Shite at the Vicarage: Renault 8

[yes oui si]

On 16/07/2025 at 16:01, SmokinWaffle said:

I've always had a strange soft spot for those. I imagine they'd look brilliant on some sort of stupidly deep dish 13" wheels and unmanageably low suspension with an ASBO exhaust. It'd be absolutely dire to drive but it'd look....probably quite dire as well but in a very cool niche Japanese scene way. 

Maybe I just need to up my meds. 

Nice colour too. 

I'd prefer 13s as well, but this works:

Lose the eyebrows though. 

[barefoot]

4 hours ago, yes oui si said:

Lose the eyebrows though. 

Those aren't eyebrows, that's a bad-boy bonnet. Do you fuckers know nothing?

Please forgive my language, father.

[yes oui si]

4 minutes ago, barefoot said:

Those aren't eyebrows, that's a bad-boy bonnet. Do you fuckers know nothing?

Please forgive my language, father.

No, a bad-boy bonnet is when the bonnet is extended down over the lights:

The car I posted has stick-on eyebrows. 

[barefoot]

It was only an excuse to say fuck and forgive me. 

[The Vicar]

Thread resurrection! I’ve just bought another car 😁

Saw it this morning in the classifieds with an ominous two line description:

“1 owner from new. Offers above scrap value? Need it gone from my driveway this weekend.”

Made a call to the seller who was a well spoken, older gent. I knew straight away I was having it. He told me it was the very first New Mini sold in Ireland, and he drove it until 2019 when it was replaced by another new 4 door Cooper. 

I still haven’t even seen it yet. I’m in Italy and it’s in Ireland, due to be delivered tonight. The VIN ends in 312…any Mini gurus able to tell me if this makes my Mini particularly special/early?

Updates when I can!

[Matty]

53 minutes ago, The Vicar said:

Thread resurrection! I’ve just bought another car 😁

Saw it this morning in the classifieds with an ominous two line description:

“1 owner from new. Offers above scrap value? Need it gone from my driveway this weekend.”

Made a call to the seller who was a well spoken, older gent. I knew straight away I was having it. He told me it was the very first New Mini sold in Ireland, and he drove it until 2019 when it was replaced by another new 4 door Cooper. 

I still haven’t even seen it yet. I’m in Italy and it’s in Ireland, due to be delivered tonight. The VIN ends in 312…any Mini gurus able to tell me if this makes my Mini particularly special/early?

Updates when I can!

I've never been a gambler on the horses and football and so on. But I love a gamble on a sight unseen car. Had a few, proper exciting not knowing if you've done a good thing or lost your shirt! Fair play and good luck 👍 

[mk2_craig]

2 hours ago, The Vicar said:

special/early?

There's a bit of a community around these early ones, if you're on Facebook someone's set up a "Y Register" group acknowledging the fact that the very first ones were on Y-prefix plates in the UK, in other words put on the road before Sep 2001. So not many around answering to that description. When was yours first licensed?

There's apparently quite a few differences on the earliest cars, so some care is required when sourcing certain spare parts. 

[The Vicar]

Registered 19-08-01, so a month after UK sales but I have a feeling that the Irish launch might have been a little later, ie August. I did some reading, and apparently the production number of each car is within the VIN, and the first car was marked 10, which would make mine the 302nd BINI ever made (if I’ve understood correctly). Nice bit of trivia if nothing else!

[The Vicar]

2 hours ago, Matty said:

I've never been a gambler on the horses and football and so on. But I love a gamble on a sight unseen car. Had a few, proper exciting not knowing if you've done a good thing or lost your shirt! Fair play and good luck 👍 

I’ve done it more than a few times, and touch wood I’ve never been badly burned. In my experience people who keep a car 20+ years tend to be the kind of people who look after them pretty well.

[hairnet]

Furious driving mini is may 2001

Keep seeing approx oct 2001 irish launch date

[EyesWeldedShut]

9 hours ago, The Vicar said:

Registered 19-08-01, so a month after UK sales but I have a feeling that the Irish launch might have been a little later, ie August. I did some reading, and apparently the production number of each car is within the VIN, and the first car was marked 10, which would make mine the 302nd BINI ever made (if I’ve understood correctly). Nice bit of trivia if nothing else!

Our first was registered September 2001 (so not a Y plate) but had a build sticker under the bonnet that said March 2001. Never knew about the VIN idea - our one was cubed about a decade ago with rampant rust around the back end, continual, multiple ABS faults and a big dose of "I've had enough of this feckin' car".  Same wheels are your new one except factory coloured in white - BMW liked to allow a heck of a lot of specification choices back then. Best seats in a Bini that I've ever sat in too.

