Mates' cars...

[Lord Sterling]

We've had threads on Dad's cars, Mum's cars, teachers cars and neighbours cars that we remember. With @bunglebus having unlocked a memory of a Mk5 Escort, I decided to start this thread. 

How about mates' cars.  What was the first car you travelled in with mates? Who was the first to pass their test? Or buy a car? Were there any cars of note?

(All cars pictured are as close to the colour and spec as I could find)

As I'd just left school in the late 90s, I begun to hang around an Indian lad called Tony Singh. His parents owned a shop in Telford and occasionally we'd go to Birmingham to buy stock from East End Foods in West Brom. The rest of the time, we'd go to the gym or hang around in the town centre. The car he mostly drive was his parents' ice-blue early Toyota Carina E:

It was a great car, strong, had a great sound system for a standard set up and it didn't hang around. This is one of a few cars I never owned I wish I did.

Around about the early 00s when I came back to England, I started hanging about a bag of Yemeni lads in Halesowen. I still didn't possess a driving licence so was a bus wanker, the journey to Halesowen was quite long from Moseley in Birmingham on the No. 9 bus via Hagley Road. So often my mate Anis would come and fetch me, take me to Halesowen, have a laugh with the lads and then drop me home again. 

At the time Anis had this wonderfully nice Rover 216 GSi in red and grey, the plate was something like G??? GOM or JOM. It was exactly like this one below, same wheels, spoiler, colour scheme etc...

Before I met Anis, I used to walk past his house when he had ice-Blue Vauxhall Cavalier L saloon, bit like this:

(Not a 4x4 though)

At some point, he appeared to have suffered some financial lull and sold the Rover. For a while, he borrowed cars, I remember one being a Renault 19 Chamade in black which was well-worn, and Ma_Sterling even let him borrow the Micra to take me around and about! 

Eventually he bought himself a cheap Mk5 Escort in red:

He stuck some 17" 5-spoke alloys on it which looked a bit desperate but it was a car that did the job of being an-car him. This was the kind of car that got me thinking that I should really get on and pass my test. This Escort was eventually sold to a former druggie by the name (and what we called him) of "Ali 2" who sometimes lived in it and drove about in it with no tax, test, insurance or MoT. He did once drop me home. Last I heard the Escort having been dumped on the side of the M6.

Later on, after I passed my test, Anis got himself a Corsa B in silver. Those alloys that had been on the Escort also transferred over to the Corsa.

*Honerable mention to Sami, Anis' little brother. I hung about with him for a while too. Never really saw him with a car as he'd come with me whenever I had the Micra. He (often) talked about a Fiat Uno he used to have that barely made it up Clent Hills with a bag full of mates in the car. He may have had a Mk3 Fiesta. We did also once buy a modified but very tired Mk3 Astra Cesaro with a burnt out clutch before any of us had a licence, we were planning just to tear around Halesowen/Blackheath/Cradley Heath in it but that never happened, it got sold for parts.

Another mate of mine, also a Yemeni guy and now a Police Officer had a little white Rover 200:

I believe it may have originally been his Dad's car and then passed fully to him after his father sadly passed away. My mate wasn't exactly known for his tastes in modifying, he stuck on some horrid cheap looking chrome alloys and I believe he tried to put on a spoiler. I do have a photo of the car somewhere in the midst of old pics I have, I'll have to search for it. He had the Rover for quite a long time until it was eventually sold in favour of a Golf (?) The Rover was last seen with 2 Asian women in Birmingham somewhere iirc.

Around the time I had my 2.0 Sierra Sapphire Ghia, another Yemeni lad who was living in his car at the time had a black Rover 220 GTi. We were looking to make a deal together, of course my Sierra was older but a lot more comfortable and the Rover would have suited me down to the ground as I was still yet to buy an 800 of any sort. Sadly, nothing ever came from it and that was the first and last time I saw the 220 GTi:

Another Yemeni guy I knew of, a little older and a lot wiser, used to own, for quite a long time, a Vauxhall Cavalier GL in white:

It was a car that I admired from a distance but had never been a passenger in (or, for what I can recall anyway) it was the kind of car I wanted as a young man about town, but never did (still, I've got the Vectra)

Another lad we knew but wasn't always out and about with the rest of us owned an F-reg Cavalier Diesel exactly like this:

Like him, it wasn't seen out much and eventually seemed to have just festered in his back garden (which had access to the main road) apparently later on, he obtained a "telephone" MoT and the car snapped it's chassis rail whilst out one day.

