RE: My First Car

[Klassiekerrally]

GingerNinja said:

...and would presumably try to "improve" it by replacing the V8 for a noncy V6.

Naaahhh... Don't think so. Dink loves the V8 wedges: http://pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&t...

[dinkel]

Cheers for that Wim, Dans fine 350i returns a stunning 30 mpg . . . and he does some proper driving.

Lola factory carpark tuesday:



That's Transmittermans Beemer on the left. Better mpg than his DT Longchamp for sure!

[jeffco46]

Funny innit the worst dicisions in motoring are often the most memorable.
I owned a Scimitar SE5A (the proper one) for a couple of years around 1991.
I paid far too much for it and the thing gave me more grief than you could imagine and cost me a mint to keep it alive, but I never hesitated in spending more to keep it going.
When the day came to say goodbye I had a lump in my throat like I was loosing a best mate.
The guy who bought it was going to do a full body off restore, I would love to know what happened to her.
Long shot I know but the guy was from Malton and I was in Harrogate, year was around 92
I am going to say it too "it was crap but I loved it"

[grahamw48]

Malton ?

He'll be towing a muckspreader with it now.

[-JUT-]

I've had two of these - an SE6A that was bought for £160 as a project car (talk about biting off more than you can chew...) and a very clean SE6B bought for a respectable £1000 a few years back. I say respectable because it had about 60k on the clock, no blistering to the bodywork or pitting to the chrome, and was generally in excellent condition. No major issues at all. It even came with a pair of driving gloves and aviator sunglasses in the gloevbox, and a Burt Bacharach tape in the stereo

Was brilliant fun to see people assume that you'd be a coffin dodger driving such a car, then give it some beans and step the back end out

[vsonix]

Always loved these. A good mate of my dad's had a blue one, my first ever experience of a UK B-road hoon at the tender age of about 10. We had a crappy Astra/Kadett 1.6 at the time in Dysentery Beige and I remember the first 'wow' was when I got into the Scimitar, felt like I was sitting on the floor rather than in an old-folks-home wooden armchair. Saw one on sale for a grand recently; would have been tempted if it hadn't been repainted in gloss paint with a broom (or at least, that's what it looked like)...

[Raize]

necro

[brownspeed]

I had a "bathroom blue" one with wolfrace alloys when I was a 20yr old. (my second car so doesn't qualify me really)
it looked the business.
Bobbins.
never EVER got it to reliably start once it had warmed through. would go with a good bump start.
replaced;
engine
starter motor
starter circuit
battery
ignition bits, coil, leads, dizzy etc
carb
exhaust- after the original fell off while passing through a big puddle
rear hatch struts
rear wiper
carpets
window winders
fuel tank - after it p*ssed all over my feet when i brimmed it once
rear shocks
trunnions (twice) first time after it failed on a blind bend on a country lane stranding me on 3 wheels (returning to type I suspected)
radiator- when it burst outside my mates house in chester for no apparent reason.
suffice to say i was on first name terms with AA relay.
I was going to buy an elan, but a former elan owner talked me out of it-telling me they were terribly unreliable.HAH!
PSU291P; i expect she's long dead by now

[J4CKO]

Always had a soft spot for these as a kid,kind of saw myself in one, we had a couple come through the dealers I worked for, drove them both and my abiding memory was they had a weird smell about them and were no way as fast as as I expected, they were autos and didnt feel much quicker than my 1.6 GT Capri MK1, the interiors always seemed to be damp, mouldy and falling to bits, felt a bit like a kit car, certainly cured my enthusiasm for them.