Jim's Car History - Rust, Rice & Fibreglass
Discussion
Welcome to my car history, hope you like it.
The year is 1999 and as a 17 year old I yearned for a Mini or VW Beetle as a first car.
My parents kindly bought me a nice 'safe' reliable car instead - a 1989 Metro Studio 2 which I learned to drive in before buying a and fixing up a newer K series 1.1 GTi lookalike which I passed my test in.
Whilst doing my A levels and ferrying my mates about Inbetweeners style I saved up and bought the fastest car I could insure at 18... yes that's right - a Metro 1.4 GTi:
This car was thrashed about until for a couple of years and munched through 2 head gaskets and 2 cylinder liners (my fault for trying to limp it home and not having the head skimmed) after a new engine, full Janspeed, new arches, sills and respray it was sold for what I paid for it.
I then bought a 1991 Mini City E with 44k for £600 (try doing that now) whilst at uni but it wasn't long before I was back in a Metro GTi.
I bought my first house with the OH aged 20 (scary stuff) so unfortunately I could not afford to progress in the car world so stuck with the trusty Metro. I soon became bored of the office jokes about how crap my car was so I decided to start modifying it, lowered and sitffened individualised hydrogas units, spax shocks, Yoko A510 tyres, and an 1800 K seies engine. Suprisingly my insurance was only an extra £100. This was a very rare conversion in 2002 but even rarer was the VVC conversion so this became my next project (after a brief affair with a Pug 1.9 205 GTi which didn't live up to expectations) :
The engine and gearbox came from my friend's 200VI as he was fitting a T-Series Turbo.
This car absolutely flew and managed a 14.1 1/4 mile at SantaPod. I managed to suprise red top Corsas, UK Imprezas, Sapphire Cosworths and RS Turbos. The Speedo needle went right off the 150mph clock on the Autobahn.
Sadly, I found that the car had been in a rear end shunt and not repaired properly so there were severe rust issues appearing around the rear floor, rear panel inner arches etc - time to re-shell.
I found a rare, standard GTI SE, a run of 1000 Nightfire red GTis with electric windows and 1/2 leather released to commemorate the new multi point injection system.
After new arches and a full respray, all the bits were transferred over from the old car with the addition of a limited slip differential from a Rover 200 BRM, the gearbox made a big difference and believe it or not my boss couldn't overtake me down a B road in his 997 Porsche 911:
The wife bought a Rover 200 BRM at this point, was a really nice car after we uprated the suspension sorted the induction and exhaust:
It was at this time I could now afford a second car but it had to be something special and out perform the VVC Metro.
I went for this, a 1992 RX-7 Type R:
It was fairly standard power with coilovers, cage and the all important recently rebuilt engine. Stunning acceleration, fantastic handling but extremely thirsty, I think a trip to the ring cost almost £400 in fuel alone!
I sold the VVC Metro but really needed something sensible and economical as a daily... Oops:
We're into late 2005 now and we have a baby due, time to sell the RX-7 and get something slightly more practical, a 1998 Impreza WRX STi Version 4. Imported from new, adjustable ARB, prodrive alloys, perfect:
I'd been collecting a few metro bits again and came across a local GTi in Carriberan blue with all the extras fitted (Lux pack) so sold the black one and built another VVC, this time using a later 160 engine from a 19k mile S2 Elise 111S with an AP racing LSD and some nice Yoko A032s:
Around a month after completion whilst a Curborough sprint (where the photo above was taken) I was made an offer for the car that I could not refuse, it was so good that I used the money to buy a 6 year old golf 1.8 T GTi! We have owned this for nearly 5 years now and it has been brilliant - 162k miles and still on the original gearbox, clutch and the engine has had no major work either. It has the stereotypical 18" Audi alloys along with Koni adjustable suspension, Audi TT steering rack and better bushes to liven up the legendary dull MK4 handling.
to be continued shortly...
The year is 1999 and as a 17 year old I yearned for a Mini or VW Beetle as a first car.
