvds on you tube the other day!
I never had the money for anything decent, we just used to modify ropey hatchbacks with parts from the local scrappys!
It does seem crazy that out of all the modified car mags it is the worst of the bunch that had survived!
I never had the money for anything decent, we just used to modify ropey hatchbacks with parts from the local scrappys!
It does seem crazy that out of all the modified car mags it is the worst of the bunch that had survived!
This has been one of the best reader's cars threads on here for a while. I suppose being local to the OP gives the stories more relevance.
Mark, I love that VFR400 you had. Beautiful bike. I've been looking at those and dreaming of buying one, but at 6ft I think I'd be a bit tall for them too. Stunning looking machines though, I love single sided swing arms. The Ducati is a beautiful bike too but I suppose you found out the hard way how temperamental they can be!
As for the cars, I love the 911's. Looks like quite a club up on Hartside too, though the quickest thing I've ever seen up there was the Cumbria Police Impreza, which overtook me on blue lights once when I was already going quite quickly. I wonder what they have these days? This was about 2011.
The Sierra Cosworths are probably my favourite cars listed here, funny to think you got one from Formula One. These days, they seem more interested in pedalling bling than performance cars, which is a shame. I used to work in Byker so I loved going over for a look at the assortment of high end sports cars, these days their stock doesn't interest me so much. There was a Japanese car importer in Byker too, you may remember? They were based off Byker Bank but are long gone now, with their old premises being part of the Hotel Du Vin now. I can remember where they were but never really looked in when they were open, but some of my mates worked down at the Walker riverside plants and used to go there to look at the latest fire-breathing Lancer Evolution import on their lunchbreak.
I nearly ended up buying a Sierra Cosworth myself in Sunderland a few years ago but shelved the idea and went for an MR2 Turbo instead. I bought it from a dealer in Choppington who was trading imported cars from his home address. When I went up he had an R33 Skyline GTR that I really wanted but couldn't afford the price tag (it was something like £9995). I bought the MR2 having not driven it myself before handing the cash over (he took me for a test drive as I hadn't made arrangements with my insurance). He warned me to take it easy on the way home as it was a typically rainy and wet Northumberland afternoon. I had tootled out of Choppington and found the first stretch of open, traffic free road near Bedlington. I stepped hard on the throttle and instantly spun the back wheels and made the car squirm, which was quite an eye opener!
Mark, I love that VFR400 you had. Beautiful bike. I've been looking at those and dreaming of buying one, but at 6ft I think I'd be a bit tall for them too. Stunning looking machines though, I love single sided swing arms. The Ducati is a beautiful bike too but I suppose you found out the hard way how temperamental they can be!
As for the cars, I love the 911's. Looks like quite a club up on Hartside too, though the quickest thing I've ever seen up there was the Cumbria Police Impreza, which overtook me on blue lights once when I was already going quite quickly. I wonder what they have these days? This was about 2011.
The Sierra Cosworths are probably my favourite cars listed here, funny to think you got one from Formula One. These days, they seem more interested in pedalling bling than performance cars, which is a shame. I used to work in Byker so I loved going over for a look at the assortment of high end sports cars, these days their stock doesn't interest me so much. There was a Japanese car importer in Byker too, you may remember? They were based off Byker Bank but are long gone now, with their old premises being part of the Hotel Du Vin now. I can remember where they were but never really looked in when they were open, but some of my mates worked down at the Walker riverside plants and used to go there to look at the latest fire-breathing Lancer Evolution import on their lunchbreak.
I nearly ended up buying a Sierra Cosworth myself in Sunderland a few years ago but shelved the idea and went for an MR2 Turbo instead. I bought it from a dealer in Choppington who was trading imported cars from his home address. When I went up he had an R33 Skyline GTR that I really wanted but couldn't afford the price tag (it was something like £9995). I bought the MR2 having not driven it myself before handing the cash over (he took me for a test drive as I hadn't made arrangements with my insurance). He warned me to take it easy on the way home as it was a typically rainy and wet Northumberland afternoon. I had tootled out of Choppington and found the first stretch of open, traffic free road near Bedlington. I stepped hard on the throttle and instantly spun the back wheels and made the car squirm, which was quite an eye opener!
