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communal 205 lickers thread


loserone

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Suppose I should write a little bit about them.

My first experience of a 205 was delivering a blue XUD one from @Jim Bell to @320touring in order to relay it up to @Sealtainn.

My first 205 was the white CJ with the bad bodykit, bypassed radiator fan which needed the headlights on to work the relay, and interior full of dog hair.  It had only lap belts in the back, so was useless as a family car and was soon moved on to @castros_bro, but not before @purplebargekenfisted it.

My second 205 was the red one bought from @Lacquer Peel and pushed through an MOT. It was horrible.  See @scaryoldcortina looking at the exhaust.  I sold it to @davehedgehog31 who fucking hated it the miserable thing, and it is now in the custody of @Saabnut.

 

My third 205 was halves on the white Inca with @Jimbob McGregor.  This is a nice car.  I like it.  I passed up my half as I didn't really need it.  He also has the grey DTurbo which I collected from @Jim Bell for him, ex @Ghosty .

My current 205 is the grey GR bought from @Jim Bell, who got it from @AlsoMike.  It was horrible when I got it as everything was loose and rattly despite Jim spending a fortune on it.  Thankfully I have also spent a fortune on it, and Jimbob is a dedicated 205 fettler, so it's now a cracking drive.  I didn't think I'd keep it long, to be honest, but it's cheap to run and I've sunk a fortune into it, so it's staying.

 

I didn't think I liked 205s, but I do.  I still think the 305 is a better car, but mine is rusty and broken.

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I've never been in one. 

The blued eyed high flying bloke in my department when I got my first j uyst as a junior graduate engineer, at Lucas, got promoted. And for 3 months a 205 1.9 GTi was on the company car scheme.  The jammy bugger, somehow managed to get that when most people were picking a mk2 Astra 1.6 GL 

Some thing about the purchase price range. (They used to buy them out right) 

And a mate bought a 1.6 GTi very second hand and passed the police high speed driving course 3 days before rolling his 205 into a field. 

I bought a metro turbo because not French. And a lot cheaper. Second hand. What a dick.

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I have had 3 x 205s. The first was a basic 1100 5 door. It was a rusty end of life heap, bought for £100, with a few months mot, I got it welded and through an mot, ran it for a while then sold it for £250. It was a fun car to drive, lovely handling, but not the best roadholding on narrow 145 section tyres so immense fun at low speeds. I do not have pics of it.

Then the son and I bought the 1.6gti. This is the one that went for welding then was lost for years and found a month ago. First 2 pics of it is from the ad we bought it from, next 2 pics are of as it sits at the moment, I havent managed to find a man to weld it up.

I then bought a 1.6 auto. It was absolutely unmarked, one owner with full itemised service history and only 33000 miles on it. It was a lovely car, I kept it about a year and a half, I dont know why I sold it, just got bored I suppose. It is getting stripped and rebuilt as a 2.0 civic type r rally car by it's current owner. My son in law also has a 205gti which is getting the civic type r rally treatment.

The 1.1 5door was actually the most fun, and if I ever buy another it is liable to be a 1.8td. However it is very unlikely to happen, they are too small and low for me getting in and out. I will be content with a very occasional go in the gti if it ever gets sorted up.fe7071c3d21957453af49cd3a2beb9bb.jpgf26aa85995566fcfbf10a568ca52f9f0.jpg6a793df94cb3dd0ba0b1621a35f36818.jpg18a79b6423c7afcb8514164b975810b9.jpgc3ac81f85ff8e4edfb8d33bbf77f92ca.jpg

Sent from my SM-T585 using Tapatalk

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So I’ve a bit of 205 experience.

In 1985 I went in a friends Dad’s 205XE. I wanted to hate it because I hoped it wouldn’t be better than my Dad’s Metro City, however, deep inside me I knew it was better...actually rather good.

Later, a few journeys in another friend’s family’s GRD made me realise that diesel cars were obviously pretty decent.

Fast forward to 1991 and my new girlfriend told me that her parents had a turbo diesel 205. “That can’t be right?’ I thought, never having heard of the 205D turbo.

It blew my 17 year-old mind.

So after a 2cv first car, a shit Mk1 Fester, then bought my girlfriend a lovely 205XS after sampling the delights of my friend Helen’s white E reg XS.

