Whats your history?

[Mat.T]

what a loverly pair! My choice would be the 140j, i love the styling

[Spottedlaurel]

Both lovely cars! Mash, is the 710 an early one with the moulded door panels inside? The one I broke years ago was like that, think they changed to more normal straight panel with a separate door pull/arm rest a bit later.Somewhere I should have correspondence from Rob Tann and his letter in Motor from the 1980’s about OKJ. I imagine all the ad’s I have with it you already have.

[wuvvum]

Wow. I can't say I've ever really been into '60s Jap stuff, but that little 1000 is wonderful. 140J is cool too, of course.

[michiel]

From Mash's photobouquet:

 

[Mr Lobster]

Launched a thousand ships? Recycled into a thousand ships I suspect......

[CrownJewels]

Another missed off!!, Datsun 280C Estate 430 (now in Japan)

That's a pretty interesting fate, how did that come about? I know they're big into importing US models (they have a USDM scene importing pickup trucks and LHD Hondas and the like), but never heard of them doing "UKDM".

I had it advertised on Ebay and on the last few minutes of the auction it was still well under the reserve price. I came back in thinking it had not sold and the Japanese buyer had bid the reserve price at the last seconds.He sent the funds over by cheques and organised the shipping his end. Im sure on the DOC Forum the is a picture of it in front of the guys shop in Japan still with the engrish plates on it!!

[Mash]

Both lovely cars! Mash, is the 710 an early one with the moulded door panels inside? The one I broke years ago was like that, think they changed to more normal straight panel with a separate door pull/arm rest a bit later.Somewhere I should have correspondence from Rob Tann and his letter in Motor from the 1980’s about OKJ. I imagine all the ad’s I have with it you already have.

Yep it's the early panels, the car was registered in Feb 1974. Can't remember when they went on sale here.I'm building up a big history file about OKJ213F and have a lot of AF Tann stuff - the Motor letter is just a small photocopy but I think there's also a letter from him to you about ten years ago.Sorry I seem to have hijacked the thread!

[andrewp]

Okay, this is always a good way of getting to know someone I think, so, as a newbie this may help……or not! Where I can remember the cost of the car is shown. I'm still loving the bargain end of the market but my long motorway commute dictates otherwise so I've been missing out on cars with real character recently. 1. School years 1977 1955 Austin A50 £452. College years 1981-1984…earning £23 a wk washing dishes at night, most cars sold at a profit. 1971 VW Beetle 1300 £350 1972 Ford Capri 2.0 GTXLR £550 1974 Honda Civic 1.2 £700 1977 Escort 1.3 Pop plus £1100 (My worst car) 1974 Citroen GS £70 1974 Hillman Avenger £110 for doing Autotests in…..fell apart after 1 event. 1978 Honda Civic 1.5 £150 (very fast, loved it) 3. Various jobs 1984 on……..still looking for the right career 1977 Citroen GS Pallas £650 1972 Volvo 144 £190 after crashing the Citroen 1978 Citroen GS Pallas £700 1977 Honda Civic £325 1978 VW Passat estate £370 1975 VW Golf 1.5 LHD 1981 Toyota Corolla 1.3 £1700 (should never have sold it) 1986 Citroen 2CV £3000ish brand new 1974 VW Golf 1.1 LHD £90 Liked this a lot Various 1986 Micras as driving instructor doing 50000 mile a year, blew engine on 1 1983 VW Polo C £1800 1987 Toyota Corolla 1.3 liftback £5750 1972 Toyota Celica ST £325 1982 Honda Accord 4 door auto nice but thirsty 1981 Alfasud Sprint Veloce £350 …Beautiful exhaust rasp ,V rusty 1981 Citroen Dyane surprisingly fast! £325 1989 Nissan Bluebird SGX £3700 1990 VW Golf 1.8 GL £4990 (2nd worst car) 1984 Toyota Camry auto £1100 comfy & thirsty 1989 Renault 25 GTX £1100 1995 Nissan Sunny 1.4 LX £6000 1997 Renault Megane 1.6 £9950 three months old & rubbish 1997 Nissan Primera 1.6 GX £11995 – Wife has still got this one 10 years later, a great car 4. My Commuting to London cars 100 miles a day 1987 Toyota Carina 2 £1300 1995 Nissan Primera 1.6 LX £3700 – had speed & thirst of a 2.0 1999 Toyota Yaris 1.0 £4995 1995 Honda Civic 1.5 4 door auto £2300 – Horrendous thirst for petrol 1995 VW Golf TDI estate £1100 Very fast & 55mpg excellent, poor electrics 2001 Ford Mondeo LX TDDi £2100 problem after problem but sold for same 2004 Toyota Yaris 1.3 t-spirit £6999 1999 Mazda 626 diesel estate £2300 50mpg and still happy withI also donned my sheepskin and dabbled in a few other cars (mostly MX5, BMWs & Ka’s) for a couple of years up until a few years ago some of which I used for a few months especially the early ‘90s Nissan Patrol LWB’s which were lovely beasts but no good for my long commute. Quickest sold was a ’94 193000 mile Merc E220 Cabriolet within 20 mins of picking it up, and yes, it did still show the same mileage.