What a fantastic thread, I too can relate to so much of what you are saying, especially with regards to listening you some of your Dads advice or not listening as the case may be.
I too am from Cramlington and I loved seeing the picture of the two white Escorts outside what appeared to be the Shell petrol station in Whitley Bay!?... However from what you are saying I think you maybe a little older than me (28) but I did go to foundation a few times but Spillers was place to be with the car and that's where I spent most Saturday nights then onto the 'the underground'.
can't wait for some more updates, keep them coming.
I too am from Cramlington and I loved seeing the picture of the two white Escorts outside what appeared to be the Shell petrol station in Whitley Bay!?... However from what you are saying I think you maybe a little older than me (28) but I did go to foundation a few times but Spillers was place to be with the car and that's where I spent most Saturday nights then onto the 'the underground'.
can't wait for some more updates, keep them coming.
Well it's the weekend so I'll take a few minutes to answer people properly. I should be working on this old house that has nearly killed me over the last year but i can't be bothered.
I can't remember every issue but can remember the project cars. Project XS, the wide bodied E30 and Project Thunder, the yellow Carlton GSi with 3 spokes! that the winner then crashed. In the crash pics you could see all the original red paintwork everywhere. It must have had such a quick flash over on just the outside.
To be honest Fast Car used to do some better projects like Project Stealth, the black 205GTi with TSW Stealths on.
My fave Max P feature car was a white Renault 5 GT Turbo, with iirc TSW Hockenheims on. It was really low. The title was "Deep,low,burble". I only realised what they meant when I first heard an Escort RS Turbo. The old Turbos do have a great sound, whether Ford, Renault, whatever.
We ended up in some right strange places. One week we'd be in a luxury apartment on the quayside, the next week some hovel off Westgate Road. Strange times, but good times. I couldn't do it now though.
Cheers Matt and SM. Glad you can relate to it. Like I say, it's pretty much the experience most petrol heads had growing up. I've got literally dozens of daft things that happened but if I list too many it'll look like bullish*t. So many funny experiences though.
Barryonyx - Cheers. Yep the VFRs are mega cool little bikes. I've been watching a few on Ebay lately. If you're six foot though they're only good for maybe a blast to Rothbury and back. A nice little thing to collect though. When I had mine we were doing Cramlington - Haydon Bridge - Hartside - Kendal - Devils Bridge - Hawes, then back the same way. 300 miles in a day. Sore wrists.
I don't remember the import place near Quayside. Typical as I even worked at the bottom Byker bank for a couple of years. Mine came form Bebside. Bunch of crooks. They're gone now. Vine Place was the big one really, down near Ferryhill, Durham. They knew how to charge though.
If I could have a Cosworth or MR2 now, I'd take the Cosworth, even a Sapphire. The MR2 feels sportier and is a better B road blaster but for something rare to keep hold of the Cosworths are a nice thing.
As you found out though you had to watch the MR2s a bit. Mind you I spun my Sapphire too, so....
So yep, when you were out down at Spillers, I'd have been in Shinding or perhaps had even given up the clubbing by then.
That Shell garage is the one on the A690 at Durham, as that's where I got the car from. The Whitley Bay one was a regular stop off for Optimax though.
I later learnt though.
It's still there, just the same, looking awfully dated now though from the outside.
You could catch up to me quite quickly now I'm sure , as I'll reveal later in the thread. Without wanting to sound like some preaching American celebrity, it's a good reminder to appreciate what you have when you've got it. Speaking for myself if I see a guy drive past in something I can't stretch to, I always think "Jammy bugger, I hope he appreciates owning that." But then there'll be someone thinking that when I drive by in something a bit nice or rare. There's always someone with more, just enjoy what we have. Sermon over.
I actually think this looks nice
Had the estate version a few years ago and apart from not being able to pull the skin off a rice pudding it was by far one of the most comfortable and capable cars I have owned!!
