Did you ever own a car that you wish you still had?

Some great cars turning up on here!

Most are familiar, but can't say I recognise this...

digitalfailure said:
Of recent times, the only one i was sorry to see go was my Mugen fronted CTR
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Cortina Mk3 eh? I started work at a new place once and the manager lent me his 2000E for the weekend, think he had a headache and went home by train or something - :thumbs: straight round to pick up some mates and off to Southend for the evening!!! Cor, memories:cuckoo:

TR6 - fantastic as long as the fuel injection worked, I only had a very brief ownership of one, between buying and selling at auction, great when it worked though!

Keep em coming there's a lot of nostalgia around ;)

Neil
 
I'm beginning to realise I have owned some awful cars....

I can feel a "what's the worst car you've owned?" thread coming soon


I may have trouble picking just one though :lol:
 
Jelster said:
I had one of these about 25 years ago......

AlAdams1.jpg


Same colour, only mine had 1/4 bumpers, vinyl sun roof and spotlights. Man, I wish I still had it now.

Steve
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Was that Saffron Yellow? Great car the MGB, slated by its critics as being a Morris Oxford with a sports body - Rubbish! it was a proper sports car :thumbs:. Especially before it went all American rubber bumpered that is....
 
You've all had some really cool cars!

My cars have been Skoda Felicia 1.3, VX Astra 1.4, VW Passat 1.8T, Audi A8 4.2, Jeep Grand Cherokee,Volvo V70 2.5, Nissan Patrol, Volvo S80 T6 SE, Mercedes S500, Mercedes E320.

All pretty boring but I have had 2 Ford Capris I have even still got one! A 1981 Capri MKIII 2.0 S (5 speed) done a genuine 63,000 miles, no rust and no advisorys on the MOT. Truth is I haven't driven it since last November and now get this urge to drive it again all of sudden after seeing all your photos of old cool cars.

Actually, I haven't seen my Capri since Feb, I hope it's still there....
 
James Rothwell said:
You've all had some really cool cars!

My cars have been Skoda Felicia 1.3, VX Astra 1.4, VW Passat 1.8T, Audi A8 4.2, Jeep Grand Cherokee,Volvo V70 2.5, Nissan Patrol, Volvo S80 T6 SE, Mercedes S500, Mercedes E320.

All pretty boring but I have had 2 Ford Capris I have even still got one! A 1981 Capri MKIII 2.0 S (5 speed) done a genuine 63,000 miles, no rust and no advisorys on the MOT. Truth is I haven't driven it since last November and now get this urge to drive it again all of sudden after seeing all your photos of old cool cars.

Actually, I haven't seen my Capri since Feb, I hope it's still there....
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See... nostalgia can be a good thing! Now go and check - then drive the thing, that's what it was made for ;)

Oh, and there's some pretty cool cars amongst your list too.
 
OutLore said:
.... or my Chevette rally car - pure sideways action!! I'll dig a piccie up...
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*prays for a HS*

I had a Firenza for 3 weeks, but somebody put it in a ditch.....ere...wait, why do peeps keep smashing my best cars up.

All these cars, the MK3 Cortina, Firenza (like a viva coupe with grunt) and Chevette HS are totally retro cool.
I have a Focus D, its the best they make in a D, but the most boring pile of ordinary I've ever had the misfortune to ride in.....I'd swap it right now for a Lada Niva with a Mirifiori twin cam in it....
 
Flash In The Pan said:
Must have been, the MKIV didn't come out until '77 and Purple Velvet was the colour that the 1300E Escort was most commonly seen in...gawd, I'm such an anorak :lol:

purpleE.JPG
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Yes it was a Mk 3 and in its day that colour was stunning.
 
Lotus Elan +2 very similar to this one. Mine was a Jim Clark black badge.

