You and your car history.

[Widar]

Now that we're all starting to get to know each others with "what do you look like"-threads and all, what is the history of you and cars? Have you ever been into something more than just traffic use? Rallying? Racing? A couple of track meetings with you old Volvo (Hey Ivan! )?

Well, here's my story;
I have always been interested in cars, and when i turned 15 i started racing in a Junior Series here in Sweden called Renault 5 Junior. You could only enter if you where between 15 and 18 years. The cars where the old Renault 5's, off course with full rollcage and so, we wheren't allowed to do much about the enginges though, everything to keep the costs (and speed) down.
I raced in R5 Junior for three years, 97-99. Ahh... those where the days.
When i turned 18 a lot happened, i moved away from home, other Series was a lot more expencive (in R5 you could buy a car for 1100€ and race a full season, 8 races, for the same amount.) so i stopped racing.
Now i just try to get to as many track days and track meetings that i can afford instead.

The attached pics is the R5 i used back in '99, 80 hp and about 690 kilos. On helluva fun car to drive. Wonder if it's still alive?

Now the R5 Junior series is no more... They took the step up to Clios instead. I got an offer to buy last years winner R5 for 1600€... Would be real nice and insanly nostalgic to have one again. We'll see.

Best Regards,

[Mux213]

Very cool man

Okay so here is my story. As a kid I liked cars but never was much into it. Just the normal dinky toy fetish When I turned 18 I wasn't in any hurry to get my drivers license. I failed once and soon after a second time although I still dont count that time (I was feeling fairly sick). I told my teacher goodby (but ended up buying his house a couple years later) and called it quits for half a year. Eventually my aunt gave me her Austin Metro 1.3 and I desided to give it another try with a new teacher. That time I passed and I got my drivers license on the same day my soon to be new boss became a dad

The Austin Metro became my first car. A funny little car that I loved and still love eventough it was small, only had 4 gears, was rusty as hell, and had no luxery to speak off. What it did have was a 1.3liter that sounded like it came out of a rally car and did pretty well in the 0-80kmph sprint, between 80-120 however, it did very little It barely did 120 on the freeway. But it tought me alot and I thank it for that.

1 month after getting my drivers license I got the keys to my moms 316 E30 limited edition and drove it to Norway. This was my first experience driving fast (back then I though 180kmph was fast) and that trip changed me. It started my love for fast cars.

After a little while my metro was starting to give me higher maintenance bills and I swapped it for a 2 liter Nissan bluebird.
Although it was nice I only had that car for a very short while because I found a 320 E30 for little money and I swapped it. This 320 was nice but not in to good shape, but it was fun anyways.

Then not to long after that, my boss told me that I was getting a company car. Now this I recieved with mixed feelings. But a day later my mom called me that she had crashed her 316 so I got the company car, and she got my BMW. Not that it mattered cause a couple of months later the timing belt broke and that was then end of the BMW....

As for the company car. Well my boss showed me and my collegue a 2 liter Seat Cordoba with all the works, very nice car. What we got eventually was a 1.6 liter version, which sorta didn't make me and my collegue to happy (he btw crashed his 2 days after he got it, he got sandwitched between a mercedes and a landrover that both had no damage, but his car was totalled).

I had that car for a year or two, I am not sure and later on replaced it with a Peugeot 406 2liter with all the works (airco, heated seats, leather, etc).

While I had the seat I also briefly owned a Ford Transit camper.

By the time I got the Peugeot I also bought the Delorean and not long after that my first RX7 that I ran on the Nurburgring. I'll spare you the nasty details surrounding how I got into that, lets say the ends are better then the means.

Soon after that I desided I should drive RWD privately aswell so I got my hands on a mint condition Porsche 944 S2. God I loved that car! It replaced the Peugeot to the unhappyness of my boss...

Things turned for the worse soon after that, like I said, I'll spare you the details. But it came down to me making a choice, I needed to sell one of the cars. After 1.5 very nasty years (but still having loads of fun with the Porsche) I swapped the Porsche for an early 944 type 2. Probably one of the worse decisions in my life. To make matters even worse, Tim crashed the RX7 around that same time.

The type 2 turned out to have a oil seal leak amongst other problems. Now if I had that car today I wouldn't have lost a minute of sleep. I'd be out finding a different engine and swapping it in and then fixing the other engine up. But back then I knew almost nothing about cars. So I sold it to a finnish guy in the few months that the EU had told the finish goverment they were not allowed to keep their car taxes. All in all though, I lost ALOT of money.

