My Old Motors (A Retrospective, Long post)

[Sir Snipes]

It's Saturday evening, I'm bored and don't have anything better to do tonight so I thought I'd share some memories of my old sheds from the past few years. Starting around 2005ish, first interesting car was a white Manta GTE Hatch. I had always wanted one and I got one. Within a month it had been stolen, crashed and written-off. No pictures as they're long lost to the internet. This red GTE "Executive" Coupe was the replacement. It looked great and I loved ever moment of it but honestly it was a shed and I paid far too much for it. Rusty in all the usual Manta places, I faffed around with it, took it to the usual Cheshire shows and North West Manta Club meets. I had it for a year before it failed the MOT dismally. I had neither the skill nor "facilities" to fix the rampant rot so into my council lock-up it went. Kept it for about another year before I could bring myself to sell it. Eventually I did, to a Manta club fella who got it back on the road after a big weld-fest.

 

While '555 languised in the shed I bought another Manta, this time a 1.8S Hatch. I have no idea why I bought this car. I don't like red, I hated the stripes, the GTE side skirts combined with the black rubbing strips and the fact it wasn't a GTE. It never gave me any bother so it wasn't so bad I guess. It was also the only time I actually went to VBOA meet at Billing Aquadrome in an actual Manta;

Recaro stickers but no Recaro interior lol. I wanted something different next, especially as Mantas were starting to climb in value. Suddenly a car that was £800 was now £2k and I wasn't up for that. So I got an Nissan Silvia ZX Turbo. Again I smoked around in it, went to shows, made loads of unnecessary "mods", mooched around on Silvia forums, made some "internet friends" in Australia and America (swapped a few parts with a lad and his Mexican mate in San Diego, not something you do every day) and generally enjoyed having an old and distinctive car.

I really liked it. I loved the chunky 80s styling, pop-up lights, the turbo engine, complete lack of rust anywhere on it but it handled terribly and I nearly smacked it twice without even trying. I blamed the Nankang tyres but I think the inch of play in the rear x-member bushes probably had a hand in that. So it failed the 'test on rear suspension bushes and some minor bits and pieces. As it was getting into winter I decided to store it away and get something for daily transport. A ZXOC friend had a 1.6LX Bluey for sale for scrap money as it was out of test, Cat-D, needed tyres and wouldn't start. I worked at a Kwik-fit so threw some free runners on a cheap set of S13 200sx wheels, dug out some spark plugs from someone's tool box, had a friend do a little welding for the test and it was ready for action. Getting it running was a lucky guess really, I don't have any real practical knowledge of engines. It was everything the Silvia wasn't but it was reliable transport with minimal maintenance, if a little dull to drive. Broke down on the Manchester fly-over in rush hour traffic in the rain when one of the plugs rattled loose lol;

It would let in water though, with a constant puddle in the passenger foot-well. Had the interior out but never quite got to the bottom of it. I drove it for a couple of months with just the   driver's seat. 

I had moved down south to Buckinghamshire, taking the Bluey with me and leaving the Silvia in the same garage previously occupied by E555 . The Bluey was absolutely fine but I couldn't get it onto a Classic insurance policy, and I wasn't using it to commute anymore, so I changed it for a cheap and local 924 Porsche. A little scruffy, Cat-C but it was an 80s Coupe and that was my thing. Went to a local RR meet and pulled out in front of a Mercedes. Shit. Footman James made me wait 6 months for a pay-out, despite constant badgering, and then knocked me down on the price at the last minute. Off to the yard it went.

[pshome]

This makes me think, what happened to pop-up headlamps, seems no even half modern car has them anymore? 

[Tamworthbay]

This makes me think, what happened to pop-up headlamps, seems no even half modern car has them anymore?

 

I could be wrong but I think they were killed off when people started looking into minimising injuries to pedestrians in a crash. Very sensible but sad for a fan of them like me.

[worldofceri]

Yeah, that's why the last Honda NSXs changed to faired-in lights.

[Jazoli]

Good pictures and good cars, I never liked the way the Manta hatchbacks looked, the booted version was a much better looker to me, I like the S12 too, had an S12,S13 and S14a, also an MX5 and a mk3 Supra Turbo, I loved pop up lights

[Sir Snipes]