[MrRegieRitmo]

That 140J is sweet! Wasn't the 140J also known as Violet or was that just the later ones?Nigel does that 1000 have any kind of relationship to your 1960s Datsun's, even if just the fact they were the only 1960s Datsun's on the market perhaps? Does it float your boat? Was the 1000 the first & only Datsun offered to us in that swinging decade? Your 411s being LHD!My history has to be read slowly & carefully because if you blink, you'll miss it!......It reads like this;July 2000 aged 17 - acquired 1985 Fiat Panda 45CLJune 2001 aged 18 - acquired 1980 Fiat Ritmo 65CLMar 2002 aged 19 - moved house, told by parents Panda was not coming with us. Paid £35 to have Sea Cow taken away. :cry:Oct 2002 aged 19 - acquired 1995 Ford Fiesta 1.6 SiDec 2002 aged 20 - passed my driving test 1st attempt (after an intensive course)Dec 2004 aged 22 - acquired 1978 Renault 14 TLFeb 2005 aged 22 - sold Fiesta as needed some £'s & was making way for R14 to become main car......gulp! April 2007 aged 24 - acquired 2000 Alfa 146 Ti as had come into some money & needed something powerful & modern to cope with the increase in work journey from 12 miles a day to 60 miles a day after my job moved to Hampshire from Sussex. R14 deserved a break after serving me admirably everyday for over 2 years & didn't want to run it into the ground any longer than necessary. The new journey included high speed driving & plenty of hills, not fair on the old girl!

[Mash]

That 140J is sweet! Wasn't the 140J also known as Violet or was that just the later ones?Nigel does that 1000 have any kind of relationship to your 1960s Datsun's, even if just the fact they were the only 1960s Datsun's on the market perhaps? Does it float your boat? Was the 1000 the first & only Datsun offered to us in that swinging decade? Your 411s being LHD!

They are related in that they both came from the same person who also frequents these hallowed boards The 410/411 like Nigel's was not imported to Britain unfortunately, sales of Nissan-Datsun cars only began in late 1968 and my 1000 with another 5 cars were the first ones which were owned by the company and lent out to the press. It has an interesting history which is too long to go into here.I'll let Mr. Bickle fill in the history of Moomin which he kindly outbid me on I'll get one, one day!The 140J was badged Violet in the Japanese market but only officially here in the late 70s with the A10 model.

[Ratdat]

There was one 410 imported here. It was put through it's paces at MIRA and it's possible that the favourable report they made on it may have been instrumental in Datsuns being marketed here at all. Unfortunately the testing was destructive so the car certainly doesn't exist any more.Of the 60's models, we got B10 Sunny, 510 Bluebird, 130 Cedric and the C30 Laurel. There's a marked difference in the 510 and C30 from the others as they came about after Nissan aquired Prince Motor Company and their advanced technology in '66. The pre '66 Nissan products are much more basic and more akin to 1950's British products.