Sold it '81 & bought a Daimler Double-Six SII. Filling both it's tanks was painful then, never mind what it would cost now! :eek:

No photos as my ex binned them all when we split. :shake:
 
Galaxy66 said:
Yes it was a Mk 3 and in its day that colour was stunning.
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Yes indeedy, it was one of the best colours Ford did in the 70s. Our Mk3 (1.6L eastate, new in 1972 £1150) was painted a light metallic blue colour that bird crap lifted almost immediately upon contact. It should have been a Bronze 1.6 GXL (I think), but after waiting 9 months and been told he'd have to wait 6 months more, my dad gave up and bought the blue one, it was either that or a silver one with a red vinyl interior :gag:....
 
Flash In The Pan said:
Yes indeedy, it was one of the best colours Ford did in the 70s. Our Mk3 (1.6L eastate, new in 1972 £1150) was painted a light metallic blue colour that bird crap lifted almost immediately upon contact. It should have been a Bronze 1.6 GXL (I think), but after waiting 9 months and been told he'd have to wait 6 months more, my dad gave up and bought the blue one, it was either that or a silver one with a red vinyl interior :gag:....
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That was my first ever new car and actually was not the car I had intended buying but on seeing that one in the showroom I was smitten by the colour straight away so a quick call to my better half and she agreed.

Problem was we could only just afford to scrape up the cash that week( hence supplying my own number plates) to buy it outright and were living on the breadline for a few days......................then a £50 premium bond win popped through the letterbox, not a small amount of money and could not have come at a better time.
 
kevshore said:
Absolutety true! Thats why I fitted triple twin choke Webers to that one. Sounded fantastic. :woot:
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I imagine that was a superb setup, I only had that sort of Weber on one car, a 1275cc engined Frogeye Sprite and the induction roar from a single twin choke 45DCOE was almost as loud as the exhaust - yours must have sounded awesome!!:thumbs:

It seems from the content of this thread that there was little concern for fuel economy in 'the good old days'
 
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Flash In The Pan said:
It would appear the car is no more, as the plate is for sale here
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Non-transferable plates are only non-transferable if the DVLA remember to put 'non-transferable' on the V5, and they often forget!

'A' plates came out in 1963 but many local offices still had a number of older plates to use up, and so many 1963 cars and also 1964 cars were never on A or B plates in the first place.
 
crocodile said:
Lotus Elan +2 very similar to this one. Mine was a Jim Clark black badge.

Sold it '81 & bought a Daimler Double-Six SII. Filling both it's tanks was painful then, never mind what it would cost now! :eek:

No photos as my ex binned them all when we split. :shake:
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Shame about the photos!

Those 2 cars were as similar as chaulk and cheese!! Must have been strange driving a V12 tank after the nimble Lotus?
 
chewyuk said:
PICT0228.JPG


Get in there - First car-given to me for £50, then some drunk idiot drove into at at 70mph, thankfully no-one was in it at the time.
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An HB Viva! Did you drive it around looking like that? :eek:
 
eddiemiller9000 said:
I had an black MGBGT with chrome bumpers. I loved it but old cars are a pain to run.
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They may have been a pain to run but parts and running costs were a fraction of todays cars, even ordinary run of the mill ones.

But, yes reliability is a very different issue now.

Can't imagine that many people these days check oil levels/water levels/tyre pressures etc once a week and before long journeys:nono:. Yet the cars keep running.....
 
neilmac said:
I only had that sort of Weber on one car, a 1275cc engined Frogeye Sprite....
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I had a 1098 Mk II & a 1275 Mk IV but they were both stock SUs. Even the Lotus was pre Weber Strombergs.
neilmac said:
Shame about the photos!
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Dozens of magazines of transparencies including the first seven years of our son! :bang:
neilmac said:
Those 2 cars were as similar as chaulk and cheese!! Must have been strange driving a V12 tank after the nimble Lotus?
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Similar 0-60 but that's about it. Kind of missed the attention that the Lotus drew. It's still around somewhere but apparently white now. :shrug:

Parking the Daimler in a supermarket bay was an absolute nightmare & it wouldn't fit in the garage. :lol:
 
I've only had 2 cars. Focus and a corsa.
My corsa failed it's MOT, and I had 1 week left on the MOT before it ran out.
The cost of repairs was too high, and so it was going to scrap.

