My Car History - 2007 to Present
Discussion
Hi all, sadly no Ferraris, GT-Rs or Porsches here, but here is my car collection from when I first passed at 17, through to now at the grand old age of 25.
First car after passing was a 1.8 Focus mk1, which I modified quite a lot cosmetically, and also gave the car a 4-2-1 manifold and decat, along with a cold air feed.
In this picture you will see alongside my car is a friend's Fiesta Zetec S, which had a Van Aaken turbo conversion, pushing out around 150 bhp (standard was iirc 100 bhp).
After getting bored of the Focus, I straight-swapped it for an Astra Bertone, which was dull as dishwater to drive, and horrific on fuel considering it was only a 1.8 petrol:
Eventually the time came that I wanted a car with a good power to weight ratio, so I ended up getting the train all the way from Manchester (where I was living at the time) to St Erth in Cornwall to pick up a Mk1 Saxo VTR with a VTS engine conversion. The drive back was awesome
Wanting to improve the Saxo's power to weight ratio, I completely stripped out the interior, and then refurbed the 205 GTI wheels in black, along with a black bonnet and boot. Not to everyone's tastes, i'm sure!
I ended up taking the Saxo to Trax at Silverstone and took part in the '0-60 challenge', where the car managed 6.35 seconds, which isn't too shabby. However, because I thrashed the hell out of the engine, the valves ended up becoming bent or something so I had to let her go..
Needing a spacious car to take stuff to and from uni, I went for another Focus, this time another 1.8 Zetec:
After graduating, I fancied a V8 shed of some sort, so went for a Lexus LS400 (1992). It really wasn't that fast (1800ish kg, 241 bhp), but made a wonderful throaty roar.
Then realising there was no way I could afford to run a V8 as a daily driver, I needed a reliable car for a daily 60 mile commute, so afamily friend sold me a 2002 Corolla 1.4 vvt-i. Which, with only a mere 100 bhp was actually very pleasant to drive. Can't find any pictures of that particular car, but it was basically a 3 door one of these:
By late 2012, I decided to give the whole 'living in Australia' thing a go, and while I was there, I ran a Toyota Camry 2.2, Ford Econovan and a Mistubishi Magna 3.5 V6 over the 2 years I spent there:
Had a look round, and can't find any pics of the Econovan or Magna.
Since returning to Blighty last year, I borrowed my dad's old Toyota iQ for a while, whilst saving up for my current car.
The iQ was actually pretty good fun to drive, despite being only a 1.0 3 cylinder with 64 bhp, fuel economy was tremendous, and the turning circle even more so.
So, on to my current whip, which is covered more extensively in this thread -
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Few pics here though, for your perusal:
So that's that for now. The traveller in me beckons, and in July me and three friends will be taking part in the Mongol rally, which leaves the UK in July. There will be around 500 other cars taking part. Anyone on here giving it a go? The route we've chosen will go through Europe to Turkey, then Iran, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Mongolia then back in to Russia.
First car after passing was a 1.8 Focus mk1, which I modified quite a lot cosmetically, and also gave the car a 4-2-1 manifold and decat, along with a cold air feed.
In this picture you will see alongside my car is a friend's Fiesta Zetec S, which had a Van Aaken turbo conversion, pushing out around 150 bhp (standard was iirc 100 bhp).
After getting bored of the Focus, I straight-swapped it for an Astra Bertone, which was dull as dishwater to drive, and horrific on fuel considering it was only a 1.8 petrol:
Eventually the time came that I wanted a car with a good power to weight ratio, so I ended up getting the train all the way from Manchester (where I was living at the time) to St Erth in Cornwall to pick up a Mk1 Saxo VTR with a VTS engine conversion. The drive back was awesome
Wanting to improve the Saxo's power to weight ratio, I completely stripped out the interior, and then refurbed the 205 GTI wheels in black, along with a black bonnet and boot. Not to everyone's tastes, i'm sure!
I ended up taking the Saxo to Trax at Silverstone and took part in the '0-60 challenge', where the car managed 6.35 seconds, which isn't too shabby. However, because I thrashed the hell out of the engine, the valves ended up becoming bent or something so I had to let her go..
Needing a spacious car to take stuff to and from uni, I went for another Focus, this time another 1.8 Zetec:
After graduating, I fancied a V8 shed of some sort, so went for a Lexus LS400 (1992). It really wasn't that fast (1800ish kg, 241 bhp), but made a wonderful throaty roar.
Then realising there was no way I could afford to run a V8 as a daily driver, I needed a reliable car for a daily 60 mile commute, so afamily friend sold me a 2002 Corolla 1.4 vvt-i. Which, with only a mere 100 bhp was actually very pleasant to drive. Can't find any pictures of that particular car, but it was basically a 3 door one of these:
By late 2012, I decided to give the whole 'living in Australia' thing a go, and while I was there, I ran a Toyota Camry 2.2, Ford Econovan and a Mistubishi Magna 3.5 V6 over the 2 years I spent there:
Had a look round, and can't find any pics of the Econovan or Magna.
Since returning to Blighty last year, I borrowed my dad's old Toyota iQ for a while, whilst saving up for my current car.
The iQ was actually pretty good fun to drive, despite being only a 1.0 3 cylinder with 64 bhp, fuel economy was tremendous, and the turning circle even more so.
So, on to my current whip, which is covered more extensively in this thread -
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Few pics here though, for your perusal:
So that's that for now. The traveller in me beckons, and in July me and three friends will be taking part in the Mongol rally, which leaves the UK in July. There will be around 500 other cars taking part. Anyone on here giving it a go? The route we've chosen will go through Europe to Turkey, then Iran, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Mongolia then back in to Russia.
Edited by 95Aero on Sunday 15th March 22:25
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