I have gone full Shed

[poprock]

Well now. If you’d asked me a few years ago, I never would have expected to be attempting bangernomics. Funny how circumstances change. Having only ever owned Porsche 944s in the past, I went two years as a pedestrian and have finally decided that it’s time to bite the bullet and buy a shed.

I give you the £400 Mazda MX-6.



Looks quite sexy, if you are into slightly alternative ’90s girls. The motoring equivalent of the chick with blue hair, interesting piercings, and a torn Nirvana T-shirt.

Photography hides a multitude of motoring sins, of course. The bonnet is so badly painted it looks like it was spraycanned by a five-year-old in a rainstorm. Those pretty gold alloys? Hand-painted and only on the outers. The interior stinks of nicotine and the driver’s seat has rips in the leather. The CD player won’t play CDs. Oh, and it overheated on my second day of ownership. Turns out the previous owner hadn’t grasped the importance of topping up the coolant reservoir.

There are scratches and scrapes all over the bodywork. One of the foglamp surrounds is hanging by a thread. The windscreen washers weren’t working when I picked it up. There’s a bit of cosmetic rust around the rear arches.

I tell you what though … I got a meaty Japanese V6 for only four hundred quid.



It starts on the first turnover every time and pulls like a bloomin’ train.

You know when you see an old American muscle car in a Hollywood movie and the front end rears up under acceleration? It does that. Which makes me grin in exactly the same way as the massive turbocharger on my last Porsche did.

The guy I bought this from claims that it has four-wheel steering. I don’t believe him. As far as I can tell, the UK models never offered that option - and this is definitely a UK car.

I bought this a week ago, last Friday night. Over that weekend I put 500+ miles on her. 499 of those were great fun. There other mile being the one where it overheated and I had to walk to the nearest garage for coolant and water.

If it had a leak, then the three quid bottle of sealant I ran through the radiator seems to have sorted it. There are no drips under the front end now. I spent another three quid on some (Tesco Value) Duck Tape to fix the burst driver’s seat. And a few pennies on a wee connector to patch up the windscreen washer hoses. Add on the coolant I had to fill her up with, and I’m still only at just over a tenner on maintenance so far.

I could get used to this shed lark. The only thing I can really fault is that it’s front wheel drive. For £400 though, you can’t have everything …

[S10GTA]

My first recollection of passing 100mph was as a passenger in my uncles one of these from Ower to Romsey. I must have been about 12 years old. I wasn't allowed in the car with my uncle again.

[poprock]

Yeah, it seems to be very happy at 100+mph. Not that I tried that on a public road, of course.

[lindrup119]

Great write up and looks an interesting car. Sounds like it was modified on a Shed-esq budget by the previous owner.

[ugg10]

Great car, interesting engine as it has a quite complicated variable length inlet with valves that change the length depending on load and revs but it runs a dizzy for spark ????

I had one as a banger project for the last couple of year and tried converting it to bike carbs (get to old school carb/dizzy engine, work on three wires !) but scrapped it on Monday as I have now got a new project.

I've emailed you about some left over parts I have if you are interested.

Have a search for clairetoo and see what she has done for not a lot of cash - 205hp, 40hp up on standard.

All the best, great car and wish I had still got mine but one project is enough and a Ford Anglia is plenty to occupy me.

Edited by ugg10 on Friday 27th June 15:02

[anonymous-user]

I did a few miles in one of these, they make a great noise and are unashamedly 90's Oil consumption killed off the one I used int the end. Wasn't great on fuel either!