Mates' cars...

[bunglebus]

Anyway, time marches on. Garry went through a few E30 BMWs, this being a South African import with lots of differences from a UK spec car. Doing it's stuff at Peterborough showground here

And an unauthorised donut session at the end of Bug Jam one year

There was a red one that I only have one shonky pic of 

He also had this Shovit for a while

A CF camper

And bikes, I'm not into them but this Kawasaki Z650 was a nice looking thing

He had that a very long time and I went out as pillion on it now and again, felt totally safe and comfortable, unlike this thing he eventually replaced it with 

I disliked this right from the start. Being on the back was terrifying, just felt like it squirmed about underneath me and I was about to fall off the back at any moment. This was the one he was riding when someone turned right across his path and he ended up smashed up and getting airlifted to hospital. He'd just bought this at the time

And is now well enough to start working on it again. He also bought himself another E30 when he finally got some compensation 

 

[bunglebus]

Mark moved onto fast BMWs

And old Saabs

[JJ0063]

First car I remember going in was my mate from school turned up in the village my at the time GF lived in, RAF Marham, in a pale gold Mk1 Megane, hadn’t seen him for a year or so and he would have only been 17 for a few weeks at best so it was a shock to see him pull up in it. Gave us a lift home in it. Few weeks later hear on the grape vine that he had no license or anything, had just bought himself a car and was cutting about in it 😂🤦‍♂️

I remember being so jealous at the time as all I had was a late 90s Peugeot Vivacity 50cc scooter

[Lord Sterling]

I'm honestly struggling to remember anyone else who memorable cars. 

There is of course an old mate called Mohammed who brought his brother's 1.8 Vectra down to see me. We went to Telford in it from Birmingham for a little tour and it was honestly a fine car to drive.

I had another Yemeni mate who had a pre-facelift K11 Micra in red. He was, apparently, inspired to buy one after seeing Ma_Sterling's one that I always brought down with me as it was for a while my only source of wheels. This was very similar to his car, I do have an actual photo somewhere but it's elsewhere so here is a very similar one:

Micra_lad actually had his Micra for a very long time, maybe around 10 years until it finally failed it's MoT one day very badly where he finally had to buy a bigger car for his growing family.

Another Yemeni lad I knew briefly had a Rover 400 HHR saloon in silver. This would have been the time I had my Rover 827Si. His 400 was similar to this:

It had over-sized tyres on it apparently for comfort. Didn't really see it after that.

Around the back of houses in Halesowen opposite the shopping centre were, for a while, one or two Mk3 VR6 Golfs in that sort of 'monogram' colour. Similar to this:

One of them never seemed to move. Not exactly sure who it belonged to but it might have been a youngish Yemeni lad who occasionally hung about with us.

Then there was Damian, Damian was a big tall lad who seemed to like getting into some serious mischief. 

He once bought a Mazda 323f that had no insurance, tax or MoT and neither did it have any working brakes. Similar in spec and colour to this:

I drove it once to a petrol station and thankfully in a calmer manner.

Last I saw it was when we all met in a deserted car park of a closed-down (and later re-opened) pub. The police turned up to see what we were all up to. Damian ran like the wind with the cops on his tail, I've never seen a big tall lad run so fast before or since but suffice to say he got away, the Mazda was left at the car park and we never saw it again.

[Blue 850]

One car I remember a lad at school had  in 1989 or 1990 was a canary yellow Audi 100 with dark green interior,  it had a 2.1 5 cylinder engine. His parents had split up and his Dad bought it for his 18th birthday and insured it. I remember he fitted at least 6 spotlights to it and drove it like he stole it. He had to sell it a year later when he couldn't afford the insurance renewal Similar to the photo

[Barry Cade]

