RE: £100K Garage: James Turner
Monday 8th December 2014
Name: James Turner
Previously owned: Peugeot 205 1.1 GL, VW Scirocco GTII, Toyota Celica GT-FOUR WRC UK, Toyota Celica GT-FOUR JDM, BMW E46 M3, Subaru Impreza WRX Wagon
Currently own: Lotus Exige S, Subaru Forester STI Litchfield, '92 Audi Cabriolet 2.6 (SORN for winter maintenance currently)
On the shortlist: "I've read loads of the £100K garages and looked at the laundry list of cars and thought, "You'd never actually drive them all." Instead, I have tried to hit as much variety and as many of the attributes I want in only three cars. This sudoku-like puzzle actually really limits what cars fit together to cover all the bases. My set of three achieves what I think is the best possible fit amongst cars that I like and want. The actual costs are only half that to buy but I've opted to spend the rest on a three-year plan for their use.
TVR Chimaera 500
Cost: £24,995
Balance: £75,005
Why I chose it: "I've always rather liked the lines, I think they have aged very gracefully, and you've got to love that noise. The concept of one being available at this age with a two-year warranty I find staggering given their reputation, but sign me up! Not as agile as the Exige I've got currently, but a capable grand tourer for Euro trips and something with sufficient class to keep its chin up in any company. It is also the key to completing the puzzle, ticking off the posh convertible RWD eight-cylinder English-ness from the list above."
Subaru Forester STI
Cost: £12,995
Balance: £62,010
Why I chose it: "Yes, I'm breaking the rules slightly in that I own one currently, but the other option would be an Audi, and I can't bring myself to be so conventional. The Forester is an amazing multi-tasker, with the speed and agility to make B-roads fun, but load space and enough creature comforts to be an excellent daily driver. MPG isn't brilliant obviously. This fine example would be treated to some modification, courtesy of Litchfield as well as uprated ARBs, fast road pads and a nice dash Defi gauge setup for boost/oil pressure/temperature."
VW Corrado VR6
Cost: £5,495
Balance: £56,515
Why I chose it: "Commonly reckoned to be one of the best front-wheel drive coupes ever, I can't imagine I need to make much justification here. The intention would be to buy a good example and slowly over time complete home maintenance and modification on it into a track day spec. Sticky tyres, brake upgrades, intake, exhaust, headers and cam, stripped interior with buckets and harness eventually. Maybe a cage. This one looks in good shape and isn't one of the limited edition Storms so I wouldn't feel too guilty messing with it."
Alfa Romeo 156
Cost: £9,000
Balance: £11,095
Why I chose it: "This is an allowance to go do fun stuff: couple of track days in the UK per year, plus big trips to the Nurburgring, Spa, and Stelvio Pass. I've also got an ambition to do the Scumrun. This requires a ~£500 banger, so it seems sensible (!) to finish with something suitably ruinous and Italian for that purpose. They say that every true petrolhead should own an Alfa at some point. At least this way, I get that ticked with the breakages and failure written in up-front as a disposable purchase. Any left over money is a contingency fund for Nurburgring barrier repairs, engine rebuilds or other unexpected surprises that may arise. Yes, I could have squeezed another car in, but I honestly don't think I would need or want one with the three above."
£100K Garage: James Turner
Three cars, three years' running costs and a charity banger included in James's selection
Previously owned: Peugeot 205 1.1 GL, VW Scirocco GTII, Toyota Celica GT-FOUR WRC UK, Toyota Celica GT-FOUR JDM, BMW E46 M3, Subaru Impreza WRX Wagon
Currently own: Lotus Exige S, Subaru Forester STI Litchfield, '92 Audi Cabriolet 2.6 (SORN for winter maintenance currently)
On the shortlist: "I've read loads of the £100K garages and looked at the laundry list of cars and thought, "You'd never actually drive them all." Instead, I have tried to hit as much variety and as many of the attributes I want in only three cars. This sudoku-like puzzle actually really limits what cars fit together to cover all the bases. My set of three achieves what I think is the best possible fit amongst cars that I like and want. The actual costs are only half that to buy but I've opted to spend the rest on a three-year plan for their use.
"Here's the puzzle set, I'd be interested to see what other solutions can be created that fulfil these conditions. Bonus marks if you can also fit in a supercharger!
- Four/six/eight cylinder
- Turbocharged, naturally aspirated
- Estate, coupe, convertible
- 4WD, FWD, RWD
- English, Japanese, German
- Daily, trackday, posh"
Cost: £24,995
Balance: £75,005
Why I chose it: "I've always rather liked the lines, I think they have aged very gracefully, and you've got to love that noise. The concept of one being available at this age with a two-year warranty I find staggering given their reputation, but sign me up! Not as agile as the Exige I've got currently, but a capable grand tourer for Euro trips and something with sufficient class to keep its chin up in any company. It is also the key to completing the puzzle, ticking off the posh convertible RWD eight-cylinder English-ness from the list above."
