My Car History
Discussion
This is my first post on the Pistonheads forum so I apologise now for the poor wording and most likely long length of this post. Ive always been a car enthusiast and since I starting driving have wanted to do something like this. I have a free Sunday evening so I though, why not now? Ive recently bought a BMW 328i that I want to do a build thread on and though ide do this first as an introduction.
I started driving in 2012 and was limited to what was affordable to both buy and insure. I ended up buying a 1.2 renault clio, I'm going to skip over this but long story short, it was a small, unreliable french s
tebox which actually really enjoyed driving and started what is now an unhealthy obsession with cars. It was a noble steed and did the job of getting too and from both work and college, as well as the occasional road trip.
I owned the clio for just under two years and decided I wanted to replace it with something quick and more fun to drive. I initially wanted to replace it with either a Clio 182 Trophy (looking back this was a mistake) or 197 cup, both were reasonably affordable to buy, insure and fitted the bill. At this point I had become a fan of Mighty Car Mods and they were building a Turbo MK1 MX5. I was never really interested in Modified cars, I just wanted to buy something, drive it, sell it on then step up to something a bit quicker. However, I went to Japfest at castle combe and saw loads of modified MK1 MX5s scattered all over the place and convinced myself I needed to buy one as soon as possible. I got home, looked on eBay and found one for sale fairly local, which the owner agreed to drop off to my house if i covered the fuel costs. it was a 1.6, British racing green, MK1 Eunos Roadster and had a couple of months MOT left, the owner was honest about the issues it had that needed resolving. I still had the Clio at this point, so I decided to buy it for the cost of £800 and keep it in the garage as a project until it was repaired and my insurance was up for renewal.
This is the most standard photo I have of the MX5 so just assume this is what it looked like when I bought it. I spent a few weekends replacing two broken window regulators, the soft top and fixing a faulty heater matrix. After a few Months my insurance renewal came up and I could finally drive the MX5, I waited up until 12:01am when my insurance changed over and took it out for its maiden voyage. Coming from a 1.2 clio the little MX5 felt fairly quick, I took it down my favourite local B road, the B4040 and immediately got to grips with it. The car felt amazing, the steering had some weight to it (Compared to the clio), the gearbox was slick and smooth and I really felt like I was in control of what the car was doing, it had no ABS, no power steering and usually had some questionable smell to it (Either fuel or oil), I really did enjoy driving it.
A few months on I had massive plans for this MX5, I wanted to turbo charge it and turn it into an absolute weapon of a track car and so the project started. I found a few facebook pages dedicated to buying and selling MX5 parts and started buying everything I could to improving the handling of the MX5 . I travelled to wales and bought two bucket seats, harnesses and a set of XXR alloy wheels with Federal RSR semi slick tyres. I also found someone fairly local selling a roll bar which I thought I needed and forked out to buy myself a brand new set of HSD mono pro coilovers from Driftworks.
This was the result. Myself and a couple of friends spent one Saturday fitting everything ide bought. Fitting the coilovers, wheels, roll bar and seats was reasonably easy and the car was transformed. The handling was much improved and I often found myself driving the car quite hard as it had a lot of grip, as you would expect considering the car still had only 110bhp. I started taking the MX5 to car shows along with a small group of friends who also owned modified cars, but mostly Hondas.
One of my close friends owned a Honda Civic Type R FN2 (Which I later owned, you'll see), I knew very little about it except it was substantially faster than my MX5 and would regularly leave it for dust. One day we had been out and he asked me if i wanted to drive it. I obviously said YES despite the fact I wasn't insured on it, I took it up and down a local common and it was awesome. This threw a spanner in the works for the MX5, it was great and all but I hadn't actually experienced anything fast enough to realise it was REALLY slow. The civic was quick but didn't really have any "feeling" to it, but I was now convinced I wanted something quicker. A few weeks later my friend turned up with his new car, A UK spec Honda Integra Type R (DC2).