[MrRegieRitmo]

I'll let Mr. Bickle fill in the history of Moomin which he kindly outbid me on I'll get one, one day!

So then.....what's a Moomin? (apart from the subject of a weird children's cartoon from years ago!)

[simmo]

Got any pictures? Esp of the MkII Transits, Leyland Terrier & Granada Coupe!

Finally dug some out,

 

The MK1 Coupe had huge Scorpio wheels and cortina pedals when I got, I think it looks better on the proper Ghia wheels.

 

 

 

 

 

[pogweasel]

DING DONG! What a crop of beauties Simmo.

[pogweasel]

while we are doing old scans, did i ever show you these?

 

This was my brother's first car. Held together with moss. Absolute deathtrap. Never made it back on the road.

 

My Mini (Slotmags! Not shown.)

Nice car this, but the roof leaked terribly and I lunched the gearbox doublequick.

 

And then the piece de resistance!

OMFG.

Some of you know, or at least know of my friend Russell, someone who is very dangerous when it comes to vehicles. 120% enthusiasm, 0% common sense. This was his mini, which he managed to turn from a mint 1-biddy-owned marvel into this disgusting turd in a matter of months. Note the particularly high quality to which the flared arches have been prepared.

In the end his fossils got pissed off with it dripping oil on their driveway and he gave it to me. I started undoing some of the damage, but some oiks bricked the screens and I gave up.

 

All of these went to the crusher, in these days of eBay I'd have got a grand for that lot, easy.

[MrRegieRitmo]

Got any pictures? Esp of the MkII Transits, Leyland Terrier & Granada Coupe!

Finally dug some out,

 

The MK1 Coupe had huge Scorpio wheels and cortina pedals when I got, I think it looks better on the proper Ghia wheels.

 

 

 

 

 

Simmo, 10/10 for that little lot!.....well I did ask for them!

[simmo]

Thanks guys, I do like a Transit and or a Granny

[mk2_craig]

Passed my test Aug 95 and had a less eclectic selection of wheels than most on this thread, all blue oval so far and nothing particularly ancient:

 

Two of these

 

(plus a pair of these)

 

About fifteen of these

 

Only one of these

 

One of these, the only two-pedal car I've had

 

and one of these.

 

Must admit I'm feeling the need for something a little more out of the ordinary. Would definitely ease off the Ford fetish for one of these

Edited March 12, 2021 by mk2_craig
Test to replace broken Photobucket links

[MrRegieRitmo]

Must admit I'm feeling the need for something a little more out of the ordinary. Would definitely ease off the Ford fetish for one of these

funnily enough it's what I sold my Fiesta for!

[wilko]

