Car history - heavy British content
Discussion
I keenly devour the articles on here so thought I'd do my part to contribute to the forum.
So, shall we start at the beginning? No, let's start at the point it got interesting.
Rewind to 2013 when I bought my first proper car - a 1998 BMW Z3M
This car scared me, but I treated it well and took it on some great road trips including one up to Scotland where I was immersed in some real petrol head exotica. This made me lust after more power and more 'presence' so went a bit mad with my next car...
A lightly modified but heavily petrifying Noble M12. This one had upgraded Garrett turbos and pro alloy everything. It was incredible and taught me lots about driving cars quickly. Ultimately, I needed something more practical
A 20 year old Merc? Yeah that's practical enough for me!
In reality, I am now 26 years old and i have nearly died several times in the Noble due to lack of traction and ABS. The learning curve was steep so I decided to take my foot off the gas and go for something more sedate, so off the noble went and this replaced it
It lasted about 6 months as I got sick of the lack of power. It also had racing cams which were terrible for driving under 4k revs. It drove well but I wanted more power...
I considered 911 turbos, lotus esprit (still wish I bought one) and ultimately landed with this
A 2002 TVR Tamora with a bored out engine and plastic faux leather seats. It was fantastic. It brought together all elements of my previous cars - the handling of the lotus (Mat Smith is your man for setting these up), power of the Noble and roadster vibe of the BMW.
I then took an unexpected route and relocated to Germany with work. I struggled on with the TVR for a while but soon got tired of the lack of practicality in a foreign country which required me coming back to UK regularly. Instead I bought something else proudly British to blast up and down the auto bahn
A 4.2 XKR, I enjoyed numerous full speed runs on the auto bahn in this and at 28, I feel like I've gone from young upstart roadster to mature Jag owner in 5 years of car ownership.
About a month ago, I sold the Jag which brings to where I am now. I have most recently bought this as the Jag's replacement - a convertible M6
So, shall we start at the beginning? No, let's start at the point it got interesting.
Rewind to 2013 when I bought my first proper car - a 1998 BMW Z3M
This car scared me, but I treated it well and took it on some great road trips including one up to Scotland where I was immersed in some real petrol head exotica. This made me lust after more power and more 'presence' so went a bit mad with my next car...
A lightly modified but heavily petrifying Noble M12. This one had upgraded Garrett turbos and pro alloy everything. It was incredible and taught me lots about driving cars quickly. Ultimately, I needed something more practical
A 20 year old Merc? Yeah that's practical enough for me!
In reality, I am now 26 years old and i have nearly died several times in the Noble due to lack of traction and ABS. The learning curve was steep so I decided to take my foot off the gas and go for something more sedate, so off the noble went and this replaced it
It lasted about 6 months as I got sick of the lack of power. It also had racing cams which were terrible for driving under 4k revs. It drove well but I wanted more power...
I considered 911 turbos, lotus esprit (still wish I bought one) and ultimately landed with this
A 2002 TVR Tamora with a bored out engine and plastic faux leather seats. It was fantastic. It brought together all elements of my previous cars - the handling of the lotus (Mat Smith is your man for setting these up), power of the Noble and roadster vibe of the BMW.
I then took an unexpected route and relocated to Germany with work. I struggled on with the TVR for a while but soon got tired of the lack of practicality in a foreign country which required me coming back to UK regularly. Instead I bought something else proudly British to blast up and down the auto bahn
A 4.2 XKR, I enjoyed numerous full speed runs on the auto bahn in this and at 28, I feel like I've gone from young upstart roadster to mature Jag owner in 5 years of car ownership.
About a month ago, I sold the Jag which brings to where I am now. I have most recently bought this as the Jag's replacement - a convertible M6
I picked up the M6 from the fantastic Bell Sport and Classic over towards St Albans. Like many on here, lockdown meant I had many hours to spend perusing the classifieds.
I was after something semi practical with some rear space, fast and a little bit... unique. I felt as though a 911 was too obvious, a Jag not sporty enough, Conti GT a weird mix between chav and OAP and an Aston a little bit out of budget for a spec I'd want (although I reckon a DB9 would have made a fantastic alternative option - maybe in future)
So, first impressions of the car are that it is a big thing. It is sufficiently imposing as a 'once flagship' model should be. Yet, I think my spec in Singapore Grey with Silverstone merino interior is a good blend between timeless and striking. There is a danger that these can look a bit..chavvy.
