From 1974 Mini to 2004 Full Fat Rangie.....

[sugarhillgang]

Hi All

Inspired by some other fantastic threads detailing other posters driving history, I thought I'd try to remember all my old cars sadly I can remember every single registration number!

OK so here is my back catalogue in cars stretching back to the early 80’s, god only knows why i didn’t take photos back then, so for the first few you will have to make do with google sourced pics.

02/1983 - First off we have a 1973 British Leyland Mini 1000 (PAA745M) in harvest gold with sage green interior. A present to me and my sister in 1983 from the old man. Learnt to drive in this and used it to drive to sixth form, closely followed by my mate in his 1973 morris 1300 endless arguments over which was fastest.

10/1984 - After finishing sixth form, and getting a job, a few pay cheques later topped up with a loan off the old man, landed me a beautiful 1977 2.0 Ghia Ford Capri (OJM176R), roman bronze with full on 70’s beige velour interior – automatic slush box too. Stolen off me Xmas 1985, and recovered less wheels and dashboard in the new year, bought back off the insurers and put back on the road with 2.8I pepperpots mk3 grille and tail lights. Alas was never the same after it was nicked and i had to change the head gasket and get rid quick (no cat d’s to declare back in the day). This was one sweet running pinto with no cam noise (unlike lots of other fords in the family back then). Following the theft my no claims bonus had taken a bashing and even 30 odd years ago the premium was £259 if i recall correctly for 3rd party, fire and theft.


04/1986 - My mate bought himself an A-series manta and i had a drive of it, always having to go one better i found myself this in very garish yellow B-series. This was a 1.9 SR Berlinetta model with black vinyl roof (UGO154R). The GTE’s were all the rage back then and i bought a fibreglass replica kit for it and “upgraded” it to the later spec, with the front air dam, side skirts and rear bumper and bootlid spoiler, all home sprayed in cellulose by my dad. I also dechromed the window surrounds and side stripes. Then I managed to source a set of berlinetta alloys from the opel spares section of the exchange and mart in a north London scrapyard to complete the look. How i wish now i had taken a photo. This motor stayed in the family for year I sold it onto my mum, who then flogged it onto my brother in law who in turn sold it to his cousin.


05/1988 - Then came my first flat and a driving commute into London everyday meant needed something sensible in the form of 1979 1100 Mini Clubman (WKG86T). I was spending all my money on a 16% mortgage so had to wait a year or so before I could afford a change.

02/1990 - Couple of decent pay rises and with my boss having a spanking new Red XR3I led me to this 1983 Caspian blue MKIII XR3i (YMV42Y). This was in really good nick but some clown had colour coded the side spats and front splitter so i flatted it all back to black, loved the original wheels and the interior. This chewed through a gearbox, so me and my long suffering dad changed it, in front of his house one freezing January weekend.


05/1991 - Was clocking up a few miles between London and the north east, so part exchanged the escort for this. A bit off piste and Christ know why it wasn’t an Sri but this 1988 Vauxhall Cavalier 2.0 GLSi (E64GHJ) was surpisingly good on fuel, mine was a hatchback and I recall the wheels were incredibly hard to clean. Dechromed the rubbing strips by fitting a red adhesive stripe and fitted the LXi rear valence and sill trims, and colour coded the door mirrors. This was one of the newest cars I've ever owned but it was fairly cheap cos it had about 80k miles on it at 3 years old.



06/1992 - My dad retired and had had a succession of cavaliers so this went to him allowing the purchase of a cherry red 1988 peugeot 309gti with still to this day my favourite alloy wheels. Very snatchy brakes but nice and quick, came out one morning to find the complete rear hatch totally shattered. Autoglass told me it probably was not vandals as they had replaced loads which had spontaneously broken. I always thought this was a bit high geared compared to the cavalier and seemed to be revving it's nuts off on the motorway. Loved it though...

Another instalment next time - think there are about 10 or 12 more motors till we get to the present day...

[sugarhillgang]

[sugarhillgang]

[sugarhillgang]

[sugarhillgang]

[sugarhillgang]

[sugarhillgang]

[Galliano]

Good read so far and some interesting cars... however... let's see the rest!!

[Emily's dad]

sugarhillgang said:

I had a 309 identical to that, only sold it to get a 309 Goodwood.
Loved my 309s and often think about getting another, but good ones are few and far between.

[Emily's dad]

sugarhillgang said:

I had a 309 identical to that, only sold it to get a 309 Goodwood.
Loved my 309s and often think about getting another, but good ones are few and far between.

