[Pendleslot]

When i passed my driving test around 20 years ago, the boy racers car at the time was the old MK11 Escort, it was cheap and readily available in various specifications and lent itself to being modified with relative ease. My first Escort was a 2 door 1.1 Pop which i bought for 30quid! I was in the motor trade so several months and two or three donor cars later it was transformed. We shoe horned a 2litre Pinto engine out of a Cortina, uprated the suspension, brakes, fit alloys and interior etc from the 'donors'. It was the typical wolf in sheeps clothing, i kept the car for about 5 years and then sold it to a work colleague who blew the engine in the first week! Since then i've had a whole host of performance Fords including RS2000, XR2, XR3i, XR4x4, Sierra Cosworth but the one car i would have back would be the old Escort.
What was the boy racer car when you started driving and which car you have owned would you buy back?
Sean

 

[Gaugemaster Controls]

Although not my first car, I bought a lime green Mini (they called it applejack) which turned out to be more filler than bodywork. I took it to a local guy and we spent a fortune on it - metallic dragon green respray, new Cobra seats, full chrome accessories, alloy wheels, twin exhausts, you name it we did it. It looked great, but I had to sell it when my collection of other Minis became to big and we had no-where to park 7 cars. However, it was great fun to drive and I would jump at the chance of having it back.

Aaron

 

[daleg]

QUOTE Although not my first car, I bought a lime green Mini (they called it applejack) which turned out to be more filler than bodywork. I took it to a local guy and we spent a fortune on it - metallic dragon green respray, new Cobra seats, full chrome accessories, alloy wheels, twin exhausts, you name it we did it Poor old Buddy, I remember him well!!!

I would like an Anglia 105E, but only to shoehorn the same 2L pinto in or even a Cosworth lump...............sedate on the outside, mental under the bonnet!!!

 

[Mr Croker]

Hi Sean

Mine was also a Mk2. Peppermint Green 4 door 1.3L. replaced by a 1.6 2 door nicked

But my favorite was next black RS Mexico Mk2 5 speed close ratio 'box lowered properly 2L pinto with a few mods to provide 102bhp @ the rear wheels. Awesome! You hadn't lost it until you were looking out the back window! Rear tyres were good for about 5000 miles (no stupid burnouts either)

Mind you could get a new pair for the RRP of a FLY car now!

Unfortunately a guy in a 205 GTI 1.9 tried keeping up with me and stuffed it into the back and wrote it off.

Still got a 1.7 xflow Mk2 which i use for trials.

But the black RS. Have you seen the price of them now!

Ultimate probably would be a Mk1 Twin Cam but my bank manager probably doesn't like me that much!

 

[GBMark]

The boy racer cars of my time were the Fiesta XR2's and Escort XR3's. The occasional RS turbo would go whistling by but the owners were invariably residents of the local Gypsy sites.
I think the first Peugot 205's might have appeared soon after and I also seem to recall the Renault 5 turbo making an appearance.

I owned an XR3i, a lovely metallic blue colour with the obligatory "hockey stick" shaped side stripes. One half of the body would change to a completely different shade after it had been raining, signs of a less than perfect re-spray

Two other cars I have owned fall into the "would like to buy back" category:-

1) Capri 2.0S. Beautiful car, spotless, quick, but had constant problems with the carb.
2) Toyota Celica Supra 2.8i. Stunning, fully loaded, quicker than sh1t off a chrome shovel. all round fabulous looking and performing car.

I would take the Toyota back in an instant

 

[SuperSport]

QUOTE (daleg @ 17 Sep 2004, 09:13)I would like an Anglia 105E, but only to shoehorn the same 2L pinto in or even a Cosworth lump...............sedate on the outside, mental under the bonnet!!!
My Uncle is a member of the 105e club (he owns three of them) so tend to go to a lot of the meets, anyway the fastest (sensible) 105e i've seen has a Lotus Cortina lump in it and it goes like ****e off a shovle as we found out as it went past us doing over a ton on the M1!