I'm sure you can guess what I did with it, but if not:
I drove around on fields, did donuts in homebase carpark with McDonald's trays, saw how many mates I could get in/on it, you name it, I did it.

I loved that car to bits, I really did. Never let me down once.
However, the focus is really nice to drive.
Bit of a dad's car, especially for a 17 year old, but I don't care :)
 
foodpoison said:
I'm sure you can guess what I did with it, but if not:
I drove around on fields, did donuts in homebase carpark with McDonald's trays, saw how many mates I could get in/on it, you name it, I did it.
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In my day you were contact to drive slowly down Southend High Street & watch the wheels go round in Woolies windows. :lol:

Unless you had something serious to take to Chelsea....
 
neilmac said:
They may have been a pain to run but parts and running costs were a fraction of todays cars, even ordinary run of the mill ones.
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Parts may have been cheap but fitting was something else.

Exhibit A
Taking the engine out out the Sprite to change the clutch as you couldn't "drop" the gearbox.

Exhibit B
Possibly my all time pet motoring hate - the stumpy little bypass hose on the A series engine water pump.
 
crocodile said:
In my day you were contact to drive slowly down Southend High Street & watch the wheels go round in Woolies windows. :lol:

Unless you had something serious to take to Chelsea....
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You must also not forget driving down the seafront!
 
I wish I still had Marge, a 1976 VW Beetle 1303s. Sure she'd seen better days but she was mine & I loved her. I got ripped of on the purchase and she would've cost too much to put right (whole new front frame-head, new floor pans, new wings, etc). Her motor was sweet though; Webber'd 1583cc with split heat exchangers - she was a bit throaty.

I only drove her for about a year & she remains the only car that I have ever owned. RIP Marge, wherever you are :'(
 
I used to have a Marcos V6 3.0, like this one:

Marcos26.jpg


The ultimate babe magnet!
 
JumboBeef said:
I used to have a Marcos V6 3.0, like this one:

Marcos26.jpg


The ultimate babe magnet!
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I wanted one of those when I was a lad, but they had wooden chassis then, and as I was always bottom of the class in woodwork I stayed well clear. Very pretty car though (early ones anyway) :thumbs:
 
crocodile said:
Parts may have been cheap but fitting was something else.

Exhibit A
Taking the engine out out the Sprite to change the clutch as you couldn't "drop" the gearbox.

Exhibit B
Possibly my all time pet motoring hate - the stumpy little bypass hose on the A series engine water pump.
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Exhibit A
Frogeye Sprite - remove front bodywork and Bob's yer whatsit, easy ;)

Exhibit B
Buy one of those after market concertina ones and just squeeze it into place without removing cylinder head or breaking fingers ;)
 
chewyuk said:
PICT0228.JPG


Get in there - First car-given to me for £50, then some drunk idiot drove into at at 70mph, thankfully no-one was in it at the time.
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really liked that :D
 
I've had quite a few cars over the years, most of them being MkII Cortinas, but the two I really wish I still had are my MkII GTI Golf that was written off by a drunk driver while it was parked up outside my parents place around 3am one christmas morning! The other being a Cortina Super that apart from the wider Lotus cortina wheels, looked totally standard. It was in fact really rather tuned up what with the Harris built engine.... Only sold that one because of getting the estate I still have now - can't keep them all..... :(

However, the one I really really wish I could still drive is one that I still have - my Crayford Lotus Cortina. I took a bump in the rear end not long after I got it, and that led to plans for a complete resto. It was a fantastic drive and a real looker once upon a time...

