At what point are you affluent enough to buy a supercar?
Discussion
On the financing front (apart from a couple of previous lease cars), I’ve never had car finance, but that’s just a personal preference for me as I don’t like the feeling of having someone else owning my cars. I know that sounds hypocritical when I have a mortgage, but I’d say I’m more emotionally attached to my cars than I am my house.
When it comes to buying and running a ‘supercar’, running costs vary massively from reliable cars with cheaper servicing (NSX, R8 V8), to the complete opposites (Maserati, McLarens), this is a generalisation though and you’ll always find reliable ‘unreliable’ cars and vice versa. There is also depreciation to consider as this effects ownership costs massively.
It’s important to ask what you want out of a car though, you don’t need a supercar to put a smile on your face, my old MK1 MX5 owed me about £3k after the mods and it was just an incredibly fun car that I massively regret selling, I’ve still got a hankering for another and nearly got one this year but ended up getting a Caterham.
On a similar note, if you’re wanting something that stands out, feels special and has an almost ‘supercar’ presence, then again, you don’t need to spend supercar money, my old Corvette C6 (which I sold this year for £24k) was certainly that! Common in the US, but here in the UK it was certainly an attention grabber, I’d usually come back to the car to find people taking photos and wanting to ask questions, plus it was a fantastic car to drive, will definitely have another Corvette.
The current F355 was bought for a few reasons, 1)It’s a stunning car. 2) The noise is just………I have no words to describe how good it sounds. 3) Because it’s not that fast by todays standards, so you can really open it up and enjoy the sound without instantly hitting stupid speeds. 4) Values are firming up so likely little to no depreciation cost.
When it comes to saving for a supercar, I always have one quote that has stuck in my head for many years…..”Live like others won’t, to live like others can’t”
For many years, I drove cars that weren’t necessarily ‘s**tters’, but were only worth around £5k and usually sold for as much as I paid for them, I also didn’t go on pricey holidays, spend much on clothes or go out drinking every weekend(or very much at all) and I now reap the benefits of that. You could say I missed out on some things as a teenager or my early 20’s, but I’m now approaching my mid-30’s and get to have some incredible cars with hopefully more to follow (next goal is a Diablo).
When it comes to buying and running a ‘supercar’, running costs vary massively from reliable cars with cheaper servicing (NSX, R8 V8), to the complete opposites (Maserati, McLarens), this is a generalisation though and you’ll always find reliable ‘unreliable’ cars and vice versa. There is also depreciation to consider as this effects ownership costs massively.
It’s important to ask what you want out of a car though, you don’t need a supercar to put a smile on your face, my old MK1 MX5 owed me about £3k after the mods and it was just an incredibly fun car that I massively regret selling, I’ve still got a hankering for another and nearly got one this year but ended up getting a Caterham.
On a similar note, if you’re wanting something that stands out, feels special and has an almost ‘supercar’ presence, then again, you don’t need to spend supercar money, my old Corvette C6 (which I sold this year for £24k) was certainly that! Common in the US, but here in the UK it was certainly an attention grabber, I’d usually come back to the car to find people taking photos and wanting to ask questions, plus it was a fantastic car to drive, will definitely have another Corvette.
The current F355 was bought for a few reasons, 1)It’s a stunning car. 2) The noise is just………I have no words to describe how good it sounds. 3) Because it’s not that fast by todays standards, so you can really open it up and enjoy the sound without instantly hitting stupid speeds. 4) Values are firming up so likely little to no depreciation cost.
When it comes to saving for a supercar, I always have one quote that has stuck in my head for many years…..”Live like others won’t, to live like others can’t”
For many years, I drove cars that weren’t necessarily ‘s**tters’, but were only worth around £5k and usually sold for as much as I paid for them, I also didn’t go on pricey holidays, spend much on clothes or go out drinking every weekend(or very much at all) and I now reap the benefits of that. You could say I missed out on some things as a teenager or my early 20’s, but I’m now approaching my mid-30’s and get to have some incredible cars with hopefully more to follow (next goal is a Diablo).
The whole “saving” thing to buy the car in the first place, seems a bit odd. Sacrificing other parts of your life to buy a car. Doesn’t that mean you’re not affluent enough?
I wouldn’t compromise my life style. If you’re having to save, then unless it’s new with warranty etc you’re going to need to continue to save to ensure if repairs etc come up you can cover them. That doesn’t really feel like comfortable living.
