Mixed car/bike/kitcar history
Discussion
Just thought id do a small car history of what i have owned from learning to drive in 2000 to passing my test on the 6th attempt in 2001 lol.
I haven't got pics of most of the early stuff due to camera phones being non existent.
First car was a Mk2 89 Ford Fiesta 950 pop that i bought of my sister for £400 to learn to drive in. I did the usual of full XR2 body kit, wheels seats and even the dash. Never got to drive this with out L plates and sold it before i passed.
Once i passed in 2001 i bought a Cavalier SRi 2.0 8V for again £400. This was great to own at 18 as all the mates were in 1.0 nova's etc so it was like a rocket ship compared to them.
After then it was a bit of a blur of cars as i would swap and changed every few months going through BMW E30's to Cav's again to Escort Cabs and so on.
Early 20's saw me in the usual stuff of Impreza UK 2000 Turbo, S13 200SX, Honda Prelude 2.2 Vtec Yo. A few MR2's.
I then i came across a ST185 GT4 for sale on the owners club. A quick trip out towards Grimsby in a Friends EVO 4 and i drove home in a dog rough GT4.
This was the car after a full repaint, wheel refurbish and lots of other work. I really liked this car and still miss it.
The GT4 was sold to help with a house deposit along with the wifes MGTF.
This meant nothing nice to drive for a while so we ended up with a Passat. a car so dull and boring i never even took a picture.
After a year or so we had a bit of money saved and bought a Leon Cupra
Bought local for about £2800 if i remember right. Was a nice car and we sold it to the Wifes brother who ran it into the ground.
At this point I was wanting to do my bike test as i had rode dirt bikes as a kid and was missing being on two wheels so i did my test and passed first time.
A GSXR 600 SRAD was bought from Halifax for £950
This lasted about a year before i decided to go naked with a 2009 Z750
At this point the Wife was getting jealous and wanted to learn how to ride too. I found her a bike to learn on at the local J&S
Daelim Daystar 125
She loved this slow and crap thing but soon wanted to go faster. A project was found on eBay for a few hundred quid. I spent a few weekends rebuilding it and away she went.
Aprilia RS125
A day at Elvington airfield for the World wheelie comp. Thought it best to park the bikes near something easy to spot.
The Z750 went and was replaced by a GSXR 750 as i was getting fed up of the wind blast all the time.
Wasn't long though until i became another statistic when i got knocked off 200 yards from my house when a daft old bint decided to pull out right in front of me.
Bit of surgery later i was on the mend and so was the bike. Insurance wrote it off and payed me out.
Old front end off
New going on
All done with one hand still in a cast.
I rode again but never really felt comfortable on the GSXR due to the now knackered wrist. So i sold it and replaced it with a XJR1300.
This was a fun muscle bike but i didn't really gel with it and sold it shortly after buying. Still bike less now. I do miss them but still have a toy for the hot weather.
Through out the different cars and bikes i was a fan of kitcars. I tried to build one about 10 years ago but we were always skint so it never really got anywhere near completion.
Onyx mongoose. Sold it to a chap up in the Scottish borders. No idea if it ever got used/finished.
A few years later money was not too much of an issue so i tried again with kits.
I bought this turd unseen on eBay for way more than it was worth.
Sylva Striker with a crossflow. Upon seeing it i was a bit unhappy. so it went from this
to this
then to this
I stripped and rebuilt every thing.
Then the wife got pregnant so i sold it for a loss.
In the mean time the Wife had been through a few cars, first two i hated.
2005 Mini cooper
and then a 2013 118d
Hated both cars with a passion. The BMW was just awful.
Then she got something i really liked, a 2012 ML350. This became the family car now the little one was on the way.
We had both liked these after driving one off road in 2012 at a former employers company day out at AMG world.
It is surprisingly a very nice car to drive. Not sporty by any means but just nice to be in. Moved well for a big car too.
In 2 years and 20k miles only a nox sensor failed. We part exchanged this in a few weeks ago for the current car which i will get to later.
In 2012 early 2013 i was coming up to 30yo and had alwasy wanted a 911. Been a lover of them since i was a kid and always told the wife i wanted one before i was 30. At 29 i bought a 1999 996 Carrera 3.4
Red leather too
This was not to every ones taste but i liked it.
I bit of work was needed along the lines of new exhaust/ oil pressure sender/ tyres/ wheels/ just about all the suspension parts lol.
All sorted and i enjoyed the car for about 15 months.