[sugarhillgang]

Hi Emily's Dad, I also fancied the 309 goodwood, loved the anthracite coloured wheels and the green colour but my head was turning away from anything with a blue oval or from France and my attention was being drawn to German metal. The housing crash of 1994 had given me a spanking financially so to cheer myself up I started looking at golf gti's (mkii), this silver 8 valver (F564BKN) one was local so I part exchanged the 309 and found myself with a little bit of a project. I had wanted a big bumper model but funds didn't allow for that. I spent weeks scouring the classifieds. Eventually a set of white big bumpers with full wheel arch kit and side stripes turned up in the loot newspaper miles away in North London (no internet back then) couple of hundred quid in readies later they were in my garage. I had these professionally sprayed to match and also picked up a set of genuine vw alloys which were refurbed and diamond cut. Then spent a weekend bolting all the bits on. This was the result. (sorry about the picture)

[sugarhillgang]

I guess we are now approaching the summer of 1996, I was thinking the 8-valve gti was a little lacking in power so started looking around for a 16valve golf gti of the same vintage. There used to be a place in Wimbledon south west London that specialised in golfs and went there one Sunday for a look around, they had a lovely oak green example with leather and all the options but someone had put a deposit down on it before me so I continued my search. On the way home I saw a black 16valve in another garage. It had non-standard wheels but the rainbow interior and power steering unlike the 8-valve plus a few more refinements like electric windows and central locking. I'm a bit anal when it comes to checking service histories and I checked the stamps in the service book back with the actual dealers. this revealed it had had a bit of a mileage correction - this allowed me to knock the price down a bit and part-ex on the silver golf saw me driving away in (G228WKE). I had this slightly lowered, and fitted the eyebrow spoiler (sorry about that) - other than those two things it was totally standard and went like the clappers compared to the silver one. Thinking back this is probably my favourite car I've ever owned for sheer driving pleasure, it was a bit of a rough diamond but I loved it. It used to make a funny clicking sound when reversing and occasionally you'd get a bit of tappit noise when sitting in traffic but I forgave it all that when opening the taps on the A1 very early on Monday mornings and "pressing on".

[sugarhillgang]

sorry about the poor quality pics - these are phone pictures of photographs.

[sugarhillgang]

For some unexplained reason in 1997 I had a lapse of concentration and decided to buy this (what was I thinking?) obviously not my picture. A 1992 Renault 19 16v Chamade the series two model with more rounded grille and lights. (K982WPK). Although it was a nice looking car, I don't think I ever liked it as much as the 16v Golf. This car although with a full main dealer history and not really being that old when I got it (approx. four years) had oil pressure problems, when booting it on the motorway the oil pressure would drop massively on the dashboard then spring back up mysteriously. It also was very "cammy" and reminded me of an old Cortina my dad had once had. One night I was woken up by two nice young chaps jacking it up and helping themselves to the wheels. I had thought about running downstairs and offering them the keys to take the whole thing away but just phoned the police who arrived about two hours later, when it was sat on its brake discs. A spell of waiting for new genuine wheels from the Renault dealer and some other repairs and I new it was time to move on again.....

[sugarhillgang]

So I think we are now sometime in 1998. As mentioned on the previous thread I hated the Renault 19. My brother in law had long been a bmw fanatic and had a succession of 3 and 5 series which I'd always kind of liked. His current car at the time was a well specced 325i on a c-reg. I borrowed this for the day and was completely hooked. Always having to go one better and with an pension windfall in the bank I started looking for e30 convertibles. The e36's were way out of my budget zone, I looked far and wide, living next door to a newsagents helped as I could get my hands on the autotrader and exchange and mart super early on Thursday mornings. I looked at quite a few different motors but it was hard to find one that ticked all my boxes, until I found this in Wimbledon, South London. G960OFG 1990 325i convertible, Zinnobar red with full black leather interior including rear headrests. This was a super rare shadow-line model with factory chrome deleted to black and colour coded bumpers, alas no electric roof though. It had the 15" BBS wheels too. Can only find one picture of this. My BIL's 325i just showing in front of it.

I smoked around in this for a couple of years. I had it slightly lowered which made it handle quite nicely and look so much better. This did however result in me bumping the sump on a kerb and losing all the oil one sunday afternoon. A house move and the need to get something a little more practical led to me sell it on just after the millennium.

[sugarhillgang]

I was doing a complete refurb on my new house and my daily commute into the City of London was now by motorbike (a whole other thread when I've got the time). I was practically living in Wickes, evenings and weekends so I needed something more practical than the convertible with folding rear seats. I got a really good price back on the e30 and still liked the way the beemers drove so I stayed loyal to the brand and found a lovely early e36 325i coupe. My first automatic, this was a 1992 model (K995EYL) and the first car I put my private plate onto. Again red, beige leather interior, absolutely terrible alloys which were scuffed like crazy. The previous owner had had the bottom of the car colour coded and fitted a rear spoiler. I just had the wheels refurbed and gave it a mega t-cut and polish (it wasn't called detailing back then).

[sugarhillgang]