My parents kindly bought me a nice 'safe' reliable car instead - a 1989 Metro Studio 2 which I learned to drive in before buying a and fixing up a newer K series 1.1 GTi lookalike which I passed my test in.
Whilst doing my A levels and ferrying my mates about Inbetweeners style I saved up and bought the fastest car I could insure at 18... yes that's right - a Metro 1.4 GTi:
This car was thrashed about until for a couple of years and munched through 2 head gaskets and 2 cylinder liners (my fault for trying to limp it home and not having the head skimmed) after a new engine, full Janspeed, new arches, sills and respray it was sold for what I paid for it.
I then bought a 1991 Mini City E with 44k for £600 (try doing that now) whilst at uni but it wasn't long before I was back in a Metro GTi.
I bought my first house with the OH aged 20 (scary stuff) so unfortunately I could not afford to progress in the car world so stuck with the trusty Metro. I soon became bored of the office jokes about how crap my car was so I decided to start modifying it, lowered and sitffened individualised hydrogas units, spax shocks, Yoko A510 tyres, and an 1800 K seies engine. Suprisingly my insurance was only an extra £100. This was a very rare conversion in 2002 but even rarer was the VVC conversion so this became my next project (after a brief affair with a Pug 1.9 205 GTi which didn't live up to expectations) :
The engine and gearbox came from my friend's 200VI as he was fitting a T-Series Turbo.
This car absolutely flew and managed a 14.1 1/4 mile at SantaPod. I managed to suprise red top Corsas, UK Imprezas, Sapphire Cosworths and RS Turbos. The Speedo needle went right off the 150mph clock on the Autobahn.
Sadly, I found that the car had been in a rear end shunt and not repaired properly so there were severe rust issues appearing around the rear floor, rear panel inner arches etc - time to re-shell.
I found a rare, standard GTI SE, a run of 1000 Nightfire red GTis with electric windows and 1/2 leather released to commemorate the new multi point injection system.
After new arches and a full respray, all the bits were transferred over from the old car with the addition of a limited slip differential from a Rover 200 BRM, the gearbox made a big difference and believe it or not my boss couldn't overtake me down a B road in his 997 Porsche 911:
The wife bought a Rover 200 BRM at this point, was a really nice car after we uprated the suspension sorted the induction and exhaust:
It was at this time I could now afford a second car but it had to be something special and out perform the VVC Metro.
I went for this, a 1992 RX-7 Type R:
It was fairly standard power with coilovers, cage and the all important recently rebuilt engine. Stunning acceleration, fantastic handling but extremely thirsty, I think a trip to the ring cost almost £400 in fuel alone!
I sold the VVC Metro but really needed something sensible and economical as a daily... Oops:
We're into late 2005 now and we have a baby due, time to sell the RX-7 and get something slightly more practical, a 1998 Impreza WRX STi Version 4. Imported from new, adjustable ARB, prodrive alloys, perfect:
I'd been collecting a few metro bits again and came across a local GTi in Carriberan blue with all the extras fitted (Lux pack) so sold the black one and built another VVC, this time using a later 160 engine from a 19k mile S2 Elise 111S with an AP racing LSD and some nice Yoko A032s:
Around a month after completion whilst a Curborough sprint (where the photo above was taken) I was made an offer for the car that I could not refuse, it was so good that I used the money to buy a 6 year old golf 1.8 T GTi! We have owned this for nearly 5 years now and it has been brilliant - 162k miles and still on the original gearbox, clutch and the engine has had no major work either. It has the stereotypical 18" Audi alloys along with Koni adjustable suspension, Audi TT steering rack and better bushes to liven up the legendary dull MK4 handling.
to be continued shortly...