For a while, I was out of work and kicking about doing nowt to move my life along. I got to know an Iraqi guy who opened up a couple of barbers shops around Halesowen and eventually Stourbridge. When he opened the Stourbridge shop, he asked me to run a few errands for him and lent me his BMW 316i compact. It was the "posher" car that I got to drive after the Micra and Sierra:

Things like remote central locking and something that felt a bit more comfortable was nice to have drive around in.

Lastly, another mutual friend who lived in a prominent flat opposite the main Halesowen shopping centre owned a late Carina E for a long while, I don't recall the car he before that, although it may have been a Toyota MR2 although I could be mistaken. 

[Heidel_Kakao]

My mate Michael passed his test before I did and his first car was a MK1 Fiat Uno, I remember we all egged him on to try doing a handbrake turn and when he did the handbrake cable instantly snapped to our amusement.

[eddyramrod]

I was always the car nut among my friends, so nothing to report here!

[Volksy]

My best mate growing up was given his Dads Metro 1.0 CityX which he ran for a couple of years before it was stolen. The thieves tried to burn it out, but didn't leave the doors or windows open, so its just burnt the drivers seat/dash. When he went to collect it from where it had been ditched, he first thought that they had fitted some tints to it. It was replaced with a 1983 Fiat 127 Super 5 Speed. Which was a proper nail. The drivers seat backrest was held up with a block of wood so if you braked suddenly the block would drop into the rear footwell, and any subsequent acceleration meant the driver ended up in the back seat too. 

My posh friend at college had a white 205XS which ferried us everywhere. I still would like one myself!

[neil72]

My mate Dave always had a car from when he passed his test, his dad gave him a metallic Vauxhall Viva with no brakes, he then foolishy bought an automatic Fiat Strada, the gearbox went, so upgraded to a Cortina Estate that had more filler than a glamour model, so eventually did what me and the rest of our gang did and bought a cheap Beetle that lasted for years until it was scrapped.

[Markeh]

Off the top of my head, the groups I hung around with at school, a lot of them never bothered learning or didn't buy a car - I was the one who lived a lot further out/had the bigger cars so I did a lot of the driving. Of those who did drive:

• 125cc of some description - 51-plate Seicento Sporting in grey with mismatched yellow tailgate - 60-plate Corsa D SE 5-door - 17-plate ex-Motab base spec Sportage. Does also have a Triumph of some description and a Suzuki Bandit, plus allowed personal use of his works Crafter - work van wise he had a pair of Vitos, a brand new (16 plate) Trafic, then moved companies and had a pair of Transporters before new equipment necessitated the Crafter.
• X-reg Ph1 Mk2 Clio, ex courtesy car from local garage - 64-plate Picanto after the Clio failed an MOT rather disgracefully - got traded in alongside the Corsa against the above Sportage.
• Mk1 Ka of some description that lasted literally 3 days before she wrote it off - 02 plate Corsa C SXI 3dr - 61-plate white Aygo 5 door - 63-plate Fiesta - I think she has a Mokka now
• Didn't learn til several years and 3 children later - facelift Mk1 C-Max - 72 plate Jogger
• 04 Clio Dynamique - bought an NB MX5 - lost touch since then
• A heavily modified 04 Fiesta 1.25, quite a lot of bodywork done to it but I distinctly remember it having Borbet A alloys - I think he too had an NB MX5 last time I spoke to him!
• 05 Mini One, which I'm sure she's had for getting on for 10 years now - given impending baby I suspect this will be going soon.
• 62 Corsa D - Astra J - Astra GTC after a handbrake mishap killed the first Astra weeks after purchase - again, might go for a 5 door due to above impending baby. 
• Can't quite recall what he started with but he had a GTC for a bit and last I heard was in a new ProCeed.
• Some family member of his has a works link with some car scheme for Toyota/Lexus, so always in a newish Toyota of some description, he's had Priuses, RAV4s, C-HRs, Corollas, whatever comes up cheap on the scheme I think - would never have got in a car with him before and now no-one will get the option as he's due a ban imminently for being 3 times over the drink drive limit!
• Hilariously the one whos dad was a driving instructor was one of the last in our group to pass, not through lack of ability but just never was that bothered, even though he was offered lessons whenever he wanted - Turned down the offer of his late mother's Mk1 Freelander and instead mostly uses his dad's old instructors car, a 208, or his other half's Aygo.
• Learnt a lot later, started with a 52 Mini Cooper (the yellow one you may have seen in the Bini thread) which he still has and a 63 Mokka although this looks likely to be changed out for an automatic soon, his wife learnt in Italy and refuses to drive manual in the UK.
• Honorable mention to the lass who had a late (R-reg) Mini - I think she may still have it although I've not seen it on social media for years.

