10 Years - 10 Cars (Warning Porsche and Audi heavy content)
Discussion
Evening All,
I realised today that in about a weeks time i've had a driving license for 10 years and felt like documenting my "early" car history somewhere for future me to look back on thats not just instagram and thought with the amount of lurking i've done on here that this might be the best place so please enjoy what was a very Audi and Porsche heavy 10 years.
1. - My First Car Audi A1 1.6TDI Sline - 2015ish - 2018
Sensible head wins over heart. I like many 17 year olds inflicted with this curse we call a hobby wanted to be rolling around in something cool, dreams of E30s and early 2.5 944s filed my head and my pistonheads search history but were very quickly shot down for 2 reasons - Insurance and my need to commute 40 miles a day to my apprenticeship. So armed with all the insurance quotes under the sun and a monthly car budget of £200 a month i walked into Sheffield audi and ordered one of the first facelift A1s in the uk. I did 33k miles in that car in the 2 and abit years i owned it with it doing all the typical first car things perfectly from the daily work trips, first holidays as a group of friends, ferrying drunk friends and family to and from parties ( i didn't enjoy drinking at this part of my life ) and my beginnings in modifying.. yes £300 coilovers, plasti dip and EZ lip splitters were mods to me then.
However in 2017 id passed my apprenticeship and saved abit of cash for car 2 which was abit of a jump for a 20 year old..
2. - "The Cayman" 2.7 987 - 2018 - Today with a brief 2 year gap..
Yeeahhhh, so theres alot to cover with this one and i'm considering doing another thread just for this car as its very different now as its become a fully caged track car thats got alot of changes coming.
Late 2017 i was doing insurance quotes for audi S1s,S3s and scirocco Rs as 19 year old me was fully into the stancey VAG scene and wanted to be "cool" one evening, bored and waiting for my friends to finish work to go to the pub i decided to do a quote on a 2.7 987 cayman, a dream car of mine as i'd grown up playing Need for speed games where the Cayman ( the S ) was THE car to cheat your way to winning basically everything and with the number £1900 coming up on my phone ( a whole £700 less than an S1 ) the deal was sealed.... the second i found the right car it was happening. Fast forward to Feb 2018 and the right car popped up on AT (Sorry !) a guards red, 2.7 with some nice options for £11,750 with 80k miles on it.
The car was lovely and had the 2 things already done that 20 year old me wanted to do, a radio and a very rowdy exhaust. Over the next 5 years of ownership i'd take it from 80k miles to 123k doing everything from going to leeds to see friends at Uni for nights out ( having photos of your porsche outside student digs is something ill never take for granted ) taking me and my dad to le mans classic and countless other trips which ended up becoming a huge part of my life all whilst earning the affectionate nickname " The Cayman " between me and my friends. I think i will start another thread for this car as its had a hell of a story up to today including multiple crashes and being abandoned under a tree and ending up on a council website...
3. The 944 - 2018 - Today
As mentioned i'd always wanted a 944 as a first car but could never insure it so when the company i was working for at the time bought and turned one into a track day car you can imagine my delight.. I was actually involved in this car before i passed my test and over the years had helped turn it into what is to this day one of the most stable and friendly things i've ever driven down crainer curves..
They wanted rid and i couldn't see it go to anyone else so within 2 months of buying my first porsche, i bought my second... which was handy as the 987 shortly developed a suspension issue that took specialists about 3 months to get to the bottom of ( the subframe was cracked by the arm mounts ! ) and the 944 was pressed into daily service which even with 196k miles it took in its stride, it was wrapped in a "lovely" shade of matte white which ( over some beers and food ) me and my friends spent an evening stripping off to reveal THE worst paint i've ever seen on a car at this point i realised the car wasn't going to be the simple quick project i'd hoped and 8 years later its still not painted or done... but in my defence.. i get distracted easily !