+1 for a great read, keep it coming pleaseI quite liked that too. I think I had it for knocking on a year. Really nice smooth comfy car. Not worth trying to go quickly in but I don't anyway on my commute. One fault that can and did happen is the deadlock jammed on the drivers door. Nothing would open it, so we had to pull the door card back (not easy with the door shut) and tap away at the mechanism in the back edge of the door, with a small toffee hammer. Luckily it's plastic, so once it finally smashed, the door just clicked and opened. Doesn't sound too big a deal when i write it but it was a nightmare. Kneeling on the drivers seat backwards with my arm up the door. To be honest my dad sat for ages and finally got it done. See, I couldn't let him retire from my fleet managers position yet.
To be fair I had stopped bothering him with things as much by now. Jamie looked after my 911, but my dad still got roped in with my daily stuff sometimes and that bloody Global.
Anyway, I'll carry on if I get a spare hour over the weekend. Out tonight with some old mates/workmates, including my mate who I got the cheap blade off. I must add, that I did bung him another couple of hundred quid when I sold it on. I'm not a vulture. Ralf has done a no-show the douche-bag. He has a hot date with some nurse though, so I can't blame him.
Cheers chaps.
rainmasterb said:
Great read! Looking forward to the next episode...
How refreshing to find somebody not afraid to hide his Max Power roots! When I was reading it, back in the early to mid 90s, it was fairly respectable and it was a dream come true to have two of my letters published! Sad sod! Then imagine my elation when an ex MP writer turned up to take a job in our press department at work!
You say that you can match the cars you had to music you were listening to at the time. I can match music I was listening to or holidays I was on with the Max Power edition I was reading! I might start a petition to revive it, but without the t***ts!
Wow! You sound like you read it even more than me rainy. How refreshing to find somebody not afraid to hide his Max Power roots! When I was reading it, back in the early to mid 90s, it was fairly respectable and it was a dream come true to have two of my letters published! Sad sod! Then imagine my elation when an ex MP writer turned up to take a job in our press department at work!
You say that you can match the cars you had to music you were listening to at the time. I can match music I was listening to or holidays I was on with the Max Power edition I was reading! I might start a petition to revive it, but without the t***ts!
I can't remember every issue but can remember the project cars. Project XS, the wide bodied E30 and Project Thunder, the yellow Carlton GSi with 3 spokes! that the winner then crashed. In the crash pics you could see all the original red paintwork everywhere. It must have had such a quick flash over on just the outside.
To be honest Fast Car used to do some better projects like Project Stealth, the black 205GTi with TSW Stealths on.
My fave Max P feature car was a white Renault 5 GT Turbo, with iirc TSW Hockenheims on. It was really low. The title was "Deep,low,burble". I only realised what they meant when I first heard an Escort RS Turbo. The old Turbos do have a great sound, whether Ford, Renault, whatever.
Cfnteabag said:
I was always into the max power era as well, i actually watched one of the old max power dvds on you tube the other day!
I never had the money for anything decent, we just used to modify ropey hatchbacks with parts from the local scrappys!
It does seem crazy that out of all the modified car mags it is the worst of the bunch that had survived!
Yeah, I was surprised when Max Power went. The scene got bigger but the biggest mag went. I didn't have much money to be honest.I never had the money for anything decent, we just used to modify ropey hatchbacks with parts from the local scrappys!
It does seem crazy that out of all the modified car mags it is the worst of the bunch that had survived!
rusticm3 said:
Yeah i love the M3 mate great all rounder. I went to Foundation too, Promise on a Friday night for me it was great that place, great atmosphere.
Yep, enjoy it rustic. I'm sure I'll have one at some point. I'd forgotten about the Friday night, Promise, yeah. We only done it a couple of times. We could only hack one night a week. Out on Saturday night til 4am when the club shut, then back to some house party somewhere in Newcastle, going home at lunchtime on Sunday, then recovering for 3 days, if you know what I mean. We ended up in some right strange places. One week we'd be in a luxury apartment on the quayside, the next week some hovel off Westgate Road. Strange times, but good times. I couldn't do it now though. Cheers Matt and SM. Glad you can relate to it. Like I say, it's pretty much the experience most petrol heads had growing up. I've got literally dozens of daft things that happened but if I list too many it'll look like bullish*t. So many funny experiences though.
Barryonyx - Cheers. Yep the VFRs are mega cool little bikes. I've been watching a few on Ebay lately. If you're six foot though they're only good for maybe a blast to Rothbury and back. A nice little thing to collect though. When I had mine we were doing Cramlington - Haydon Bridge - Hartside - Kendal - Devils Bridge - Hawes, then back the same way. 300 miles in a day. Sore wrists.