The more interesting one is one of my best friends, her family always had Minis and other interesting stuff (a lot of which I believe is rotting at the end of their garden still!), so she started with a '71 Mini Clubman. Given city centre university, she didn't take this with her, and when doing a placement year quite a way away her folks put her in a new i10 - since then she's had 2 i20s and recently upgraded to a Kona. They still have the Mini, and I think it will be recommissioned at some point. 

From Uni - very few people I knew drove and even fewer people brought their cars with them, in fact literally no-one had cars in first year, myself included - I was pretty much exclusively the driver whenever we wanted to go anywhere outside of that.

• 51 Corsa C that got punted up the bum - 57 Corsa D SXI in bright red - 66 Focus Titanium X EcoBoom (and to add to the jeopardy his Mrs, who was meant to be having the Corsa but due to running issues never did, ended up with a PureTech 208!)
• 05 Fiesta 1.25 that shat half of a newly replaced aux belt one morning - 2010s era A3, although he's just bought an 80s Defender as a project!
• A very rarely seen red early C1 with a private plate
• I think she had access to a old Jimny for a while but ended up with a Mk2 Mazda 2.
• Never learnt for ages, hates driving - had an 03 Jazz til her now-husband wrote it off - 13 Fiesta automatic that was Cat S and not properly repaired which they discovered when it tried to kill them on a roundabout - since properly repaired - will almost certainly be replaced by an EV in the next couple of years.
• Honorable mention to the chap who ran one of the societies I was in who ran a white Saab 900 Turbo!

And then I've been involved with all of my other mate's cars, having bought her Sedici and helped source the pair of 2008s that replaced it.

[Shite Ron]

I was the youngest in my year at school so my friends were driving a few months before me, one friend bought a mini based beach buggy when he turned 16 and we used to drive it up and down the road outside his house, he got more adventurous and started taking us all further and further around the lanes in it locally, he would then ‘borrow’ either his fathers Volvo 244, his mother’s brand new Metro or his brother’s Alpine and go out for drives whilst he was still 16, he even took the Alpine to school once.
Another good friend was given his mother’s X reg mk1 Fiesta S when he passed his test. Both of these friends passed their test before me as they were several months older than me, some of my other friends weren’t interested in cars and didn’t pass their test until they were 19 or even older! One had an Orion GL, then a mk1 Sierra, then a new Cinqecento. Another friend didn’t buy a car for ages then went straight to a Carlton GL which was nice. Another friend who started driving late had a 1980 Mini automatic, when he got a job in Yorkshire I sold him my dads Cortina Crusader which served him well for several years until he moved back home and bought a new Fiesta which he kept for many years.

[bunglebus]

My best mate (Garry) is a year older than me. Between us we bought this Signal Amber Escort 1300 Ghia, obviously being older than me he drove it, and promptly crashed it into an Orion Ghia moments after I suggested he calm down a bit on the wet roads. Bloke had just got his Orion back from the bodyshop, he just walked away...

 

[bunglebus]

Being Essex boys, we all had Fords, it was the law. Mate #2 Matt bought a 1983 MK3 Escort 1300 base, and modified it into a pretty nice looking XR3ish. still a 1300 but with some ridiculous cam he fitted, it did go rather well for a 1300. Lowered suspension, decent sound system etc.

Mate #3 Mark took a liking to it, but came a cropper just after buying it due to the notorious gear linkage, which would sometimes feel like you were in 1st when the box was in 3rd. He pulled out at a crossroads and it didn't accelerate as expected, and took a Peugeot 405 to the driver's door. Poor Escort was chopped up with a 9" grinder on Matt's drive and carted away in a small trailer. Various parts went on to have second lives however.