Edited by JimVVC on Wednesday 16th February 22:19
After a year of owning the Subaru I fancied something lightweight and VVC powered, sold the Subaru for £1000 more than I paid for it and bought this:
Really enjoyed this one, track days, holidays, even went camping in it
Met up with an old friend and had a blast down a stretch of empty dual carriageway - from a rolling start up to 70mph the Metro pulled nearly 2 car lengths ahead but then aerodynamics took over
I bought a Rover Mini Cooper at some point in 2004 and after some abuse and neglect had it restored in 2007:
Sadly it wasn't a great paint job and the car's singlepoint injection system was tired. It broke down one evening near Henley in Arden so I pushed it to a local pub and asked if I could collect it in he morning. Whilst my friend was driving it back the next day, the passenger front wheel made a run for a field taking my arch and a panel with it (probably due to a failed attempt at wheel theft). I replaced the hub and stubs and sold the car for £1k. Shame but it had put me off.
Another year went by and I was missing the addictive turbo boost so I sold the Lotus and purchased a Skyline R33 GT-R in the only colour to have, midnight purple. I bought it on Ebay without viewing it but luckily it was in great mechanical condition but the chrome alloys and carbon bootlid had to go:
I sold this to the other directors of my company who use it as a track slag, it has had a fair few engine and box rebuilds and I think it has one straight corner remaining, still it has had a good life.
Then in an attempt to be totally sensible I ended up with a 2008 Mini Cooper S, my first brand new car:
An enjoyable car let down by runflat tyres and poor build quality, luckily after about 6 trips to the dealers it was fine.
Had the itch to modify the Cooper S but didn't want to invalidate the warranty so I built another VVC Metro and sold it on for a tidy profit in 2009:
I put the money towards another project, an Impreza WRX STI V4 Type R with a blown engine. My intention was to build it into a track/weekend car but I quickly realised I couldn't really do this on a budget and we wanted to move into a bigger house. When I cleaned up the Impreza to sell it I could not believe how clean it was, not a single scratch or dent it was really immaculate. Someone came all the way from Ireland with a trailer to buy it. Made around £600 profit form just cleaning it:
The next project was this, a 9 year old Rover Mini Sportspack bought cheap and in the dark with a view to restoring it. It was, without doubt the rustiest POS I have ever owned, on top of the usual mini stuff there was a massive hole in the boot floor, the scuttle was so rotten that the dashrail had fallen off!
Ran it till the MOT expired and sold it to someone who could weld, it would have been cheaper for me to buy a new shell.
Bought one of these in May 2010 to see what all the fuss is about, a 1998 1.8S, quickly fitted some coilovers and some nice Rota alloys - handles on rails and it felt like a mini RX-7 which I guess it is:
Missing the Mini last summer, I hopped onto eBay and found a 1963 Mk1 Austin Mini Super Deluxe (I had always wanted a Mk1 since watching the Italian job) just down the road in Evesham. I went to look and made a cheeky offer. It took the owner an agonising week to consider my offer but he chose well and the car was mine:
I then decided to sell my Cooper S, after 2.5 years it had depreciated £9,000! I wasn't used to this at all so it was a relief when it sold.
This came along next, again bought very cheap out side of an eBay auction 9 days before Christmas:
The Evo was a more intense experience than the Subaru we had, acceleration was similar although the shorter gearing in the Evo made it less refined on the motorway. You may notice I talk of the Evo in the pat tense, the reason for that is sadly after hitting a massive pot hole on a muddy wet road the wife crashed it into a tree at 40mph last month! Luckily she is OK but the car is a cat B total loss. The fire crew cut the b-pillar off as a precaution when removing her from the car.
So that's the end of my car history for the moment, I haven't mentioned the 15 or so other cars I've owned briefly to fix and sell on or use for trips to the ring.
Hopefully if I get a decent payout form the insurers I'll keep the Mk1 Mini, sell the Golf and the MX-5 and get an Evo 6 or 8 and a nice sensible Focus as a company car.
Thanks for reading,
Jim.
Really enjoyed this one, track days, holidays, even went camping in it
Met up with an old friend and had a blast down a stretch of empty dual carriageway - from a rolling start up to 70mph the Metro pulled nearly 2 car lengths ahead but then aerodynamics took over
I bought a Rover Mini Cooper at some point in 2004 and after some abuse and neglect had it restored in 2007:
Sadly it wasn't a great paint job and the car's singlepoint injection system was tired. It broke down one evening near Henley in Arden so I pushed it to a local pub and asked if I could collect it in he morning. Whilst my friend was driving it back the next day, the passenger front wheel made a run for a field taking my arch and a panel with it (probably due to a failed attempt at wheel theft). I replaced the hub and stubs and sold the car for £1k. Shame but it had put me off.