By now I was working at a suspension specialists and "into" drifting. That is watching, talking, buying themed clothes but not actually doing. I had the Silvia moved down and started a "project" (bear in mind it had only needed suspension bushes and odds 'n' sods when it was last tested). Front suspension was a mix of 200SX S13 wishbones, 200SX S14 hubs with 300ZX Z32 twin-turbo 4-pot alloy calipers, new braided steel lines, new Driftworks adjustable tension rods, poly-bushes everywhere and new BC Coilovers. Refurbished Z31 300ZX rear trailing arms with bigger brakes and 5-stud rims (that was important to me back then). Getting the correct vented disks was a bit of a faff. Refurbed the rear cross-member and had it modified to allow suspension geometry adjustment - that was a right saga too with one "tuner" having it for months and doing basically nothing with it. Scrubbed up the whole underside and wheel arches (it really was super clean under the old underseal) and re-sealed it with Bilt-Hamber's finest. Built it all back up, got the front wings repaired where they had rotted away near the bottom and had the side repeater holes patched.  Foolishly, I had binned the S12 wishbones and getting replacements would prove basically impossible. I even imported a new pair from America but they were (with hindsight) mis-labelled S13 arms. So for several months I desperately tried to find replacement arms as it had far too much camber on the front wheels. The estate where the car was kept was also being developed and I was under pressure to move it. I had really gotten carried away with the "mods" and trying to rebuild a rare and unusual car (even fifteen years ago) without proper storage was a mistake.  Even if I had finished it, it would have been an absolute crime to drift such a clean car. Eventually had to sell it as an unfinished project.

 

As one last ditch effort at a "maybe drift" car I bought an E30 318 Touring. Turned out to be absolutely  rotten so that didn't end well either. Ran it into the ground and scrapped it. 

By now I was fucking done with cars. Crashed the Porsche, Silvia project had been a failure and now the 318 was gone. So I did the sensible thing and bought a £400 Escort. I know people hate these Escorts but this one was excellent. I spent basically nothing on it. Ran it around the M25 every week to visit my girlfriend, got me to college in the evenings and, other than a broken plastic actuator on the clutch pedal, it never let me down. It  didn't need front brakes or bushes as they always do; the Aircon even worked. It was very rusty around the rear, as numerous MOT advisories pointed-out and I was playing cambelt roulette so eventually scrapped it. Best purchase I've made after the Bluebird.

That brings me to last year. I'm driving my girlfriends old Fiesta. I didn't really want it but she wanted something newer, I needed a car, and with the escort gone, it was the only real option. It is very rusty around the driver's rear quarter and sill and A-pillar but she absolutely adores it and will be sad when "he" is eventually scrapped. "He" has been reliable so I'm very much OUT OF THE GAME with cars untill that happens.

So that's it. Hope people liked seeing my old motors. 

[worldofceri]

LOL at 'Drifting Is Gay'.

[timolloyd]

Better to have loved and lost, than never loved etc etc where cars are concerned.

 

I have a lot of respect for people who've had great cars and had to get rid of them, instead of trying to keep up with Joneses when they can't afford it, or bowing out and buying conventional cars.

 

Thumbs up for using the GF's Fiesta and look forward to seeing what you get next, when it's scrapped

[Lord Sterling]

Great read man. It's got me thinking about my Merc, I reckon I'll be cutting my, losses and getting rid as I simply can't afford the time or money to sort it.

 

Escorts aren't bad cars, they are cheap and easy way of avoiding using the bus. If it ever did come to that with me, I certainly wouldn't turn down an Escort. I nearly got one for free years ago when I was young and wet behind the ears. I was just into my first ownership of my Rover 827Si when I was offered the Escort, I provisionally agreed to take it on but the chap never got in touch again, besides, I had nowhere to store it anyway.

[purplebargeken]

I wish I'd taken pics of my old cars. Mind you, I'd need 4 Photobucket accounts just for that purpose alone lol.

 

Great thread

[Spottedlaurel]

Good to see the Mantas. Generally I reckon the 2dr looks better, except when it comes to the non-GTE later models like your GT (to me they look a bit 'weak' as a 2dr). We ended up with one as family transport back in the '80s (somewhat roomier than the 924 that replaced it).

 

Shame you didn't get the Silvia back on the road. I'm always surprised when people sell/chuck standard components that they've removed, but at least a subsequent owner got it sorted.

[Essex V6]

My GSi is starting to take root in my garage. Just cannot get the fecking thing to run properly

[Sir Snipes]

Spit of my first Manta.

[oldcars]

My GSi is starting to take root in my garage ceiling, Just cannot get the fecking thing to run properlyimage.jpeg

FIFY 

[Sir Snipes]

Incidentally I had many more pictures but around half were on a hoisting site that doesn't exist anymore. The rest are photo bucket links that are easily as old as 10 years ago but are still active. So, props to pb I guess.

[Sir Snipes]

Hey look, an old thread I'd forgotten about! 

So we left off with me running around in an old 1.3 ohv Fiesta Flight. I disliked it, but it was An Car when I had very little money. 

 

[Sir Snipes]

Replaced it with a doom blue Citroën C4 1.6 pez. It had bizarrely short gearing and I was forever reaching for that non existent 6th gear when on the motorway. It was OK but unremarkable- most interesting thing about was when I had both door mirrors knocked off within a few days of each other. Again, An Car when I was a skint trainee electrician. Took it to Brecon Beaons for a winter hiking holiday.  I basically ruined that car's interior eating my lunch in it while in building site clothes, and I couldn't get on with 3500rpm on the motorway at 70mph. Still, got a few years out of it. 