4. The First TT - 2018 - 2019
I'm fully convinced that car is cursed, not in the it was always broken way or even the fun christine going about killing people way. The way that the second i got this car my mental health took a huge dive off a very lovely MK3 TT shaped cliff and too this day i don't know why, it never felt like my car but i think this wasn't helped by some work related issues and just a pretty low view of myself at the time ( sorry if that got deep ).. Great car, THE best interior of any car this side of 100k and ill die on that hill..
But NOTHING on the next car.....
5. The Goat - Audi A5 2.0 TDI Quattro Manual - 2019 - 2023
Now to everyone else this is the least special car since the A1, but i owe an awful lot of whats to come on this list to this car.
Its the end of 2019, im fed up with the TT and wanted out of the PCP nightmare id been sold into ( it works for some people i know ) so had a 7k budget to buy something that would allow me to keep the 987 and 944 ( still in weekend and fun use ) and get to work/ do all the fun stuff you do as an early 20s lad..
I've always loved the B8 A5,i would go out on a limb and say its the best looking car audi has ever made so when i found what was my ideal spec minus the S tronic gearbox for £5 under budget you can imagine my excitement. I went to view the car one very grim December afternoon and was instantly sold. It had 125k miles on the clock but had just had ALL the services, belts and waterpump done by the previous owner who'd traded it in for an S4 avant as he'd had another kid and needed space. I traded the TT in for it ( and far more cash than im proud to admit ) and drove away with a weight lifted off my shoulders.
The A5 quickly became the car i should have bought the year before and cemented its place as THE best 7k daily on the planet being used to get me to and from work until...... The big C word happened, i lost my job and like many others at the time sat wondering what the hell do i do now ? the only sensible thing surely... set up my own business ( with my dad ) the A5 was instantly pressed into service running up and down the M1 to london and back during the parts of lockdown that was aloud and covered 50k miles in 2 year flawlessly ( minus 2 rear calipers ) and because i can't seem to leave well enough alone i dropped it far to low on coilovers ( it lost every single undertray on speed bumps in canary wharf ) spaced out the wheels and fitted RS style grills to it ( i know, i know ) which lead to one of the most photogenic normal cars i've ever seen..
I ran the A5 till 2023 and 180k miles til the ULEZ scheme was making it annoyingly expensive to drive into london every week and sold it to a friend who sold it to someone at his work within a day for 2x what he paid for it ( i have no issues with this, i got what i was offered trade in for it against my next daily ) and i still see it on the road every now and then... i'd love that car back.. it had a massive hand in building my business to where it is today,
Anyway back to the fun stuff.
6. The 981 - 2.7 981 - 2022 - 2024
So in 2013 i saw a Chris harris on cars video of the then new 981 cayman ( in yellow ) and was instantly obsessed, spending far to long on the configurator and rewatching that same CH video wondering if one day i'd be lucky enough to own my own.. Well, the C word set up business was doing ok, and along with a nice pot of cash for boring adult things i had some money spare that was within touching distance of a ropey 981S or.. THE nicest 2.7 on the planet and with my experience of the 987 i felt the 2.7 was enough. It had to be yellow, it had to have leather interior and it had to be a manual... a few weeks later as if by magic a 29k mile, 1 owner, full porsche history, yellow, leather, manual 981 comes up for sale JUST about in budget ( as i didn't want to trade the 987 in ) i went to view it, test drove it and PX'd the 987 in the same day.. it blew me away that much.. My drive home was highlighted by 2 things 1 - a man on a motorbike stopping me at a shell petrol station and proclaiming " bloody hell mate thats abit yellow that" which is the story behind the B17 YEL plate that has now adorned 2 of my 981s and 2 - in an unlucky turn of events i then lost the car for 3 months as it was carted around various specialists and main dealers having a power steering issue fixed under warranty. The car ended up at Porsche Sheffield my local OPC so collecting it fixed felt like what it must have been like collecting it new in 2013..
