Cars you wish you'd kept.
Discussion
205 1.9 GTi 
bought it for £750 in 2004, sold it for £500 in 2005. Black, red carpets, no mods, completely original and mostly reliable, Goodyear Eagle F1s all round 
God I miss that car so badly.
E2** MUC was the reg, wonder if its still out there. I would seriously consider buying it back if I could find it.
bought it for £750 in 2004, sold it for £500 in 2005. Black, red carpets, no mods, completely original and mostly reliable, Goodyear Eagle F1s all round God I miss that car so badly.E2** MUC was the reg, wonder if its still out there. I would seriously consider buying it back if I could find it.
My 205Gti 1.9 Cherry red non sunroof.............
Actually no - IMHO they're overated, great to drive but are made out of monkey metal (def: reconstituted soft drink cans) and every job was a thread stripped here or something bent there. The fuel injection was s
t and the valves always rattled and it disgraced itself on the M62 when it lost its coolant and the low coolant level switch stuck - que blown headgasket. Despite a rebuild by the same guys that built Richard Burns championship winning 205 it was never the same so RIP F323MLL.
Two that I should have kept would have been the mint 1.6DOHC CRX, AKA the silver bullet, a great great car that seemed to get more economical the faster it went or the Avanti tuned Strada Abarth with twin solex's on ram pipes - oh the noise, the noise!
Actually no - IMHO they're overated, great to drive but are made out of monkey metal (def: reconstituted soft drink cans) and every job was a thread stripped here or something bent there. The fuel injection was s
t and the valves always rattled and it disgraced itself on the M62 when it lost its coolant and the low coolant level switch stuck - que blown headgasket. Despite a rebuild by the same guys that built Richard Burns championship winning 205 it was never the same so RIP F323MLL.Two that I should have kept would have been the mint 1.6DOHC CRX, AKA the silver bullet, a great great car that seemed to get more economical the faster it went or the Avanti tuned Strada Abarth with twin solex's on ram pipes - oh the noise, the noise!
1981 Mitsubishi Colt Mirage 1.5GLX hatchback.
Bought it for £400 in 1992 when I was down on my luck, drove it for a year, superb in every way, sold it for £600 when things picked up for me and bought something "better".
Truth is, since then I've had some really nice cars, but nothing I've liked as much as the Colt.
Bought it for £400 in 1992 when I was down on my luck, drove it for a year, superb in every way, sold it for £600 when things picked up for me and bought something "better".
Truth is, since then I've had some really nice cars, but nothing I've liked as much as the Colt.
Yellow Dolomite Sprint TYN925M. Unreliable doesn't cover it but looked and sounded stunning when it went.
Red Mk5 Cortina 1.6L COM856V. The car from the best year of my life, the beginning of living.
Gun metal Pug 205GTi B59ARN. Skip Brown converted 1.6 to 1.9 but still with the 1.6 head, ran out of steam at 4500rpm but when I changed the head to a 1.9 one, Jesus it was a fast one.
Gun metal Pug 1.4 XS, light as an empty egg box with handling that would shame the 1.9 every day.
Silver Celica GT4 ST205 L***EAB. Fastest thing I have driven or owned after a few simple mode. Sold it to move to France.
There are plenty I still miss but on balance they're better off gone and lots just better off gone, like my 1500 SUPER Allegro lol.
Red Mk5 Cortina 1.6L COM856V. The car from the best year of my life, the beginning of living.
Gun metal Pug 205GTi B59ARN. Skip Brown converted 1.6 to 1.9 but still with the 1.6 head, ran out of steam at 4500rpm but when I changed the head to a 1.9 one, Jesus it was a fast one.
Gun metal Pug 1.4 XS, light as an empty egg box with handling that would shame the 1.9 every day.
Silver Celica GT4 ST205 L***EAB. Fastest thing I have driven or owned after a few simple mode. Sold it to move to France.
There are plenty I still miss but on balance they're better off gone and lots just better off gone, like my 1500 SUPER Allegro lol.
Vauxhall Nova Sport.
Bought it in 92 only 6 years old at the time with full service history and all original documentation in a file.
Receipts for everything ever bought for car, even screenwash and air fresheners.
Used to love it when getting pulled over by police and told 'that exhaust is too noisy to be road legal-get it replaced, only to go in glovebox and show them the original sport info-pack and fitting instructions.'
Couldn't believe it was only group 5 insurance for such a pocket rocket.