Again, I knew very little about the Integra Type R, except it appeared a couple of times in the fast and furious films and from driving them on Granturismo as a child. I was eventually allowed to have a go in the Integra after pestering my friend about driving it almost every time I saw him. I will say now, if you ever get the chance to drive one of these cars, DO IT, they're a gift from the Japanese gods. The DC2 was everything I wanted, it was as fast as the civic, probably slightly quicker, but a completely different beast. The way the car screamed from 6000 to near 9000Rpm was additive to say the least, the handling was unreal, the gear change felt very mechanical and it felt alive. I was sold on it straight away and wanted one for myself, the love for the MX5 had gone and so the ideas of turbocharging it. ended up selling it and replacing it with...
A 160,000 Mile, Championship White, DC2 Type R for the price of £3100. This is thus far, the best car I have ever owned. Despite the high milage and the fact it eventually fell apart. It is the only car that I would take back in a heart beat, even the state it ended up in. I truly regret getting rid of it, even though the its sale to a breaker was the result of a rear end shunt. I even ended up replacing it with a Red JDM DC2. This car taught me how to drive and taught me most of the mechanical knowledge i now have, thanks to its poor reliability and ropiness. I Didn't do much with it over than coilovers, decent brake disk, pads and lines and put a set of 16 inch JDM wheels on it with decent rubber. The engine was standard other than a "Whale penis" intake and full stainless exhaust, which sounded phenomenal. I owned it three days before taking it on track at Rockingham and I fell it love with it, despite the fact it clearly had a problem with the gearbox syncros. I spent most of my two years of ownership either in love with it or hating it. I took it on many track days all over the UK and replaced almost everything one it, from recollection I replaced all the brake callipers, brake lines, handbrake cables, all four wheel bearings and had the gearbox rebuilt during my ownership. I really loved owning it and driving it despite the running costs. I put over 30,000 miles on it during two years, 6 month of which it was probably off the road broken. One day driving back from Breakfast meet at Kemble Airfield, someone decided to run into the back of it at a T junction and the car was quite badly damaged, I could have repaired it and I now wish I did, but as it had been so unreliable during my ownership and had 195,000 miles on the clock, I decided to replaced it, with a second DC2, in really good condition. I took all the goodies off it and put them onto the new DC2, then sold the old one off to a breaker. I owned the second DC2 for around 6 months and didn't enjoy it as much as the old one. It was immaculate and great do drive, but I didn't want to give it the abuse that I was more than happy to give my beloved old ropey high miler. I ended up selling it 6 month later, to the same person i bought it from, for a loss, as you do.
(Picture included below).
Around the time I sold the DC2, my friend who owned the FN2 mentioned before had put it up for sale. During the last two years this car had been modified in every way possible, it was a full on track dedicated car. It had a fully modified intake and exhaust system, drop in cams and producing 256Bhp, a Quaife LSD with brand new syncros, the interior was fully gutted with two nice corbeau bucket seats, a half cages, harnesses and a fancy Hybrid racing shifter. I had driven this car a few times before while it was modified and had a go in it on a private track day at castle combe and knew how good it was to drive. We agreed a price and I ended up buying it.
I took the FN2 on a Few trackdays and a trip to the Nurburgring and Spa Francorchamps. On track, in the dry it is an was a beast to drive. Despite all the modification it still suffered from a little bit of understeer and wasn't quite a direct and agile as the DC2. It was however quite a bit quicker and once adapted too a really enjoyable and confidence inspiring car. When i drove it at the Spa it was raining heavily the entire time and it never really felt too unstable. On a couple of tight downhill corners the rear end was quite lively but I was quite happily throwing it as hard as I could as Eau rouge and it didn't feel unstable. I don't think this cars poor reputation does it any justice, once modified they handle and drive as they should have done from the factory and I think more people should be looking at them now the prices have come down. After a year of ownership I stripped it down for parts and sold it, as daily driving it became unbearable and the gearbox was having a few issues, due to a knackered clutch.
Im now daily driving a 1.6 Ford Focus Zectec climate edition, its depressing. But I've just bought a rough old BMW 328i which I'm going to turn into a dedicated track toy. I bought it off Ebay for £2800 from a fellow PHer, this is the link to the old build thread which i hope to continue. https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=15...