I wouldn’t compromise my life style. If you’re having to save, then unless it’s new with warranty etc you’re going to need to continue to save to ensure if repairs etc come up you can cover them. That doesn’t really feel like comfortable living.
m4tti said:
The whole “saving” thing to buy the car in the first place, seems a bit odd. Sacrificing other parts of your life to buy a car. Doesn’t that mean you’re not affluent enough?
I wouldn’t compromise my life style. If you’re having to save, then unless it’s new with warranty etc you’re going to need to continue to save to ensure if repairs etc come up you can cover them. That doesn’t really feel like comfortable living.
Some people will always sacrifice to buy things they want, cars at any level are usually a compromise or sacrifice.I wouldn’t compromise my life style. If you’re having to save, then unless it’s new with warranty etc you’re going to need to continue to save to ensure if repairs etc come up you can cover them. That doesn’t really feel like comfortable living.
Depends what sorts of compromise. If the compromise is taking the family for Sunday lunch at Harvester rather than The Ivy, or swapping 10 days in Lanzarote rather than 5* all inclusive in the Sychelles in order to run a 458 rather than a 4 Series, that's not too bad a choice if you really want the car. Sitting huddled around in jumpers instead of putting the heating on because you have a new M3 outisde rather than a Mazda is perhaps a sacrifice I wouldn't make, although given the number of late model german cars visitng the local foodbanks in 200/21 I suspect it was a choice many people didn't expect to have to make when they signed the finance agreement.
If it is drinkiing Cote de Rhone instead of CdP, only having 2 holidays a year rather than 3, having a 6 year old runabout rather than a 3 year old, keeping your carpets and sofa for 5 years rather than 3 because the wife says "Aubergine is so passe", or gods forbid not replacing your teenager's £1200 iphone because the new one is a sooooo much nicer shade of white, then these are less of a sacrifice.
People have different priorities, I've known people 'do without' in order to pay 4 figure vet bills on a 14 year old cat, rather than put it to sleep for a tenner and adopt a new one, and don't even consider a Marine aquarium if cost is a factor.
You're affluant enought to buy/own/run anything once you decide that any modifications you make to accommodate it are outweighed by the benefits of owning it.
ex-devonpaul said:
Some people will always sacrifice to buy things they want, cars at any level are usually a compromise or sacrifice.
Depends what sorts of compromise. If the compromise is taking the family for Sunday lunch at Harvester rather than The Ivy, or swapping 10 days in Lanzarote rather than 5* all inclusive in the Sychelles in order to run a 458 rather than a 4 Series, that's not too bad a choice if you really want the car. Sitting huddled around in jumpers instead of putting the heating on because you have a new M3 outisde rather than a Mazda is perhaps a sacrifice I wouldn't make, although given the number of late model german cars visitng the local foodbanks in 200/21 I suspect it was a choice many people didn't expect to have to make when they signed the finance agreement.
If it is drinkiing Cote de Rhone instead of CdP, only having 2 holidays a year rather than 3, having a 6 year old runabout rather than a 3 year old, keeping your carpets and sofa for 5 years rather than 3 because the wife says "Aubergine is so passe", or gods forbid not replacing your teenager's £1200 iphone because the new one is a sooooo much nicer shade of white, then these are less of a sacrifice.
People have different priorities, I've known people 'do without' in order to pay 4 figure vet bills on a 14 year old cat, rather than put it to sleep for a tenner and adopt a new one, and don't even consider a Marine aquarium if cost is a factor.
You're affluant enought to buy/own/run anything once you decide that any modifications you make to accommodate it are outweighed by the benefits of owning it.
Great post. Fully agree Depends what sorts of compromise. If the compromise is taking the family for Sunday lunch at Harvester rather than The Ivy, or swapping 10 days in Lanzarote rather than 5* all inclusive in the Sychelles in order to run a 458 rather than a 4 Series, that's not too bad a choice if you really want the car. Sitting huddled around in jumpers instead of putting the heating on because you have a new M3 outisde rather than a Mazda is perhaps a sacrifice I wouldn't make, although given the number of late model german cars visitng the local foodbanks in 200/21 I suspect it was a choice many people didn't expect to have to make when they signed the finance agreement.