Mark then bought a Crystal Green 1980 MK3 1300 Ghia Escort and transplanted the cam and other bits out of the dead base model into it. This wasn't entirely successful, possibly it needed a vernier pulley to set it up right, as it was flat as a fart at low revs. Thanks to the different gearing in this early, different spec car, I did once achieve an indicated 45MPH in 1st gear, at OH SHIT RPM. Thanks to a slight measuring cock-up on my part during a gearbox swap, it developed an appetite for CV joints as I bought the wrong driveshaft at a scrapyard.

Mate #4 Dan, who was a bit of a bellend, bought this Ghia, pained it "Pacifica Blue" (apparently), then parked it nose first in a ditch when he ran out of talent. Last seen chopped in half on a driveway, not his.

Going back a bit further in time, Mark's parents also always had Fords, and his mum owned a very nice MK2 Escort 1300 Ghia 4 door when we were at secondary school together, I remember the springy back seat when got a lift in it a few times. Fast forward to us being about 20, I spot another 4 door Ghia in the same Strato Silver/red interior combo at a dodgy dealer nearby, and part with £150 for it. Then in a strange twist of fate, Mark spots a text advert in the local rag for an Escort Ghia, something tells him to enquire, and lo and behold it's his mum's old car. He promptly buys it back so now we have two identical looking Escort Ghias, except mine's a 1600 auto. But that's not the end, Garry buys a Midnight Blue 1300 Ghia 4 door, and a silver 1300 Ghia 4 door for parts (there were so many around, painful to think back now but they were £25 cars), puts all the silver panels on his blue car along with with the black interior (no red, shame), and rattle cans the rest to match. We only ever once took all three matching cars out together but it was funny as balls watching people's reactions to it

Mine:

Garry's:

Mark's:

There was yet another silver 4 door Ghia on a drive we tried to buy, but didn't get anywhere. Definitely should have tried to buy the red 1300 Sport that was around the corner too! Man there were so many of these things around, I'm not even scratching the surface. Think I've had four or five MK2s and I wasn't the most prolific owner of them out of our group by far

[Imhotep]

At my college, 2 of the lads had MG ZR 105+ both pre facelift, both 3 door. One was grey, one was red. I remember Josh the lad who had the grey one also had a de-seamed Mini which was really cool. 
The other cars were a Peugeot 206 Quiksilver, the lad who drove this was a brilliant driver in fairness, and one of the girls had a Ford Ka mk1 on some enormous Wolfrace wheels for some reason.

I used to pinch my dad’s mk3 Mondeo on occasion too. 
Out of my school friends I was the one who had the car first, so everyone relied on me and my ropey 106s to carry them about.

[danthecapriman]

I was first to get a car (at 16!) and first to pass my test too (1st attempt thanks very much!!).

My best mate passed his test a couple of weeks after me so I didn’t beat him by much. He had a mk2 Fiesta, F reg, I’m sure was a 1.1 Festival or something. It was bright red and looked fantastic. Oddly though it drove awfully and would always crab slightly one way. Turned out it had been wrecked and repaired badly so he didn’t have it long. About a year after he got rid of it, it turned up at a local banger racing meeting we used to go to! It didn’t survive that damage!

After the Fiesta he got a mk1 Fiat Uno in that flat blue they all seemed to be in. That was an F reg too. That was actually a brilliant little car. Absolutely spot on and never put a foot wrong. Sold after a year or so to someone we went to school with as her first car.

After the Uno he bought a Ford Escort 1.4LX, J reg in maroon from a colleague of his dad’s. It was in great condition but wasn’t really all that old at the time. It was pretty sluggish though. He had it years and sold it on with well over 100k miles on it. No idea what happened to it.

By this time though both of us were well into cars and had more than one car on the go all the time. I think with the Escort he had a Capri 2.0 Laser, D reg in metallic blue. After that was sold he had the fantastic* idea of an R reg Honda Accord which he got from a dealer. Again, not that old at the time but it was a spectacular pile of utter shit! Looked nice and drove nice on the rare occasions it actually worked but every few months it kept popping its head gasket. Repaired under warranty a few times but it’d always fail agin. The dealer he got it from gave him a courtesy car which was a dark blue M reg (I think) Nissan Primera diesel. I’m certain he actually had possession of that car longer than the Honda! The Nissan was absolutely gutless but it was a fantastic car. Quite dull, but absolutely brilliant reliability and economy.