Of course, in the not leaving things alone state of mind the car lasted 2 months standard until i ordered my holy grail set of wheels.. Brand new BBS LM's, whilst waiting for them to arrive from Japan i set to work doing a few other bits id wanted since those configurator days, GTS rear lights and the X73 suspension kit both installed by OPC Sheffield for a shockingly good price. Completed i then spent 18 months racking up about 20k miles going everywhere in it from the usual road trips to two of my best friends wedding all at 40mpg whilst looking that good. The 981 ownership came to an end with a week long road trip into europe with some friends and my first lap of the nurburgring...something i'll never forget.
I can't recommend the 2.7 981 enough to anyone, i really struggle to see why people spend 30k on an ancient 996/7 ( having driven all of these btw ) when these exist for the same money.. The 981 then got traded in for a car that if you knew me personally was so much of a pipe dream i thought it would never happen...
7. Audi A7 3.0 TDI Black Edition 2023 - Today
With the trusty old A5 getting a battering by the london ULEZ and me wanting something automatic for the miles i set off to the classifieds. 25k budget, ULEZ free, 4wd and diesel were the criteria. I did consider a 3.0TDI Panamera and after driving one was VERY tempted but the lack of 4WD killed it in the end. I've always loved the shape of the A7 and with my history of Audis it seemed like a no brainer, mine came up for £24,995 with 30k miles on it at a dealer in selby. 30 seconds into the test drive i was sold it was like a big wafty version of the A5 and had none of the rattly "sportiness" that porsche tried to put in the panamera.
I currently still have the A7, its on 60K miles has only had one classic 3.0tdi issue ( coolant leak in the V ) and still has 6 months of the 3 year warranty left so isn't going anywhere for now. I'd like to replace it with a Panamera Sport Turismo of some shape one day but no rush. Its got duties as a 987 track car tow rig to complete yet !
8. The QS - Audi TT Quattro Sport Number 801 - 2023 - 2025
Back when i was maybe 7/8 years old my dad bought a silver 225 mk1 TT which at the time felt like a spaceship crossed with some kind of rolling art installation with its chrome radio cover and concept car looks.. Fast forward a few years, skipping over the time i tried to buy a PD Diesel swapped one as a daily. I was on the look out for something to turn into a little track car as my group of close mates were really getting into the scene and i wanted in.
Perfect excuse for me to get a MK1 TT i thought, but of course being abit of a VAG scene throwaway it had to be the rarest one i could find so a set about finding a red with recaros QS, the car was advertised at just under 9k and had been incredibly well looked after but after a couple of track days i realised that even with some GAZ coilovers, Brakes from a leon cupra R and some other handling bits i was just never happy with how it drove and kind of feel out of love with it. Unfortunately the car gods then cursed it with a weird undiagnosable engine noise and it got banished to my newly acquired storage unit for the foreseeable whilst i decided what to do with it which in the end was sell it.. The reintroduction of the 987 to my life sealing its fate.
The MK1 QS is a fantastic little road car and uber cool, but wasn't for me at the time.. Glad ive owned one though !
9. The Mini - R53 Cooper S May 2024 - May 2024
I would put alot of the blame for my loss of love for the QS on this car, picture the scene. Its May, track season is in full swing and you've broken your track car a week before a day at blyton you've been looking forward to for months, what do you do ? Well, my answer one evening during the weekly pub quiz was to buy a £900 R53 Cooper S from a van trader in bradford... I've always loved minis with a grey R53 Cooper S being the first car i ever drove in a car park as a 12 year old lad thanks to my Auntie and my ever present love of the original italian job film, the car was fantastic it had some kind of cheap air intake and exhaust on it, drove arrow straight and stopped with little fuss so the deal was done.. I took the car to blyton and spent a full day battering it off curbs and having honestly the most fun i've ever had on track. Sadly, i had little use for the Mini after the TD and needed rid as i'd run out of space to keep it. It sold, to one of my best mates who's partner now uses it as her fun weekend/ first track car which makes me incredibly happy as that little mini really got to me.