If it is drinkiing Cote de Rhone instead of CdP, only having 2 holidays a year rather than 3, having a 6 year old runabout rather than a 3 year old, keeping your carpets and sofa for 5 years rather than 3 because the wife says "Aubergine is so passe", or gods forbid not replacing your teenager's £1200 iphone because the new one is a sooooo much nicer shade of white, then these are less of a sacrifice.
People have different priorities, I've known people 'do without' in order to pay 4 figure vet bills on a 14 year old cat, rather than put it to sleep for a tenner and adopt a new one, and don't even consider a Marine aquarium if cost is a factor.
You're affluant enought to buy/own/run anything once you decide that any modifications you make to accommodate it are outweighed by the benefits of owning it.
m4tti said:
The whole “saving” thing to buy the car in the first place, seems a bit odd. Sacrificing other parts of your life to buy a car. Doesn’t that mean you’re not affluent enough?
I wouldn’t compromise my life style. If you’re having to save, then unless it’s new with warranty etc you’re going to need to continue to save to ensure if repairs etc come up you can cover them. That doesn’t really feel like comfortable living.
If this is in reply to my comment, I should expand to say that the sacrifices I made in my earlier years were not to save up for a car, they were made to save money and work to grow my savings, which eventually led me to have enough capital to start my own business, which now allows me to afford the cars.I wouldn’t compromise my life style. If you’re having to save, then unless it’s new with warranty etc you’re going to need to continue to save to ensure if repairs etc come up you can cover them. That doesn’t really feel like comfortable living.
Lots of interesting views. I have to say, however, that if my love for Ferraris meant that we had to compromise on holidays (either in terms of destinations, durations or numbers) there would be trouble at wombat towers. I waited until I was 48 to buy my first Ferrari (brand new 355 spider) when I could afford to pay cash having sold a company. I have subsequently always bought my cars outright and never financed them but each to his/ her own.
willy wombat said:
Lots of interesting views. I have to say, however, that if my love for Ferraris meant that we had to compromise on holidays (either in terms of destinations, durations or numbers) there would be trouble at wombat towers. I waited until I was 48 to buy my first Ferrari (brand new 355 spider) when I could afford to pay cash having sold a company. I have subsequently always bought my cars outright and never financed them but each to his/ her own.
Indeed. If everyone waited until they had the cash extra, there would be a lot less of them on the roads.likesachange said:
And a lot more people ending up 6ft under before they got chance to spend their money on their dreams. YOLO
When trying to explain buying a 6 year old Maser rather than a new Ford, I ended up with "not many people lie on their deathbed thinking 'I really wish Id bought a Mondeo'"ex-devonpaul said:
Some people will always sacrifice to buy things they want, cars at any level are usually a compromise or sacrifice.
Depends what sorts of compromise. If the compromise is taking the family for Sunday lunch at Harvester rather than The Ivy, or swapping 10 days in Lanzarote rather than 5* all inclusive in the Sychelles in order to run a 458 rather than a 4 Series, that's not too bad a choice if you really want the car. Sitting huddled around in jumpers instead of putting the heating on because you have a new M3 outisde rather than a Mazda is perhaps a sacrifice I wouldn't make, although given the number of late model german cars visitng the local foodbanks in 200/21 I suspect it was a choice many people didn't expect to have to make when they signed the finance agreement.
If it is drinkiing Cote de Rhone instead of CdP, only having 2 holidays a year rather than 3, having a 6 year old runabout rather than a 3 year old, keeping your carpets and sofa for 5 years rather than 3 because the wife says "Aubergine is so passe", or gods forbid not replacing your teenager's £1200 iphone because the new one is a sooooo much nicer shade of white, then these are less of a sacrifice.
People have different priorities, I've known people 'do without' in order to pay 4 figure vet bills on a 14 year old cat, rather than put it to sleep for a tenner and adopt a new one, and don't even consider a Marine aquarium if cost is a factor.
You're affluant enought to buy/own/run anything once you decide that any modifications you make to accommodate it are outweighed by the benefits of owning it.
Great reply and fully agree!Depends what sorts of compromise. If the compromise is taking the family for Sunday lunch at Harvester rather than The Ivy, or swapping 10 days in Lanzarote rather than 5* all inclusive in the Sychelles in order to run a 458 rather than a 4 Series, that's not too bad a choice if you really want the car. Sitting huddled around in jumpers instead of putting the heating on because you have a new M3 outisde rather than a Mazda is perhaps a sacrifice I wouldn't make, although given the number of late model german cars visitng the local foodbanks in 200/21 I suspect it was a choice many people didn't expect to have to make when they signed the finance agreement.
