RE: Remember your first set of wheels?
Monday 14th April 2008
Have you ever fancied penning something for PistonHeads?
Remember Your First Set Of Wheels?
We want to hear your stories about the first car you ever owned...
Today we kick off a new feature called ‘My First Car’ – no prizes for guessing what it is all about – and this is where you come in.
You may have always been into cars and so getting your first set of wheels was the moment you’d always been waiting for, or perhaps it was when you started driving that the passion started.
For some people their first car was the worst bit of metal they had the misfortune of driving, for others it will remain the best.
What did you buy, how did you buy it, and how did it change your life?
We want around 600 to 800 words all about you first car – don’t worry if you think you can’t write, it is the memories that count.
If you have a picture of the car then that’s even better, but don’t worry if you don’t.
Send your words to stories@pistonheads.com and we will publish the best.
To kick it all off we have PetrolTed and his Ford Capri 1600 GT - check out his story in the features section...
Discussion
Ah spud - my 1992 1.0 litre starlet - at the time I didnt care what I got I just needed wheels. Drive the nuts off it everywhere and it never let me down - even when I drove it into a hedge we just got a tractor to lift it out and I drove it home. Passed its NCT (our MOT) first time and cost peanuts to run. Surprised all my friends and me with how "quick" it was - lightness I suppose. Would do an indicated 105 mph in 4th (only had 4 gears 
) thats with the engine screaming well above where the rev limiter (if there had been one) would have cut in. And I sold it for a profit, but I'd have it back in a heartbeat.
God how I miss it
ETA: I know we're supposed to e-mail this off but I just couldnt help myself.
) thats with the engine screaming well above where the rev limiter (if there had been one) would have cut in. And I sold it for a profit, but I'd have it back in a heartbeat.God how I miss it
ETA: I know we're supposed to e-mail this off but I just couldnt help myself.
Edited by patmahe on Monday 14th April 13:00
I thought my very first car (other than initially hooning around in my dad's Mk.1 Astra 1.3 GLS company car - and then eventually literally wrapping it around a tree and writing it off!!! 
) was pretty cool: a Fiat 131 Supermirafiori 1600 TC. I was only 18 and thought it was really fast/cool/different at the time. Indeed, they were much revered by spotty oiks 'in the know', just as the Escort Mexico, RS1800 and RS2000 were.
Loved the name, the 'touring car'-esque silhouette and those black/silver Rostyle-type steel wheels - plus the fact that it had a 'huuuge' 1585cc twin-cam, Weber twin-choke carb'd Italian engine (96bhp; 1050kg; 0-60 in 12secs). Cost me <ahem, my dad> £800 back in c.1988/89. The best feature was the Civic-esque gearknob sprouting out at an acute angle, plus the really comfy Velour beige seats... and, of course, RWD! Even remember the reg (as one should!)... PEG 452X! Ah, the love that is your first car...
Just like mine (inc. colour)...
...Supermirafiori 1600 TC
However, the one I really wanted was the quad-headlight/chip-cutter grille'd 1070kg Mirafiori Sport (or 'Racing' in other markets) with the 115bhp 1995cc TC engine - good for 0-60 in 10secs...
...Mirafiori Sport 2000 TC (forget the silver bumpers/sills/arches! - I think these would've originally been matt black)
No Lada jokes, please!
) was pretty cool: a Fiat 131 Supermirafiori 1600 TC. I was only 18 and thought it was really fast/cool/different at the time. Indeed, they were much revered by spotty oiks 'in the know', just as the Escort Mexico, RS1800 and RS2000 were.Loved the name, the 'touring car'-esque silhouette and those black/silver Rostyle-type steel wheels - plus the fact that it had a 'huuuge' 1585cc twin-cam, Weber twin-choke carb'd Italian engine (96bhp; 1050kg; 0-60 in 12secs). Cost me <ahem, my dad> £800 back in c.1988/89. The best feature was the Civic-esque gearknob sprouting out at an acute angle, plus the really comfy Velour beige seats... and, of course, RWD! Even remember the reg (as one should!)... PEG 452X! Ah, the love that is your first car...
Just like mine (inc. colour)...
...Supermirafiori 1600 TC
However, the one I really wanted was the quad-headlight/chip-cutter grille'd 1070kg Mirafiori Sport (or 'Racing' in other markets) with the 115bhp 1995cc TC engine - good for 0-60 in 10secs...
...Mirafiori Sport 2000 TC (forget the silver bumpers/sills/arches! - I think these would've originally been matt black)
No Lada jokes, please!
Edited by joz8968 on Tuesday 15th April 14:14
Fiat 126, baby blue, tinted windows, 6" wide rims from a mini, lowered 7 inches (by simply cutting the springs down!!! that didnt work very well), one bucket seat otherwise completely empty inside and only a Micron XR600 silencer for an exhaust. Did 56mph once went faster on the A12 but got so hot the plug leads melted and fused the whole thing in a puf of smoke. Bless her.