So much so, on an upcoming trip to the ring with them i've hired a bright pink F56 S with rent4ring and can't wait ! ( if i buy one when we are back... don't be surprised )
10. The GT4 - 2024 - You'll be burying me in this car...
My all time dream car, i saw the reveal of this car in march 2015 and was instantly hooked. 981 shape, bespoke chassis, 911 engine and cherry picked drivetrain bits, manual box, big but not over the top wing and the seats and steering wheel from a bloody 918 ! what more could you want ?
The chris harris on cars video came and went, the hours i spent on the configurator also and the overs market very quickly killed all hope of me maybe being lucky enough to own one one day. The 987 and 2.7 981 were fantastic "stand ins" and i feel so incredibly lucky to have owned those when i did in my life so you can only imagine how it felt being 26 and having a shot at buying the car you thought you MIGHT get to own when you were 55.
Business was going well and being fairly sensible with money now i'd started building up investments for the future and a nice deposit on a house which, due to the fact i was only a few years into business ownership meant my mortgage prospects weren't looking too good. So after a long chat with my dad (who i take no shame in saying i owe an awful lot too) and some phone calls with THE best man in the car finance game Mr Darren Gibson i set about the hunt for a GT4 saying to myself i was not to buy anything unless it was THE perfect spec car, Yellow, GT4 interior pack with yellow stitching, steel brakes, PCCM and all the other little things 17 year old me had specced on the configurator, well... That took a while, i test drove one at OPC silverstone in December 23 with folding buckets and hated the seating position compared to my 2.7 981 so that ruled out those and whilst getting far to familar with every single 981 GT4 for sale in the UK at the time found THE car, 6,000 miles, yellow, yellow GT4 interior and i kid you not.. every single option i used to tick on the configurator back in the day..However, advertised at RPM technik ( across the estate from where i bought the first 981 ) for JUST under budget i rang with my heart in my mouth to book a viewing only to be told it had been advertised wrong and was £10,000 over my budget... gutted i got back to the search, keeping an eye on the advert as you do to see when it sold being dropped a few K and then vanishing i chalked it up to experience and keep looking until.... June 2024, a familiar car appeared for sale at a new dealer, Adrenaline collective. it was the same car, i spotted this instantly as the car had the factory fitted side stripes and the front left one on the wing had been fitted back to front ( i know... sorry ) and they wanted what was awfully close to my budget for it so, after the last trip to europe in the old 981 i set off for a viewing. And promptly bought it..
Writing this now i feel the GT4 may deserve its own readers car thread as within a year i have taken it from 6k miles to just under 22k. It has been everywhere with me from hillsides in wales in the snow, to the nurburgring, a cheeky blyton day when the 987 broke , to work and for endless drives in the peak district when i had an unfortunate wobble with the old mental health at the start of the year. I have never owned a car that i have felt so at home in and don't take a second of its ownership for granted as for me this is PEAK car and probs where my journey up the cayman ladder ends as now i've aged abit and have realised how much i enjoy euro trips i feel something british, V12, grey and from a certain 2006 Daniel Craig bond film would be the perfect thing to add to my weird collection alongside my duo of Caymans and the A7 !
If you've read all of that your are a hero honestly, i shall keep this updated as i go with the changes in the "collection" to come but won't bore you much more ( even though i'm sure like me you should be doing something important but instead have delved into the Pistonheads forum to loose some time )
Much love
Harry - long time pistonheads lurker and time waster...
[footnote]Edited by harrymaisey on Monday 11th August 23:17
[footnote]Edited by harrymaisey on Tuesday 12th August 00:44[/footnote[url]
I realised today that in about a weeks time i've had a driving license for 10 years and felt like documenting my "early" car history somewhere for future me to look back on thats not just instagram and thought with the amount of lurking i've done on here that this might be the best place so please enjoy what was a very Audi and Porsche heavy 10 years.