If it is drinkiing Cote de Rhone instead of CdP, only having 2 holidays a year rather than 3, having a 6 year old runabout rather than a 3 year old, keeping your carpets and sofa for 5 years rather than 3 because the wife says "Aubergine is so passe", or gods forbid not replacing your teenager's £1200 iphone because the new one is a sooooo much nicer shade of white, then these are less of a sacrifice.
People have different priorities, I've known people 'do without' in order to pay 4 figure vet bills on a 14 year old cat, rather than put it to sleep for a tenner and adopt a new one, and don't even consider a Marine aquarium if cost is a factor.
You're affluant enought to buy/own/run anything once you decide that any modifications you make to accommodate it are outweighed by the benefits of owning it.
rat rod said:
Fessia fancier said:
rat rod said:
Better sit down with a nice cup of tea as this might take a while,well you did ask 
Think you will be disappointed ,well with the Ferrari's ,mostly 308's GT4's,GTB/GTS's ,365's and 400's when nobody wanted them,a couple of Dino's
yes even a few Monidials for the school runs and just one 465, Sorry to say never could afford any of the great Ferrari's like a Dayton,Lusso's or 275's
not even a one owner ,19.000mile Daytona for £19.995 by Maranello's,to busy buying £8K/£12K 308's ,should have sold the house and bought four of
them, thought i had Jim Davidson's 1979 Boxer in the bag putting my name to it at Maranello's for £16,500 but he cancelled his new car and kept it.
Only four Lambo' s ,a Urraco owned for a month,Espada,Jalpa and a Countach , The rest is a eclectic mix of older Aston's ,E types ,Healeys ,Jensen's
many Rollers and Bentley's 50's/60's /70's up to the 80's, lots of yanks,50's /60's land yachts,muscle cars,hot rods and trucks, five Cosi's one being a
tarmac rally car high end replica's, three Cobra's ,D Type,C type Lotus 11, lots of Porsches from 365's,924's,944's '928's to 911's including two turbo's one
which i run out of talent and totalled it in the New Forest.
A mix of track day cars including a monster of a Poniiac Firebird that run in the AMOC Intermarque series and some single seaters , a Formula 3 that
won the 85/86 F3 championship later to win the ARP series for older F3's in the early to mid 90's unfortunatly not with me behind the wheel , took a lovely
2 litre Formula Ford with all the wings and slicks in p/ex on that ,it was full proof unlike the F3 ,any fool could drive it fast even me. Getting fed up with
falling over a trailer and a mostly unused 4x4 i went on to Caterhams,
Most of them i could drive to the track and the pub on a Sunday morning unlike the single seaters,
Probabably having almost every engined 7 they did, BDA's, BDR's,Lotus twin cam's,Red Tops twin cam Vauxhall engines with twin 45's and throttle bodies ,
Still got a track one now with 235 bhp but it's being rebuilt after having a mishap ,
My favourite is the 1700 X flow which in a high state of tune kicks out huge flames ,popping and banging, did have a couple of K series engine cars but
they didn't do much for me preferring the more old school lumps .The good thing about a 7 is you can scare yourself at 80/90 mph where as you need to be
the wrong side of 150 mph in a modern Ferrari ,Lambo or Porsche to get any bum clenching moments so making them safer and more chance to keep your
licence, Sorry this was meant to be a quick abbreviated version just as well i've forgotten more than i can remember,
Don't think somehow i got any chance of changing ,been like this ever since my dad handed me the keys to his Healey 3000 at a disused aerodrome in the
New Forest and then said i could drive us home ,not sure if he was brave or stupid, that's how i 'm sure i ended up with this incurable disease,
Like most of us there's that moment that changes your life and interests or in my case obsession, would be interesting to hear how you guys got the bug
and cars owned past and present,:
PS-------- You know you are getting old when you fail to remember that you owned a manual Gallardo for six years.
having only sold it in November last year, perhaps i better back track on my statement i made the other day
about having a nineteen year old brain in a seventy year old body ,
Thanks Rat Rod, been struggling with man flu this weekend but that is an interesting read for me and I'm sure many others.
I'm not at all disappointed with the selection of Ferraris, it is an incredible number and more than one a year bought/sold on average over such a long time is something hardly anyone else can have done.