I don't remember the import place near Quayside. Typical as I even worked at the bottom Byker bank for a couple of years. Mine came form Bebside. Bunch of crooks. They're gone now. Vine Place was the big one really, down near Ferryhill, Durham. They knew how to charge though.
If I could have a Cosworth or MR2 now, I'd take the Cosworth, even a Sapphire. The MR2 feels sportier and is a better B road blaster but for something rare to keep hold of the Cosworths are a nice thing.
As you found out though you had to watch the MR2s a bit. Mind you I spun my Sapphire too, so....
Owensy86 said:
What a fantastic thread, I too can relate to so much of what you are saying, especially with regards to listening you some of your Dads advice or not listening as the case may be.
I too am from Cramlington and I loved seeing the picture of the two white Escorts outside what appeared to be the Shell petrol station in Whitley Bay!?... However from what you are saying I think you maybe a little older than me (28) but I did go to foundation a few times but Spillers was place to be with the car and that's where I spent most Saturday nights then onto the 'the underground'.
can't wait for some more updates, keep them coming.
Cheers Owesny, yep I have nearly ten years on you. I grew up in the house in my early pictures, all my life until I moved out. My mam and dad still live there. They watched it being built just in time for me being born. Parkside Chase. A few of my mates still live around Ringwood Drive. I too am from Cramlington and I loved seeing the picture of the two white Escorts outside what appeared to be the Shell petrol station in Whitley Bay!?... However from what you are saying I think you maybe a little older than me (28) but I did go to foundation a few times but Spillers was place to be with the car and that's where I spent most Saturday nights then onto the 'the underground'.
can't wait for some more updates, keep them coming.
So yep, when you were out down at Spillers, I'd have been in Shinding or perhaps had even given up the clubbing by then.
That Shell garage is the one on the A690 at Durham, as that's where I got the car from. The Whitley Bay one was a regular stop off for Optimax though.
Smelly Sox said:
I have fond memories of Concordia in the 70s!
Haha! I have memories of it from most of my life. Some of them burned into my subconscious, like middle school swimming, getting my endeavour, which basically meant I could push myself off the side then sink gracefully at a 45 degree angle. I couldn't even scrape to the 5m mark. I later learnt though.It's still there, just the same, looking awfully dated now though from the outside.
Nuttah said:
I love the fact that you threw in some regular sheds into history and still found positive things to say about them, too many people get used to nice motors and won't be seen dead in any old shed ever again a true piston head with no ego is a great thing
Thanks Nuttah, I agree, a genuine Petrolhead should be able to see something in most cars. I suppose fair enough if you've only ever had Ferrari's from the age of 18 you may not need to appreciate lesser cars, but I've enjoyed working my way up, always planning the next one. I do sometimes think about buying a 205 GTi or RS Turbo again, particularly at the minute as budget dictates, but as I've said, they say don't revisit your heroes and I'd hate to get an RS Turbo and think "This is crap". I doubt I would think that though. They sound great and are getting rare and I've always like them. We'll see. bassett said:
Great thread, i enjoyed reading that and took me back to those good old days when me and my mates weren't so sensible.
Also thats an envious car list once you got into the porsches and kit cars, i've definitely got some catching up to do!
Adam
Glad it sparked some memories bassett. my head has been spinning sometimes since I started this thread, the places we used to go, the people. It's amazing what's still in the old swede when you start digging. Also thats an envious car list once you got into the porsches and kit cars, i've definitely got some catching up to do!
Adam
You could catch up to me quite quickly now I'm sure
, as I'll reveal later in the thread. Without wanting to sound like some preaching American celebrity, it's a good reminder to appreciate what you have when you've got it. Speaking for myself if I see a guy drive past in something I can't stretch to, I always think "Jammy bugger, I hope he appreciates owning that." But then there'll be someone thinking that when I drive by in something a bit nice or rare. There's always someone with more, just enjoy what we have. Sermon over. coopedup said:
Ilovejapcrap said:
I actually think this looks nice
+1 for a great read, keep it coming please
To be fair I had stopped bothering him with things as much by now. Jamie looked after my 911, but my dad still got roped in with my daily stuff sometimes and that bloody Global.
