Edinburgh on a Monkey - The story of buying a shite car

[trigger]

CAR feature - Edinburgh on a monkey - £500 challenge 1990 (1) by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

CAR feature - Edinburgh on a monkey - £500 challenge 1990 (2) by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

CAR feature - Edinburgh on a monkey - £500 challenge 1990 (3) by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

CAR feature - Edinburgh on a monkey - £500 challenge 1990 (4) by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

CAR feature - Edinburgh on a monkey - £500 challenge 1990 (5) by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

CAR feature - Edinburgh on a monkey - £500 challenge 1990 (6) by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

CAR feature - Edinburgh on a monkey - £500 challenge 1990 (7) by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

CAR feature - Edinburgh on a monkey - £500 challenge 1990 ( by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

[trigger]

8 Months on, The Renault 18 goes out in a blaze of glory!

 

Banger Racing a Renault 18 GTS 1991 (1) by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

Banger Racing a Renault 18 GTS 1991 (2) by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

Banger Racing a Renault 18 GTS 1991 (3) by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

Banger Racing a Renault 18 GTS 1991 (4) by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

Banger Racing a Renault 18 GTS 1991 (5) by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

Banger Racing a Renault 18 GTS 1991 (6) by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

Banger Racing a Renault 18 GTS 1991 (7) by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

Banger Racing a Renault 18 GTS 1991 ( by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

Banger Racing a Renault 18 GTS 1991 (10) by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

Banger Racing a Renault 18 GTS 1991 (11) by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

Banger Racing a Renault 18 GTS 1991 (12) by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

Banger Racing a Renault 18 GTS 1991 ( by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

[Madman Of The People]

I have both of these issues in my collection and remember these articles really well! Great idea, worthy of a Top Gear episode!

[HillmanImp]

Great idea, worthy of a Top Gear episode!

 

No doubt in a Top gear episode though, Clarkson would set fire to Hammonds car and James May would no doubt spend the whole time avoiding crashes in a truly 'comical' manner.

[warren t claim]

A fantastic read! Thanks for posting!

[flat4alfa]

Oh! I remember the banger build issue!

 

Was it the same one they compared XKE and XJS? And RO80/Audi100 and Alfasud/33 Perm4?

[scruff]

Fantastic, thanks Trig

[warren t claim]

It's a shame that if they were to do an article like this today it would be crap reading. I.e....

 

Bought this 205 Diesel out of Gumtree for a shade over £300 with a long MOT...

 

 

Filled up with £50 of diesel.....

 

Drove to Scotland....

 

Drove home....

 

No drama or breakdowns.

 

We really are living in the golden age of cheap, usable cars. Rejoice!!!!

 

Here's a linky for the 205 in Manchester.

 

http://manchester.gumtree.com/mancheste ... 83464.html

[trigger]

My Escort only cost £300 and i doubt it would have any problem driving from LE to JOG and back even.

[Pete-M]

My 604 only cost..... oh, no, forget that.

[scooters]

lol - gr8 read but it would indeed be no challenge today - hell I've been using sub 1000 quid motors to clock up 1200 odd miles a week for years!

 

winning this would be easy - as you say - pug 205 for under 300 quid 1 tank of oil and trouser the change!

 

if you wanted more comfort I saw a hegh spec xantia tdi in north London 2 months ago for 250 quid with 6 months ticket and a years MOT

 

amazing how cheap loans over the last few years have devalued cars so much - mind you I reckon that with the new austerity in a couple of years time London to Edinburgh on a Monkey will once again be a challenge if only cos it will cost you 400 quid in fuel!!

[Negative Creep]

I did it all around the South Island of NZ with a £450 Sunny, no comedy breakdowns though

[dollywobbler]

Does demonstrate just how much Top Gear has to 'engineer' hilarious faults for their challenges doesn't it? I bought a £266 BX and drove it 3500 miles in a fortnight around France with only two minor problems. It was, indeed, fairly boring really.

[Spottedlaurel]

I remember this one well from back in the day.

 

Over the years there have been a lot of "What to buy for £500" type articles in various magazines. It's amazing how rubbish those cars were even 30+ years ago, basically rusty, knackered old heaps with the odd gem cropping up.

 

I don't know how Trigger finds the energy to scan so much in. If I find anything over my forthcoming long weekend off work I'll try to upload them.

[Shep Shepherd]

Reading articles like these as an impressionable youngster helped me get into tat

[Peter C]

I remember reading those articles when they first came out. I recall sitting on a Bakerloo Line (London Underground) train reading a copy of CAR magazine.

 

Great articles, great idea, long before Top Gear wankers caught on.

 

Thanks for posting!

 

Peter C

[RoadworkUK]

Brilliant stuff, amazing just how shafted that Renault 18 was after only 11 years though...

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Certainly makes you think, we get any amount of 'Nnyyuuuurrrrrgghhhh....., modern cars.... are $hit,..... hhuuurrrgggh' windbaggery on here, but most 'moderns' look a lot more like viable transport at 11 years old than this Renner!!! There's no way you could expect a reliable 15k a year out of that shitbox.

 

GR8 SCANNING OPERATIONS TRIG, 17/10 WILL GO FAR

[mattblack]

Can someone lend me £900 and a time machine? I want that 100E.

[Guest]

Yeah the 480 would do that run no problem.*

 

*So long as I could sort the brakes first. The new discs and pads all round only cost me £63, so I'd still be in the running after the initial purchase price. I wouldn't have anything left of the monkey carcass after I'd fuelled it though.