On the Boxer, Jim Davidson has a lot to answer for !
To also concurrently have a large number of other interesting cars must have been a reflection of many early morning trips to buy Exchange & Mart :-)
I'll write more when I'm perkier, but thanks in the meantime.
looking forward to that FF, Hope you are feelig well soon
The reason for the cancellation of Jim Davidsons new 308 GTS QV was that his wife was devorcing him,
not sure what number wife she was but Maranello's wasn't bothered as at the time there was a waiting list
and he had ordered it in red so saleable to the next in line, that didn't help me much but what can you do.
I had followed the build of his car ,when it was completed and had left the factory to arriving in the UK and being delivered
at Maranello's only because i had a vested interest as it involved my purchase of the Boxer ,
Felt like i was having a baby as the process took about the same time. hey ho !! such is life
Thanks Rat Rod,
I had in mind to jot down some car history as some of the posts on this thread have been a good read, although suddenly a few weeks have slipped away for various reasons.
In my case I think my initial interest was sparked by my godfather, who was very close to us. He used to drive very quickly and crash a lot, but I was a small kid and it was exciting going in the car with him. I remember he had an Alfa Giulia like the Italian job police car, which had been bitten to pieces inside by a big dog! He also had a number of other probably less interesting cars. I also remember seeing a 308 when it was launched in one of his car mags.
As a kid I used to read car mags especially on long car journeys, at night you could read a few words as you went under a street light so it was a long drawn out affair!
My parents had a couple of Saabs but when I was learning to drive we had a Maestro and then a series of company cars which were thrashed to within an inch of their lives.
When I was about 18, a friend found a Lancia Beta Coupe 1.3 for sale and asked me to look at it with him. He dismissed it as too rusty but it looked great to me. It needed a lot of work but I bought it and started to try to fix it up. It was an early brown dash car with yellow seats which were falling apart. Then, another pal told me of an advert for one that was being broken. I phoned and the seller said it had a good interior but he was colour blind so not sure of the colour, but he thought it was green. I didn't think anyone would make a car with a green interior, but bought it (it was, indeed, green - 70's colours!).
After that the next interesting car was an HPE which was three years old and stolen recovered. I foraged for the missing bits all over the place and got that on the road.
I had an X19 with the interesting special feature that the cover for the rod on the rhd throttle conversion was missing, discovered that when a friend was test-driving and rested his clutch foot on it when cornering.....
I think i was 19 when I bought my first Fulvia Coupe, saw one not far from home, had a look and was hooked, so had to find one. That was also tatty, a LHD 1.3, but spent ages taking it apart and putting it back together after some welding etc. I then had a series of 1.3 and 1.6 HF Fulvias over about 20 years, i think the first HF was bought when I was 21 and it took two trips to collect it (it was in bits) and someone welded it for six weeks full time. The Fulvia is pretty much the car I had the most fun with, including racing a 1.6 for some years. I'd still like another, but don't for the usual reasons. Actually, I've had a lot of Lancias (perhaps 30) and they are the marque that I have the most affinity with.
When i was 25 I could insure most things on a classic policy so bought an Espada. I looked at 308 GT4s but really wanted a GTB/S and could not afford to but one. That was mechanically good but bodily could do with work. I fiddled with it a bit and improved it mechanically, and had lots of fun with that. Three friends could join on adventures, and it looked and sounded out of this world. I kept it for 4-5 years until i bought a 328 GTS.
In terms of a runaround, I had a couple of Lancia Y10s, a Fire with a whole 45hp which was unburstable, and a Gtie which was actually quite nippy. Before that I had a Lancia HPE VX from when I was about 22, which I drove everywhere for about five years, that was a quick car at the time, and very versatile with a long flat load bay. I overtook a new Diablo in it at a Lancia track day at Goodwood, though to be fair it was pouring with rain and my car was pretty much valueless in comparison to the Diablo.
I got my first integrale after the HPE, a bordeaux 8v. That was a lovely car, and a guided missile at the time. It really was leagues ahead of anything else I'd had before. I sold it to a friend when I bought the above-mentioned 328 (and bought it back a few years later. It is probably in a shed somewhere, or broken).