Took it easy for a year, got another company car (Bright Yellow Seat Ibiza 1.6 which was sorta fun). Finally got my finances in order (which was a hard thing to do because the DeLorean kept braking down with some high bills, I had bought a new house) and started looking at the future.

I bought my second RX7 because I could get it cheap and it sounded like fun and I desided I needed to learn more about maintaining a car myself. I also eventually swapped the Ibiza for a Ford Mondeo station diesel that I still got.

But the RX7 project is already taking me a whole year, going to trackdays time and time again watching from the sideline made me try to haste working on the RX7. So I desided the only rational thing to do, buy another car!!!

So now I own a Hachi. A car I've wanted for a long time. Once fixed up the Mondeo will go and the hachi will be my daily car and occasional be used for a slow lap at a track day. The RX7 will slowly be restored as money becomes available until it becomes a real trackday car.

What I'll do with the DeLorean? Thats something I ask myself every other day. Its awaiting another expensive repair that I am contemplating on doing myself for a change, or atleast most of the "take the gearbox out and later on put it back in" stuff that normally cost a days labour. Maybe after that I will finally find reason to part with it. Still, a big part of me wants to keep that car forever. We'll see where we are at next year

[JonT]

Car History

In order
learnt in my dads 2 litre Celica. Then had to learn to do 3 point turns slowly. I passed my test first time and have been driving for more than half my life now. I'm definately one of the oldies on the forum.

Year of car

1979 1.3 Mk II escort
1982 1.6 KE70 ? Corolla DX (2T engine)
1983 1.6 TE71 Corolla SR (2TB engine) Red. 21st birthday present. Put it on its roof 3 months later
1982 1.6 TE71 Corolla SR Silver. Rusted away to nothing
1984 1.6 Corolla GT Coupe (AE86) White. Crashed, at least i removed a Maestro from the world.
1986 1.6 Corolla GT Coupe (silver over Graphite). Stalked the car locallly, leaving notes on the windscreen until they sold it to me. Sold it own when i got the one below.
1987 1.6 Corolla GT Coupe (dim dip model) One of the last made. Swapped the engine 3 times, parked it in a ditch, sold it with no MOT and severe rust for twice what i bought it for.
1992 1.8 Nissan 200SX. Fast car, but scary with no LSD to help out. Traded it in for my Primera (see below)
1984 Corolla GT Coupe (Blue) First trackday car, sold it to James
1998 Nissan Primara GT. (Current) Needed 4 door for the kids. A good fast car but does not inspire.
1987 Corolla GT Coupe. (Current) New trackday car, been featured in a magazine with previous owner. Bought it believing it was in better condition that it was. Now it needs welding, new LSD.........

Jon

[Widar]

Hmm.. car listing. Let me see how many i can recall.

3x Renault 5 Racing cars, -79, -81 and -84.
Mazda 323 -84
Volvo 360 gls -83
Renault Clio -91
Renault Clio 16v -91
Renault Clio 16v -91, Clio Cup shocks all around, lowered to the max. Crazy handling! Pics HERE!
Subaru Trendy -90
Volvo 360 gls -85
Toyota Corolla AE86 -86 You know the story here
Ford Sierra -88
Bmw 318is -89
Opel Manta Gsi -86
Bmw 528i -87 Current daily.

I was very fond of little fast FWD's due to racing them, but then i realized that RWD is my thing and i can't see myself ever buying a FWD again, unless it's a family car.

[ZaX]

Dads Benz - 91 RWD -> blame him for first drifts
My first car was BMW E36 316i - 93 RWD -> to weak car, but it could put some nice drifts in wet
Crashed it once because of tire puncture on a sunny sunday cruising.
Repaired it mostly by my self, fell in love with cars.
white AE86 - 84 RWD
Sold bimmer
200SX silver S13 90 - RWD
200SX red S13 93 parts car - RWD
Red 85 AE86 RWD
Blue 84 AE86 RWD
You get the point... RWD

[@dodo@]

My car history -->

1. VW Polo 1.4 - sold
2. Mazda RX-8 - current
3. Toyota AE86 - current

Small list

[KristianAE86]

well lets se..

drove my firstcar back in 1977 duing a vacation in Sri Lanka.. sitting on the "drivers" lap... driving an MINI.
1980 we moved to Africa where ny dad worked as an Ophtalmic teacher for 5 years.. I drove the family 1980 Landrover 109 a lot there when we wen hunting...