Mine starts in 1995 and is comparatively boring... more "shit" rather than "shite" on the list, but there you go!1985 mk2 Fiesta 1600 diesel - £300 Fixed rust & resprayed, uprated the suspension & brakes to XR2 & fitted pepperpots but no bodykit. Modified cylinder head, air filter & fuel pump until it would do 110 on the flat and keep up with my mates petrol powered offerings! Lasted me about 50,000 miles did 55mpg and was still going strong when it got chored and burned out.1985 Sierra 2 litre GL - £400. Purchased to burn about to music festivals in for the summer before university. Modified with bits from the scrappies - XR4i LSD, ported head & 285 cam out of a crashed crapi, 38 DGAS carb off a 3-litre granada... left on 14 inch steels with no hubcaps for Q-car value. Did about 20mpg if I was lucky and nearly killed me several times as I attempted to master RWD. Written off by a t-bone from the local vicar, hastily "re-modified" back to standard and claimed £800 back from his insurers.1987 Sunny 1600 - £350. Total bag of shite, blew up on M6 after only weeks of ownership. Had the warped cylinder head skimmed, then punted it on at Telford auction for £420.1990 Sierra Sapphire 2.0 DOHC - £1200 - my most expensive car ever! Lasted me 7 years from 82k up to 168k with less than £500 spent to keep it on the road. Unmodified except for Volvo 15inch rims and would have carried on with a brake overall and a new alternator - shell was still mint and unwelded so donated to a "lightning rod" driver and it is now racing round the ovals!1984 BMW 735SEi - £600. Nice 80k trade-in in metallic red that nobody fancied at the auctions, but I couldn't resist! I was a poor student at the time so I got the other half's mother to register & insure it for peanuts and then drove it on my 3rd party cover (yes I know, naughty naughty!). Could only really afford to put petrol in it once a month for a cruise, so punted it on after 6 months for a healthy profit.1988 Reno 5 - £200... Bought for the ex but she basically borrowed the sierra whilst I zipped about in this instead - loved it! Did 13k in a year without missing a beat - then failed the MOT spectacularly and got weighed in!1979 Cortina 1300 - £100 - brought with a couple of months T&T but the test must have been hooky as the void bushes were shot and a large proportion of the floor and sills had moved elsewhere! When I realised how bad it was I took it straight off the road and banger raced it - crumpled alarmingly easily and should never have been anywhere near a public highway.CURRENT:1981 Granada 2.8 estate - just bought it out of t&t for £200, which is double what I usually pay for race cars... may hit the road, may hit the track... it sadly features an alarming DIY paint job in that horrid bright blue that BL used on marinas or it would definitely stay on the road.1998 Rover 216Si - £950, thought they were good value so searched for a nice one, got this 2 years back with 82k on the clock - 95k now and not let me down or cost anything other than an oil change.I'm proud of the fact I have never broken the £1500 barrier in 12 years of driving but only broken down once.

[keef]

1963 Austin A40 Farina1966 Austin A40 Farina Countryman1973 Austin 1300

Any pics?

[Pillock]

Definately less extensive than some on here so you get a free little story with every car :)First car, 1968 VW 1300 - never drove it. Was given it by a chappie abroad who told me how solid it was, but as he'd decided not to come home I could go and get it from his parents house. Went to look, it was about as solid as a teabag in a hurricane. Pishing petrol all over the engine, holes all over the floor, no exhaust..... got it trailered to a local VW specialist who declared it 'rubbish' and kindly scrapped it for free.1973 VW 1303S from the garage that scrapped the earlier beetle. Excellent little car, did 18000 miles in 12 months as a daily driver. Realised 18000 miles without any garage time was not the way to treat a car as they loaded it onto the scrap wagon with terminal rot in the framehead and channels.1973 Type 3 Fastback. Lovely cruiser, did many shows and work duties. Super-reliable, sold it to Dubscene magazine. Cost me absolutely nothing bar consumables in over a years motoring.1972 Type 3 Fastback. Current fleet. Fancied a road-racecar and this flip-fronted stripped out motor seemed to fit. Stupidly quick but never gets driven between MoTs so will be up for sale when the weather does it justice.1990 Golf Driver. Took abuse and never complained. Strangely quick for a carbed 1600. Couldn't sell it for love nor money though, even with 10 months MoT, so swapped it for an Ikea bookshelf and a tumbledryer. 1991 Polo G40. Friend had just bought a Megane Coupe and I wanted to go faster. Insanely fun, longest I've ever owned a car and it got the biggest smiles. Found that 6200rpm on a cold engine doesn't do superchargers any good and spent ages picking parts of it out of the inlet mesh. Luckily it was a loaner as mine was off for a rebuild. Then had a series of near-accidents and decided to sell before I carked it. Last seen heading towards the Irish ferry.1991 Audi 90 Quattro 20v Sport. Found it in a salvage yard as a stolen recovered. Needed some filler in the wing for an MoT, tester noticed it had just had four brake calipers, new genuine exhaust, clutch..... plenty of cash spent. Had fun in the snow, sold it for 100% profit.1984 Scirocco Storm. The metallic brown one, with brown seats, brown carpets, brown dash...... had it for a year, spent £6 on maintinance, sold it for purchase price.1993 Polo Coupe. Bought from a friend as it had a rattly top end after a waterpump change. Stupidly thought it'd drive back from Milton Keynes to Mansfield as was (it ran, but 50mph was a struggle). Five miles in, lost all power and coasted to a halt - ended up on the recovery wagon, courtesy of selling friend as I had no cover. Had to source a new engine for it as I'd totally holed a piston, melted it to the bore and two of the valves had snapped off and gone down the hole into the crankcase. Sold at a profit :)1997 Mondeo Verona. Stupidly reliable, hydraulics failed on clutch and had to go as cost of investigation was more than value of car. Was still going strong at 192000 miles.1990 Astra 2.0 GTE Cabrio. Bought from Ebay unseen, drove well and I tested all three figures on the digital speedo on the way home. Then took the bodykit off and found sod all metal in the sills so felt a bit of a chump. Bought a welder, bought the sills, never got round to it, sold it. Came back to me, sold it again. Never got collected, refunded, sold it again at a loss.1999 Vectra SRi. Current fleet. Dull. Fast, but dull. And needs to go to a garage at £30/hour every time the engine light comes on.