[Sir Snipes]

This brings us to 2020 and covid insanity. Fortunately, I had only the 4 weeks around March out of work. The rest of the year was actually pretty good, so bought the Vectra seen in Modern Shite. It unfortunately died after a couple of years when the brakes seized and cooked something behind the wheel, causing it to dump it's coolant. Shame, I liked it and the big boot was great, but it was clearly getting flaky and had already thrown up some "big enough" bills for me to lose patience with it.

[Sir Snipes]

Moving on, I inherited a year old Fabia Combi TSI Auto when a close relative died. It was, y'know, nice or whatever but it was sold back to Skoda after about a year. I wasn't comfortable driving it for personal reasons, and I just don't like having loads of money tied up in a car.

Pictured here outside the house I (half) owned almost as briefly. The house is a long story but, suffice to say, 2023 was a terrible year and I'm still not over it.

[Sir Snipes]

Replaced with a Stepway Sandero when I needed another An Car.  It's picked up dings and scratches on both NS doors and marks on both bumpers. It's gone from "Very Clean" (only reason i bought it) to "Clean for 10 years old". It is fairly low mileage, FSH and the MOT history is insanely clean of fails and advises so it's not a bad old bus. I polished it today and it looks good, but if I wanted it back to the condition it was in only a year ago it'd really need both bumpers and NS doors replacing, which I might do if I could find any clean enough to justify the bother. Also needs a new aerial after the car wash tore it in half (easy fix, it just unscrews) and a new NSR light cluster as I knocked it loading the boot one evening (also easy).

[Sir Snipes]

So what have i learned after about fifteen years of buying shit cars? Should have kept the bluebird, m8. Except the Fabia, which I acquired in exceptional circumstances, none of them have been an improvement, not really. It was also the only truly Autoshite car I've had in all that time and the only "fun" car where I've kept my inclination to modify cars in check

This thread has actually been really useful as I thought all those Manta, Bluebird, Silvia, E30 and Escort pictures were lost to the Photobucket meltdown.

[Sir Snipes]

I've averaged a car about every about 18 months since passing my test in btw

• Mk2 Golf 1.3 CL (beaten up, sold)
• Seat Cordoba 1.6 CLX (not so beaten up, sold)
• Polo Coupe 1.0 (I didn't even like VAG! HGF, traded in)
• Fiat Punto 1.2 ELX (nearly new, lost loads of money, a recurring theme, sold)
• Opel Manta 2.0 GTE Hatch (stolen & crashed, written off)
• Opel Manta 2.0 GTE Executive Coupe (sold as project, rusty as they always are, lost a fair bit of money not too bad)
• Opel Manta 1.8 GT Hatch (sold)
• Nissan Silvia S12 ZX Turbo 1.8 (sold as project, lost loads of money)
• Nissan Bluebird 1.6LX (sold, actually didn't lose money with this)
• LT Van Coupe (crashed, scrapped)
• E30 318 Touring (scrapped, rust)
• Escort 1.6 16v LX (scrapped, rust)
• Fiesta Flight 1.3 (scrapped, rust lol)
• C4 1.6 SX (traded in)
• Vectra 1.8 SRi (scrapped, dead)
• Fabia 1.0 TSi (sold)
• Sandero Stepway 0.9 TCe (pending)

[motorpunk]

Some shite shite there. I’d love a Bluebird.

[Sir Snipes]

Recovered an old Photobucket account so I've added loads more pictures. 

 

[N Dentressangle]

Mantas and the Saliva are the peak achievements, IMO.

Hope you get something nice next - life's too short to own boring stuff, unless you really have to.

[Sir Snipes]

Well I have the money to buy something nice and should have a work van soon, but still no where to store a car and I'm not in the trade anymore so no where to work on 'em . I'm also in temporary accommodation for this year while I decide what the hell to do with my life. May well move back up North next year - I really don't know.

 I also found a really old ZXOC forum avatar so I've put that up for nostalgia too!

edit: I checked the 'test status of that Carina E a couple of posts up. Ran out a couple of  months ago and the prior year the only issue was brake lines! No idea how big a job it is - if it's a fuel tank out job that may have been enough to bean can it.

[AltheJazzman]

Relatable. I've scrapped more cars than I've sold. Only ever sold one car in 27 years of driving. With each car I buy I feel more experienced to strike a good deal, only I've never managed to haggle, and just buy with my heart not my head.

My Mum + Stepdad had a Manta A in lemon yellow with black vinyl interior. That was the coolest car they owned. The Granada mk2 auto was a lovely barge though and seemed enormous inside.