The 328 was bought from DK, I looked at many and it was the nicest I could find, 14k miles, and black. That was a disproportionately expensive car for me at the time but I really wanted a 308 since I was small. At the time I pondered a 512 BB or a LP400 Countach either of which were only about 5k more. I kept that for 22 years, selling in 2021. Soon after I bought a bright green Jarama, which I kept for a year or two and sold to help house renovation costs. I think a bit before that, came my second integrale which was a black (non-evo) car which was also lovely and sold to a friend.
For daily cars, post Y10 we had a string of cheap Alfas, 146, several 156 (including a GTA which sounded fab and was quick at the time) and a lovely 166 and a Giulietta 1.75TBi. We have also had a Quattroporte V for ten plus years which now has 130k miles on the clock, and we've been struggling to think of a better replacement for half that time.
My last Fulvia HF was a lovely car to race in terms of handling but I wanted more speed so I got a 308 vetroresina and made that into a road legal racer (I still have that although I have not raced it for a couple of years). In terms of other interesting stuff I've had a Testarossa and integrale evo 1 for about 6-7 years now, a beautifully restored HPE VX since last year and a Countach which I bought this year. I don't really sell cars very often so they have tended to breed.
In terms of other things I'd like to try in future, and avoiding this turning into a "cars I should have bought" thread, my taste is quite narrow, generally Italian and old stuff. I'd quite like to try a modern supercar for a bit, and things like 550, new Alfa Giulia, 4C are also appealing, as is a Fulvia Fanalone.
Think you will be disappointed ,well with the Ferrari's ,mostly 308's GT4's,GTB/GTS's ,365's and 400's when nobody wanted them,a couple of Dino's
yes even a few Monidials for the school runs and just one 465, Sorry to say never could afford any of the great Ferrari's like a Dayton,Lusso's or 275's
not even a one owner ,19.000mile Daytona for £19.995 by Maranello's,to busy buying £8K/£12K 308's ,should have sold the house and bought four of
them, thought i had Jim Davidson's 1979 Boxer in the bag putting my name to it at Maranello's for £16,500 but he cancelled his new car and kept it.
Only four Lambo' s ,a Urraco owned for a month,Espada,Jalpa and a Countach , The rest is a eclectic mix of older Aston's ,E types ,Healeys ,Jensen's
many Rollers and Bentley's 50's/60's /70's up to the 80's, lots of yanks,50's /60's land yachts,muscle cars,hot rods and trucks, five Cosi's one being a
tarmac rally car high end replica's, three Cobra's ,D Type,C type Lotus 11, lots of Porsches from 365's,924's,944's '928's to 911's including two turbo's one
which i run out of talent and totalled it in the New Forest.
A mix of track day cars including a monster of a Poniiac Firebird that run in the AMOC Intermarque series and some single seaters , a Formula 3 that
won the 85/86 F3 championship later to win the ARP series for older F3's in the early to mid 90's unfortunatly not with me behind the wheel , took a lovely
2 litre Formula Ford with all the wings and slicks in p/ex on that ,it was full proof unlike the F3 ,any fool could drive it fast even me. Getting fed up with
falling over a trailer and a mostly unused 4x4 i went on to Caterhams,
Most of them i could drive to the track and the pub on a Sunday morning unlike the single seaters,
Probabably having almost every engined 7 they did, BDA's, BDR's,Lotus twin cam's,Red Tops twin cam Vauxhall engines with twin 45's and throttle bodies ,
Still got a track one now with 235 bhp but it's being rebuilt after having a mishap ,
My favourite is the 1700 X flow which in a high state of tune kicks out huge flames ,popping and banging, did have a couple of K series engine cars but
they didn't do much for me preferring the more old school lumps .The good thing about a 7 is you can scare yourself at 80/90 mph where as you need to be
the wrong side of 150 mph in a modern Ferrari ,Lambo or Porsche to get any bum clenching moments so making them safer and more chance to keep your
licence, Sorry this was meant to be a quick abbreviated version just as well i've forgotten more than i can remember,
Don't think somehow i got any chance of changing ,been like this ever since my dad handed me the keys to his Healey 3000 at a disused aerodrome in the
New Forest and then said i could drive us home ,not sure if he was brave or stupid, that's how i 'm sure i ended up with this incurable disease,
Like most of us there's that moment that changes your life and interests or in my case obsession, would be interesting to hear how you guys got the bug
and cars owned past and present,:
PS-------- You know you are getting old when you fail to remember that you owned a manual Gallardo for six years.
having only sold it in November last year, perhaps i better back track on my statement i made the other day
about having a nineteen year old brain in a seventy year old body ,
Thanks Rat Rod, been struggling with man flu this weekend but that is an interesting read for me and I'm sure many others.