 

[Doug]

It's funny how a 'stealth' car was popular a while back. It seems that the pendulum has swung the other way with the boys nowadays making out that the car can go allot faster with stickers, spoilers and wheels with big bass-boosters in the boot, while under the hood nothing changes.

I supped-up a 1600 Beetle and mates of mine did the same to Minis and Toyota Corollas. Turbochargers and all. They were as stealthy as possible so as not to attract too much attention from the plod.

 

[Swissracer]

My time was spent making my Ford Cortina 1600E as sweet as possible.
At the time chrome Rostyles,lowered suspension, vinyl roof and mirrored windows were the thing.
We used to replace the gearbox with one from a Ford Corsair 2000, replace the carbs but I forget with what and have the head skimmed (how low can you go).

There were 4 of us who stuck together for a few years like glue, weekends were spent buying duff Cortinas and stripping the best bits for ours, then either dumping them or reselling them. Problem with 4 guys all helping each other was that every so often everyone thought someone had done a particular job and it ended up not being doen, this resulted in the occasional lost wheel on a roundabout and i nthe worst instance a trip from London to Southend left us with a lost bonnet and two untightened Mcpherson struts popping up to say hello at 80 MPH. FUN!...not.

Pinnacle came with a 3.0l converted Cortina (Capri engine) that lasted just over two weeks before cuddling a tree - heavy right foot etc etc.. It was in perfect mechanical order and the conversion had been done by a professional. Outside it was also in good shape but left primed in grey. Looked like a dog and was perfect for traffic light racing.

Best of the cars I had back then were an original MK1 Ford Consul Cortina with bench seats and column gear change. Bench seats meant you AND a mate could go out with your girls and run out of petrol without arguing who got the back seat

(Bench seats were (are?) not common in the UK, not like in the States anyway.)

Best of the bunch HAD to be a Humber Sceptre 1750. I bought it for 80 Squid and it had only 9,000 miles on the clock (this was in 1980) from new. Lasted along time until stolen and shunted big time.

First ever car was a Triumph Dolomite Sprint in bogey green - hated it within days

But which would I buy back? The Humber BUT NO I don't want a slot version

Do a MKII Lotus Cortina, lowered and race ready, then we might be talking. I have a kit of the MKI Lotus Cortina under the track to do.

 

[alfetta]

Mk1 Cortina GT. I just about beggard myself to buy that 6 mths old and immaculate. I'm ashamed to say it didn't stay like that for very long. At 19 i didn't worry too much, for me it was how it performed not how it looked.
Alfetta

 

[Mo55man]

I was more into motorcycles when I first left school and spent the first 10 years of my driving life riding high powered Honda's. When i turned 25 I decided to learn to drive and after passing my test I bought a cheap Ferrari, well a Fiat 127 actually, but it's the nearest I will come to owning a Ferrari

A bit of a come down I know, not a boy racer car, but I had done all that with my bikes. I used to eat 205 GTi's for breakfast.

M

 

[JEXY1]

Bit like Phil and Aaron

My first car was a £50 Mini 980cc D reg (with the long gear stick that seemed to be designed for rear passenger gear changes) dip switch on the floor, no sync on first, bought when i was 16.

Bought off a widow in Purley who had owned it from new 23K miles on the clock!. After i extracted it from the garage that the husband had built around it (2" wider than the car with a wide side door that you had to open via the sliding window to get out) i spent 6 months "doing it up" and getting an MOT. Driving around my mums office car park to get used to it.

Passed my test on my birthday and used it for two years before some prat of a Volvo driver decided to use my drivers door as a set of buffers!

Loved the car, bought what now appears to be Aarons old car! Lime green Clubman which used more oil than petrol binned it after 6 months!

Looking back i should have bought the mini back off the insurance company and done it up for rallying instead of spending way too much money on the MG.