I wasn't sure what to replace it with and was looking at all sorts from BMW M6 to AM V8 Vantage.
Looking on AT one day brought up a new listing for a 997 911 Carrera 2S. Went to View and bought it there and then.
This was a big improvement over the 996, felt so much nicer to drive at normal speeds where the 996 always felt too on edge.
First things first was to bin the Pzero's for some Vredestien's
Much better to drive and felt so much more planted.
About a year into ownership i decided i was fed up at work and left to start my own business. This meant selling the 997 to fund everything.
For about 2 years i just had a Van, first up was a 2011 Vito 113 that i had remapped. went pretty well for a van.
It did its job great but after a year i went Ltd with the business, sold the Vito and leased a 2016 Transporter
Still have this now and got about a year left before it goes back.
Back to the wife, in early 2017 i wanted a car again, The wife was pregnant and we needed two cars as the van wasn't really suitable to move a new born around it if the wife was out in the car. I started looking and so did the wife. I wanted to buy a Maserati Quattroporte, the wife wanted an Abarth 595.
So like all married couples we made a compromise and she got what she wanted.
Only brand new car we have ever bought.
2017 Abarth 595 145bhp
Wife loves it, I'm not so keen. Its a fun little car but just not for me.
A year later we moved house and i was looking for something to fill the now larger garage+workshop i now have. Along came eBay and a damaged Westfield.
Advert pic
Delivered to me
Stripped it all back, repaired the very light damaged, (car wasn't crashed, the trailer it was on departed from the tow car and hit some trees)
And back on the road
It has a 1.8 Zetec with twin 45 carbs and much more. currently putting out 180bhp and weighs 530kgs, but i now have a Jackson racing super charger for it. So hoping for 220/230 once fitted.
And now onto the newest arrival. Daughter is now old enough to be in a front facing seat so the ML was put up for sale. I started to look for a replacement for me. The only requirement was that it had to be child friendly ish.
Maserati Granturismo was the top of the list, Italian V8, looks and 4 proper seats. After looking at a few i was put off by the condition. For cars with low miles and full history's they just were not very well kept. I was trying to view one in wetherby but it was away having work done and the garage were not really making any effort to find out when it would be back to view.
I was looking on AT and spotted a Mustang advertised at Trust ford over in Warrington. £300 deposit and they moved it to my local Ford here in Wakefield. I went to View it as it arrived on a Friday night about 6pm. The baby car seat fitted, i test drove it and was back in at 9am the next morning to part exchange the ML.
Sales boy moving the car round the back for the night
Next day on my drive
And the engine
It hasn't been plain sailing though, a few days after buying the car it filled the inside with smoke. A quick investigation by me found that most of the bolts holding the n/s valve cover down were completely loose. I called Ford, told them and asked that they replace the valve cover gasket. Yes sir no problem, bring it in on Wednesday and it will be sorted.
Dropped it off, 8 hours later then rang to say yes it was leaking and we need to order the gasket. To say i was displeased was an understatement. After a bit of too and fro with the service manager they gave me a new gasket and i fitted it my self as i refused to let them have the car back.
I have just binned off the Ford fit Pzeros for a full set of Vredestein Ultrac Vorti.
Fitted some BMR low profile jacking rails and removed the sound tube from the engine bay.
The standard 180lbs clutch assist spring was swapped for a 35lb Steeda spring to get some feel in the pedal.
There isn't really many plans for Mods but i do keep looking at Supercharger kits. 6-700bhp does look so tempting.
I haven't got pics of most of the early stuff due to camera phones being non existent.
First car was a Mk2 89 Ford Fiesta 950 pop that i bought of my sister for £400 to learn to drive in. I did the usual of full XR2 body kit, wheels seats and even the dash. Never got to drive this with out L plates and sold it before i passed.
Once i passed in 2001 i bought a Cavalier SRi 2.0 8V for again £400. This was great to own at 18 as all the mates were in 1.0 nova's etc so it was like a rocket ship compared to them.
After then it was a bit of a blur of cars as i would swap and changed every few months going through BMW E30's to Cav's again to Escort Cabs and so on.
Early 20's saw me in the usual stuff of Impreza UK 2000 Turbo, S13 200SX, Honda Prelude 2.2 Vtec Yo. A few MR2's.
I then i came across a ST185 GT4 for sale on the owners club. A quick trip out towards Grimsby in a Friends EVO 4 and i drove home in a dog rough GT4.
This was the car after a full repaint, wheel refurbish and lots of other work. I really liked this car and still miss it.