1. - My First Car Audi A1 1.6TDI Sline - 2015ish - 2018
Sensible head wins over heart. I like many 17 year olds inflicted with this curse we call a hobby wanted to be rolling around in something cool, dreams of E30s and early 2.5 944s filed my head and my pistonheads search history but were very quickly shot down for 2 reasons - Insurance and my need to commute 40 miles a day to my apprenticeship. So armed with all the insurance quotes under the sun and a monthly car budget of £200 a month i walked into Sheffield audi and ordered one of the first facelift A1s in the uk. I did 33k miles in that car in the 2 and abit years i owned it with it doing all the typical first car things perfectly from the daily work trips, first holidays as a group of friends, ferrying drunk friends and family to and from parties ( i didn't enjoy drinking at this part of my life ) and my beginnings in modifying.. yes £300 coilovers, plasti dip and EZ lip splitters were mods to me then.
However in 2017 id passed my apprenticeship and saved abit of cash for car 2 which was abit of a jump for a 20 year old..
2. - "The Cayman" 2.7 987 - 2018 - Today with a brief 2 year gap..
Yeeahhhh, so theres alot to cover with this one and i'm considering doing another thread just for this car as its very different now as its become a fully caged track car thats got alot of changes coming.
Late 2017 i was doing insurance quotes for audi S1s,S3s and scirocco Rs as 19 year old me was fully into the stancey VAG scene and wanted to be "cool" one evening, bored and waiting for my friends to finish work to go to the pub i decided to do a quote on a 2.7 987 cayman, a dream car of mine as i'd grown up playing Need for speed games where the Cayman ( the S ) was THE car to cheat your way to winning basically everything and with the number £1900 coming up on my phone ( a whole £700 less than an S1 ) the deal was sealed.... the second i found the right car it was happening. Fast forward to Feb 2018 and the right car popped up on AT (Sorry !) a guards red, 2.7 with some nice options for £11,750 with 80k miles on it.
The car was lovely and had the 2 things already done that 20 year old me wanted to do, a radio and a very rowdy exhaust. Over the next 5 years of ownership i'd take it from 80k miles to 123k doing everything from going to leeds to see friends at Uni for nights out ( having photos of your porsche outside student digs is something ill never take for granted ) taking me and my dad to le mans classic and countless other trips which ended up becoming a huge part of my life all whilst earning the affectionate nickname " The Cayman " between me and my friends. I think i will start another thread for this car as its had a hell of a story up to today including multiple crashes and being abandoned under a tree and ending up on a council website...
3. The 944 - 2018 - Today
As mentioned i'd always wanted a 944 as a first car but could never insure it so when the company i was working for at the time bought and turned one into a track day car you can imagine my delight.. I was actually involved in this car before i passed my test and over the years had helped turn it into what is to this day one of the most stable and friendly things i've ever driven down crainer curves..
They wanted rid and i couldn't see it go to anyone else so within 2 months of buying my first porsche, i bought my second... which was handy as the 987 shortly developed a suspension issue that took specialists about 3 months to get to the bottom of ( the subframe was cracked by the arm mounts ! ) and the 944 was pressed into daily service which even with 196k miles it took in its stride, it was wrapped in a "lovely" shade of matte white which ( over some beers and food ) me and my friends spent an evening stripping off to reveal THE worst paint i've ever seen on a car at this point i realised the car wasn't going to be the simple quick project i'd hoped and 8 years later its still not painted or done... but in my defence.. i get distracted easily !
4. The First TT - 2018 - 2019
I'm fully convinced that car is cursed, not in the it was always broken way or even the fun christine going about killing people way. The way that the second i got this car my mental health took a huge dive off a very lovely MK3 TT shaped cliff and too this day i don't know why, it never felt like my car but i think this wasn't helped by some work related issues and just a pretty low view of myself at the time ( sorry if that got deep ).. Great car, THE best interior of any car this side of 100k and ill die on that hill..
But NOTHING on the next car.....
5. The Goat - Audi A5 2.0 TDI Quattro Manual - 2019 - 2023
Now to everyone else this is the least special car since the A1, but i owe an awful lot of whats to come on this list to this car.
