My cars - and their broken bits :D

[2110]

It was suggested by Mrs6C that I might start a topic about my cars, although considering the nature of the site I can't be sure how much interest most of them will be!

At the moment I have 4, of which only 2 are operational and only 1 is actually on the road 😟 

First off, a little about me and cars. Ever since I could talk apparently it was cars, cars, and more cars. Growing up if a toy didn't have wheels I remember having little interest in it. Going through secondary school I was known as the go-to guy for car questions and I remember one day a boy almost walked into me around a corner in the corridor, we had never spoken and he was 2 or 3 school years below me, he simply looked at me and said "aren't you the car freak?". Turns out I didn't realise that was what people referred to me as but the name stuck. At 15 I started working weekends in the Saab parts department at Bell & Colvill garage in Surrey. At 17 I finished my A-Levels and jumped in full time at Bell & Colvill but moved to Subaru, Isuzu and SsangYong parts. I later took on Lotus parts due to staff shortages and when I was 19 I was moved into the showroom as a Showroom Assistant for Subaru and Lotus but helped out with Saab when required. In 2009 at 21 I took a 3 month leave to USA where I bought my Mustang and drove 10,000 miles across 23 States, falling in love with the car and shipping it home. Since then I worked for a few smaller car dealers and Mercedes-Benz World. 

I love the unloved cars that you don't see so much of these days and cars that were never sold here, but where in the past I was not as adventurous with my buying as I wanted, I am now starting to come around to the truly unusual (crap) cars that I have loved for so many years!

But while cars are my life, passion and blood, I am not as mechanically versed as I would like (or should be!) and in 2019 I tried to rectify this by buying a Dodge Durango in need of a little TLC as a project car to learn about getting my hands dirty. Well despite how amazingly practical and comfortable it was to drive, and I called it my Apocalypse Car during the Covid lockdowns thanks to the noise from the twin straight-piped exhausts that came out from under the doors on each side, it turned out the 5.2 Magnum V8 intermittently ran on 7 cylinders most of the time I owned it and set in motion an impossible stream of issues, where resolving one (at great self satisfaction) seemed to either lead to two new ones appearing or just a much larger and more complicated issue. I chased the endless problems for 2 years until one day the left hand wheel setup collapsed, taking out the suspension and steering system and leaving it stranded like a 2-tonne beached whale. Enough was enough and I said goodbye to the car that was supposed to give me the confidence to work on my cars, rather than just taking the confidence away and making me feel even more useless at it.

Since I was about 13 or 14 I always said I wanted a Lada. Everyone except one friend laughed and said I was mad. But that one friend was just as mad as me, and we talked for hours about all the awful cars we wanted to buy. Well as adults he is now a rocket scientist (legitimately he builds rockets!) and well... I'm not...! 😄 But - I do finally have that Lada we talked about some 20 years ago! The plan being this is now my car to build my confidence on working with cars IF there is a way I can get it to pass the MOT. As I mentioned in my welcome thread the car mechanically (aside from the thermostat and an Audi coolant pipe that seems to have been cut to fit) is in pretty good shape, but the chassis is the issue, with rather a lot of rust to fix. The car is from Estonia which uses a lot more salt on the roads than we do so it has suffered. It also seems to be the only Lada 112 in the UK which makes me really want to try to get it on the road here! But it's looking grim as the quotes I am receiving are hugely over my meagre budget, as despite my cars, I am currently unemployed since the start of Covid (why I only have 1 car still going with the help from family if I am honest, but the others have sentimental value to me). So unless I can find an enthusiast who also is as mad as me who wants to see the car on UK plates I think the scrap yard is slowly creeping in 💀