All other Chimaeras for sale on PH here.
Cost: £12,995
Balance: £62,010
Why I chose it: "Yes, I'm breaking the rules slightly in that I own one currently, but the other option would be an Audi, and I can't bring myself to be so conventional. The Forester is an amazing multi-tasker, with the speed and agility to make B-roads fun, but load space and enough creature comforts to be an excellent daily driver. MPG isn't brilliant obviously. This fine example would be treated to some modification, courtesy of Litchfield as well as uprated ARBs, fast road pads and a nice dash Defi gauge setup for boost/oil pressure/temperature."
See here for Foresters for sale (trying saying that in a hurry) on PH.
Cost: £5,495
Balance: £56,515
Why I chose it: "Commonly reckoned to be one of the best front-wheel drive coupes ever, I can't imagine I need to make much justification here. The intention would be to buy a good example and slowly over time complete home maintenance and modification on it into a track day spec. Sticky tyres, brake upgrades, intake, exhaust, headers and cam, stripped interior with buckets and harness eventually. Maybe a cage. This one looks in good shape and isn't one of the limited edition Storms so I wouldn't feel too guilty messing with it."
More Corrados this way!
Insurance, Tax, Servicing and Fuel
Cost: £36,420
Balance: £20,095
Why I chose it: "Well it's not optional is it? This figure is a very rough estimate of the cost of running these three for three years. If I've gone wrong I've gone wrong, sorry, man maths estimation in places. Total is about £9,800 per year, as well as about £7,000 for the mods listed above on the VW and Forester.
For TVR/VW/Subaru:
Mileage per year: 4,000/2,500/8,000
MPG: 16/25/26
Fuel: £1,525/£610/£1877
Insurance: £600/£500/£550
Tax: £230/£230/£485
Servicing & Consumables: £800/£1,200/£1,200"
Trips & Entertainment
Cost: £9,000
Balance: £11,095
Why I chose it: "This is an allowance to go do fun stuff: couple of track days in the UK per year, plus big trips to the Nurburgring, Spa, and Stelvio Pass. I've also got an ambition to do the Scumrun. This requires a ~£500 banger, so it seems sensible (!) to finish with something suitably ruinous and Italian for that purpose. They say that every true petrolhead should own an Alfa at some point. At least this way, I get that ticked with the breakages and failure written in up-front as a disposable purchase. Any left over money is a contingency fund for Nurburgring barrier repairs, engine rebuilds or other unexpected surprises that may arise. Yes, I could have squeezed another car in, but I honestly don't think I would need or want one with the three above."
Alfa 156s from £500 to £5K (and beyond!) here.
Discussion
Nice cars James, but a few things always springs to mind when reading £100,000 Garage:
First, why do people usually (not always, admittedly) specify a 4WD? Assuming most entrants are UK-based, where winters are not reliably snowy, why not just buy some winter / snow tyres for the colder months?
Second, the number of German cars specified is astounding; way more than any other nationality over the year or so that £100,000 Garage has been going. Is it still the perceived reliability / solidity that they used to trade on years ago (which is now more than matched by other manufacturing nations) or is there more to it than that?
Third, most people seem to select so many cars that they would have trouble using them all. I own 3 and barely get a chance to drive them all once in every month. Not that this would stop me buying more, given the chance...
First, why do people usually (not always, admittedly) specify a 4WD? Assuming most entrants are UK-based, where winters are not reliably snowy, why not just buy some winter / snow tyres for the colder months?
Second, the number of German cars specified is astounding; way more than any other nationality over the year or so that £100,000 Garage has been going. Is it still the perceived reliability / solidity that they used to trade on years ago (which is now more than matched by other manufacturing nations) or is there more to it than that?
Third, most people seem to select so many cars that they would have trouble using them all. I own 3 and barely get a chance to drive them all once in every month. Not that this would stop me buying more, given the chance...
Turbobanana said:
Nice cars James, but a few things always springs to mind when reading £100,000 Garage:
First, why do people usually (not always, admittedly) specify a 4WD? Assuming most entrants are UK-based, where winters are not reliably snowy, why not just buy some winter / snow tyres for the colder months?
Second, the number of German cars specified is astounding; way more than any other nationality over the year or so that £100,000 Garage has been going. Is it still the perceived reliability / solidity that they used to trade on years ago (which is now more than matched by other manufacturing nations) or is there more to it than that?
