Past cars you wish you'd kept.

[Lazza]

On another thread I mentioned an old car that I wish I'd never sold... So this is a thread where you can post your history of cars that you loved and still miss.

Most of my car history is a little ropey but I had 2 cars that I really loved and wish I still had them now.
First was a Ford Cortina Mk3 2.0GT. It was a 2 door coupe in bright orange, a very similar shade to what ford used recently on the Focus ST. It looked a lot sharper as a coupe and the Ford 2.0 was a very good engine. Handling was decent and it was a car that really stood out in a crowd. Unfortunately someone drive up the back of it bending the whole boot floor. I decided it wasn't worth repairing and sold it on. Shame, it would be worth a small fortune now, hens have more teeth than there are 2dr Mk3 Cortinas.

My second was a 1971 Rover P6 2.0TC in BRG (actually called Brooklands Green). The original engine was a bit unhealthy and I had to remove the head to de-coke it as it would barely rev over 3k rpm. Unfortunately the big-end bearings died so I swapped tgeenging with a 2.2TC motor. I had it completely rebuilt first with rebored sleeves, new pistons, rings, all new bearings, new valves, guides & seals etc. so it was like a new engine. It was rated at around 120bhp but was tested at a touch over 160bhp, mostly because it was rebuilt using much closed tolerances than the factory used. It went really well and the torque was seamless pretty much from idle all the way to the 7k redline. I could actually pull away in 4th (top gear) at idle then put the throttle full down and it would just pull strongly all the way up to over 130mph. Handling was good too, if a bit odd in that it rolled less and gripped better when going fast than going slow. There wax a particular corner that I could barely get around at 40mph but it would fly around at 60 easily.
I took the odd step of swapping the beige leather interior with black cloth but the reason for that was that not only was the leather looking pretty old but it was also slippery whereas the black cloth (from a later V8) was more comfortable and gripped better. Looked classier too.

This is a picture of it in the early days before I'd swapped the engine & interior:

[binarypunk]

My first car was a Mini 1000 saloon, 1978, cooperfied by a friend who raced them... Engine replaced with a bored-out 1275 (to 1380) with Piper cams, it was red with white roof and stripes, with (genuine) minilites, Maniflow and Janspeed exhaust, and K&N. Went like the clappers. Got nicked by some Bristol lowlives and stripped of the lot and left on blocks. Unfortunately, being 17 at the time, the insurance thought it was a standard Mini 1000...so I got £50 scrap value when it was written off.

But strangely, the car I miss most is its replacement - a totally standard beige and brown Mini Clubman estate with the 1100 tower-of-power that was such a hoot to drive! In the end it was killed by tin-worm making the floor drop out.

[Speedy]

My first car I owned was a White 1966 Mk1 Cortina, my twin brother and I bought it at age 16 for £44 it had been stood for a long time in a garden and was fairly rotten in parts. We stripped it down and rebuilt it and on the day of our seventeen birthday at midnight we were driving our own car on a provisional licence.

[DavesBRG5]

I had 2 Spitfires, 2 MGB Roadsters & an MGB GT in younger years & wish i`d kept any one of them in hindsight.

My fav was this MGB despite what my mates did to it when we got married



This was my 2nd Spitfire with Ashley hardtop



First Spitfire when i was 18 (couldn`t afford to insure an MGB at the time on 2nd year apprentice wages)



Also loved our first 4 seater convertible. Vauxhall Cavalier.

[nedski]

oooo nice cars so far

My first few sporty cars were Fords. mk2 Escort Rs2000, mk3 Escort RS 1600i , Capri 280 Brooklands. All were great for a young lad when insurance wasn't really an issue. Shame i have no photo's

Then soon after came my Astra GTE which i raced for 10 yrs. Coincidence I made this collage only today for my workshop.
Good memories.

[Pendric Lumpybeard]

My first car was a 13 year old genuine 1 owner, 11,000 mile Mini Clubman which was a lovely first car. Then I moved on to an MGB GT, rubber bumper one, one of the Jubilee editions, had that for a good few years. Also got alongside it a Reliant Scimtar GTE (the SE5a model) which someone had sprayed in an eye-burning fluorescent orange...they'd also fitted stainless tubular manifolds, freeflow exhausts, bigger carb, fast road cams, ported and polished it and bored the lump out to a 3.1. It went Rather Well and sounded lovely

What else, A Lotus Excel SE - really miss the way that drove, really don't miss being on first name terms with most of the RAC men in the area. Utterly brilliant when it worked. Final straw was when the air con condenser fell out on the M25.

The one I really miss? A late 1980's Saab 900 16v Turbo. So comfortable, built like a tank, quirky and quick. So very tempted to hunt a good one down again now, prices seem to be on the rise.

[binarypunk]

Big love for the Saab turbos. My brother had a 99 Turbo which was just amazing...

[Lazza]

What else, A Lotus Excel SE - really miss the way that drove, really don't miss being on first name terms with most of the RAC men in the area. Utterly brilliant when it worked. Final straw was when the air con condenser fell out on the M25.

What year? I used to work at Lotus for a short time as did my brother for a bit longer and my father for a very long time; over 40 years.

[Pendric Lumpybeard]

What year? I used to work at Lotus for a short time as did my brother for a bit longer and my father for a very long time; over 40 years.