Anyway, I'm not wanting to repeat the welcome thread so just 1 photo of the Lada, but for those interested in the story: This particular 112 was built in the Russian AvtoVAZ factory in Russian Domestic Market spec - in other words, the worst! But it was sold new through the Estonian Lada dealers who bought some RDM cars to sell cheaper it seems. Having lived with the same lady from new until my friend bought the car from her a couple of years ago he decided to bring it to the UK to visit family, only to buy another car here with "Olga" as it was nicknamed needing a home. So the plan was hatched to try and get the car UK registered after talking to the Lada UK Club who were unaware of another 112 here. Turns out that the strange electrical fault I discovered was the least of it's worries as mentioned above. This is a very definite "time will tell" if it lives or dies. Mechanically however it runs and drives nicely!
2004 Lada 112 Li 1.5

Next up is the Mustang I bought in California as mentioned above. The car was sitting out the back of Galpin Ford (apparently world's largest Ford dealership) as a trade-in. My budget was stretching hard to find a manual V8 for an American road trip, but condemned to auction this Mustang found it's next owner without seeing a hammer falling, and I happily drove off on my American road trip. Pictured here in Colorado on the original California plates. After shipping it home the car has since driven tens of thousands of miles around the UK and Europe with plans for more destinations when the opportunity arises. The car sadly went off the road due to a blown inlet manifold which has been above my budget to repair so it is sitting waiting for some money!
2004 Ford Mustang GT 40th Anniversary:

Next is my Racing Puma, bought in 2006 after I got my promotion when I was 19, also having been driven all over the UK it has also visited several UK tracks and hill climbs (pictured here at Prescott Hill Climb). Unfortunately it has been off the road for a few years now, but I never plan to sell it. Turns out that only about 10% of parts on the Racing Puma are unique to the car with the rest being normal Puma/Fiesta parts, but it's those 10% that seem to break on mine and I have been without an appropriate steering rack for several years to get it back on the road. Very sad. Only photo I have uploaded to the other site so far...
2000 Ford Racing Puma:

And finally the 1 car that is on the road. My WRX STI. So the story goes that growing up I loved all cars, but my passion was the WRC World Rally Championship. I even managed to get my parents to go to rallies in other countries for our family holidays (well the rally weekend was mine but then there was a proper holiday after!). Subaru was my team but I loved all the Group A cars. After my Dad passed away rather suddenly my Mum suggested that I sell my current Subaru (a 2.0 Impreza R that I had owned for 8 years as a runaround), sell Dad's car, and get myself the Subaru I always wanted. I looked at the classics but having worked with them I knew about the rust issues or finding one that hadn't been abused or modified was a difficult risk, so I found a modern car with a warranty and I knew the history of (it was an ex-display car). 4 years later I still sometimes can't quite believe I have the car, and the last couple of years I have considered on a weekly basis to sell the car, but it's a childhood dream that still gives me goosebumps every time I start it up. It feels too good to be mine, nothing rattles or squeaks and everything works as it should! It's my unicorn...
2017 Subaru WRX STI 2.5 Type UK

If anyone is interested in helping (or knows someone!) to get any of these cars back on the road I am open to suggestions and ideas 😁

Oh, and, the watermarks on the photos is my username on most internet forums, it just didn't seem appropriate on here. I am on my laptop at the moment staying with family so I don't have photos of my cars with me, I had to download my uploads to share here!

[Split_Pin]

Welcome, you've had an impressive car -related life and it looks like there is just as much to come!

I'm not going to lie, I'm really excited about the Lada!

[Dyslexic Viking]

Welcome and hope the Lada can be saved. 

[Back_For_More]

Another welcome here.... I see the Mustang was parked outside Autoworld Brussels in Cinq Continaire. I lived about 150m away. 

Manual mustang is my favourite of that quartet. Hope the manifold can be sorted. 

[dome]

Welcome! What a collection. I'm a fellow muscle car and WRC fan so heartily approve of both moderns. And I wouldn't be on Autoshite if I didn't like a Lada!

[DVee8]

Welcome along fella, enjoy the ride.

[2110]

2 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Welcome, you've had an impressive car -related life and it looks like there is just as much to come!

I'm not going to lie, I'm really excited about the Lada!

Thanks! I really hope I can bring you some good news about the Lada one day, I really want it to get on the road!

1 hour ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

Welcome and hope the Lada can be saved. 