Its the end of 2019, im fed up with the TT and wanted out of the PCP nightmare id been sold into ( it works for some people i know ) so had a 7k budget to buy something that would allow me to keep the 987 and 944 ( still in weekend and fun use ) and get to work/ do all the fun stuff you do as an early 20s lad..
I've always loved the B8 A5,i would go out on a limb and say its the best looking car audi has ever made so when i found what was my ideal spec minus the S tronic gearbox for £5 under budget you can imagine my excitement. I went to view the car one very grim December afternoon and was instantly sold. It had 125k miles on the clock but had just had ALL the services, belts and waterpump done by the previous owner who'd traded it in for an S4 avant as he'd had another kid and needed space. I traded the TT in for it ( and far more cash than im proud to admit ) and drove away with a weight lifted off my shoulders.
The A5 quickly became the car i should have bought the year before and cemented its place as THE best 7k daily on the planet being used to get me to and from work until...... The big C word happened, i lost my job and like many others at the time sat wondering what the hell do i do now ? the only sensible thing surely... set up my own business ( with my dad ) the A5 was instantly pressed into service running up and down the M1 to london and back during the parts of lockdown that was aloud and covered 50k miles in 2 year flawlessly ( minus 2 rear calipers ) and because i can't seem to leave well enough alone i dropped it far to low on coilovers ( it lost every single undertray on speed bumps in canary wharf ) spaced out the wheels and fitted RS style grills to it ( i know, i know ) which lead to one of the most photogenic normal cars i've ever seen..
I ran the A5 till 2023 and 180k miles til the ULEZ scheme was making it annoyingly expensive to drive into london every week and sold it to a friend who sold it to someone at his work within a day for 2x what he paid for it ( i have no issues with this, i got what i was offered trade in for it against my next daily ) and i still see it on the road every now and then... i'd love that car back.. it had a massive hand in building my business to where it is today,
Anyway back to the fun stuff.
6. The 981 - 2.7 981 - 2022 - 2024
So in 2013 i saw a Chris harris on cars video of the then new 981 cayman ( in yellow ) and was instantly obsessed, spending far to long on the configurator and rewatching that same CH video wondering if one day i'd be lucky enough to own my own.. Well, the C word set up business was doing ok, and along with a nice pot of cash for boring adult things i had some money spare that was within touching distance of a ropey 981S or.. THE nicest 2.7 on the planet and with my experience of the 987 i felt the 2.7 was enough. It had to be yellow, it had to have leather interior and it had to be a manual... a few weeks later as if by magic a 29k mile, 1 owner, full porsche history, yellow, leather, manual 981 comes up for sale JUST about in budget ( as i didn't want to trade the 987 in ) i went to view it, test drove it and PX'd the 987 in the same day.. it blew me away that much.. My drive home was highlighted by 2 things 1 - a man on a motorbike stopping me at a shell petrol station and proclaiming " bloody hell mate thats abit yellow that" which is the story behind the B17 YEL plate that has now adorned 2 of my 981s and 2 - in an unlucky turn of events i then lost the car for 3 months as it was carted around various specialists and main dealers having a power steering issue fixed under warranty. The car ended up at Porsche Sheffield my local OPC so collecting it fixed felt like what it must have been like collecting it new in 2013..
Of course, in the not leaving things alone state of mind the car lasted 2 months standard until i ordered my holy grail set of wheels.. Brand new BBS LM's, whilst waiting for them to arrive from Japan i set to work doing a few other bits id wanted since those configurator days, GTS rear lights and the X73 suspension kit both installed by OPC Sheffield for a shockingly good price. Completed i then spent 18 months racking up about 20k miles going everywhere in it from the usual road trips to two of my best friends wedding all at 40mpg whilst looking that good. The 981 ownership came to an end with a week long road trip into europe with some friends and my first lap of the nurburgring...something i'll never forget.
I can't recommend the 2.7 981 enough to anyone, i really struggle to see why people spend 30k on an ancient 996/7 ( having driven all of these btw ) when these exist for the same money.. The 981 then got traded in for a car that if you knew me personally was so much of a pipe dream i thought it would never happen...