3 of us all grew up in the same street- still best mates 40 odd years later. I'm a year younger than them.  One passed his test a few weeks after he turned 17 and his mum bought him a Talbot Horizon 1500 from the next door neighbour. no pics but looked exactly like this,,

we all used to go down the prom every night, in Kirkcaldy. At that time it was 1.5 miles of straight dual carriageway along the seafront.  racing every night This was the early 90's so the peak of MAX Power.. This thing was unbelievable, it had the legs on every XR2 and XR3 that tried it on, and just wouldn't die. It was abused badly every day and never, ever gave any trouble.  He flat refused to spend any money on his cars maintenance, and is still the same even today. He got a very nice early Golf GTi 16v, which lived with him for 7 years without as much as an oil change.  He now has a Saab 9-5 Aero manual, which has been Noob'd and he does deliveries in it.  He still drives it like he's 17, and it just keeps going and passing MOT's. I just don't get it! He CANNOT stand any squeaks or rattles. He once bought a proper mint white Mk2 Astra GTE, had it for 2 days and sold it. I was stunned as he'd wanted one for ages. I gave him a hard time and asked why it had gone. He said the odometer ( analogue, but digital dash) clicked every time it went a tenth of a mile. he couldn't handle it..

Other mate, who was about 2 years behind me in getting a car (he's the ladies man..) got a 1000cc Nova Saloon in lichen green. The exhaust fell off after a week. Then a Fiat Panda 45 Comfort, the exhaust fell off within a week. Then a Mk1 Honda Prelude. The exhaust fell off within a week. This continues to this day, I just put an exhaust on his Nissan Note..

There was a time when we all had Mk2 Cavalier SRi's at the same time. ( I worked at Vauxhall and got good deals on all the trade ins!)  Mine a Silver early saloon, Horizon chap had a metallic blue early hatch and exhaust chap a later red hatch.  3 of us flying down the A92 heading for the prom, well into 3 figures and the blue one shot a huge flame out the exhaust and a bang that was heard over 2 Unlimited through my 6x9's.. He'd run out of fuel at 115mph.. He would never put more than a fiver in the tank at any time. He's still the same, but it's a tenner now.. 

[Dan302]

My mate Keegan got a diesel Peugeot 106 (pre-facelift) while we were at college but the head gasket went within a day or so. His dad took it back to the dealers and he got a 1.7D Corsa which he called Neville and kept for years until it just wasn't worth welding any more.

My mate Skad had a Panda, I think a 1000. I remember 3 of us sleeping in it when we went camping and got too pissed to put the tent up.

My mate Kate had a polo couple like this (in charcoal grey I think. I bought her a valeting kit for her 18th with the promise I'd valet it as part of the gift. We are 43 now and I've still not got round to it (she keeps reminding me) so impatient. (She hasn't still got the polo sadly)

[bunglebus]

  On 18/03/2025 at 22:24, Barry Cade said:

Mk2 Cavalier SRi's

Expand  

Ah, another memory unlocked! Mark bought a white SRi hatch, and stickered it up as a 130, plus fitted the digi dash.

He was at university at the time and we went into Chelmsford in it with two of his Uni mates, ended up in Dukes all (except Mark) drinking Bols Blue. The bartender made the suggestion of a drink the same price, but twice as strong - Chartreuse? Anyway two of us had a sip and went YUK, the third downed his - and promptly threw up a neat pyramid of chunder on the bar. Funny enough we were escorted off the premises shortly afterwards, and things got really messy. Puke Man (was it Dave? I don't remember) suddenly decided to climb up one of the huge lamp posts by the multi-story, and sat on the top of the thing grinning at us. We persuaded him down, but before we knew it he was climbing the university building and stole the first "A" from the "Anglia University" sign as a trophy. 

By now Mark, being sober, was getting a bit agitated that we'd be in trouble and was trying to usher us all into the Cavalier, unfortunately I was pretty pissed and refused as I knew it would make me ill, insisting I was going to walk home to Warley, about 12 or 13 miles! I'm sure I could have done it too, but the arrival of the police, as he was crawling along next to me staggering on the pavement prompted me to get in, I think Mark was shitting a brick about prison time over the theft of the university sign

We were soon whizzing along the old A12 past Highlands House at 70MPH, window open to try and help me sober up - to no avail. I put a lovely (Bols) blue speed stripe all the way down the side of the white Cavalier. They got me into my flat and deposited me on the bathroom floor, where I woke up the next day, and had to make my way to Mark's parent's house to wash the Cavalier while feeling somewhat under the weather.

I don't know what became of the A...