Cool - they've made some lovely cars over the years

It was I think an 86/87 car - D plate anyway. It was great when it went, but pretty pricey when it didn't. I had it just over a year before trading it for the Saab. Handling was just lovely. To be fair to it, it was a bit of a high miler that had a hard life I suspect and a very good lesson in not buying a cheap Lotus

[simes2000]

I couldn't have kept it because I rolled it and it wasn't a lot of use after that(!) but the car i waish I could have kept was a 1966 split screen VW dormobile. Underpowered, poorly lit (6v electrics), freezing cold (the heat exchangers on the exhaust were leaking exhaust into the cab, so I couldn't run the heating) but a hoot to drive, and simplicity itself to work on. I was given it because the clutch had gone and my Mum couldn't sort it, engine out job to replace, but the engine is only held on 4 bolts, and then rolls out backwards on a trolley jack

[Lazza]

What year? I used to work at Lotus for a short time as did my brother for a bit longer and my father for a very long time; over 40 years.

Cool - they've made some lovely cars over the years

It was I think an 86/87 car - D plate anyway. It was great when it went, but pretty pricey when it didn't. I had it just over a year before trading it for the Saab. Handling was just lovely. To be fair to it, it was a bit of a high miler that had a hard life I suspect and a very good lesson in not buying a cheap Lotus

I worked there in 87/88 so might have driven your car before it was sold! My brother was working in the paint shop at that time so will have been involved with the bodywork and my father worked with them from when they were based in a shed in north London right into the Elise days! He was manager of composites so might not have touched your car but would have been in charge of many of those who did (including my brother).
It's a shame Lotuses weren't better built and more reliable as they have always looked great and driven well.

[PaulH]

Oh dear here we go, Jowett Javelin with Jupiter R4 engine, Bugatti Type 40, Triumph TR3 with ex works Sabrina engine, MG Metro 6R4, sundry works (BMC) supported Mini's & 1100/1300's, ex DTV Vauxhall 2600cc Magnum (the 2600cc engine came from an ex Gerry Marshall Magnum through Bill Blydenstein) Renault R8 Gordini plus bucket loads of mundane daily cars and now wish I had kept my Mk1 MX5 !, now what about motorcycles as well ? Paul H, Bicester.

[Lazza]

Interesting selection of cars Paul. Which would be the No 1 car out of those that you would most like to still have now?

[blackyb]

For me, there are only two cars I wish I had looked after better and kept.

Have some old pickies somewhere in a shoe box (way before digital technology)

First was a Mini Clubman estate, why, well sourced a written off Cooper, engine etc swapped over and she was a little beauty, a flying machine but the bloody back doors kept popping open??

Second, my all time favourite, my MkII escort, it left the factory as a two door 1.3L, after a couple of years it was sporting a 2.0ltr engine, a mixture of parts from other models of Ford's and almost fully seam welded, all she wanted was a roll cage to complete the task but the wife wouldn't let me get rid of the back seats.

Now, I have a lovely 1991 Mk1 1.6 Eunos, showing just 43k on the clock with a bit of extra chrome on board and that's it, she perfect just as she is and I wont make the same mistake again and wont be selling her any time soon, too many people seem to have regrets selling their Mk1s, I don't intend to make the same mistake.

[PaulH]

Hi Lazza, guess 2 of them, the Javelin (JNV 664)with the R4 engine, the engine was used in the Le Mans entry Jupiter, (the Jowett R4 was the sports car that Jowett never got into production), I bought the car & engine from Ken Braddock in Leighton Buzzard, he was one of the Jowett works Le Mans drivers, likewise the TR3, (VKB 12) I bought from SAH also in Leighton Buzzard, the private arm of the Triumph works team (as Special Tuning was to BMC) the car had been a works "hack" for the development of the factory double overhead cam "Sabrina" engine, it had fibreglass doors, bonnet & boot lid, was quite something although never really appreciated what I had until later years.

Of the others the Bugatti was a 2 seat tourer, no weather equipment, just not practicle, the R8 Gordini, ex Renault Sport in Dieppe, I had to buy it but was supported by the RAF, was living in Germany at the time & rallied it for 3 years with factory parts & RAF support, the 6R4 was as a result of buying 2 of them cheap from Special Tuning after Group B banned through my Father (Manager in Pressed Steel at Cowley) sold one to Aslam Khan in Kenya for Safari use, basically the profit paid for mine !, ran it for a year (nearly bankrupted us & close to divorce as result) hillclimbed & sprinted, after 12 months front & back diffs due overhaul at Salisbury's at cost of £3K, in 1986, no money so had to sell it , it went to Germany, hope to be re-united with it at Race Retro next weekend, although did get to drive it up the hill with Tony Pond at Goodwood F of S. My Mini's, 1100/1300's all out of the factory (Dad had a concession) cars had variety of S engines 999,1071 & 1275, the last 1275 (engine number 9f-SAY50967) was the only 1275 Cooper S engine to have needle roller cam bearings, an experimental engine that Dad bought from Roy Tabor, he did all the work on the British Vita x-flow race cars, oh we have had some oddities, my Clubmans Mini ended up with a Maxi engine in it, plenty more tales to tell, just wait until we meet up, I can bore for Britain & haven't even started on my motorcycles or aircraft & gliders I have owned !!!!!!!, Rgds, Paul H.