He had quite a few other cars around this time, most I wasn’t interested in whatsoever as they were just relatively modern bland blobs at the time. 
Another noteworthy car he had was an Audi 90. Old square style type, which was quite fragile but that was an awesome car!

[bunglebus]

I have so many stories in my head around cars that have come and gone. My friend Garry went through a bit of a daft patch of going out with another bloke and getting pissed as a fart, pretty regularly. One evening I get a phone call from him saying he's bought a car off a bloke in the pub, something silly like £20 as it's broken down on the A12, so can I pick him up and go (with two more mates) and recover it? My Orion 1600E was duly attached via towrope to a Rover 620(!) and tugged a mile or two back to his parent's place where he was back living at the time. Must have been 20, 21 at the time I think. 

Anyway, the next morning he wakes up from his drunken  stupor, looks outside and cannot work out why this white elephant is outside. It took quite a lot of convincing that he'd not only bought it but come with us to rescue it! Upon starting it (and it did run), it transpired that a rod had made a bid for freedom, leaving a rather lovely window in the block. 

He sourced a replacement 2.0 and fitted it, and I actually ended up using it for a few months as I was between cars. Only memories I have are the stupidly light PAS, it being too long to parallel park where there was a normal gap, and it being utterly forgettable. The kind of car you just walk away from when you park, no look back. I expect he sold it eventually but I couldn't tell you when or to who

[EyesWeldedShut]

All this makes me feel a bit old..... so, no photos, just library shots nicked off t'internet
Anyways, I turned 17 in 1979 - most of us used to 'borrow' dad's car. Some had a 50cc bumblebee thing, I think there was a 100cc pair but nobody could afford a  Honda CB250 Superdream (which we all lusted after for some reason). A couple of my mates did have a car of their own. 
One lad had:

That snuffed it and the same lad got one of these:

One fella had a maroon Mini 850 that shed rust flakes wherever he went. It was incredibly quick up to about 25mph then it just limped.

My dad had one of these and, four up, we thought we were the mutts nuts - even if a three legged dog could outrun it up any sort of hill:

I was also allowed to borrow one of these by my girlfriend's dad (he was very trusting with both his daughter and his motors)

[DVee8]

We mostly passed in 87-88.

I have a mate Doug who is 6 years older than me he had an XR3I A250WFT that my other mate Chris bought off him and turned into a RS1600i copy.

Before the XR3I Chris drove his mother's Metro a w reg 1.3s

Another mate Acky, his parents bought him a Mini  van, that we would all pile in.

Another mate crawfy, bought a MG Metro

My best mate at the time, Bambi, bought an MK2 escort, a 1.6 GL two-door. We fitted a bigger cam and bigger carbs and jacked the rear up.

My mate Doug who had the XR3i (above) also had a very breathed-on MK1 escort, Bambi bought that. After that, he bought a 3.0 Citroen XM, then a Renault Megane 1.4 RN that Reg Vardy was selling off cheap

Then there was Hunter who had a hand painter black Datsun 120Y that I'm sure was yellow

[bunglebus]

Mark still had the MK3 Escort itch, and after had brief dalliance with a not very good white MK4 cabrio. He had a new hood put on it and tried to make it more presentable, biggest memory of this is spending all day trying to persuade a MK3 gearbox to fit (various mounts are different), it turned out to be absolutely knackered, with the noisiest diff I've ever heard.

He later bought a pretty decent, if tired looking MK3 1.6i cabrio in red. Being a bit older and better off, he spent quite a lot having the original engine built to RS Turbo spec, Fiesta diesel gearbox and some decent suspension, possibly series one Turbo bits? Anyway it went like stink, and was still wearing the sun faded, scratched and touched up original paint, so it made an excellent sleeper that embarrassed a few quite capable moderns. I actually think it was a shame to paint it, even if it did look rather splendid afterwards. Sold on eBay IIRC

 

[bunglebus]

Ah, Jim. He's had some tasty motors in the past (and now), in fact we first met when I banged on his door asking if the two door MK2 Escort on his drive was for sale.