Ah happy days in the Mini, 5 up in the car, struggling up the long hill on the A23 from Brighton!

Hasn't everyone owned a mini at some time in their life?

Gareth

 

[howmet tx]

Hey- Alfetta- Soul brother!
1963 Cortina 4-door GT. 297 DOY if it's still around anywhere. I can still smell it. And I think I stil have the grease under my fingernails.

 

[daleg]

Gareth, have you seen my cooper????

Will be taking it next time to Tonys, think it might bring 'someone' back down to earth!!

 

[j-c]

I spent the first few years driving company cars as an Advertsing Sales rep in Berkshire.

Then bought a G reg 1350 Triumph Herald with wide tyres and used to tank up and down to the Marquee club every Saturday with 5 of us in it!

Web seat belts and a driving position that meant you were sitting facing 1 o'clock all the time.

Sadly the result of not turning left when the road did meant we parted company and I couldn't even afford the towing bill.

 

[PAULH]

gotta be a ESCORT MK11 HARRIER or RS1800

ermm: still want one now :

 

[Guest]

Lotus Cortina MkII RXE 221F with wider wheels and 185/70/13 tyres and SE cams I thought I was the boy in this car. I can still hear it start up in my mind.

Stolen twice I had to go to London by train to drive back the first time, the second time I got it back from Cardiff. I then fitted a kill switch under the dash. It had door locks you could open with just about anything.

Yes I would love to have another one but a MKI.

Jeff

 

[Guest]

All show and no go?
Have you tried insuring anything at 17 these days? it's rediculous.

Not a car that I personally owned but a friend of mine, a 1986 Series 1 RS Turbo, not because it had good bodywork as it didnt, not because it had a good engine, it didnt have that and neither was it comfortable, but, it had and still has sentimental value. It's a long story and should be left where it is for now.

Baz

 

[Tropi]

Interesting to see Swiss mention Lotus Cortinas.
I had a Mark 2 for a little while, during 1971/2, although the car was older than that of course - I'd guess the car was 1967, though memory is unreliable that far back. Also seem to remember there was a lot of silly chat about the Mark 1s being "Lotus Cortina" but the Mark 2s, technically being named "Cortina Lotus".

What I remember much more clearly is that it was one of the VERY few cars in which I have ever managed to cover more than 90 real miles (93.6) in an hour's actual driving on public roads - a much rarer achievement than just hitting 90 mph on the speedo, that's for sure! The other great satisfaction was driving around Germany in it, where no one had a clue what the car really was, the general population thinking it was some sort of tarted up Ford Taunus. Great satisfaction was to be had in giving smug Mercedes and BMW drivers a decent head start from traffic lights and then effortlessly blasting past them, laughing self silly at their incredulous phizogz in the rear view mirror! Other than that, it was nasty, noisy and uncomfortable and, 35 years on, I'd be perfectly content to be one of the fat Merc or BMW drivers that I so enjoyed traumatising in my mis-spent youth.

 

[a Bill]

Every car I buy is built up better than the last one so I don't really regret getting rid of any of the old ones. I started out running 5.7L engines and have recently downsized to a 4.6L engine but I think I can get over 400 hp out of it like I'm used to so I think it'll all work out fine.

Suspension, engine and braking has improved tremendously over the years. Today I can have a car that corners, brakes and runs well without a buck board ride, preheating the brakes and 5 mpg.

No, I really don't regret getting rid of any of my old cars. Besides, I could never get them back anyway. I always gut my old car then have it crushed. When I'm done with a car, it's done

 

[compound_goose]

i havent had a car, im not old enough so dunno why im here but you talk about 105bhp in an escort or salloon well i found an american site where the build engines for the mini cooper (classic) with a supercharger - they reckon the whole engine is putting out 140bhp+ now id love one of them

in a car that small.... which compared to a stock of 72bhp max (1.3i)