New member - my car history as a Brit in the USA
Discussion
So I've been a long time lurker of PH but never joined until now. I'm from Peterborough England but live in Saint Joseph Michigan and as such I've been lucky with the kind of car I can own here. I thought I'd introduce myself and a few of the assorted yank tanks and others I've managed to latch onto hopelessly over the years. It might look like they cost a lot but I managed to get them for under a grand with a few exceptions because they needed something done - and I acknowledge I COULD NOT have done this in England. My family was not well off & everything was out of reach - even Reggae Reggae sauce sometimes which was unacceptable. I am very thankful for America and how it has enabled me to keep my wallet on a diet & my garage full of relatively interesting if broken things - hard work = cool cars. As you can see, I was indoctrinated with a love for engines/speed at a very young age: 
The first car when I moved to North America was a POS Ford Mustang II. After being in the UK and getting fiscally raped by insurance for anything over a 1.0 L I saw it for $900 and bought it. - Big mistake, I never got it running properly as I had no mechanical knowledge at that time - but honestly it was the first vehicle to get me into cars.
So after this monstrosity I was thinking I should do justice to my roots & was feeling like I wanted to know more about fixing cars - so I bought a car that needed fixing. It was a 99' RR HSE I bought from an insurance company. Unfortunately after fixing it somebody dug a hole on the other side of a hill we off roaded over and it died an untimely death - fortunately nobody inside did.
Before it was fixed:
After it was fixed:
After it was crashed:
After the range rover ate it, I decided that 4WD/AWD was sweet & I wanted it, but maybe better MPG and a little sportier. I found this 1991 Eagle Talon TSI AWD - a strange name but an awesome car. The talon's had the 4G63T (evo motor) - it was essentially the Evos little 2 door sibling for the North American market. Made by a consortium of Mitsu and Chrysler called DSM, the popular opinion was that this meant Driver Slash Mechanic due to their notorious reliability. I got a bit better at fixing cars because of this guy:
I moved back to England a little bit and found a defender 110 diesel pickup - and loved it. America rubbed off on me and I wanted a truck. Everyone thought I was a gypsy but that was funny so I rolled with it. I live in Peterborough & it's pretty ethically diverse where I live, so I put a Union Jack on the back for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee & s
ts and giggles then kept it on until I sold the truck. I loved the thing!
Here it is with a snapped drive shaft on the side of the road in rush hour traffic:
I moved back to North America and started working on another 1991 Eagle Talon (had bottom end noise - turned out crank was snapped in two) - this time with the intention of making it into a little rallyX car. That didn't happen. I slapped a high-comp motor and big garrett turbo in there and called it a day.
Old motor:
New motor (completed):
It ended up being quite very fast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKsSbWgZAxw
Eventually I ran into so many electrical issues with the car I wanted to get rid of it - some crazy person was looking for a 4G63 & trans for his Dodge Stealth (6G72 TT). I pulled my motor & got a dodge stealth with a rod through the oil pan & spare engine/trans/transfer case (this is my current project)
Here it is stuck in the snow:
Here it is out of the snow, not bad for a '91:
This is my daily driver - '97 Range Rover which I got for $800 because it had a bad BECM (already sitting on coil springs though).
Thanks & glad to be a part of the PH community even if more often than not my cars do not have any pistons in them.
The first car when I moved to North America was a POS Ford Mustang II. After being in the UK and getting fiscally raped by insurance for anything over a 1.0 L I saw it for $900 and bought it. - Big mistake, I never got it running properly as I had no mechanical knowledge at that time - but honestly it was the first vehicle to get me into cars.
So after this monstrosity I was thinking I should do justice to my roots & was feeling like I wanted to know more about fixing cars - so I bought a car that needed fixing. It was a 99' RR HSE I bought from an insurance company. Unfortunately after fixing it somebody dug a hole on the other side of a hill we off roaded over and it died an untimely death - fortunately nobody inside did.
Before it was fixed:
After it was fixed:
After it was crashed:
After the range rover ate it, I decided that 4WD/AWD was sweet & I wanted it, but maybe better MPG and a little sportier. I found this 1991 Eagle Talon TSI AWD - a strange name but an awesome car. The talon's had the 4G63T (evo motor) - it was essentially the Evos little 2 door sibling for the North American market. Made by a consortium of Mitsu and Chrysler called DSM, the popular opinion was that this meant Driver Slash Mechanic due to their notorious reliability. I got a bit better at fixing cars because of this guy:
I moved back to England a little bit and found a defender 110 diesel pickup - and loved it. America rubbed off on me and I wanted a truck. Everyone thought I was a gypsy but that was funny so I rolled with it. I live in Peterborough & it's pretty ethically diverse where I live, so I put a Union Jack on the back for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee & s
ts and giggles then kept it on until I sold the truck. I loved the thing!Here it is with a snapped drive shaft on the side of the road in rush hour traffic:
I moved back to North America and started working on another 1991 Eagle Talon (had bottom end noise - turned out crank was snapped in two) - this time with the intention of making it into a little rallyX car. That didn't happen. I slapped a high-comp motor and big garrett turbo in there and called it a day.
Old motor:
New motor (completed):
It ended up being quite very fast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKsSbWgZAxw
Eventually I ran into so many electrical issues with the car I wanted to get rid of it - some crazy person was looking for a 4G63 & trans for his Dodge Stealth (6G72 TT). I pulled my motor & got a dodge stealth with a rod through the oil pan & spare engine/trans/transfer case (this is my current project)
Here it is stuck in the snow:
Here it is out of the snow, not bad for a '91:
This is my daily driver - '97 Range Rover which I got for $800 because it had a bad BECM (already sitting on coil springs though).
Thanks & glad to be a part of the PH community even if more often than not my cars do not have any pistons in them.
That's awesome - small world! I definitely remember buying a cam angle sensor from Spring Lake - gorgeous part of the Michigan. If I lived in Spring Lake I'd definitely be tempted to sell everything and just buy a sail boat - Lake Michigan is definitely something to behold in summer!
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