Anyway, I'll carry on if I get a spare hour over the weekend. Out tonight with some old mates/workmates, including my mate who I got the cheap blade off. I must add, that I did bung him another couple of hundred quid when I sold it on. I'm not a vulture. Ralf has done a no-show the douche-bag. He has a hot date with some nurse though, so I can't blame him.
Cheers chaps.
Ok, so not strictly mine but I had a say in buying them and I used them, so a quick post about my girlfriends cars.
When I met her she had this Micra. She bought it because it “twinkled” at her as she walked into the showroom. I almost said “That’s a ridiculous reason to buy such an expensive item”, but then I remembered that horrible black 911 I bought. Ahem.
The gearbox on the Micra was atrocious. You could literally almost not get it into gear. Obviously faulty I guess. So we sold it and bought this.
Lexus IS200.
Lovely car. So nicely designed. Everything was well done, right down to the door handles and switchgear. The Mark Levinson hifi is the best standard setup I’ve heard too. At the time though my girlfriend was working for a horrible head teacher and was so stressed. I said “Just quit love. We’ll manage. No job is worth that”.
So she did and had to go temping. Well despite telling the agency she only wanted local work they would send her all over. One week she put about £120 of petrol in and only earned about £300, so it had to go.
I took her looking at Mini Coopers. She didn’t need the S, although I had a go at pushing her towards one for my own selfish reasons.
We spent a weekend trailing around looking, yet the next weekend my lass announced “I’m going to look at this”. Imagine how elated I was when she showed me a Citroen Xzara Picasso.
No pics thankfully!
Now this is one of the only times I haven’t fully supported her. I told her not to get one and if she was I wasn’t going to look at it with her. Really mean of me actually. So off she toddled on her own and bought it.
To be fair it wasn’t bad. 1.6HDI and the MPGs were immense. Every time she pulled up in it though I said she looked like a 50 year old librarian lesbian (She was only 36). No offence if there any reading.
The car lasted about 3 months before I heard “I want a Mini Cooper”. We were busy doing up her house and had other stuff going on too so again I was a bit mean and said “Well I haven’t got time to detail the Citroen and advertise it, so look for a Mini at a dealers worth about the same as the trade value of the Citroen and we’ll go and do a swap”. Like I say, a bit mean but we had other things going on. In fact I was probably crawling about under that Global too.
Like I say, the only time I haven’t been supportive was with that Picasso. I wouldn’t be like that again but I know she also listens a bit more now when it comes to cars, so we both learnt from it.
So then we got this. Mini Cooper.
I didn’t really rate it at all, despite people raving about them. It was fun when travelling flat out but at all other times you were like a nodding dog. Stiff suspension and run-flat tyres. Just not a particularly nice way to travel. It had the usual corroded wheels too, so i was constantly blowing the tyres up for slow punctures.
She kept this for about a year but the tiny boot wasn’t great for her teaching stuff and the ride was annoying.
We then went looking at other things. She missed the Lexus so we test drove the newer shape diesel but weren’t bowled over by the mpgs on the test drive. Plus it was pushing it a bit money wise. So we bought this.
Ford Focus 1,8 petrol.
It was 2 year old and the guy who’d bought it new was retiring and didn’t need it as they were keeping his wives cabriolet. It had 15k miles on the clock and was like new. I think we gave £6k for it in 2010. Not a bargain but fair.
She still has this, having just clicked over 40k miles the other day. It’s been faultless and I can still clean it up to look brand new. It’s the motoring equivalent of magnolia paint, a bit boring and dull but does it’s job well. It’s actually surprisingly fun on the twisties if you’re pushing on too.
My wife will upgrade probably this year sometime, once we’re on top of the house. She was all set to buy a MK2 TT TDi but then the house came up. We are more rural now though and it can get quite bleak out here in winter, so she fancies an Evoke or 4x4. We’ll see.
Anyway, back to my cars soon. She sees them as old bangers sometimes, where as I see new stuff as boring. If an 08 plate A4 drives past I don’t really notice, but if an E36 drives past I have a neb. We are opposites like that but she can appreciate where I’m coming from. That helps when I spend 3 days solid over a long weekend, in the garage with my machine polisher.