I'm not at all disappointed with the selection of Ferraris, it is an incredible number and more than one a year bought/sold on average over such a long time is something hardly anyone else can have done.
On the Boxer, Jim Davidson has a lot to answer for !
To also concurrently have a large number of other interesting cars must have been a reflection of many early morning trips to buy Exchange & Mart :-)
I'll write more when I'm perkier, but thanks in the meantime.
looking forward to that FF, Hope you are feelig well soon
The reason for the cancellation of Jim Davidsons new 308 GTS QV was that his wife was devorcing him,
not sure what number wife she was but Maranello's wasn't bothered as at the time there was a waiting list
and he had ordered it in red so saleable to the next in line, that didn't help me much but what can you do.
I had followed the build of his car ,when it was completed and had left the factory to arriving in the UK and being delivered
at Maranello's only because i had a vested interest as it involved my purchase of the Boxer ,
Felt like i was having a baby as the process took about the same time. hey ho !! such is life
Thanks Rat Rod,
I had in mind to jot down some car history as some of the posts on this thread have been a good read, although suddenly a few weeks have slipped away for various reasons.
In my case I think my initial interest was sparked by my godfather, who was very close to us. He used to drive very quickly and crash a lot, but I was a small kid and it was exciting going in the car with him. I remember he had an Alfa Giulia like the Italian job police car, which had been bitten to pieces inside by a big dog! He also had a number of other probably less interesting cars. I also remember seeing a 308 when it was launched in one of his car mags.
As a kid I used to read car mags especially on long car journeys, at night you could read a few words as you went under a street light so it was a long drawn out affair!
My parents had a couple of Saabs but when I was learning to drive we had a Maestro and then a series of company cars which were thrashed to within an inch of their lives.
When I was about 18, a friend found a Lancia Beta Coupe 1.3 for sale and asked me to look at it with him. He dismissed it as too rusty but it looked great to me. It needed a lot of work but I bought it and started to try to fix it up. It was an early brown dash car with yellow seats which were falling apart. Then, another pal told me of an advert for one that was being broken. I phoned and the seller said it had a good interior but he was colour blind so not sure of the colour, but he thought it was green. I didn't think anyone would make a car with a green interior, but bought it (it was, indeed, green - 70's colours!).
After that the next interesting car was an HPE which was three years old and stolen recovered. I foraged for the missing bits all over the place and got that on the road.
I had an X19 with the interesting special feature that the cover for the rod on the rhd throttle conversion was missing, discovered that when a friend was test-driving and rested his clutch foot on it when cornering.....
I think i was 19 when I bought my first Fulvia Coupe, saw one not far from home, had a look and was hooked, so had to find one. That was also tatty, a LHD 1.3, but spent ages taking it apart and putting it back together after some welding etc. I then had a series of 1.3 and 1.6 HF Fulvias over about 20 years, i think the first HF was bought when I was 21 and it took two trips to collect it (it was in bits) and someone welded it for six weeks full time. The Fulvia is pretty much the car I had the most fun with, including racing a 1.6 for some years. I'd still like another, but don't for the usual reasons. Actually, I've had a lot of Lancias (perhaps 30) and they are the marque that I have the most affinity with.
When i was 25 I could insure most things on a classic policy so bought an Espada. I looked at 308 GT4s but really wanted a GTB/S and could not afford to but one. That was mechanically good but bodily could do with work. I fiddled with it a bit and improved it mechanically, and had lots of fun with that. Three friends could join on adventures, and it looked and sounded out of this world. I kept it for 4-5 years until i bought a 328 GTS.
In terms of a runaround, I had a couple of Lancia Y10s, a Fire with a whole 45hp which was unburstable, and a Gtie which was actually quite nippy. Before that I had a Lancia HPE VX from when I was about 22, which I drove everywhere for about five years, that was a quick car at the time, and very versatile with a long flat load bay. I overtook a new Diablo in it at a Lancia track day at Goodwood, though to be fair it was pouring with rain and my car was pretty much valueless in comparison to the Diablo.
I got my first integrale after the HPE, a bordeaux 8v. That was a lovely car, and a guided missile at the time. It really was leagues ahead of anything else I'd had before. I sold it to a friend when I bought the above-mentioned 328 (and bought it back a few years later. It is probably in a shed somewhere, or broken).
