Yep, had a few Vetch, not many I haven't tried from BM's to Alfa Romeo, Honda etc, but nothing like my MX5 with the roof down, and it doesn't break the bank, do you know it hasn't had an oil leak around the engine in 8 years, dry as a bone, never called the RAC out either! My MX5 is the silver one............... please log in to view this image
just thought i would show you a little video of me in the Lamborghini Gallardo Nera today [video=youtube;itbJG93NPDM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itbJG93NPDM&feature=related[/video]
Your a right tart Mabon! My youngest favourite car, the Lamborghini Gallardo, he drives it all the time on his Xbox!.......... please log in to view this image Footballers car aye!.............
I was always into Triumph's too, learnt to drive in a toledo, then had a dolomite. but the one i loved most was my spitfire. 25 years ago (before the traffic camera) i had a mark IV that i dearly loved but lost a rear wheel at 90mph down the M4 near Membury coming back from the smog late one evening. somehow managed to crawl out intact, then got a Volvo 164, my trips around Gower were never the same. one of the main reasons i left Britain was the traffic and the fact i hated wasting up to 3 hours of my day sat in traffic going back and for work. from what i can make out on my frequent trips back, it's worse now, with the insane proliferation of cameras everywhere but especially in Wales. there's just no fun to be had in driving and the traffic flows no better. In HK taxis are so cheap that thankfully there's no need to own a car. Having said that the air is so bad i now view them as nothing more than tin cans that pollute the lungs of my kids. we need less cars and more alternatives, ie better public transport and more bike lanes, tho transport policy in asia seems to reflect the needs of the motor manufacturing industry to the total detriment of the health of the people. so for the question what car would i love to have, well none haven't missed them a bit, but if i have to have one, i'd like to have something that runs on renewable energy as i look forward to the time when all cars are fossil fuel free.
Love my Mini (new type) because it sips fuel but also have a 1967 Beetle convertible (that doesn't sip fuel!) I brought back from Austrailia. Her name is Doris and she still has the NRMA stickers on the windscreen (Their AA). Looking to restore as she doesn't like the weather much here and it shows now. Any suggestions for someone reliable let me know. Dream car? Any Aston Martin will do nicely.
I will always love my first an old ex works mini van i painted it black with a double silver stripe over the drivers side bonnet roof and back door and my apprentice grease monkey muccas dropped a recon cooper block in it
Hey Musty i'll grant you the MTR ie underground rail system is superb, but the air quality is shocking both my kids have acute bronchitis. the government not only makes no attempt to monitor the emissions but also has no desire to protect the health of the population. we have more Ferraris and Rolls here per square mile than any other country by a considerable margin. On the road the car is king and there is no attempt to change it, there are no bus lanes, no bike lanes or cycle areas. the harbour is inaccessible for long stretches as it's taken over by highways. i'd gladly swap the transport system here for yours if we can get the air that goes with it.
Cars were essential to my business - I drove 100,000 miles a year all over the UK for many years servicing my client base. Because of the heavy mileage my partner and I broke cars on a regular basis so we never had less than three and sometimes five. As we had to carry staff, I usually went for roomy motorway cruisers with all mod cons to give more comfort on the journeys. I usually had a choice of "work" vehicles but kept the nicer cars for leisure use. I suppose over the years I have owned well over a hundred cars. They include:- Hillman Hunter - matt black grill, the type that won the London to Sydney rally. (OUCH!! I feel my age.) Triumph 2000. Rover 2000(s) - one of them with the 3.5 litre V8 engine. Jaguars - lots!! 2.4, (240), 3.4 (340) 3.8 (all those the "Morse" types), 3.8 s type, 420, numerous XJ 6s. Surprisingly many of the Jags could not sustain heavy and repeated motorway use, so I stopped using them for that and just used them to pose for important clients. Aston Martin DB5 - but just for a month. Nice car but impractical for me at the time. Some Rover Sterlings. Surprisingly, the most reliable of all my cars was a MK 1 with the legendary V6 Honda engine. What a flyer for its time!!! but thirsty - never had to do anything other than routine maintenance on it and it was driven at three figures mph on a daily basis for three years. Rover de-powered subsequent models. Tragedy. An interesting car I owned for a while was the NSU RO 80. It was powered by twin ****el rotary engines. Driving it was surreal - the faster you drove it the more stable, quiet and smooth the engine became, much like a spinning top. It was longer and wider than an XJ6 with a semi automatic gearbox that had a torque converter much like the A Class Mercs today. Bear in mind that this was 1974 so it was pretty advanced. Very unreliable though because the model was plagued with rotor seal tips blowing. I believe that Rolls Royce patented a system that prevented this and gave the technology to NSU (taken over by Audi) in exchange for using the engine in Scorpion tanks. I always believed that the tanks were powered by Rolls Royce engines but the engines were in fact the rotary ****els. Don't know how true that is, perhaps someone can enlighten me. Blew the tips on my own car eventally and wrote the car off as too expensive to repair. I've had all the big Fords, Toyota Camry, Vauxhall Carltons and Omegas and something that many might not have heard of, a Talbot Tagora. This is listed in a 100 crap cars guide but to be honest, mine served me brilliantly. It was roomy, fast and reasonably economical needing little maintenance. This could go on and on but in my youth I owned Sunbeam Rapiers, TR3 open top sports with detachable hard top and a rally tuned Ford Zodiac complete with bench seats, column change, triple SU carbs, twin straight through exhaust and a Borg Warner kick down overdrive with free wheel!!! That car was actually an RAC Rally stage winner and the owner GAVE it to me as he'd just bought a brand new Ford Lotus Cortina fitted with the latest inertia reel seat belts. Oh, God, I'm feeling older by the minute so I'm going to stop now - which is more than can be said about some of the cars I owned when I was a kid!!