The GT4 was sold to help with a house deposit along with the wifes MGTF.
This meant nothing nice to drive for a while so we ended up with a Passat. a car so dull and boring i never even took a picture.
After a year or so we had a bit of money saved and bought a Leon Cupra
Bought local for about £2800 if i remember right. Was a nice car and we sold it to the Wifes brother who ran it into the ground.
At this point I was wanting to do my bike test as i had rode dirt bikes as a kid and was missing being on two wheels so i did my test and passed first time.
A GSXR 600 SRAD was bought from Halifax for £950
This lasted about a year before i decided to go naked with a 2009 Z750
At this point the Wife was getting jealous and wanted to learn how to ride too. I found her a bike to learn on at the local J&S
Daelim Daystar 125
She loved this slow and crap thing but soon wanted to go faster. A project was found on eBay for a few hundred quid. I spent a few weekends rebuilding it and away she went.
Aprilia RS125
A day at Elvington airfield for the World wheelie comp. Thought it best to park the bikes near something easy to spot.
The Z750 went and was replaced by a GSXR 750 as i was getting fed up of the wind blast all the time.
Wasn't long though until i became another statistic when i got knocked off 200 yards from my house when a daft old bint decided to pull out right in front of me.
Bit of surgery later i was on the mend and so was the bike. Insurance wrote it off and payed me out.
Old front end off
New going on
All done with one hand still in a cast.
I rode again but never really felt comfortable on the GSXR due to the now knackered wrist. So i sold it and replaced it with a XJR1300.
This was a fun muscle bike but i didn't really gel with it and sold it shortly after buying. Still bike less now. I do miss them but still have a toy for the hot weather.
Through out the different cars and bikes i was a fan of kitcars. I tried to build one about 10 years ago but we were always skint so it never really got anywhere near completion.
Onyx mongoose. Sold it to a chap up in the Scottish borders. No idea if it ever got used/finished.
A few years later money was not too much of an issue so i tried again with kits.
I bought this turd unseen on eBay for way more than it was worth.
Sylva Striker with a crossflow. Upon seeing it i was a bit unhappy. so it went from this
to this
then to this
I stripped and rebuilt every thing.
Then the wife got pregnant so i sold it for a loss.
In the mean time the Wife had been through a few cars, first two i hated.
2005 Mini cooper
and then a 2013 118d
Hated both cars with a passion. The BMW was just awful.
Then she got something i really liked, a 2012 ML350. This became the family car now the little one was on the way.
We had both liked these after driving one off road in 2012 at a former employers company day out at AMG world.
It is surprisingly a very nice car to drive. Not sporty by any means but just nice to be in. Moved well for a big car too.
In 2 years and 20k miles only a nox sensor failed. We part exchanged this in a few weeks ago for the current car which i will get to later.
In 2012 early 2013 i was coming up to 30yo and had alwasy wanted a 911. Been a lover of them since i was a kid and always told the wife i wanted one before i was 30. At 29 i bought a 1999 996 Carrera 3.4
Red leather too
This was not to every ones taste but i liked it.
I bit of work was needed along the lines of new exhaust/ oil pressure sender/ tyres/ wheels/ just about all the suspension parts lol.
All sorted and i enjoyed the car for about 15 months.
I wasn't sure what to replace it with and was looking at all sorts from BMW M6 to AM V8 Vantage.
Looking on AT one day brought up a new listing for a 997 911 Carrera 2S. Went to View and bought it there and then.
This was a big improvement over the 996, felt so much nicer to drive at normal speeds where the 996 always felt too on edge.
First things first was to bin the Pzero's for some Vredestien's
Much better to drive and felt so much more planted.
About a year into ownership i decided i was fed up at work and left to start my own business. This meant selling the 997 to fund everything.
For about 2 years i just had a Van, first up was a 2011 Vito 113 that i had remapped. went pretty well for a van.
It did its job great but after a year i went Ltd with the business, sold the Vito and leased a 2016 Transporter
Still have this now and got about a year left before it goes back.
Back to the wife, in early 2017 i wanted a car again, The wife was pregnant and we needed two cars as the van wasn't really suitable to move a new born around it if the wife was out in the car. I started looking and so did the wife. I wanted to buy a Maserati Quattroporte, the wife wanted an Abarth 595.
So like all married couples we made a compromise and she got what she wanted.
Only brand new car we have ever bought.
2017 Abarth 595 145bhp
Wife loves it, I'm not so keen. Its a fun little car but just not for me.