After a lovely Maestro DLX and a Montego DLX Turbo estate, I bought a J plate Style D. Never really took madly to it.

Sold it for a profit then blew £800 on a black E reg 1.6GTI. Cosmetically rough but mechanically A1 (apart from a wayward rear axle, that is).

Utterly bombastic.

Sold it, bought back my first car (2cv) which I rebuilt in two weeks then drove 3500 miles all over Europe in two weeks.

Then sold that, bought a lovely Topaz Blue G plate 1.6GTI which was rather disastrous. Ultimate ending pictured above.

Later, a silver Dturbo 5 door for £280 on eBay in 2003. Brilliant car. Then a couple of years later another 3 door Dturbo for £50 with a snapped timing belt/camshaft.

Fixed then did 15k miles before selling that.

Now have @chaseracer’s white Inca D, originally shared with @loserone  the ex- @Ghosty Dturbo and lots of bits here and there. Hope to hang onto one 205 if I can...

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I missed lots of bits out there, like being seriously airborne with three passengers in my black GTI at midnight and landing as if nothing had ever happened, bypassing the heater matrix on my grey Style D using an umbrella shaft found on the street when the matrix filled the footwell with coolant, rolling the blue GTI after it had trashed its engine and I rebuilt it with a BX turbo Diesel engine, managed 800 miles until the Bakelite Pirelli P6000 tyres spat me off the road and I went 250yds down a country lane on the roof, etc etc.

Love them.

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I really liked my DTurbo as seen above, I'm not entirely sure why I sold it actually. It was better than what I replaced it with too. 
They're nippy, comfy, economical, (fairly) practical, easy to work on, etc. 

They're great little cars, and I think I'll be buying another one as a winter daily when I find employment. Either a turbodiesel or a 1.4 petrol. 

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Never had one myself but these are one of my dad's favourite cars. He had a new turbo diesel in about 1992 but it wasn't really big enough as a family car so it didn't stay around long. He's had two more since, both automatic, and the blue one pictured came from a bombsite dealer in Clacton about seven years ago. He's still got it and I've borrowed it a few times. No power anything, no sunroof and it absolutely flies. 

IMAG1344.jpg

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I think this was my first 205, an XS I bought for around £300, it had been stripped out as an intended track/rally/autotest car with hydraulic handbrake plumbed into the rear brakes, it looked great from the outside but had many bodges including a 4 speed gearbox with 5 speed linkage and the fact that the brake pedal only operated the front brakes.

 

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The Blue 205 was a 1.6 auto which I didn't keep for very long and swapped for a white D-turbo.

 

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I still have the white D-turbo, it's a nice car to drive and has a comfortable and sporty interior.

 

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The last 205 I bought was the moon mile 230k BBW which I raffled off. The new owner is still using it without any issues.

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12 hours ago, chaseracer said:

Was always very eager, that one!

It’s more eager now! Also rebuilt much of the front suspension and both front wheel bearings etc, so it’s pretty bob-on when it comes to steering/turn in/lack of clonks etc.

It has been the de-facto ‘just works’ car for our family and occasional friends whist their cars have been out of action etc for the last six months at least and I think between us all we’ve put over 10k miles on since it came up to Weardale last February.

I drove it to my wedding and back in December (Aimée drove @loserone’s Saab in her wedding dress - we needed separate cars to transport us and our collective kids) when we struck lucky and managed a window between lockdown restrictions.

Ideally I’d keep either the Inca or the DT. Ideally I’d have a 5 door, however, my tastes have changed over the years and I’m finding the Inca very satisfying to drive with much more actual suspension than the DT and plenty of oomph, especially with turning up the fuelling a bit. 
 

The DT isn’t a relaxing car - the steering is much less assisted and real hard work, the ride is fairly abrupt unless you’re doing over 50mph and the engine constantly nags you to press the go-pedal for a whoosh of acceleration rather than feeling happy anywhere in the rev range like the atmospheric engine. 
 

I think the DT has never felt as happy in a 205 compared to a 405 TD (1.8 or 1.9) which seems relaxed and happy, smooth at any revs and very isolated from the unpleasant aspects of a Diesel engine.