Third, most people seem to select so many cars that they would have trouble using them all. I own 3 and barely get a chance to drive them all once in every month. Not that this would stop me buying more, given the chance...
Well you could have a 2-car garage... 911 GT3 and some Audi estate and you'd be sorted for life. Possibly an S4 estate like Chris Harris had, or still has, don't know...First, why do people usually (not always, admittedly) specify a 4WD? Assuming most entrants are UK-based, where winters are not reliably snowy, why not just buy some winter / snow tyres for the colder months?
Second, the number of German cars specified is astounding; way more than any other nationality over the year or so that £100,000 Garage has been going. Is it still the perceived reliability / solidity that they used to trade on years ago (which is now more than matched by other manufacturing nations) or is there more to it than that?
Third, most people seem to select so many cars that they would have trouble using them all. I own 3 and barely get a chance to drive them all once in every month. Not that this would stop me buying more, given the chance...
Sampaio said:
Turbobanana said:
Nice cars James, but a few things always springs to mind when reading £100,000 Garage:
First, why do people usually (not always, admittedly) specify a 4WD? Assuming most entrants are UK-based, where winters are not reliably snowy, why not just buy some winter / snow tyres for the colder months?
Second, the number of German cars specified is astounding; way more than any other nationality over the year or so that £100,000 Garage has been going. Is it still the perceived reliability / solidity that they used to trade on years ago (which is now more than matched by other manufacturing nations) or is there more to it than that?
Third, most people seem to select so many cars that they would have trouble using them all. I own 3 and barely get a chance to drive them all once in every month. Not that this would stop me buying more, given the chance...
Well you could have a 2-car garage... 911 GT3 and some Audi estate and you'd be sorted for life. Possibly an S4 estate like Chris Harris had, or still has, don't know...First, why do people usually (not always, admittedly) specify a 4WD? Assuming most entrants are UK-based, where winters are not reliably snowy, why not just buy some winter / snow tyres for the colder months?
Second, the number of German cars specified is astounding; way more than any other nationality over the year or so that £100,000 Garage has been going. Is it still the perceived reliability / solidity that they used to trade on years ago (which is now more than matched by other manufacturing nations) or is there more to it than that?
Third, most people seem to select so many cars that they would have trouble using them all. I own 3 and barely get a chance to drive them all once in every month. Not that this would stop me buying more, given the chance...
Turbobanana said:
Nice cars James, but a few things always springs to mind when reading £100,000 Garage:
First, why do people usually (not always, admittedly) specify a 4WD? Assuming most entrants are UK-based, where winters are not reliably snowy, why not just buy some winter / snow tyres for the colder months?
Second, the number of German cars specified is astounding; way more than any other nationality over the year or so that £100,000 Garage has been going. Is it still the perceived reliability / solidity that they used to trade on years ago (which is now more than matched by other manufacturing nations) or is there more to it than that?
Third, most people seem to select so many cars that they would have trouble using them all. I own 3 and barely get a chance to drive them all once in every month. Not that this would stop me buying more, given the chance...
I've had basic light French hot hatches, turbo butter Japanese for breathing beasts and now a Germanic cruiser. The latter is easily the best even though in the real world it's the slowest.First, why do people usually (not always, admittedly) specify a 4WD? Assuming most entrants are UK-based, where winters are not reliably snowy, why not just buy some winter / snow tyres for the colder months?
Second, the number of German cars specified is astounding; way more than any other nationality over the year or so that £100,000 Garage has been going. Is it still the perceived reliability / solidity that they used to trade on years ago (which is now more than matched by other manufacturing nations) or is there more to it than that?
Third, most people seem to select so many cars that they would have trouble using them all. I own 3 and barely get a chance to drive them all once in every month. Not that this would stop me buying more, given the chance...
That's brilliant, the three cars in my household cover very similar bases.
MX5 for I4, RWD convertible and easy to live with.
Legacy estate for AWD, flat-four everyday practical use and holidays.
Corrado VR6 for six pots and weekend fun use.
Our three are probably worth 10k with the wind behind them but that's ok by me.
MX5 for I4, RWD convertible and easy to live with.
Legacy estate for AWD, flat-four everyday practical use and holidays.
Corrado VR6 for six pots and weekend fun use.
Our three are probably worth 10k with the wind behind them but that's ok by me.
Sampaio said:
Well you could have a 2-car garage... 911 GT3 and some Audi estate and you'd be sorted for life. Possibly an S4 estate like Chris Harris had, or still has, don't know...