7. Audi A7 3.0 TDI Black Edition 2023 - Today
With the trusty old A5 getting a battering by the london ULEZ and me wanting something automatic for the miles i set off to the classifieds. 25k budget, ULEZ free, 4wd and diesel were the criteria. I did consider a 3.0TDI Panamera and after driving one was VERY tempted but the lack of 4WD killed it in the end. I've always loved the shape of the A7 and with my history of Audis it seemed like a no brainer, mine came up for £24,995 with 30k miles on it at a dealer in selby. 30 seconds into the test drive i was sold it was like a big wafty version of the A5 and had none of the rattly "sportiness" that porsche tried to put in the panamera.
I currently still have the A7, its on 60K miles has only had one classic 3.0tdi issue ( coolant leak in the V ) and still has 6 months of the 3 year warranty left so isn't going anywhere for now. I'd like to replace it with a Panamera Sport Turismo of some shape one day but no rush. Its got duties as a 987 track car tow rig to complete yet !
8. The QS - Audi TT Quattro Sport Number 801 - 2023 - 2025
Back when i was maybe 7/8 years old my dad bought a silver 225 mk1 TT which at the time felt like a spaceship crossed with some kind of rolling art installation with its chrome radio cover and concept car looks.. Fast forward a few years, skipping over the time i tried to buy a PD Diesel swapped one as a daily. I was on the look out for something to turn into a little track car as my group of close mates were really getting into the scene and i wanted in.
Perfect excuse for me to get a MK1 TT i thought, but of course being abit of a VAG scene throwaway it had to be the rarest one i could find so a set about finding a red with recaros QS, the car was advertised at just under 9k and had been incredibly well looked after but after a couple of track days i realised that even with some GAZ coilovers, Brakes from a leon cupra R and some other handling bits i was just never happy with how it drove and kind of feel out of love with it. Unfortunately the car gods then cursed it with a weird undiagnosable engine noise and it got banished to my newly acquired storage unit for the foreseeable whilst i decided what to do with it which in the end was sell it.. The reintroduction of the 987 to my life sealing its fate.
The MK1 QS is a fantastic little road car and uber cool, but wasn't for me at the time.. Glad ive owned one though !
9. The Mini - R53 Cooper S May 2024 - May 2024
I would put alot of the blame for my loss of love for the QS on this car, picture the scene. Its May, track season is in full swing and you've broken your track car a week before a day at blyton you've been looking forward to for months, what do you do ? Well, my answer one evening during the weekly pub quiz was to buy a £900 R53 Cooper S from a van trader in bradford... I've always loved minis with a grey R53 Cooper S being the first car i ever drove in a car park as a 12 year old lad thanks to my Auntie and my ever present love of the original italian job film, the car was fantastic it had some kind of cheap air intake and exhaust on it, drove arrow straight and stopped with little fuss so the deal was done.. I took the car to blyton and spent a full day battering it off curbs and having honestly the most fun i've ever had on track. Sadly, i had little use for the Mini after the TD and needed rid as i'd run out of space to keep it. It sold, to one of my best mates who's partner now uses it as her fun weekend/ first track car which makes me incredibly happy as that little mini really got to me.
So much so, on an upcoming trip to the ring with them i've hired a bright pink F56 S with rent4ring and can't wait ! ( if i buy one when we are back... don't be surprised )
10. The GT4 - 2024 - You'll be burying me in this car...
My all time dream car, i saw the reveal of this car in march 2015 and was instantly hooked. 981 shape, bespoke chassis, 911 engine and cherry picked drivetrain bits, manual box, big but not over the top wing and the seats and steering wheel from a bloody 918 ! what more could you want ?
The chris harris on cars video came and went, the hours i spent on the configurator also and the overs market very quickly killed all hope of me maybe being lucky enough to own one one day. The 987 and 2.7 981 were fantastic "stand ins" and i feel so incredibly lucky to have owned those when i did in my life so you can only imagine how it felt being 26 and having a shot at buying the car you thought you MIGHT get to own when you were 55.