£200 a year to insure at 22 years old.
As well as Webers and Sport exhaust mine was also fitted with a Kent cam and had the head gasflowed before I bought it. I took it to Atkinson Motorsport in Kendall to get setup on rolling road which made a massive improvement.
Unfortunately after 2 years Max Power magazine arrived and stupidly made me desire a R5 GT Turbo.
Swapped the Sport for a R5 and regretted it instantly.
Was back at the guys door within days trying to swap back, even offering lots of cash to try to get it back.
Young lad refused any offer to give Sport back, then wrote it off soon after.
When I see the prices they are fetching now I could cry.
Bought it in 92 only 6 years old at the time with full service history and all original documentation in a file.
Receipts for everything ever bought for car, even screenwash and air fresheners.
Used to love it when getting pulled over by police and told 'that exhaust is too noisy to be road legal-get it replaced, only to go in glovebox and show them the original sport info-pack and fitting instructions.'
Couldn't believe it was only group 5 insurance for such a pocket rocket.
£200 a year to insure at 22 years old.
As well as Webers and Sport exhaust mine was also fitted with a Kent cam and had the head gasflowed before I bought it. I took it to Atkinson Motorsport in Kendall to get setup on rolling road which made a massive improvement.
Unfortunately after 2 years Max Power magazine arrived and stupidly made me desire a R5 GT Turbo.
Swapped the Sport for a R5 and regretted it instantly.
Was back at the guys door within days trying to swap back, even offering lots of cash to try to get it back.
Young lad refused any offer to give Sport back, then wrote it off soon after.
When I see the prices they are fetching now I could cry.
Agent Orange said:
speedtwelve said:
Schrick 268s on mine. AMD fettled it originally, but it was worked on latterly by Vince at Stealth. Despite a complete engine rebuild top and bottom it never quite gave the results on the dyno; 220bhp at the fly was about as good as it got. Plenty of torque and in-gear performance, though. JonRB seemed to get better results from a similar setup on his Corrado.
Mine topped at 229bhp on the AMD dyno but like you say plenty of torque and in gear performance. Those mods transformed the VR6. Yep JonRB spoke/emailed me about the mods when he was doing his. Loved that car!If you were in search of pure hp though you needed to go the route Guy H and Tony C-I went with a supercharger. World of pain that route though!
Kieron
I still miss my '99 Subaru Impreza Turbo 
. It was the 'classic shape' in low-key silver with no chavvy modifications.
I miss the performance, obviously. 215 bhp doesn't sound much by today's standards but the car only weighed 1200 kg, so was much lighter than a modern 260 bhp hot hatch.
The acceleration wasn't the best bit, though. That was the wonderfully poised handling and superb grip & traction. The car felt as if it had been designed specifically for crappy British roads and awful British weather. I miss the supple ride which absorbed bumps rather than crashing over them, the excellent seats and lovely Momo wheel. I miss the way it ticked as it cooled after a blast round the back roads.
It wasn't all good, of course. The car was ridiculously thirsty (24 mpg max) and needed servicing every 5 months. I was driving 17k+ miles a year so when the price of petrol went through the roof it had to go and be replaced by a diesel hatchback which cost £100 pm less to run.
No diesel hatchback will ever sound like a Scooby, though
.
. It was the 'classic shape' in low-key silver with no chavvy modifications.I miss the performance, obviously. 215 bhp doesn't sound much by today's standards but the car only weighed 1200 kg, so was much lighter than a modern 260 bhp hot hatch.
The acceleration wasn't the best bit, though. That was the wonderfully poised handling and superb grip & traction. The car felt as if it had been designed specifically for crappy British roads and awful British weather. I miss the supple ride which absorbed bumps rather than crashing over them, the excellent seats and lovely Momo wheel. I miss the way it ticked as it cooled after a blast round the back roads.
It wasn't all good, of course. The car was ridiculously thirsty (24 mpg max) and needed servicing every 5 months. I was driving 17k+ miles a year so when the price of petrol went through the roof it had to go and be replaced by a diesel hatchback which cost £100 pm less to run.
No diesel hatchback will ever sound like a Scooby, though
.
essexplumber said:
Goodyear Eagle F1s all round
Agree completely. My Impreza was always shod with Eagle F1s. They were absolutely superb in the wet, when they allowed us to drive rings round almost everything else on the road, particularly the likes of AMG Mercs, which had too much power and no traction. The best all-round tyres money could buy at the time.
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