In the real world I think that's what people would usually do if they didn't just buy one brand new SUV, etc.I bought an £80k Ferrari spider for sunny days when the kid is at school, all the track days I can get to and the odd solo blast through the countryside. I then also bought a £20k Range Rover for everything else, including work and moving stock around. It seems strange to put 80% of the budget on a 'special occasions' car I sometimes feel, but then again this setup really cuts depreciation as they are both well along their respective curves. Plus the day to day car works well being relatively cheap, because you don't feel bad parking up at the supermarket, chucking junk in the back, etc. A new £70k Range Rover would have a lot less utility for me as I'd be nervous to use it properly for fear of losing £££ damaging / scratching it!
sealtt said:
Sampaio said:
Well you could have a 2-car garage... 911 GT3 and some Audi estate and you'd be sorted for life. Possibly an S4 estate like Chris Harris had, or still has, don't know...
In the real world I think that's what people would usually do if they didn't just buy one brand new SUV, etc.I bought an £80k Ferrari spider for sunny days when the kid is at school, all the track days I can get to and the odd solo blast through the countryside. I then also bought a £20k Range Rover for everything else, including work and moving stock around. It seems strange to put 80% of the budget on a 'special occasions' car I sometimes feel, but then again this setup really cuts depreciation as they are both well along their respective curves. Plus the day to day car works well being relatively cheap, because you don't feel bad parking up at the supermarket, chucking junk in the back, etc. A new £70k Range Rover would have a lot less utility for me as I'd be nervous to use it properly for fear of losing £££ damaging / scratching it!
Delighted to have had my garage published. It had to happen on the one day I was out of the office and not checking threads obsessively. 
Responding to comments above:
X5TUU - Putting costs in was my take on how to offer a different garage. I'm surprised no-one has queried my maths.
T1berious - I know... that warranty is a major temptation. Going to be visiting that garage come the spring.
Turbobanana - 4wd - Yes, it's a common spec. In my case it's part of a deliberate choice to have front, rear and 4wd. Yes, it's rarely needed in the Uk, but when you need it you tend to really need it. And having a daily that can hack across a field is, admittedly rarely, just adding extra options. Why not. Germans - I went for 1 in 3. They make some very good cars, I think avoiding them deliberately would be too partisan. Number of cars - 3 is the maximum I would contemplate based on my total mileage (10-15K per annum). I agree that it's very easy to just let one be neglected if you have too many options.
Sampaio - Two cars might be more practical and allow more expensive choices, but I can't quite get everything I want from cars compressed down into two shells.
sealtt - Agree that there is some undefinable balance between how much is invested in a car and what you end up doing with it. And the value you get out isn't always highest for the most expensive vehicle. In this fantasy garage for example I'm looking to shift my trackday option to the cheapest vehicle, because there have been times I've been on track and nervous about how much money I'm driving around in... That would be even more apparent on the 'Ring I'm sure.
MentalRental - Agreed. They're getting rarer and going gently upwards in price I think but all I'd need is one with good mechanical condition if I'm going to strip it anyway.
alexpa - Looked at DC2s but wanted 6 cylinder. The VR6 could be supercharged I guess.
mikEsprit - I'd look at it as being practical rather than clever. I fully intend to follow through on this garage selection (perhaps with a cheaper 400 rather than the 500) in the next year or two so I am thinking perhaps in a different mindset from the purely fantastical. I know I've cheated and not really answered the exam question, but then that's my prerogative.
Phil303 - I know. It's preying on my mind... :s
j_s14a - Not ready to buy just yet, but I'll keep an eye out for it.
synXero - Could do (I watched that MCM video series... awesome build. I love how much detail they go into.) but then you'd have two Japanese and no German... Here's a challenge, meet all the criteria using a Honda S2000 as starting point.
Edited by Ryvita on Tuesday 9th December 10:30
Ryvita said:
alexpa - Looked at DC2s but wanted 6 cylinder. The VR6 could be supercharged I guess.
The VR6 engine takes a centrifugal supercharger like the Vortech or Rotrex very well and fits neatly in the space occupied by the stock airbox. Expect around 270bhp (up from the stock 190bhp). If your wallet is bigger, then turbocharging the engine is well understood and yields around 330bhp.
I went down the NA route and ended up with around 235bhp but for what I spent I probably should have gone straight to Forced Induction. But it was fun bringing the car out to OEM+ spec.
JonRB - I have a friend with a MkII Golf with a transplanted VR6; he has intentions to supercharge I believe, will watch and learn from his experience and see how I get on...
The Corrado is just gorgeous. I used to have an old Scirocco GTII and at the time a guy I worked with had a G60 Corrado... Was very very envious.
The Corrado is just gorgeous. I used to have an old Scirocco GTII and at the time a guy I worked with had a G60 Corrado... Was very very envious.
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