Have you got a car you'll never part with?
Discussion
Couldn't do it...
Having bought a newer Volvo estate, this old thing found itself a bit surplus so I parked it up in the shed and then reluctantly drafted up a half arsed, minimal commitment for sale advert. Had a few interested parties, all of whom I was less than receptive to an in the end figured I needed to stop pretending so have since dragged it out, re-insured and put the wife's car up for sale instead!
Makes no sense... has next to no value, isn't desirable, collectible or particularly interesting but the idea of getting rid was making me genuinely unhappy, to the point my wife said "Oh for Christ sake, stop moping around and take the damn advert down then" one evening as I was sulking in the corner, refusing to eat and banging my head on the wall. Drove it this morning after a 5 week absence... happiness has been returned!
Having bought a newer Volvo estate, this old thing found itself a bit surplus so I parked it up in the shed and then reluctantly drafted up a half arsed, minimal commitment for sale advert. Had a few interested parties, all of whom I was less than receptive to an in the end figured I needed to stop pretending so have since dragged it out, re-insured and put the wife's car up for sale instead!
Makes no sense... has next to no value, isn't desirable, collectible or particularly interesting but the idea of getting rid was making me genuinely unhappy, to the point my wife said "Oh for Christ sake, stop moping around and take the damn advert down then" one evening as I was sulking in the corner, refusing to eat and banging my head on the wall. Drove it this morning after a 5 week absence... happiness has been returned!
The variety of enthusiast cars and the celebration of them by all in this thread is fantastic.
It embodies EXACTLY what this site is all about imho.
FWD, RWD, 4WD, 4x4, turbo, N/A, jap, Yank, *caugh* french *caugh*
?
Doesn't matter one dot. All are celebrated and respected.
Truly outstanding.
It embodies EXACTLY what this site is all about imho.
FWD, RWD, 4WD, 4x4, turbo, N/A, jap, Yank, *caugh* french *caugh*
?Doesn't matter one dot. All are celebrated and respected.
Truly outstanding.
Thoughts change too much to ever definitively say any one car is a 'keeper'.
The closest I'll get is my Clio Trophy. I've had it the longest of any car (3 years past October), they're rare, going up in value and offer the type of experience that's hard to find nowadays.
But maybe one day I'll fancy a shot of something else and it has to go to free up the funds, who knows.
The closest I'll get is my Clio Trophy. I've had it the longest of any car (3 years past October), they're rare, going up in value and offer the type of experience that's hard to find nowadays.
But maybe one day I'll fancy a shot of something else and it has to go to free up the funds, who knows.
DoubleTime said:
The variety of enthusiast cars and the celebration of them by all in this thread is fantastic.
It embodies EXACTLY what this site is all about imho.
FWD, RWD, 4WD, 4x4, turbo, N/A, jap, Yank, *caugh* french *caugh* ?
Doesn't matter one dot. All are celebrated and respected.
Truly outstanding.
Not just that, it's the background stories that really do it for me It embodies EXACTLY what this site is all about imho.
FWD, RWD, 4WD, 4x4, turbo, N/A, jap, Yank, *caugh* french *caugh*
?Doesn't matter one dot. All are celebrated and respected.
Truly outstanding.
Just a crap old Ford in anyones eyes, but I'm never selling it. My dad owned it new from 2003-2005, I have memories of going to Cornwall in it, getting my old Newfy from Scotland in it, going to my old favourite restaurant on a Saturday with my family with it. When we had it new it wouldn't rev correctly and it bottomed out all the time, it was crap, it was just a hasty replacement for our stolen 2000 Turbo, but I have some of my best memories with it. When I bought it in September it was rusty, had electric issues, clutch was starting to slip, it looked pretty run down, although it had been cleaned very well. I paid £550 for it, drove it 70 miles from Liverpool to Leeds in it that day. Got the bodywork booked in for every spec of rust to be treated and repainted, wheels are getting a refurb, ordering a Pumaspeed clutch/flywheel kit in summer, put the original stereo back in, electrics are currently being sorted too. One day it will be fully restored, I've already spent way more than the car is worth, it's had 12 years of neglect, now it's been saved from the scrapper. Laughably I got told by a guy that he was trying to buy it but the seller kept it for me to come see first, the guy said he was gonna buy it to break for parts, so I really did save it. The bottom picture is my old dog Lily coming home in it in 2004, I was in the backseat in my booster seat too 
Interior plastics looked a little nicer in 2004 mind you.
Interior plastics looked a little nicer in 2004 mind you. I think you guys can guess that mines a keeper from my first picture of the car a few days ago, today she is worth at least twice what I paid 19 years ago, even on a bad day...Money has been no object with this car, especially in the early years, today I don't go too mad but did spend over £10k 3 years ago on an engine re-build which included a lot of new mods mostly in the block to make it as strong as possible. I have a few cosmetic things to sort with the interior, exterior is very good, I won't say the usual (for it's age), it is 32 years old now but paintwork is either good or bad no matter how old the car is, mine is very good....
engine:
another outside the 'Ace cafe' at one of the monthly 'Porsche' meets last summer
regards
Pete
engine:
another outside the 'Ace cafe' at one of the monthly 'Porsche' meets last summer
regards
Pete
aaron_2000 said:
sr.guiri said:
Awesome!! But you can't possibly life anywhere in Europe, and certainly not the UK with that backdrop.
So? It looks like Bonneville salt flats to me. Could be a Canary Island with that backdrop, but it's almost certainly Bonneville. https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7389953,-112.66895...