Well bought, ideal* time of the year to risk enjoy that panoramic sunroof,

[The Vicar]

So the car arrived, and along with it a heap of very interesting paperwork:

Bill of sale, price list, original brochure, service history, owners manual and wallet, x2 keys, etc. There is just no better feeling!

Check out the prices, especially compared to UK prices. IR£25,000!

it seems to have salt, pepper and chilli options packs plus air con and sunroof, so a well spec’d little thing. By comparison a mid spec punto in Ireland was 10k at the time 

[Lord Sterling]

Nice. I've always admired the Bini. Drove a few of them and loved them (accept for a Mini Countryman I drove when I was trade plating, absolutely hated it, it had little to no go in it)

I've got a couple of books on them here and a book and DVD pack set I found in a charity shop.

[The Vicar]

I’ve ordered a full service kit for this, plus a new battery and a set of wipers. I’ll send it through a test in the next few weeks and let them tell me what else it needs 😀

[The Vicar]

I’ve been going through my archives with a lot of nostalgia, and a bit of melancholy. I miss this car a lot:

[hairnet]

oof

[UltraWomble]

On 27/10/2025 at 17:44, The Vicar said:

I’ve ordered a full service kit for this, plus a new battery and a set of wipers. I’ll send it through a test in the next few weeks and let them tell me what else it needs 😀

Go on - updates on the Bini please

[The Vicar]

36 minutes ago, UltraWomble said:

Go on - updates on the Bini please

There’s not been much progress to report unfortunately. It had a full service with quality parts (NGK plugs, luqui moli oil etc) and I have x4 Toyo Proxes in the post to be fitted sometime after Christmas. There’s about 500 quids worth of shocks and brake discs/pads and a few other bits in my auto-doc cart that would really leave it perfect in every sense…but I haven’t really made my mind up yet on whether I want to go that route with it. 

Anyway, it’s SORN’d til the end of Feb, which is the earliest that I’ll be able to actually enjoy it. I’m not going to sent it through a test til then. 

I plan on having it at FOTU next year and potentially a few events with Mini Ireland for the 25th anniversary in July. 

[UltraWomble]

7 minutes ago, The Vicar said:

 

Mini Ireland for the 25th anniversary in July. 

Good god are BINI's 25 years old????

I remember proper Mini's being 25 years old....

[High Jetter]

6 hours ago, UltraWomble said:

Good god are BINI's 25 years old????

I remember proper Mini's being 25 years old....

Went to Derby for the Mini 25 event at Donny. My Renner 16 had an increasingly noisy gearbox on the way South tho....

[The Vicar]

Christmas has come late

[hairnet]

ten years?

quick service itll be fine tho

[The Vicar]

9 hours ago, hairnet said:

ten years?

quick service itll be fine tho

It was last tested in 2018

Honestly, no one in their right mind would or should go near it. It would make no economical sense whatsoever to do so, but I love these little cars. I’ve had 3 of them! When I first joined here I had this:

[The Vicar]

On 19/10/2025 at 22:27, The Vicar said:

Registered 19-08-01, so a month after UK sales but I have a feeling that the Irish launch might have been a little later, ie August. I did some reading, and apparently the production number of each car is within the VIN, and the first car was marked 10, which would make mine the 302nd BINI ever made (if I’ve understood correctly). Nice bit of trivia if nothing else!

As an update to this, my Mini was first taxed on the 19th of august, for some inexplicable reason but it was actually ordered on the 13th of July, which was the date of the Irish launch (a week after the UK). It’s the 302nd made, which is apparently among the very first post-pre-production cars 😃

I will be taking it to FOTU this year, which incidentally will be around the time of it’s 25th birthday.

[The Vicar]

I seem to have made a name for myself around the convents and nunneries of Dublin as the person to call when there is an old car to dispose of, and here’s a recent consequence of that:

58,000 miles and apart from an unfortunate scuff on the passenger door, in very very nice condition. It’s led a very easy life. With a few hours spent on the paintwork it would come up really nicely. 

I’m not quite sure if it’s a keeper for me but I can never in good conscience turn these thing down when the only other likely outcome was for it to be scrapped. It’s out of test but has only done 90 miles in the meantime, so I will send it through another one anyway. 

[The Vicar]

Finally some progress on the Alto

[hairnet]

yow

what happened to the corsa

 

[The Vicar]

14 hours ago, hairnet said:

yow

what happened to the corsa

 

Got a full ticket on it last month:

And sold recently it to a sensible young chap locally. Like I mentioned, it was never really something that I was going to keep, I just did my big to keep it on the road for another little while. 

In the meantime I picked up this, with the same intentions:

95 1.3 Polo with 30k miles, sitting since 2017. March 95 so fairly early, it has the old 1.3 from the previous gen 

[junkyarddog]

Shame they didn't get the next reg,,,12345🙃

[hairnet]

rocky road etc