Hope this is readable, Cheers!
I started driving in 2012 and was limited to what was affordable to both buy and insure. I ended up buying a 1.2 renault clio, I'm going to skip over this but long story short, it was a small, unreliable french s
tebox which actually really enjoyed driving and started what is now an unhealthy obsession with cars. It was a noble steed and did the job of getting too and from both work and college, as well as the occasional road trip.I owned the clio for just under two years and decided I wanted to replace it with something quick and more fun to drive. I initially wanted to replace it with either a Clio 182 Trophy (looking back this was a mistake) or 197 cup, both were reasonably affordable to buy, insure and fitted the bill. At this point I had become a fan of Mighty Car Mods and they were building a Turbo MK1 MX5. I was never really interested in Modified cars, I just wanted to buy something, drive it, sell it on then step up to something a bit quicker. However, I went to Japfest at castle combe and saw loads of modified MK1 MX5s scattered all over the place and convinced myself I needed to buy one as soon as possible. I got home, looked on eBay and found one for sale fairly local, which the owner agreed to drop off to my house if i covered the fuel costs. it was a 1.6, British racing green, MK1 Eunos Roadster and had a couple of months MOT left, the owner was honest about the issues it had that needed resolving. I still had the Clio at this point, so I decided to buy it for the cost of £800 and keep it in the garage as a project until it was repaired and my insurance was up for renewal.
This is the most standard photo I have of the MX5 so just assume this is what it looked like when I bought it. I spent a few weekends replacing two broken window regulators, the soft top and fixing a faulty heater matrix. After a few Months my insurance renewal came up and I could finally drive the MX5, I waited up until 12:01am when my insurance changed over and took it out for its maiden voyage. Coming from a 1.2 clio the little MX5 felt fairly quick, I took it down my favourite local B road, the B4040 and immediately got to grips with it. The car felt amazing, the steering had some weight to it (Compared to the clio), the gearbox was slick and smooth and I really felt like I was in control of what the car was doing, it had no ABS, no power steering and usually had some questionable smell to it (Either fuel or oil), I really did enjoy driving it.
A few months on I had massive plans for this MX5, I wanted to turbo charge it and turn it into an absolute weapon of a track car and so the project started. I found a few facebook pages dedicated to buying and selling MX5 parts and started buying everything I could to improving the handling of the MX5 . I travelled to wales and bought two bucket seats, harnesses and a set of XXR alloy wheels with Federal RSR semi slick tyres. I also found someone fairly local selling a roll bar which I thought I needed and forked out to buy myself a brand new set of HSD mono pro coilovers from Driftworks.
This was the result. Myself and a couple of friends spent one Saturday fitting everything ide bought. Fitting the coilovers, wheels, roll bar and seats was reasonably easy and the car was transformed. The handling was much improved and I often found myself driving the car quite hard as it had a lot of grip, as you would expect considering the car still had only 110bhp. I started taking the MX5 to car shows along with a small group of friends who also owned modified cars, but mostly Hondas.
One of my close friends owned a Honda Civic Type R FN2 (Which I later owned, you'll see), I knew very little about it except it was substantially faster than my MX5 and would regularly leave it for dust. One day we had been out and he asked me if i wanted to drive it. I obviously said YES despite the fact I wasn't insured on it, I took it up and down a local common and it was awesome. This threw a spanner in the works for the MX5, it was great and all but I hadn't actually experienced anything fast enough to realise it was REALLY slow. The civic was quick but didn't really have any "feeling" to it, but I was now convinced I wanted something quicker. A few weeks later my friend turned up with his new car, A UK spec Honda Integra Type R (DC2).