[pogweasel]

Didn't you have another Polo, Pillock? Tasha's old one???

[Maltelec]

Passed my test 5 years ago. Own/owned:

 

1983 Series-3 SWB County Station Wagon, which I still drive daily, named Poo.

 

Next I got a 1978 Series-3 LWB from Ebay for £102. Found it with 18 min to go, stuck £150 on thinking I'd never get it. Found out it was an Uber rare SETAC Police Land Rover and decided to restore it. Mechanically and structually it was utterly nackered. Engine was okish, gearbox was goosed, rear diff was on the verge of exploding, clutch was US, fuel tank had holes in, front axle was rusted to hell, bulkhead had no more nails holding it together, and the chasssis, what was left of it, was pure rust. It had been used as a bumper car and all the lower body work was dented. The hard top however bearly had a scratch. We call it Mr Plod.

 

I then bought a 2a called Chu. I sold this on. It was then plate-raped and probably scraped. Somewhere around North Yorkshire there is a Series-3 with a ringed plate on it.

 

Soon after I bought a Series-3 much like my CSW only a standard model. I used this while repairing my CSW.

 

I also bought a Drott about 2 years ago:

 

And a 3-wheeled truck I found in the scrap yard in the summer. This is next on the list of things to restore:

[outlaw118]

This is scary....this is a list between myself and my brother, and we've probably forgotten some. These have all been registered to either or both of us via DVLA, I've not included anything purely bought for banger racing that just got smoked about until the tax/MoT ran out!!IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER!!!1 1979 V Reno 4TL red (rolled, driven for 9 months then weighed in)2 1976 P Capri 1300 beige, black vinyl roof3 1980 V Ciroen GS Pallas biege/brown (bought for £75, DIY clutch job, traded in for £500!)4 1983 A Escort 1.3L Estate White (written off)5 1985 C Capri 1600 Laser burgundy (in bits in garage)6 1973 M Escort 1300 Mexico rep lemans green (sold to lunatic)7 1979 T Capri 2.0S Signal Orange8 1985 C Reno 11TXE Electronic Silver (computer told lies)9 1983 A Astra 1300LS terracotta (1.4 Nova SR lump hee hee )10 89 F Astra 1300 Merit Estate red (nicked)11 80 V Cortina 1600L red (banger raced when Mot failed spectacularly)12 83 Y Cortina 2.0ghia Gold (banger raced after theft attempt)13 84 B Capri Laser 1600 white (bangered after Mot expired)14 87 D MG Maestro 2.0Efi white15 88 E Lancia Delta HF Turbo (SERIOUS Turbo lag!)16 ?? Scorpio Executive blue (not bug eye)17 87 D Reno 5 GTT blue (silly silly silly!)18 ?? Senator 2.5 grey (chip cutter grille)19-24 A/B XR4i redx2 black silver white25 ?? Mercedes 190 2.6 Cosworth gold26 79 T daimler Soveriegn white (sold to Jag owners club member)27 83 A Renault 5 Gordina Turbo28 83 A Seirra 2.3 Ghia Estate green29 ?? Mark one Fiesta van30 ?? Triumph Acclaim black (banger raced)31 ?? Renault 20TX Burgundy (lovely)32/33 ? Lancia HPE silver (nice, unreliable) blue (looked shite, went well)34 86 C Sierra 18 E Max (handpainted)purple35-36 Toyota Hilux, blue, one had 6" body lift, engine died, replacement broke it's back 3 days after we sold it!!37 82 X Saab 900GL beige 3 door (had minilites!!)39 77 S Land Rover 88 S2 red (horrible- we were stiched up badly)40 ?? Dodge Ram pickup (huge engine drank like a fish, I ended up towing it home with my 1300 Astra- that was fun....)41 74 N Granada Coupe white (lovely wish I still had it)42 81 W Reno 18GTL estate white(ish)43 ?? Honda Prelude Mk1 silver44 74 N Hillman Imp red (forest-style arches and Weller 8 spokes, 205/60's!) I think thats most of the "shite", I've left out others that probably don't qualify.....ie Bro currently has a Jag X type and a Skudder Octavia Vrs, although they're probably "future shite"!