The shape is nice with lines that flow well, but perhaps not as well as the beautifully sculpted grand coupe.
Start it up and it is fairly unassuming, slip it into drive and the DCT does a nice job of moving everything along with no fuss and no drama. Quite boring actually.
Whilst I am a little bored I can enjoy the beautifull crafted interior. This model is pre LDI but the spec is superb with lane assist, adaptive LEDs, etc. If I were specing from new I would have added heated wheel and radar cruise. Personally I think the steering wheel is too thick but the driving position is classic BMW - driver focused and highly effective.
Making progress in the car and it starts to become more playful, the bark on full-bore upshifts more than hints at the 560hp at one's disposal. Putting the car into MDM further improves enjoyment and sliding out from junctions is comically easy with the fantastic differential and decent throttle modulation. That said I have yet to trust MDM with full power going through the gears as I am a little nervous about losing traction between gears on full gas, although I have heard that MDM converges towards full traction on when at speed.
It isn't perfect, the EML came on and was swiftly dealt with by Bell Sport (dirty MAF - that's mass air flow sensor btw
), it seems to consume a little oil which is not unusual but is a bit frustrating.
I am enjoying the car and I am looking forward to a few road trips over the next year. I already have a tour booked up to Scotland with some other petrol heads.
Hope you enjoyed reading! Cheers
I was after something semi practical with some rear space, fast and a little bit... unique. I felt as though a 911 was too obvious, a Jag not sporty enough, Conti GT a weird mix between chav and OAP and an Aston a little bit out of budget for a spec I'd want (although I reckon a DB9 would have made a fantastic alternative option - maybe in future)
So, first impressions of the car are that it is a big thing. It is sufficiently imposing as a 'once flagship' model should be. Yet, I think my spec in Singapore Grey with Silverstone merino interior is a good blend between timeless and striking. There is a danger that these can look a bit..chavvy.
The shape is nice with lines that flow well, but perhaps not as well as the beautifully sculpted grand coupe.
Start it up and it is fairly unassuming, slip it into drive and the DCT does a nice job of moving everything along with no fuss and no drama. Quite boring actually.
Whilst I am a little bored I can enjoy the beautifull crafted interior. This model is pre LDI but the spec is superb with lane assist, adaptive LEDs, etc. If I were specing from new I would have added heated wheel and radar cruise. Personally I think the steering wheel is too thick but the driving position is classic BMW - driver focused and highly effective.
Making progress in the car and it starts to become more playful, the bark on full-bore upshifts more than hints at the 560hp at one's disposal. Putting the car into MDM further improves enjoyment and sliding out from junctions is comically easy with the fantastic differential and decent throttle modulation. That said I have yet to trust MDM with full power going through the gears as I am a little nervous about losing traction between gears on full gas, although I have heard that MDM converges towards full traction on when at speed.
It isn't perfect, the EML came on and was swiftly dealt with by Bell Sport (dirty MAF - that's mass air flow sensor btw
), it seems to consume a little oil which is not unusual but is a bit frustrating. I am enjoying the car and I am looking forward to a few road trips over the next year. I already have a tour booked up to Scotland with some other petrol heads.
Hope you enjoyed reading! Cheers
Noice!
Thanks for the comments everyone.
The jag really got under my skin, it was very hard to sell it. It was mostly the fact that it came with me on lots of European trips and was totally faultless, comfortable fast and stylish.
When I picked the M6 up, the dealer casually mentioned that it came with a set of winter wheels.
Last week I decided to test them out, so on go the set of wheels with Pirelli Sottozeros on
Looking forward to finding out how effective they are in the wet & cold
The jag really got under my skin, it was very hard to sell it. It was mostly the fact that it came with me on lots of European trips and was totally faultless, comfortable fast and stylish.
When I picked the M6 up, the dealer casually mentioned that it came with a set of winter wheels.
Last week I decided to test them out, so on go the set of wheels with Pirelli Sottozeros on
Looking forward to finding out how effective they are in the wet & cold
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