I went a bit loopy and ended up with nine cars at one point, and storage for about three. Various others were hidden away in car parks and by council garages, including a pair of MK1 Fiestas given to me by my friend Keeley and her mum, one was PME.... and disappeared, possibly removed by the council, but this one survived and Jim bought it off me, doing a pretty heroic rebuild/resto of the thing outside in the car park of his flat. Think it ended up with the 1300 out of an '86 to '88 Escort, which is a bolt-in swap even down to manifolds etc, as it's based on the Valencia, not the later grey rocker cover HCS which has different heads at least

Looked really good when it was finished;

He's also owned this handsome beast for quite a few years

He also found this ex-Met police Jaguar which has a bit of an interesting story

 

[captain_70s]

College, circa 2009. Pictures of similar examples...

Mike had a 1999 Micra 1.0 "Inspiration" which I think meant base spec with a sunroof and funky pattern on the seats. Bought from his mum, It was in good nick bar a rust spot at the base of the driver's door which would always reappear. He used to put £5 in the tank as he had no money.

Ryan had a 1997 Corsa B 1.2. It'd had a front end collision at some point and none of the panels lined up properly. He had a body kit fitted and lowered it so much if anybody was in the back It'd ground out on speed bumps. He tried to say there were only 50 made in that shade of blue (lies) we'd always point out when we saw another.

He also had a Honda CG125 which I really wanted to buy when he upgraded to a Bandit...

James had a Rover 25 1.4. As an 05 plate it was the newest car any of the friend group had. It was falling to bits, the interior in particular. It only had one functional speaker. When waiting at lights he would blip the throttle rhythmically.

Vinny had a 2001 Corsa C 1.2. He cared not for cars, it never caused any issues.

[MrBiscuits]

I was the first to pass in 1997. I had mostly Minis they were still cheap then.

One that sticks on my mind is a guy called Tom who I did A level physics with. He was given a car by his grandad and rolled up one day in an M reg vermilion Marina estate.

I wish we'd had camera phones back then as this thing was a sight to behold. It had those plastic things giffers put on the door edges, a lightning conductor and plenty of hammerite touch ups, but the cherry on the cake was a lethal looking tow bar homemade from inch angle pigeon shitted together and painted orange to match.

It was obviously a nice gesture by the old boy but just imagine being saddled with that fucking albatross as your first car in the late 90's 🙄 

Another lad I knew called Francis had a Seat Malaga - obviously we thought nothing of it then...

[Rustybullethole]

14 years old and my mate George bought a mini 850 auto. We'd take off our school ties and blazers and boot about in it looking like business men. 

 

[GeordieInExile]

A mate of mine had a facelift MK2 Clio through university and for a good few years afterwards. So many happy memories of travelling in that car - to gigs (and back home the same night so we wouldn't have to fork out for a hotel), to the supermarket at like 1am for lack of anything better to do (because unemployed and poor but also bored), on random day trips (because unemployed but also dole money just came through)...

It was a cat C and it got a steady stream of iffy MOT passes off the mate of his dad's who sourced it for him. 

[rusty_vw_man]

A mate of a mate has an Integra type R - in appliance white. He wore driving shoes and driving gloves and I thought he was a bit of a tit. 

However, the few lifts I had in that car were terrifying - I just remember getting to where the red line should be, the valve timing changing and it going on for another 5000 rpm. Probably one of the wildest cars I’ve been in. 

 

[clayts450]

Most of my mates were Autoshite cadets as indeed was I.

By 1987, most of us had passed our driving tests and thus the assorted rammel read:

Me : 1969 VW Beetle

Tony : 1964 Vauxhall Victor

Norman : 1987 Nova (his mum's, which ferried us to many many pubs)

Neil : 19something Vauxhall Cavalier

The best, however, was the late great Wilf (Bill - we knew him as Wilf) - he inherited a large sum of money, and whilst most of it was pissed up against a wall (altho' TBF he did buy a house) he did buy some great old bangers - a TR4 and a TR6 were the highlights. He also bought my Beetle when I replaced it with the Marina

[plasticvandan]

Being autistic and driving a Reliant,I didn't have any friends then,so nothing to post 😅

[danthecapriman]

  On 17/03/2025 at 18:24, danthecapriman said:

I was first to get a car (at 16!) and first to pass my test too (1st attempt thanks very much!!).