My 64 Triumph , with the bubble on the bonnet for the Weber carbs , wired wheels & fire engine red was a tank . Got it going , 100 miles an hour on the 401 highway between Toronto & Montreal and my generator fell off from the massive vibration ... wasn't to funny at the time but I can have a laugh about it now . Just the best fun I've had in a vehicle .
Ivor great story , I have ever owned 5 cars all fords except my Mazda now, had quite a few different company cars though mostly peugeots the most interesting one I had was a GMC day van when I worked out of the UK, it was black and looked like the a-team van, but it was a bit of a pig to drive
Enjoyed reading that Ivor, i worked on an NSU in 1974 ,cant remember the spec but it was the first clear over base paint system i worked on it was Jade green metallic.I was just finishing my apprenticeship.CK Andrews Fforestfach, 69-74..I worked on quiet a few Tagora's as well (FRF) and they did have a bad press,mostly unfair but with the soft suspension you could get seasick and there was the Solara basically an Alpine with a boot
Valley, I'm driving a Peugeot Executive estate now - an OLD one but in beautiful nick. After all the years of forking out a fortune on cars and driving like a maniac all over Britain keeping to deadlines, its nice to climb into my runabout and trundle about at my leisure. I know its boring but what with the speed camera technology and everything today, you just get nicked if you put your foot down. Many a time I outrun police cars in the past because I was driving quicker cars than they had. The fastest thing they had then was a Daimler Dart sports car that topped out at only 115/120 mph. Fun days and safer then because there was far less traffic on the roads and the boy racer in his hot hatch was in embryonic form, if that. There's lots of cars I fancy these days but can't afford them. I do like muscle cars, though, and could easily live with a Dodge Viper. Until I got banned!
Bongo, rushing out for Sunday lunch now but I'll post an interesting incident about my RO when I get back later.
Ivor my company vehicles include Peugeot Expert, Partner and Bippers all equally crap for various reasons, the expert that I owned from new (suppose that makes 6) needed two new engines after about a year, as it was commercial and for business you don't get much consumer rights, it cost me a fortune as there was many losses not covered by warranties. I simply hate them, I wish my company stuck with ford fiestas as they are great cars.
I love Triumphs!! but only the Motor Bikes im afraid to say. Own a Street Triple R right now and nothing much on 4 wheels will compete with it! Cars ive owned in the past have been an intresting mix of Ford,Vauxhall,Jaguar,Audi,VW,Mercedes and Porsche. I've also owned an MX5 and can easily place this car in the top 3 of motors ive had. The 928s (s2) 4.7L v8 was sublime and way ahead of its time in design,that along with the XJS complete my top 3 . Nowadays i drive a Mercedes A class which is reliable and comfortable to drive, also great if you have a bad back as its very easy to get in and out of! Nothing can match Motorcycles for having fun though !!
Ok Iver, I can see you were a power speed merchant, so I'll give you the two fastest cars I've owned, Monza 3.0 GSE, and Alfa Romeo GTV 2.5! Boy could they go, I used the Monza to beat a 911, on the road south, from the St Bernard's pass (Austria/Italy) to Genoa, good job my Mrs was sleeping!................ please log in to view this image [video=youtube;hFQuOGpP0ls]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFQuOGpP0ls[/video] please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