Hope the link works
Mine is nothing special and an underdog in the jap world, but I’ve owned it for 6 years now which is around 5 years longer than anything else ! When something came up meaning I would most likely have to sell, the wife replied if I sold the car it was divorce time. She knew all to well the blood sweat and tears that went into building the car.
It’s a 1997 Mitsubishi GTO which started life as the manual non turbo. There were only around 300 in this shape and manual na’s made. It was imported to the UK in 2003 having covered a genuine and verifiable 61 000 miles. The owner bought the car and left it sitting outside on hayling island for 9 years before I bought it having never turned a wheel on UK soil.
I rebuilt the car from the wheels up taking every little bit off, cleaning up or repainting and then refitting. There wasn’t a speck or rust and everything just needed a tart up. The car itself had a budget respray through a mates body shop after I stripped and prepped most the car.
I then decided to try an untested route and threw a pair of turbos on the bog standard non turbo engine and running gear. That worked pretty well so decided to up the game and fit a pair of Subaru WRX 13T turbos and run methanol mix in the main fuel tank.
6 years on and she sits in a heated and humidity controlled garage only coming out to play in summer. It gets driven hard and spends plenty time at Santa Pod or Elvington running in TOTB.
Having already been offered way over the odds for it, it’s not going anywhere in a hurry at all !
How it spends 6 months of the year
And how it spends the other 6 months
It’s a 1997 Mitsubishi GTO which started life as the manual non turbo. There were only around 300 in this shape and manual na’s made. It was imported to the UK in 2003 having covered a genuine and verifiable 61 000 miles. The owner bought the car and left it sitting outside on hayling island for 9 years before I bought it having never turned a wheel on UK soil.
I rebuilt the car from the wheels up taking every little bit off, cleaning up or repainting and then refitting. There wasn’t a speck or rust and everything just needed a tart up. The car itself had a budget respray through a mates body shop after I stripped and prepped most the car.
I then decided to try an untested route and threw a pair of turbos on the bog standard non turbo engine and running gear. That worked pretty well so decided to up the game and fit a pair of Subaru WRX 13T turbos and run methanol mix in the main fuel tank.
6 years on and she sits in a heated and humidity controlled garage only coming out to play in summer. It gets driven hard and spends plenty time at Santa Pod or Elvington running in TOTB.
Having already been offered way over the odds for it, it’s not going anywhere in a hurry at all !
How it spends 6 months of the year
And how it spends the other 6 months
Edited by fastbikes76 on Friday 9th March 11:37
About 20 years ago I parked in a car park in central London alongside Rocco Forte’s dark blue 456. Just thought it was the most stylish thing I’d even seen. So when I finally steeled myself to get one, had to be this version for me too. Technically, the 456M is a much better car, but it lacks the 5 dials in the cockpit and the Daytona bonnet scoops. There are so many logical reasons not to keep this car (my brother calls it ‘a heap of junk’), but it just makes me happy to look at, and to drive, so it’s a keeper.
Here's mine.
Throughout my 20's I was seriously riddled with debt, with no real knowledge of how to get myself out of a massive hole which I had dug myself.
After realising that only I could resolve the situation I spent 3 years laying low, trying to pay everything off. I sold my car (which hurt), everything of relative value and lived on beans and bread for a long, long time.
Once I was clear of said debt, I suddenly had free money to spend. So treated myself to a MR2 Turbo as I always wanted one when I was younger.
It's now had a lot of money spent on it (greater than the value of the car), but it's the reminder of the freedom I felt when picking this up on May 15th, 2015. I felt like I had my life back.
No intention to get rid of it, ever.
Throughout my 20's I was seriously riddled with debt, with no real knowledge of how to get myself out of a massive hole which I had dug myself.
After realising that only I could resolve the situation I spent 3 years laying low, trying to pay everything off. I sold my car (which hurt), everything of relative value and lived on beans and bread for a long, long time.
Once I was clear of said debt, I suddenly had free money to spend. So treated myself to a MR2 Turbo as I always wanted one when I was younger.
It's now had a lot of money spent on it (greater than the value of the car), but it's the reminder of the freedom I felt when picking this up on May 15th, 2015. I felt like I had my life back.
No intention to get rid of it, ever.
Elesmart said:
Here's mine.
Throughout my 20's I was seriously riddled with debt, with no real knowledge of how to get myself out of a massive hole which I had dug myself.
After realising that only I could resolve the situation I spent 3 years laying low, trying to pay everything off. I sold my car (which hurt), everything of relative value and lived on beans and bread for a long, long time.
Once I was clear of said debt, I suddenly had free money to spend. So treated myself to a MR2 Turbo as I always wanted one when I was younger.
It's now had a lot of money spent on it (greater than the value of the car), but it's the reminder of the freedom I felt when picking this up on May 15th, 2015. I felt like I had my life back.
No intention to get rid of it, ever.
I keep thinking this is an itch i need to scratch. Had a couple of Mk1's and a Mk3 but never got around to having a Mk2. Still look good today.Throughout my 20's I was seriously riddled with debt, with no real knowledge of how to get myself out of a massive hole which I had dug myself.
After realising that only I could resolve the situation I spent 3 years laying low, trying to pay everything off. I sold my car (which hurt), everything of relative value and lived on beans and bread for a long, long time.
Once I was clear of said debt, I suddenly had free money to spend. So treated myself to a MR2 Turbo as I always wanted one when I was younger.
It's now had a lot of money spent on it (greater than the value of the car), but it's the reminder of the freedom I felt when picking this up on May 15th, 2015. I felt like I had my life back.
No intention to get rid of it, ever.
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