Business was going well and being fairly sensible with money now i'd started building up investments for the future and a nice deposit on a house which, due to the fact i was only a few years into business ownership meant my mortgage prospects weren't looking too good. So after a long chat with my dad (who i take no shame in saying i owe an awful lot too) and some phone calls with THE best man in the car finance game Mr Darren Gibson i set about the hunt for a GT4 saying to myself i was not to buy anything unless it was THE perfect spec car, Yellow, GT4 interior pack with yellow stitching, steel brakes, PCCM and all the other little things 17 year old me had specced on the configurator, well... That took a while, i test drove one at OPC silverstone in December 23 with folding buckets and hated the seating position compared to my 2.7 981 so that ruled out those and whilst getting far to familar with every single 981 GT4 for sale in the UK at the time found THE car, 6,000 miles, yellow, yellow GT4 interior and i kid you not.. every single option i used to tick on the configurator back in the day..However, advertised at RPM technik ( across the estate from where i bought the first 981 ) for JUST under budget i rang with my heart in my mouth to book a viewing only to be told it had been advertised wrong and was £10,000 over my budget... gutted i got back to the search, keeping an eye on the advert as you do to see when it sold being dropped a few K and then vanishing i chalked it up to experience and keep looking until.... June 2024, a familiar car appeared for sale at a new dealer, Adrenaline collective. it was the same car, i spotted this instantly as the car had the factory fitted side stripes and the front left one on the wing had been fitted back to front ( i know... sorry ) and they wanted what was awfully close to my budget for it so, after the last trip to europe in the old 981 i set off for a viewing. And promptly bought it..
Writing this now i feel the GT4 may deserve its own readers car thread as within a year i have taken it from 6k miles to just under 22k. It has been everywhere with me from hillsides in wales in the snow, to the nurburgring, a cheeky blyton day when the 987 broke , to work and for endless drives in the peak district when i had an unfortunate wobble with the old mental health at the start of the year. I have never owned a car that i have felt so at home in and don't take a second of its ownership for granted as for me this is PEAK car and probs where my journey up the cayman ladder ends as now i've aged abit and have realised how much i enjoy euro trips i feel something british, V12, grey and from a certain 2006 Daniel Craig bond film would be the perfect thing to add to my weird collection alongside my duo of Caymans and the A7 !
If you've read all of that your are a hero honestly, i shall keep this updated as i go with the changes in the "collection" to come but won't bore you much more ( even though i'm sure like me you should be doing something important but instead have delved into the Pistonheads forum to loose some time )
Much love
Harry - long time pistonheads lurker and time waster...
[footnote]Edited by harrymaisey on Monday 11th August 23:17
Edited by harrymaisey on Monday 11th August 23:28
[footnote]Edited by harrymaisey on Tuesday 12th August 00:44[/footnote[url]
Edited by harrymaisey on Tuesday 12th August 22:47
macron said:
I'd love to know what this business is, it seems it has really taken off- well done!
Thank you ! Bare with me this is my first time replying to a comment on here so hopefully its worked !. I'm a restaurant and commerical kitchen designer by trade, we do it all, from design, to supply and installation of full bar and kitchen schemes.
Nothing too exciting or world changing ! but its a fascinating industry !
Wow 3 posts in 12 years! What a fantastic write up, well done for working hard and achieving your goals and overcoming the mental health challenges. It resonated with me too, I sometimes take myself out a blast, go for a walk, process my thoughts and feel better. I know though others don’t find it so easy.
I read from end to start as that’s how I roll sometimes and when I read you’re in catering fit out and saw your name I thought you were Massey catering equipment who I know, but you’re not. A lucrative business area!
Anyway, I’m looking forward to more updates.
I read from end to start as that’s how I roll sometimes and when I read you’re in catering fit out and saw your name I thought you were Massey catering equipment who I know, but you’re not. A lucrative business area!
Anyway, I’m looking forward to more updates.
Edited by MercedesClassic on Wednesday 13th August 10:51
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