Another year went by and I was missing the addictive turbo boost so I sold the Lotus and purchased a Skyline R33 GT-R in the only colour to have, midnight purple. I bought it on Ebay without viewing it but luckily it was in great mechanical condition but the chrome alloys and carbon bootlid had to go:
I sold this to the other directors of my company who use it as a track slag, it has had a fair few engine and box rebuilds and I think it has one straight corner remaining, still it has had a good life.
Then in an attempt to be totally sensible I ended up with a 2008 Mini Cooper S, my first brand new car:
An enjoyable car let down by runflat tyres and poor build quality, luckily after about 6 trips to the dealers it was fine.
Had the itch to modify the Cooper S but didn't want to invalidate the warranty so I built another VVC Metro and sold it on for a tidy profit in 2009:
I put the money towards another project, an Impreza WRX STI V4 Type R with a blown engine. My intention was to build it into a track/weekend car but I quickly realised I couldn't really do this on a budget and we wanted to move into a bigger house. When I cleaned up the Impreza to sell it I could not believe how clean it was, not a single scratch or dent it was really immaculate. Someone came all the way from Ireland with a trailer to buy it. Made around £600 profit form just cleaning it:
The next project was this, a 9 year old Rover Mini Sportspack bought cheap and in the dark with a view to restoring it. It was, without doubt the rustiest POS I have ever owned, on top of the usual mini stuff there was a massive hole in the boot floor, the scuttle was so rotten that the dashrail had fallen off!
Ran it till the MOT expired and sold it to someone who could weld, it would have been cheaper for me to buy a new shell.
Bought one of these in May 2010 to see what all the fuss is about, a 1998 1.8S, quickly fitted some coilovers and some nice Rota alloys - handles on rails and it felt like a mini RX-7 which I guess it is:
Missing the Mini last summer, I hopped onto eBay and found a 1963 Mk1 Austin Mini Super Deluxe (I had always wanted a Mk1 since watching the Italian job) just down the road in Evesham. I went to look and made a cheeky offer. It took the owner an agonising week to consider my offer but he chose well and the car was mine:
I then decided to sell my Cooper S, after 2.5 years it had depreciated £9,000! I wasn't used to this at all so it was a relief when it sold.
This came along next, again bought very cheap out side of an eBay auction 9 days before Christmas:
The Evo was a more intense experience than the Subaru we had, acceleration was similar although the shorter gearing in the Evo made it less refined on the motorway. You may notice I talk of the Evo in the pat tense, the reason for that is sadly after hitting a massive pot hole on a muddy wet road the wife crashed it into a tree at 40mph last month! Luckily she is OK but the car is a cat B total loss. The fire crew cut the b-pillar off as a precaution when removing her from the car.
So that's the end of my car history for the moment, I haven't mentioned the 15 or so other cars I've owned briefly to fix and sell on or use for trips to the ring.
Hopefully if I get a decent payout form the insurers I'll keep the Mk1 Mini, sell the Golf and the MX-5 and get an Evo 6 or 8 and a nice sensible Focus as a company car.
Thanks for reading,
Jim.
Dr G said:
I will confess to having a soft spot for the Metro GTI; a friend had one back when I was playing around with Minis.
As an impressionably 18 year old it went like stink! I'll bet they're a proper giggle with the 1800 donk, I seem to remember a bright orange one built by Reyland embarrassing much faster machinery on track days not all that long ago.
They are a very under rated car and with a few tweaks can hold their own against the usual hot hatches of that era.As an impressionably 18 year old it went like stink! I'll bet they're a proper giggle with the 1800 donk, I seem to remember a bright orange one built by Reyland embarrassing much faster machinery on track days not all that long ago.