[Volksy]

8 1985 C Reno 11TXE Electronic Silver (computer told lies)

It told you it was blue?sorry.. i'll get my coat.

[outlaw118]

It kept saying it was a microwave!

[RustbucketP6]

I passed my test in 1989, and since then I have owned this pile of crap. 1970 Vauxhall Viva HB (killed by a falling in Jan 1990)1968 Morris Minor (you could hear it rusting)1976 Austin Allegro 1.3 (gearbox went ater 2 months of ownership)1978 Peugeot 504 GL (best 400 quid ever spent)1982 Vauxhall Cavalier L (rusting in my gran's garden)1973 Rover P6 2000 TC (bought for 800 quid and sold for a fiver)1986 Ford Granada GL (written off by a woman)1987 Peugeot 505 GTi (amazing car, but no electrics worked)1991 Peugeot 605 SVI V6 (bigget pile of shite I have ever owned)1993 Ford Granada Ghia (180,000m without any problems, with a friend now)1979 Peugeot 504 GL (mint condition, until a woman drove into the back of it)1998 Ford Scorpio Ultima (my everday car - and I love it)1983 Mercedes 280E (my weekend car - 500 quid on eBay. It has done 220,000 miles but has a full history, and even the ABS, elec roof and cruise still work).

[Pillock]

Didn't you have another Polo, Pillock? Tasha's old one???

Yes indeed. Forgot all about that as it only moved under it's own power for 5 miles, then twice up the street after I changed the engine! Also forgot about the GTE, so I've edited. Cheers pog

[j-j]

Hullo all, been away a while. My history is not very good because I simply MUST have a Citroen in me life

 

Anyway passed test in 1998.

 

1987 Panda 1000fire in 1997 (did near 60 miles with the petrol light on)

 

1984 BX14E (was on TV 'Deals on wheels' with this) 1997-1999

 

1978 CX 2400 Pallas Cmatic 1999-2000

 

1980 CX 2000 Reflex 2000-2001

 

SHORT CAR FREE BREAK (but too bluddy long..)

 

 

1983 GSA Pallas SE in 2004-2007

 

1977 CX 2400 Pallas Cmatic 2005-present

 

1995 Xantia D SX Auto (free!) got last week-present

 

Bicycle shite:

 

1964 Moulton Deluxe

1964 Moulton Stowaway

2001 GT Ruckus

 

Digital watch shite:

 

1986 Casio Twingraph (white)

1987 Casio Twingraph II (Stainless steel)

1987 Casio Twingraph II black

1987 Casio Databank (gold plated) (80s minicab driver special!!)

1987 Casio Pulse monitor

1987 Casio Alti-Barometer

1989 Casio Football timer

1989 Casio Yacht timer

1990 Casio Digi graph sportstimer

1990 Casio Moon graph (base metal plated)

1993 Casio Triple sensor 'Pathfinder'

2001 Casio Sea Pathfinder

 

What can I say, I love my digi-watch shite!!