19880617 got my drivers licence.. drove 140 km/h the first day & thrashed the brakes of my 1980 Mazda 626.

1988 dad´s 1970 AlfaRomeo Bertone 2000 (ex italian racecar)

1988 got first one AlfaRomeo Alfetta 1,8 - then an 2,0 1980.

1989 got an 1982 VW GTi 1,6 with an rally gearbox. - chrashed

1992 Bertone swapped for an 1986 AlfaRomeo 75 Turbo
WOOOOOOOW what a car

1993 Turbo swapped for an 1992 Suzuki Swift 1,6

1994 1984 SAAB 900. - scrapped 1995

1997 Sold Suzuki - bought my first Honda CR-X (an 1989)

1999 Sold CR-X

1999 bought 1979 BMW 323i - equipped it with a full rollcage & 1991 325M motor - did som trackracing with the Swedish BMW club.
sold 2001

2000 bought 1988 Subaru Leone Turbo 4x4. - sold 2001

2001 Bought 1988 VW GTi - not working.... never got it to work - sold

2001 1988 Toyota Starlet 1,3XL - sold 2003

2001 bought 1986 Honda CR-X
se http://www.hem.passagen.se/supermotardracing

2002 Black 1986 CR-X - 1984 red CR-X - 1986 white CR-X - all sold.

2003 february sold CR-X in favor of the Hachi........

2004 1985 Fiat UNO 70 sold a month ago.

2004 1986 Suzuki SJ 413 mini Jeep as a wintercar.

... /
......Kristian

[Ivan141]

Wow, those are some impressice histories.

I myself got my drivers license when I was 18, back in 2000. (in one try).
I didnt have much money back then, nor did I feel the need to own a car.
I just kept to driving around in my moms daihatsu cuore, which I still use very often due to the superior mileage.
A few years later in 2002 I was starting to save up some cash to buy myself a cool car eventually. Since my bro was into the whole honda thing back then (with his 130bhp civic) I kinda liked japanese cars as well. Back then looks where my main point of interest so I was planning to buy the early 90's honda prelude.
Then came my brother with the idea of buying one of 2 hachi's that where for sale for nice prices. I didnt know these cars back then, a lot of people didnt. I looked it up on the internet, and after nosing around on club4ag, I had decided to buy one.

I had to overhaul the brakes and some little problems before bringing it for it's first MOT, it took me about a month of driving back and forth to the formula student workplace next to which it was stored.
I had to pay around 900 euro to get most of the rust fixxed and all the more difficul stuff (wheelbearings, steering knuckles etc). Then finally in summer 2003 I had it on the road legally for it's first time in 4 years. Sadly the engine broke down after a few 200km runs moving stuff up to my house when I was working in Nijmegen.

Finally april this year I had a spare engine fitted, and have been upgrading the car ever since.

[dreja]

I've got my driving licence in 93. As I didn't have money (studying, etc.) I've used to drive my father's car '90 Honda civic 1.4, dual carburator with 90hp.
In '98 I've bought my first car, '94 citroen ax. Now it has covered 250k km and it still runs good.

Last year I've bought a '96 Civic EK4 160 hp and this year also '85 hachiroku...

[banpei]

@dodo@ Wrote:My car history -->

1. VW Polo 1.4 - sold
2. Mazda RX-8 - current
3. Toyota AE86 - current

Small list

Well, mine is even shorter:
Got my driving license last year (August). In Holland a driving license was affordable till somewhere around 2000. After that it got more and more expensive. Ofcourse I was doing my study till 2001 and didn't have any money at all.

I still regret I didn't try to get it while I was in High School, back then it only cost about 900 euros while last year I spent about 3200 euros: only the practical exam alone costs about 270 euros, theoretical about 80 euros, 36 euros per hour lessons (and that was a cheap driving school). Luckily for me I got it in only one shot.

The reason why I wanted my driving license was to buy a hachi. Sadly enough I did not have enough money left at all after I got my license and ofcourse I wanted a car. So I bought the Mitsu because of the low price and good mileage. Unfortunately I've spent too much money on the car already, and that just to keep the car running.

Anyways, my list would be:
1. Mitsubishi Colt (91) - current