My best mate passed his test a couple of weeks after me so I didn’t beat him by much. He had a mk2 Fiesta, F reg, I’m sure was a 1.1 Festival or something. It was bright red and looked fantastic. Oddly though it drove awfully and would always crab slightly one way. Turned out it had been wrecked and repaired badly so he didn’t have it long. About a year after he got rid of it, it turned up at a local banger racing meeting we used to go to! It didn’t survive that damage!

After the Fiesta he got a mk1 Fiat Uno in that flat blue they all seemed to be in. That was an F reg too. That was actually a brilliant little car. Absolutely spot on and never put a foot wrong. Sold after a year or so to someone we went to school with as her first car.

After the Uno he bought a Ford Escort 1.4LX, J reg in maroon from a colleague of his dad’s. It was in great condition but wasn’t really all that old at the time. It was pretty sluggish though. He had it years and sold it on with well over 100k miles on it. No idea what happened to it.

By this time though both of us were well into cars and had more than one car on the go all the time. I think with the Escort he had a Capri 2.0 Laser, D reg in metallic blue. After that was sold he had the fantastic* idea of an R reg Honda Accord which he got from a dealer. Again, not that old at the time but it was a spectacular pile of utter shit! Looked nice and drove nice on the rare occasions it actually worked but every few months it kept popping its head gasket. Repaired under warranty a few times but it’d always fail agin. The dealer he got it from gave him a courtesy car which was a dark blue M reg (I think) Nissan Primera diesel. I’m certain he actually had possession of that car longer than the Honda! The Nissan was absolutely gutless but it was a fantastic car. Quite dull, but absolutely brilliant reliability and economy.

He had quite a few other cars around this time, most I wasn’t interested in whatsoever as they were just relatively modern bland blobs at the time. 
Another noteworthy car he had was an Audi 90. Old square style type, which was quite fragile but that was an awesome car!

Expand  

Thinking back again now, that same mate had some other memorable old rammel too.

A 1989 G reg Toyota Corolla, the big coupe shape one not the little hatch. It was a 1.6 auto that we spotted for sale on a driveway on our travels around the area. Looked a nice car, so he went back later that evening and bought it. Put it in for MOT which it failed on various easy fixes and a rotten sill end and rotten rear seat belt mount. Neither of us could weld at the time so he brought it round my house and we spent a few hours knocking all the loose rust off and carefully crafting a new sill end from lollipop sticks and cardboard as a shape former then poured in some chemical metal epoxy liberated from work. The seatbelt mount got metalised body filler shoved in the hole then painted black! 
It passed the retest but we did find loads of other rot at the time we ‘fixed’ the car so he sold it on with its new MOT. It ended up being exported to Africa.

A 1994 L reg Mercedes 190 saloon. Was his next door neighbours car which he bought from him. White car and really did look the absolute business. Looked immaculate inside too and drove well. Unfortunately that turned out to be completely rotten too. One day he was doing something on it and found loads of rot and holes all over the inner wings. The big plastic sill covers were removed shortly after that and there was some serious weight reduction going on under there too! 
Pity really but it would have needed big money spending to put it right so he sold that too. Some guy came from London and took it away.

1997 Vauxhall Astra 1.6 Arctic in that pale metallic gold. This car was actually my sisters but shed didn’t like it for some strange reason so my mate had it. I’d just done a head gasket and cam belt on it and it was a very nice low miler anyway. He had this one ages and put an insane amount of mileage on it. Never gave any bother but unfortunately some blind twat  in a Range Rover decided stopping for traffic jams on the motorway was optional and rear ended it quite hard. It didn’t look too bad but it had bent the shell as the rear door gaps had all closed up around the bottom and made the very difficult to open/close. Went for scrap unfortunately after he got the insurance pay out. Did its job well though.

[ProgRocker]

3 decades ago I was the first to buy a car and pass my driving test in my year at 6th form.  While I had my '79 Mini 1000 one of my acquaintances Jason was the next to pass his test and bought a red 1982/3 Fiesta 950cc. He moved it on a year later and bought a 1980/1 Fiesta 1.1 resprayed in metallic blue.