The orange Reyland R100 was a similar spec to mine and there's a great video of it on YouTubeat Bedford
RV8 said:
You obviously have a soft spot for metros and look like you had a few great ones, I loved my Rover metro GTa it had surprising performance for a 1.4 so I imagine the 1.8 VVC was massively responsive. My humble 1.4 used to cost a fortune in tyres I think they were Pirelli P600s, it used to understeer like crazy if you booted the throttle into a corner but it handled well all things considered and could keep up with my friends 1.6 205 GTi without much effort, it was also much cheaper to run. I really neglected that car, never really did more than replace worn out brakes and tyres but it just kept going whereas my mates Gti was a shed which always required some work.
I'd kind of like another metro just for old times sake, I bet you end up with another.
My wife called it a 'mental problem' rather than a 'soft spot' but they kept me entertained whilst moving up the property ladder, those P600s were dreadful for understeer and lift off oversteer, shame the tyre size was so rare as there was so little choice. I'd kind of like another metro just for old times sake, I bet you end up with another.
I'm not sure if i'll get another but it would be silly of me to rule it out
mrtwisty said:
I'm absolutely loving the work you've done on some of those Metro's Jim, excellent stuff. Out of interest (if you can remember) what was your best time round Curborough in that wee blue beastie? (Love seeing Ferrari Californias, Lambo Gallardos et al getting trounced round there by home built pocket rockets!)
Thanks, it's quite a common conversion now but when I started out there were only a handful built so it had a great shock factor.I seem to remember a 54 seconds best time starting from the top but I could be wrong as it was years ago now. It was the fastest out of the day and beat a £14 Supercharged Saxo VTS.
Mangel said:
nice one and nice to see someone else from warks who messed with metro's
I managed to get 15's on one once!!
I had some 15" Compomotive MOs on one of the VVCs, the car seemed to lose much of the feeling and I had to pump the suspension up for clearance. They were gone within a week I managed to get 15's on one once!!
vit4 said:
Brilliant thread Jim, and something I've been looking to do quite seriously Is there any chance you could either post or PM me the details on how hard or easy it is to do the VVC swap please?
It's a very easy swap if you want to keep the original metro r65 box as you can use the original mounts, shafts etc - Try and find an R65U gearbox which are slightly stronger than the original rover metro boxes, I think they are fitted from 1ate 95 on to 1.4 & 1.6 K series engined Rovers. Is there any chance you could either post or PM me the details on how hard or easy it is to do the VVC swap please? The PG1 box as fitted to MGFs, TFs, Elises and the 1.8 Rovers is much stronger and easier to find an LSD for but you will need MGF shafts and a gear linkage (rod type) from a rover 200 or 400 with the PG1 box. The gear linkage will need to be cut down to fit the Metro.
As for wiring there are a few minor changes required to adapt the metro loom to the engine loom and you will need the matching fob, ecu and 5AS immobiliser box from the donor car, these cost around £40 to get paired up so make sure it's all out of one car. The best donor car would be a front ended MGF VVC, you can use the whole rear subframe, shafts engine, loom etc and they can be picked up for around £500.
Suspension and brakes can be uprated very easily also.
There is a great forum: www.metropower.org.uk/forum where you'll fine everything you need for sale and people such as Dave VVC can help with the wiring.
Goldmember1 said:
Yup .. Great write up
I loved my Rover Metro GTa , it was my 1st car .. H806 JSJ ( How sad that I remember the reg from 21 yrs ago
), ex-demo from David Brysons in Prestwick , 3000 miles, White , with the black side-mouldings with the red stripe , and a choke! 
I always remember I wished I could afford the Nightflame Pearlesent GTi that was in the showroom .. with the better seats ( that actually had headrests and not a hard black plastisc loop !) and ooh those red seatbelts
Despite all the things that went wrong with it over the more than 10 years and 116,000 miles of ownership - HGFs, internal heating matrix pi**ing coolant all over the inside x 2 , heavy steering and , at that time very expensive tyres , I still miss it .. and want 1 now!