A year later we moved house and i was looking for something to fill the now larger garage+workshop i now have. Along came eBay and a damaged Westfield.
Advert pic
Delivered to me
Stripped it all back, repaired the very light damaged, (car wasn't crashed, the trailer it was on departed from the tow car and hit some trees)
And back on the road
It has a 1.8 Zetec with twin 45 carbs and much more. currently putting out 180bhp and weighs 530kgs, but i now have a Jackson racing super charger for it. So hoping for 220/230 once fitted.
And now onto the newest arrival. Daughter is now old enough to be in a front facing seat so the ML was put up for sale. I started to look for a replacement for me. The only requirement was that it had to be child friendly ish.
Maserati Granturismo was the top of the list, Italian V8, looks and 4 proper seats. After looking at a few i was put off by the condition. For cars with low miles and full history's they just were not very well kept. I was trying to view one in wetherby but it was away having work done and the garage were not really making any effort to find out when it would be back to view.
I was looking on AT and spotted a Mustang advertised at Trust ford over in Warrington. £300 deposit and they moved it to my local Ford here in Wakefield. I went to View it as it arrived on a Friday night about 6pm. The baby car seat fitted, i test drove it and was back in at 9am the next morning to part exchange the ML.
Sales boy moving the car round the back for the night
Next day on my drive
And the engine
It hasn't been plain sailing though, a few days after buying the car it filled the inside with smoke. A quick investigation by me found that most of the bolts holding the n/s valve cover down were completely loose. I called Ford, told them and asked that they replace the valve cover gasket. Yes sir no problem, bring it in on Wednesday and it will be sorted.
Dropped it off, 8 hours later then rang to say yes it was leaking and we need to order the gasket. To say i was displeased was an understatement. After a bit of too and fro with the service manager they gave me a new gasket and i fitted it my self as i refused to let them have the car back.
I have just binned off the Ford fit Pzeros for a full set of Vredestein Ultrac Vorti.
Fitted some BMR low profile jacking rails and removed the sound tube from the engine bay.
The standard 180lbs clutch assist spring was swapped for a 35lb Steeda spring to get some feel in the pedal.
There isn't really many plans for Mods but i do keep looking at Supercharger kits. 6-700bhp does look so tempting.
Edited by CraigJ on Saturday 1st December 09:33
Chatting with the wife at breakfast this morning we were talking about the cars we have had and a few more popped into my head
In no real order:
Audi A4 2.6 V6 in Green, cant remember the year.
Ford Ka blue S reg
Ford Ka red T reg
mk2 Saxo VTR in Gold
Mk1 Saxo VTR in Blue
Celica GT ST182
Celica 1.8 VVTI 2004 i think it was in red
2001 Audi TT 180 in blue (wife's)
Megane coupe 1.6 in yellow
Puma 1.7
This was a funny one. Bought of the wife's brother for a run about. He had it for about a year before we bought it. With in a few weeks it dies one day while going round a roundabout. Towed it home and diagnosed a dead ECU. Replaced this and the car fired up, drove to the end of the drive and died again. ECU dead once again.
Put it on eBay for spares or repairs. Guy views, agrees a price and leaves a £300 deposit despite me only asking for £50 to hold it.
Weeks go past and he never gets in touch to collect. I ring and text only to be given excuses as to why he cant collect. Excuses from his gearbox failing to his house burning down. I'm not joking.
Ended up selling again on eBay for £400. so i got £700 for a £400 car.
In no real order:
Audi A4 2.6 V6 in Green, cant remember the year.
Ford Ka blue S reg
Ford Ka red T reg
mk2 Saxo VTR in Gold
Mk1 Saxo VTR in Blue
Celica GT ST182
Celica 1.8 VVTI 2004 i think it was in red
2001 Audi TT 180 in blue (wife's)
Megane coupe 1.6 in yellow
Puma 1.7
This was a funny one. Bought of the wife's brother for a run about. He had it for about a year before we bought it. With in a few weeks it dies one day while going round a roundabout. Towed it home and diagnosed a dead ECU. Replaced this and the car fired up, drove to the end of the drive and died again. ECU dead once again.
Put it on eBay for spares or repairs. Guy views, agrees a price and leaves a £300 deposit despite me only asking for £50 to hold it.
Weeks go past and he never gets in touch to collect. I ring and text only to be given excuses as to why he cant collect. Excuses from his gearbox failing to his house burning down. I'm not joking.
Ended up selling again on eBay for £400. so i got £700 for a £400 car.
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