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but its looked like this for 8 or 9 years now - one day I'll get to it

other059.jpg
 
We used to have a maroon coloured Frogeye sprite back in the 70's. Loved that car to bits.......Hubby got really good at changing the halfshafts, as they broke so regularly we could predict when it was going to happen and change them before they did!

Wonder what one would cost these days?
 
photostar_1 said:
We used to have a maroon coloured Frogeye sprite back in the 70's. Loved that car to bits.......Hubby got really good at changing the halfshafts, as they broke so regularly we could predict when it was going to happen and change them before they did!

Wonder what one would cost these days?
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All these mentions of Sprites has prompted me to dig this photo out

frogeye.jpg


Used to sprint and hill climb it, that was in the 70s - oh happy days :D

And yes, I had to change the halfshafts fairly regularly too!
 
neilmac said:
All these mentions of Sprites has prompted me to dig this photo out....
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[yorkshireaccent]You try & tell young folk today about removable, sliding Perpex windows, no external door handles & no locks at all - & they won't believe you![/yorkshireaccent]

Not to mention heating by opening a flap in the transmission tunnel to allow hot air from the engine in. :D
 
crocodile said:
[yorkshireaccent]You try & tell young folk today about removable, sliding Perpex windows, no external door handles & no locks at all - & they won't believe you![/yorkshireaccent]

Not to mention heating by opening a flap in the transmission tunnel to allow hot air from the engine in. :D
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Not to mention ventilation via holes in the floor!!!

Oh - and no external boot, had to climb in and out through the cabin :lol:
 
GoLotus said:
I've had quite a few cars over the years, most of them being MkII Cortinas, but the two I really wish I still had are my MkII GTI Golf that was written off by a drunk driver while it was parked up outside my parents place around 3am one christmas morning! The other being a Cortina Super that apart from the wider Lotus cortina wheels, looked totally standard. It was in fact really rather tuned up what with the Harris built engine.... Only sold that one because of getting the estate I still have now - can't keep them all..... :(

However, the one I really really wish I could still drive is one that I still have - my Crayford Lotus Cortina. I took a bump in the rear end not long after I got it, and that led to plans for a complete resto. It was a fantastic drive and a real looker once upon a time...

top%20Down.jpg



but its looked like this for 8 or 9 years now - one day I'll get to it

other059.jpg
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So are you going to keep the standard mechanics.... or go the 'Savage' route with a 3.0 V6?

Great project, I'm sure that one day it will again be a head turner :thumbs:
 
neilmac said:
Not to mention ventilation via holes in the floor!!!
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That's just reminded me:

One sunny Saturday afternoon I bled the clutch cylinder on my Mk II. This was accessed by removing a rubber bung/grommet (around 4"x3") from the tunnel. After I'd finished I just couldn't get the damn thing back in & ended up tossing it behind the seats as I had a hot date to prepare for.

Needless to say, after picking up said date it started pouring. I forgot all about the missing grommet until we arrived at our destination 30 miles later. The entire floor was flooded on my side. The combination of the "legs virtually straight" driving position & my lime-green 28" flares was not a pretty sight.... :$ :lol:
 
crocodile said:
That's just reminded me:

One sunny Saturday afternoon I bled the clutch cylinder on my Mk II. This was accessed by removing a rubber bung/grommet (around 4"x3") from the tunnel. After I'd finished I just couldn't get the damn thing back in & ended up tossing it behind the seats as I had a hot date to prepare for.

Needless to say, after picking up said date it started pouring. I forgot all about the missing grommet until we arrived at our destination 30 miles later. The entire floor was flooded on my side. The combination of the "legs virtually straight" driving position & my lime-green 28" flares was not a pretty sight.... :$ :lol:
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Oh yes, I can relate to that whole scenario :thumbs:
 
Oh, I forgot, my red Mini pick up, with a white roof and overly wide weller 8 spokes.....looked like a Tonka toy....great fun:lol:
 
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