Thanks for the memories
Steve
The original carbed GTas are very rare now, would have loved one from new I loved my Rover Metro GTa , it was my 1st car .. H806 JSJ ( How sad that I remember the reg from 21 yrs ago
), ex-demo from David Brysons in Prestwick , 3000 miles, White , with the black side-mouldings with the red stripe , and a choke! I always remember I wished I could afford the Nightflame Pearlesent GTi that was in the showroom .. with the better seats ( that actually had headrests and not a hard black plastisc loop !) and ooh those red seatbelts
Despite all the things that went wrong with it over the more than 10 years and 116,000 miles of ownership - HGFs, internal heating matrix pi**ing coolant all over the inside x 2 , heavy steering and , at that time very expensive tyres , I still miss it .. and want 1 now!
Thanks for the memories
Steve
iamrcb said:
enjoyed reading your post, any chance of listing ALL of your past cars?
Sure, here it is in chronological order:1989 Austin Metro 1.3 Studio 2
1992 Metro 1.1L
1991 Rover Metro Gti MPi
1990 Mini City E
1990 Mini Racing Green
1991 Rover Metro Gti MPi SE 1.8
1991 Rover Metro Gti MPi SE
1999 Rover 214 Si
1987 Peugeot 205 1.9 GTi
1990 Rover Metro Gti SPi
1993 Rover Metro Gti MPi 1.8 VVC
199r Rover 114 GTA Mpi
1999 Rover 200 BRM
1991 Rover Metro Gti MPi
1993 Rover Metro Gti MPi
1992 Rover Metro Gti MPi SE 1.8 VVC
1992 Rover Mini Cooper SPi
1989 MG Metro
1992 Rover Metro Gti MPi
1998 Rover 200VI
1992 Mazda RX-7 FD Type R
1993 Rover Metro Gti MPi
1998 Subaru Impreza STi V4
1994 Rover Metro Gti MPi 1.8 VVC
1990 MG Metro Turbo
1987 Toyota MR2
1994 Rover Metro GTi 1.8
1994 Rover Metro Gti MPi
2000 VW Golf 1.8T GTi
1999 Lotus Elise 111S
1996 Nissan Skyline GT-R
1989 Metro Turbo
1994 Rover Metro Gti
1994 Rover Metro Gti 1.8 VVC
2008 Mini Cooper S
2001 VW Lupo 1.0
1997 Subaru Impreza STI Type R V4
2000 Rover Mini Cooper Sport
1998 Mazda MX-5 1.8 S
1963 Austin Mini Super Deluxe
1996 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IV
That's a total of 41 cars in 12 years
Edited by JimVVC on Saturday 19th February 17:22
Still waiting for my insurance to make me an offer for the EVO, can't wait to go car shopping!
RV8 said:
Mine was a carb on manual choke too in BRG with the hub caps rather than alloys. I still think it was nippier than my MX5 even though it had a smaller engine and half as many valves.
I used to get ripped for having a Metro, back then novas or fiestas were more popular, the left-field choice was an AX GT whereas kids with a bit more money sometimes had corsas. In all honesty, I think the Metro is more desirable than most of them now due to it's rarity, perhaps that is rose tinted glasses but I think they have even aged pretty well.
It's true what you say, I cant remember the last time I saw a GTa or a GTi for that matter. They were never particularly common cars when I had mine and that was over ten years ago most have probably dissolved, a dvla check shows mine was off the road in 2002.
I'd say it was the rose tinted glasses but this thread shows they do have a few fans these days I used to get ripped for having a Metro, back then novas or fiestas were more popular, the left-field choice was an AX GT whereas kids with a bit more money sometimes had corsas. In all honesty, I think the Metro is more desirable than most of them now due to it's rarity, perhaps that is rose tinted glasses but I think they have even aged pretty well.
It's true what you say, I cant remember the last time I saw a GTa or a GTi for that matter. They were never particularly common cars when I had mine and that was over ten years ago most have probably dissolved, a dvla check shows mine was off the road in 2002.
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