Second car?
Triumph Dolomite Sprint, the lesson in rear wheel drive continued but in a slightly more sideways manner.
Second car?
Triumph Dolomite Sprint, the lesson in rear wheel drive continued but in a slightly more sideways manner.
405 Mi16. Bought for £3500. Handled well, but totally underpowered - I don't think an engine and chassis was ever so mismatched.
Very cool first car though, and I'm amazed I never crashed it given it had the same lift-off oversteer characteristics of the 205. I came close on several occasions, but the foot the floor and pray approach always seemed to work to quell the slide
Very cool first car though, and I'm amazed I never crashed it given it had the same lift-off oversteer characteristics of the 205. I came close on several occasions, but the foot the floor and pray approach always seemed to work to quell the slide
Lotus Cortina mk1.
Oh to have it now,
It went like this,
Dry Sump,
L2 Cams,
Lightened flywheel,solid clutch,
Weber 45 DCOE sidedraughts,
Fully lightened and tuftrided crank and cams,
Minilites,
Twin tanks,
Twin electric fuel pumps,
solid bushed rear A frame,lots of other bits kept me a poor aprentice,
Wonder what it would be worth now?
Happy memories,
Sold it to mate who smashed it!
Not my first car but the first worth remembering!
Oh to have it now,
It went like this,
Dry Sump,
L2 Cams,
Lightened flywheel,solid clutch,
Weber 45 DCOE sidedraughts,
Fully lightened and tuftrided crank and cams,
Minilites,
Twin tanks,
Twin electric fuel pumps,
solid bushed rear A frame,lots of other bits kept me a poor aprentice,
Wonder what it would be worth now?
Happy memories,
Sold it to mate who smashed it!
Not my first car but the first worth remembering!
gary11 said:
Lotus Cortina mk1.
Oh to have it now,
It went like this,
Dry Sump,
L2 Cams,
Lightened flywheel,solid clutch,
Weber 45 DCOE sidedraughts,
Fully lightened and tuftrided crank and cams,
Minilites,
Twin tanks,
Twin electric fuel pumps,
solid bushed rear A frame,lots of other bits kept me a poor aprentice,
Wonder what it would be worth now?
Happy memories,
Sold it to mate who smashed it!
Not my first car but the first worth remembering!
That's a beautiful poem Oh to have it now,
It went like this,
Dry Sump,
L2 Cams,
Lightened flywheel,solid clutch,
Weber 45 DCOE sidedraughts,
Fully lightened and tuftrided crank and cams,
Minilites,
Twin tanks,
Twin electric fuel pumps,
solid bushed rear A frame,lots of other bits kept me a poor aprentice,
Wonder what it would be worth now?
Happy memories,
Sold it to mate who smashed it!
Not my first car but the first worth remembering!
1983 mk1 golf driver 1.3 (gti lookalike in mars red)
insurance was only three times what i paid for the car!
still,paid for all by myself. certainly looked after it better knowing how hard i had to work to pay for it! had the funniest dangerous fault where whenever i pressed the brake pedal the headlights would come on. wondered for months why people kept pulling out in front of me at junctions............
insurance was only three times what i paid for the car!
still,paid for all by myself. certainly looked after it better knowing how hard i had to work to pay for it! had the funniest dangerous fault where whenever i pressed the brake pedal the headlights would come on. wondered for months why people kept pulling out in front of me at junctions............
1959 Morris Minor Traveller. Got it the day I passed my test as a 17 year old.
Synchromesh? Not on 1st by design from new. Not on 2nd either due to being knackered.
Brakes by appointment.
Tread on tyres, a distant memory.
I paid nothing for it, did a job for the owner.
In a short time it had taught me double declutching, anticipation of other road users, a lot about mechanics and the wisdom of keeping a mattress in the back
In short, it taught me to drive at slow speed while having to learn to change gear properly, drive on the limits of adhesion or control skids, and to read the road.
A great education, but not one the Health and Safety fascists would allow today.
Synchromesh? Not on 1st by design from new. Not on 2nd either due to being knackered.
Brakes by appointment.
Tread on tyres, a distant memory.
I paid nothing for it, did a job for the owner.
In a short time it had taught me double declutching, anticipation of other road users, a lot about mechanics and the wisdom of keeping a mattress in the back
In short, it taught me to drive at slow speed while having to learn to change gear properly, drive on the limits of adhesion or control skids, and to read the road.
A great education, but not one the Health and Safety fascists would allow today.
focus man said:
A black mini 1275 gt...1973great car till i stuffed it into a tree!!!! my fault took a very sharp bend to fast...still i was only 17..learnt my lesson tho am now 48 and havent stacked it since.....touch wood
Ah yes! There was a metallic petrol blue 1275GT Clubman that I used to walk past on the way to work every morning when I was 18 - I REALLY REALLY wanted it at the time! It would've been my first car...Edited by joz8968 on Tuesday 15th April 11:02
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