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12 hours ago, Daviemck2006 said:

...basic 1100 5 door... a fun car to drive, lovely handling, but not the best roadholding on narrow 145 section tyres so immense fun at low speeds.

They do like a modicum of mechanical grip to make the most of their potential.

When the Inca arrived, it was on the standard 13'' wheels wrapped in 155/80s of a halfway-reasonable brand.  These were soon shipped off to Reg_Nutsack for his Hyundai Pony, to be replaced with slightly wider 14-inchers from a mate's old rally stash and treated to a decent set of 165/70s.

The improvement was a revelation.

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The 1.6 auto came on steelies with 155/80x13on it which were soon replaced with genuine gti alloys shod in new falken 185/60x14. When I sold it the buyer didn't want the alloys and tyres so the original steelies went on. I drove it 45 miles to Aberdeen to deliver it to him. The first poor corner I came to I went into at the speed I always used on it with no problems and the car promptly lost grip and I was lucky to keep it on the road!

Sent from my SM-T585 using Tapatalk

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1 hour ago, barrett said:

You've all seen my one so I won't re-post it here. Does anyone know if the GT was sold in the UK? I reckon this is the ultimate 205 - basically a five-door XS. In an ideal world my one will look something like this some day

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I think it was. Lovely colour there and I love stylised steel wheels with centre caps.

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I really wish I'd mothballed mine. E87LUL, very early XS with the suitcase lump. Hasn't been taxed since I sold in in May 2002 and the guy who bought it off me was a total knob. It was a cheap car and complained it leaked oil, so I guess he was driving it without tax & insurance etc.

The other one, a blue 1.1 XL, also E-reg phase 1 with a suitcase and 4-speed box. I sold this one to a friend who'd had his Escort written off while parked.

Very much on my want list, preferably another phase 1 suitcase 1.4

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I bought my 1.8d 205 about 5 years ago now, it's the best car I've ever bought I think!

Unfortunately this is presently how it stands:

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This is the result of an ill fated attempt to fit a 2.0 HDI from a 307. The engine is in but doesn't run, and it's beyond my present capabilities to make it run unfortunately. A lot of external factors have gone into this, including the death of my Dad last year which has left me feeling pretty incapable of most things automotive because I don't have him there to ask things anymore.

The current plan is to fit a 1.8td sourced from a fellow shiter, but space is a problem right now so that's unfortunately on hold.

I don't know how long it'll be until I can drive it again, but when I do it'll be a very happy day indeed!

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14 hours ago, Lacquer Peel said:

What's the suitcase engine like compared with the TU?

If a suitcase was an A-series:

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Transfer case whine and a musical gearbox make it sound like a Metro with a gallic twist. Not much difference in power and torque compared to the TU but can be a bit more awkward to service due to its almost horizontal cylinders (72 degrees from vertical). Overall they're good tough little engines, long lived if they've been looked after, will happily hit moon miles (my XS had 180k on it when I sold it) and I saw some at auction with 200k and sounding sweet. Bearings in the transfer case can get a bit rattly with age but that's about it. The only problem I had with my XS was the carbs going out of tune within 6 months though I suspect that was wear as opposed to a genuine fault.

The TU is a weird mix of XU and suitcase - same bores and similar top end to suitcase but the bottom end, belt drive and end-on gearbox are XU derived so if you've worked on a TU you will see where some things have been carried over. Suitcases seem a little more prone to dropping oil I have found, normally where the gear change goes into the sump. In the 104/LNA/Visa/Samba it needs dropping to do many jobs aside from a fluid and filter changes, but on the 205 (and I think early BX) access is a lot better and can be left in situ for most things.

I don't think the engine fitted affects the driving dynamics of the car one bit save I personally find the steering lighter on suitcase powered 205s though this may be my imagination and the steering wheel is about an inch bigger in diameter I think; they're all cracking little wagons to drive from poverty spec 954cc to 1.9GTi. 950s and 1.1s aren't great on motorways as they get a bit shouty, but to be honest neither are 4-speed carb fed TUs of the same capacities! On b-roads they are an absolute hoot and do live up to Dollywobbler's phrase of Power: Less is more.

104s and Sambas remain popular club level rally cars in France so the engines can be tuned (it's possible to get 140bhp from an XY 1360cc lump) if you can get the parts.

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