My friend Alan (well...acquaintance these days!) used his parents' facelifted mark 1 SEAT Ibiza 1.2. They were loyal to SEATs. He eventually bought a 1991/2 Escort mark 5 1.4 LX. He ran that for a year or two and then traded it in for a pre-registered red 2000 Ibiza 1.4 base which he kept for years until he acquired his parents' mark 2 Leon.

[Weird Car]

My mate was the first of us to get a licence, this was his first car, a 1990 Peugeot 205 1.1 LOOK 4 speed, many a fun night were had thrashing it through the back roads around Hampshire 

[bunglebus]

There was one friend who bucked the Ford trend, and that was Silly. Not his real name but he'd had that title since attending junior school with my daughter's mum, and it suited him at he was a bit of a stoner. First thing I remember him having was a Polo breadvan with a big subwoofer in the back, a few evenings were spend at Bug Jam listening to tunes and shall we say enjoying ourselves 

Found a pic of it at VW Action with my 1600E and Chopper

Obviously he had lots of air cooled VWs too, there was a Beetle and a bay window in a poly tunnel at the bottom of the garden, and another sunk into the soil elsewhere. He had a green '62 that was pretty nice and his dad had a Karmann Ghia. We tested the off-road capability of the '62 one night, where I lived was up a narrow lane, after the few houses it turned into a grass two rut track and came out on the other side near a pub. Obviously we had to try to drive up there! Myself, Silly and Mark were on board, and we very quickly got stuck, probably due to the Empi 5 spokes and large tyres on the back. Mark was wearing posh shiny shoes so he loved getting mud all over those as we pushed the bug up the slope. We did eventually pop out on the road, but it was the first and last time any of us attempted to drive up there again.

Found a pic of the '62

Silly later get into fast Jap stuff, had a Charade 1.0 Turbo that was an equal match to Garry's E30 320 ( or was it a 2.5 by then? I forget), up to about 100MPH anyway. Thing was always apart having engine problems fixed though.

The other notable Jap was a white 3.0 Supra, I was in the back of that one night with Silly and Garry in the front when he discovered a small yard around the back of some industrial buildings that he deemed perfect for donuts. Having spun around on the spot for about a minute, the cabin was entirely filled with thick white smoke that stunk of fish, presumably due to cheap tyres. Garry and Silly jumped out but left me stuck in the back. Luckily I was skinny back then, and somehow squeezed out down the side of the passenger seat as I didn't know how it released.

Not seen him in years which is a shame, we had some epic all-night Playstation sessions back then, think he had a minor falling out with Garry and just vanished

[Lord Sterling]

  On 18/03/2025 at 08:46, bunglebus said:

The other notable Jap was a white 3.0 Supra, I was in the back of that one night with Silly and Garry in the front when he discovered a small yard around the back of some industrial buildings that he deemed perfect for donuts.

Expand  

Ah yes. Another memory unlocked!

Not a friend but someone I had seen around and about before. I was working at a garage for a Saturday job in the late 90s when a customer came in to collect his car after an MoT or repairs or something. 

He was a a tall lad with long hair who worked as a bus driver in Telford, he had a Grey 3.0 Supra, and he took me around to the front and as he did, he got the Supra sideways up the yard at back of the garage to get around to the front. Great stuff, first time I'd been a in a car going sideways.

[Split_Pin]

Gosh, when my mates had interesting cars it was before the beginning of time.

My mate Alan started with his sisters B reg Fiesta in 1996. You couldn't put too much weight on the passenger floor as it was crunchy. He's now a hugely successful business man with a fleet of trucks plus another equally large fleet of classic lorries!

My best mate Michael had a 4 speed B reg Sierra which was impressively rust free for 1997. He now drives an 08 plate Galaxy, always a Ford man!

My mate Richard had a 1.6 Peugeot 405 estate that went about 300mph.

My buddy Graeme got a rather cool G reg Golf MK2 Driver and modified it nicely with Momo arrows and 40mm lowering springs. He's now got a Ferrari.

I'm still in touch with all of them too.

What happened to me, well I met you lot 😂

[bunglebus]

Something new drivers miss out on, getting your Escort/Sierra/Supra/Minor sideways on wet roundabouts 😂