Thanks! Hopefully it can be

18 minutes ago, Back_For_More said:

Another welcome here.... I see the Mustang was parked outside Autoworld Brussels in Cinq Continaire. I lived about 150m away. 

Manual mustang is my favourite of that quartet. Hope the manifold can be sorted. 

First Person Ever! To know where that photo was taken 😁 I was in Brussels just for the weekend and my friend that lives in Genk suggested meeting there which was a fun car filled afternoon! Also the only time in Europe I've been stopped by the police, they were less than friendly and seemed quite upset when they asked how long am I in Belgium for and I said 2 days! I think they were hoping they caught someone who hadn't registered their car locally. The standard gears were pretty awful to be honest, it would crunch into 3rd gear unless you practically slowed too much that it was back into 2nd and 5th gear made you very familiar with your passenger 😆 So I fitted a Steeda quick-shift kit, but don't be fooled, it's by no means quick, but now it feels like a regular gearbox - but definitely worth hunting it down, I was determined my road trip had to meet 3 criteria: V8 (because American), American built (because roadtrip) and manual (because I hated autos back then). That was limiting on budget choices but got so lucky I found it after asking around several garages! I was just starting to change my criteria to "anything manual"!

13 minutes ago, dome said:

Welcome! What a collection. I'm a fellow muscle car and WRC fan so heartily approve of both moderns. And I wouldn't be on Autoshite if I didn't like a Lada!

Thanks! Great to find another kindred spirit 😁 I did briefly consider making the 112 a mock-up of the rally model but it's simply not worth it 😂 

[2110]

14 minutes ago, DVee8 said:

Welcome along fella, enjoy the ride.

Thanks! Hoping to settle in and enjoy the ride here, just finding my... wheels before jumping in fully 🙂

[Three Speed]

Welcome, 

For poverty level Sussex pricing, you could try Autoweld in Broadbridge  Heath. Jim welded up my BX - functional, rather than concourse.  Would use again. Can’t say that about the BX though.

[stuboy]

great collection of motors

[catsinthewelder]

Great collection although possibly not the only one of those Ladas in the country.  A couple of months back I saw a similar one on Ukrainian plates in Hereford.  I got quite excited much to the amusement of my passenger.

[2110]

9 hours ago, Three Speed said:

Welcome, 

For poverty level Sussex pricing, you could try Autoweld in Broadbridge  Heath. Jim welded up my BX - functional, rather than concourse.  Would use again. Can’t say that about the BX though.

That's great thank you! Funny I went past Chichester today, if I had known then..! I will give him a call during the week. Sounds like the BX didn't go so well? Sorry to hear that, don't see many of them about these days...

1 hour ago, stuboy said:

great collection of motors

Thanks 🙂

[2110]

7 minutes ago, catsinthewelder said:

Great collection although possibly not the only one of those Ladas in the country.  A couple of months back I saw a similar one on Ukrainian plates in Hereford.  I got quite excited much to the amusement of my passenger.

Ah! That's very cool! I probably should have said it as "possibly the only one to be registered in the UK" 😄 if it ever gets that far... Whilst wallowing in self pity and despair over the probable inevitable sad end for the Lada I nearly bought a Bogdan 2110 last month on Ukrainian plates from Latvia but had to remind myself of my current financial situation. Was a shame! I've been making some new Ukrainian friends that have settled here but so far they all drive American spec versions of cars sold here and one Chinese built Chery. Nothing inspiring on that front either!

[High Jetter]

18 minutes ago, catsinthewelder said:

  I got quite excited much to the amusement of my passenger

Oh. No tissue?

[Three Speed]

There are several routes from Cranleigh to Broadbridge Heath but Chichester would quite a long way round - nice drive though.

 

[2110]

3 hours ago, Three Speed said:

There are several routes from Cranleigh to Broadbridge Heath but Chichester would quite a long way round - nice drive though.

Hmm I looked at maps yesterday and it showed up on the outskirts of Chichester, but I see now it's by Horsham... No idea what I was looking at now 😂 So yes, yes that is much closer and appropriate!