Again, I knew very little about the Integra Type R, except it appeared a couple of times in the fast and furious films and from driving them on Granturismo as a child. I was eventually allowed to have a go in the Integra after pestering my friend about driving it almost every time I saw him. I will say now, if you ever get the chance to drive one of these cars, DO IT, they're a gift from the Japanese gods. The DC2 was everything I wanted, it was as fast as the civic, probably slightly quicker, but a completely different beast. The way the car screamed from 6000 to near 9000Rpm was additive to say the least, the handling was unreal, the gear change felt very mechanical and it felt alive. I was sold on it straight away and wanted one for myself, the love for the MX5 had gone and so the ideas of turbocharging it. ended up selling it and replacing it with...
A 160,000 Mile, Championship White, DC2 Type R for the price of £3100. This is thus far, the best car I have ever owned. Despite the high milage and the fact it eventually fell apart. It is the only car that I would take back in a heart beat, even the state it ended up in. I truly regret getting rid of it, even though the its sale to a breaker was the result of a rear end shunt. I even ended up replacing it with a Red JDM DC2. This car taught me how to drive and taught me most of the mechanical knowledge i now have, thanks to its poor reliability and ropiness. I Didn't do much with it over than coilovers, decent brake disk, pads and lines and put a set of 16 inch JDM wheels on it with decent rubber. The engine was standard other than a "Whale penis" intake and full stainless exhaust, which sounded phenomenal. I owned it three days before taking it on track at Rockingham and I fell it love with it, despite the fact it clearly had a problem with the gearbox syncros. I spent most of my two years of ownership either in love with it or hating it. I took it on many track days all over the UK and replaced almost everything one it, from recollection I replaced all the brake callipers, brake lines, handbrake cables, all four wheel bearings and had the gearbox rebuilt during my ownership. I really loved owning it and driving it despite the running costs. I put over 30,000 miles on it during two years, 6 month of which it was probably off the road broken. One day driving back from Breakfast meet at Kemble Airfield, someone decided to run into the back of it at a T junction and the car was quite badly damaged, I could have repaired it and I now wish I did, but as it had been so unreliable during my ownership and had 195,000 miles on the clock, I decided to replaced it, with a second DC2, in really good condition. I took all the goodies off it and put them onto the new DC2, then sold the old one off to a breaker. I owned the second DC2 for around 6 months and didn't enjoy it as much as the old one. It was immaculate and great do drive, but I didn't want to give it the abuse that I was more than happy to give my beloved old ropey high miler. I ended up selling it 6 month later, to the same person i bought it from, for a loss, as you do.
(Picture included below).
Around the time I sold the DC2, my friend who owned the FN2 mentioned before had put it up for sale. During the last two years this car had been modified in every way possible, it was a full on track dedicated car. It had a fully modified intake and exhaust system, drop in cams and producing 256Bhp, a Quaife LSD with brand new syncros, the interior was fully gutted with two nice corbeau bucket seats, a half cages, harnesses and a fancy Hybrid racing shifter. I had driven this car a few times before while it was modified and had a go in it on a private track day at castle combe and knew how good it was to drive. We agreed a price and I ended up buying it.
I took the FN2 on a Few trackdays and a trip to the Nurburgring and Spa Francorchamps. On track, in the dry it is an was a beast to drive. Despite all the modification it still suffered from a little bit of understeer and wasn't quite a direct and agile as the DC2. It was however quite a bit quicker and once adapted too a really enjoyable and confidence inspiring car. When i drove it at the Spa it was raining heavily the entire time and it never really felt too unstable. On a couple of tight downhill corners the rear end was quite lively but I was quite happily throwing it as hard as I could as Eau rouge and it didn't feel unstable. I don't think this cars poor reputation does it any justice, once modified they handle and drive as they should have done from the factory and I think more people should be looking at them now the prices have come down. After a year of ownership I stripped it down for parts and sold it, as daily driving it became unbearable and the gearbox was having a few issues, due to a knackered clutch.
Im now daily driving a 1.6 Ford Focus Zectec climate edition, its depressing. But I've just bought a rough old BMW 328i which I'm going to turn into a dedicated track toy. I bought it off Ebay for £2800 from a fellow PHer, this is the link to the old build thread which i hope to continue. https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=15...
Hope this is readable, Cheers!
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