When I met her she had this Micra. She bought it because it “twinkled” at her as she walked into the showroom. I almost said “That’s a ridiculous reason to buy such an expensive item”, but then I remembered that horrible black 911 I bought. Ahem.
The gearbox on the Micra was atrocious. You could literally almost not get it into gear. Obviously faulty I guess. So we sold it and bought this.
Lexus IS200.
Lovely car. So nicely designed. Everything was well done, right down to the door handles and switchgear. The Mark Levinson hifi is the best standard setup I’ve heard too. At the time though my girlfriend was working for a horrible head teacher and was so stressed. I said “Just quit love. We’ll manage. No job is worth that”.
So she did and had to go temping. Well despite telling the agency she only wanted local work they would send her all over. One week she put about £120 of petrol in and only earned about £300, so it had to go.
I took her looking at Mini Coopers. She didn’t need the S, although I had a go at pushing her towards one for my own selfish reasons.
We spent a weekend trailing around looking, yet the next weekend my lass announced “I’m going to look at this”. Imagine how elated I was when she showed me a Citroen Xzara Picasso.
No pics thankfully!
Now this is one of the only times I haven’t fully supported her. I told her not to get one and if she was I wasn’t going to look at it with her. Really mean of me actually. So off she toddled on her own and bought it.
To be fair it wasn’t bad. 1.6HDI and the MPGs were immense. Every time she pulled up in it though I said she looked like a 50 year old librarian lesbian (She was only 36). No offence if there any reading.
The car lasted about 3 months before I heard “I want a Mini Cooper”. We were busy doing up her house and had other stuff going on too so again I was a bit mean and said “Well I haven’t got time to detail the Citroen and advertise it, so look for a Mini at a dealers worth about the same as the trade value of the Citroen and we’ll go and do a swap”. Like I say, a bit mean but we had other things going on. In fact I was probably crawling about under that Global too.
Like I say, the only time I haven’t been supportive was with that Picasso. I wouldn’t be like that again but I know she also listens a bit more now when it comes to cars, so we both learnt from it.
So then we got this. Mini Cooper.
I didn’t really rate it at all, despite people raving about them. It was fun when travelling flat out but at all other times you were like a nodding dog. Stiff suspension and run-flat tyres. Just not a particularly nice way to travel. It had the usual corroded wheels too, so i was constantly blowing the tyres up for slow punctures.
She kept this for about a year but the tiny boot wasn’t great for her teaching stuff and the ride was annoying.
We then went looking at other things. She missed the Lexus so we test drove the newer shape diesel but weren’t bowled over by the mpgs on the test drive. Plus it was pushing it a bit money wise. So we bought this.
Ford Focus 1,8 petrol.
It was 2 year old and the guy who’d bought it new was retiring and didn’t need it as they were keeping his wives cabriolet. It had 15k miles on the clock and was like new. I think we gave £6k for it in 2010. Not a bargain but fair.
She still has this, having just clicked over 40k miles the other day. It’s been faultless and I can still clean it up to look brand new. It’s the motoring equivalent of magnolia paint, a bit boring and dull but does it’s job well. It’s actually surprisingly fun on the twisties if you’re pushing on too.
My wife will upgrade probably this year sometime, once we’re on top of the house. She was all set to buy a MK2 TT TDi but then the house came up. We are more rural now though and it can get quite bleak out here in winter, so she fancies an Evoke or 4x4. We’ll see.
Anyway, back to my cars soon. She sees them as old bangers sometimes, where as I see new stuff as boring. If an 08 plate A4 drives past I don’t really notice, but if an E36 drives past I have a neb. We are opposites like that but she can appreciate where I’m coming from. That helps when I spend 3 days solid over a long weekend, in the garage with my machine polisher.
Edited by marky911 on Saturday 24th January 16:38
Thanks cooped up. Last bit for today......
Ok, so we are now up to maybe the end of summer 2011. I’d left my job at the good engineering place as the travelling was getting on my nerves. I was doing 12 hour nightshifts with an hours travelling each way, so out of the house for 14 hours a day. My priorities had changed and I wasn’t happy living to work. It was stressful, a right pressure cooker. The directors would always say to the lads “There’s no pressure in here, you make your own pressure”. Utter rubbish.