The 328 was bought from DK, I looked at many and it was the nicest I could find, 14k miles, and black. That was a disproportionately expensive car for me at the time but I really wanted a 308 since I was small. At the time I pondered a 512 BB or a LP400 Countach either of which were only about 5k more. I kept that for 22 years, selling in 2021. Soon after I bought a bright green Jarama, which I kept for a year or two and sold to help house renovation costs. I think a bit before that, came my second integrale which was a black (non-evo) car which was also lovely and sold to a friend.
For daily cars, post Y10 we had a string of cheap Alfas, 146, several 156 (including a GTA which sounded fab and was quick at the time) and a lovely 166 and a Giulietta 1.75TBi. We have also had a Quattroporte V for ten plus years which now has 130k miles on the clock, and we've been struggling to think of a better replacement for half that time.
My last Fulvia HF was a lovely car to race in terms of handling but I wanted more speed so I got a 308 vetroresina and made that into a road legal racer (I still have that although I have not raced it for a couple of years). In terms of other interesting stuff I've had a Testarossa and integrale evo 1 for about 6-7 years now, a beautifully restored HPE VX since last year and a Countach which I bought this year. I don't really sell cars very often so they have tended to breed.
In terms of other things I'd like to try in future, and avoiding this turning into a "cars I should have bought" thread, my taste is quite narrow, generally Italian and old stuff. I'd quite like to try a modern supercar for a bit, and things like 550, new Alfa Giulia, 4C are also appealing, as is a Fulvia Fanalone.
ex-devonpaul said:
Some people will always sacrifice to buy things they want, cars at any level are usually a compromise or sacrifice.
Depends what sorts of compromise. If the compromise is taking the family for Sunday lunch at Harvester rather than The Ivy, or swapping 10 days in Lanzarote rather than 5* all inclusive in the Sychelles in order to run a 458 rather than a 4 Series, that's not too bad a choice if you really want the car. Sitting huddled around in jumpers instead of putting the heating on because you have a new M3 outisde rather than a Mazda is perhaps a sacrifice I wouldn't make, although given the number of late model german cars visitng the local foodbanks in 200/21 I suspect it was a choice many people didn't expect to have to make when they signed the finance agreement.
If it is drinkiing Cote de Rhone instead of CdP, only having 2 holidays a year rather than 3, having a 6 year old runabout rather than a 3 year old, keeping your carpets and sofa for 5 years rather than 3 because the wife says "Aubergine is so passe", or gods forbid not replacing your teenager's £1200 iphone because the new one is a sooooo much nicer shade of white, then these are less of a sacrifice.
People have different priorities, I've known people 'do without' in order to pay 4 figure vet bills on a 14 year old cat, rather than put it to sleep for a tenner and adopt a new one, and don't even consider a Marine aquarium if cost is a factor.
You're affluant enought to buy/own/run anything once you decide that any modifications you make to accommodate it are outweighed by the benefits of owning it.
Yeah, that's pretty bang on isn't it.Depends what sorts of compromise. If the compromise is taking the family for Sunday lunch at Harvester rather than The Ivy, or swapping 10 days in Lanzarote rather than 5* all inclusive in the Sychelles in order to run a 458 rather than a 4 Series, that's not too bad a choice if you really want the car. Sitting huddled around in jumpers instead of putting the heating on because you have a new M3 outisde rather than a Mazda is perhaps a sacrifice I wouldn't make, although given the number of late model german cars visitng the local foodbanks in 200/21 I suspect it was a choice many people didn't expect to have to make when they signed the finance agreement.
If it is drinkiing Cote de Rhone instead of CdP, only having 2 holidays a year rather than 3, having a 6 year old runabout rather than a 3 year old, keeping your carpets and sofa for 5 years rather than 3 because the wife says "Aubergine is so passe", or gods forbid not replacing your teenager's £1200 iphone because the new one is a sooooo much nicer shade of white, then these are less of a sacrifice.
People have different priorities, I've known people 'do without' in order to pay 4 figure vet bills on a 14 year old cat, rather than put it to sleep for a tenner and adopt a new one, and don't even consider a Marine aquarium if cost is a factor.
You're affluant enought to buy/own/run anything once you decide that any modifications you make to accommodate it are outweighed by the benefits of owning it.
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