In another lucky turn of events an old workmate knocked about with a guy that lived over the road from my girlfriend. We were chatting one day and I mentioned wanting to leave where I was. He said “Come back to our place”. So I did. Back to the company that gave me my lucky break, from van driver to CNC miller. My nightshift foreman says I’m a failed wine delivery driver.
So I now had the R1, 964T and the white horse. I’d sold the GSXR as I’d got more into car track days, so the bikes just sat there. Plus my mate Craig had bought the Cerbera so needed his garage.
I sold it with 434 miles on, so not even run in. I’ve never missed it as I never used it, although it would have been nice to collect.
As said, the Global had gone, so i now had no real use for the Volvo. It was quite thirsty doing about 35-40 miles to a tenner so I figured if i was paying that for fuel I may aswell buy something a bit nicer. I was missing my E36s so set about looking for a straight one. I bought this -
BMW 318 coupe.
When I bought it -
After some fettling -
It was only the little 4 pot but it was totally straight and clean. It had a Z4 BMW head unit with iPod connection and was cheap to run, so it done me fine.
I fitted an M3 front skirt and added a set of genuine staggered M3 Evo Sunflowers and gave it a clean up. It looked well.
I ran this as my daily into 2012.
While I had this a relative of my dads neighbour was getting rid of this below. It wouldn't rev so he thought the engine was kaputt. He was offered £800 trade in so I said I'd give him that. We'd had a look at it and it would run lovely just not rev, so it was highly unlikely it was that serious, more electrical.
Sure enough £30 and a MAF sensor later it ran like a dream. I thought about keeping it instead of the 318 but it was an auto and still a little too rough to bring back to my standards without spending a bit on it. I took it for a drive up the coast at night once with the roof down and it was nice, but I decided to just sell it on. I doubled my money and it was still a lot of car even at £1600.
More to follow....
Ok, so we are now up to maybe the end of summer 2011. I’d left my job at the good engineering place as the travelling was getting on my nerves. I was doing 12 hour nightshifts with an hours travelling each way, so out of the house for 14 hours a day. My priorities had changed and I wasn’t happy living to work. It was stressful, a right pressure cooker. The directors would always say to the lads “There’s no pressure in here, you make your own pressure”. Utter rubbish.
In another lucky turn of events an old workmate knocked about with a guy that lived over the road from my girlfriend. We were chatting one day and I mentioned wanting to leave where I was. He said “Come back to our place”. So I did. Back to the company that gave me my lucky break, from van driver to CNC miller. My nightshift foreman says I’m a failed wine delivery driver.
So I now had the R1, 964T and the white horse. I’d sold the GSXR as I’d got more into car track days, so the bikes just sat there. Plus my mate Craig had bought the Cerbera so needed his garage.
I sold it with 434 miles on, so not even run in. I’ve never missed it as I never used it, although it would have been nice to collect.
As said, the Global had gone, so i now had no real use for the Volvo. It was quite thirsty doing about 35-40 miles to a tenner so I figured if i was paying that for fuel I may aswell buy something a bit nicer. I was missing my E36s so set about looking for a straight one. I bought this -
BMW 318 coupe.
When I bought it -
After some fettling -
It was only the little 4 pot but it was totally straight and clean. It had a Z4 BMW head unit with iPod connection and was cheap to run, so it done me fine.
I fitted an M3 front skirt and added a set of genuine staggered M3 Evo Sunflowers and gave it a clean up. It looked well.
I ran this as my daily into 2012.
While I had this a relative of my dads neighbour was getting rid of this below. It wouldn't rev so he thought the engine was kaputt. He was offered £800 trade in so I said I'd give him that. We'd had a look at it and it would run lovely just not rev, so it was highly unlikely it was that serious, more electrical.
Sure enough £30 and a MAF sensor later it ran like a dream. I thought about keeping it instead of the 318 but it was an auto and still a little too rough to bring back to my standards without spending a bit on it. I took it for a drive up the coast at night once with the roof down and it was nice, but I decided to just sell it on. I doubled my money and it was still a lot of car even at £1600.
More to follow....
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