by Faustus » 19 Aug 2011, 20:32
In chronological order:
199? Fiat Panda 4x4 right-hand drive(can't remember the registration and can't remember how old it was, but it was old)
Owned from late 1997 to late 1999
Originally it was a nasty shade of grey, but I re-painted it white, so it was affectionately known as 'The Fridge'.
Awesome car, 1 litre engine, got it for free in Brighton when I was living there during the 1st year of my degree. Drove it back to Portugal with 2 mates and on the way pretty much every conceivable problem that we could think of. Took us 4 days to do the journey and had brake failure, broken water pump, 2 blown tyres (each at a different time), a faulty spark plug and a few other things. I prepared it to Group N13 rules for rallying but the car remained road-legal. It did 3 rallies in the Portuguese Junior rally championship (Iniciados) and won its class twice, driven by my friend who raced (badly) in the Portuguese Citroen Saxo Challenge (I race engineered him). He was a crap driver, but there were only 2 cars in the class and the other one (a Seat Marbella two-wheel drive) was even more of a wreck than my car. I did the most basic conversion that I could, so I stripped out the interior, welded a rollcage in, reinforced a few areas, changed the springs and dampers, fitted a fire extinguisher and racing seats and left the engine untouched. Ran flawlessly (albeit slowly) in the first 2 rallies it was entered, even though the co-driver was the driver's cousin, who had never done a rally in his life. We did lots of illegal recces (the route of the rallies didn't use to change much) and we sort of taught ourselves how to write pace notes. The car was always as well-prepared as we could and spotlessly clean. Oh, the conversion was paid for by the driver and the co-driver. Unfortunately my friend managed to roll it down a hillside in the 3rd rally and that was the end of the car.
1984 Renault 5 something-or-other lef-hand drive
Owned from mid 1999 to late 2000
Yellow, with French registration. Owned by my 4 flatmates and I during the last year of my engineering degree. We bought it in France for next to nothing, with 3 days left on the French road tax and MOT. Brought it to the UK and used it every day as the vehicle of choice for commuting to university and back. It was an absolute wreck of a a car but it just wouldn't die. All 5 of us were engineering students so we did what we could on the car, but with the agreement that we wouldn't spend any money on parts. We used to park the car just about anywhere we wanted, especially single and double-yellow lines (no parking zones for those not in/from the UK) and got away with it every time, because there was no way to trace the car back to a UK address. The car was insured in Belgium because one of my housemates was half-Belgian and had family in Belgium and the car was in his name. As long as there were no wheel clamping in the areas that we parked in normally, it was all fair game. Obviously we never obstructed corners or designated parking areas or stuff like that, but anything else was fine. That car run up thousands of pounds in parking fines. Also, speed cameras were never an issue either, in fact, we had a rule that everyone in the car had to waive to the speed camera when we drove past one. Again, obviously not in a stupid way, so no driving at 50 mph in a 30 zone or anything ridiculous like that.
That car passed away, because it was just too knackered.
Citroen ZX 1.1 black left-hand drive
Owned from late 2001 to late 2005
This was my mother's car for a couple of years, but then she bought a new Seat Ibiza and was offered nothing (literally nothing, 0, zero, bugger all) for this as a part-exchange. She let me have it and my flatmate and I drove it from Portugal to the UK. It was black and once when I was living in Milton Keynes and walked back from the town centre to our flat (Campbell Park, just behind the ski dome, for anyone who knows it), somewhat worse for wear (tired and emotional), I caught a glimpse of it in the car park outside the flat and thought 'that car looks just like the Batmobile'. Hey, I was drunk. (For all those under the legal drinking age for your respective countries, drinking is not cool) So from that day on, that car was known as the Batmobile. I drove a left-hand drive car in the UK for years with no problems.
This car went all over the UK and to France, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Spain when I was racing in GTs and sportscars. It was driven, among others, by Romain Dumas, Stephane Daoudi, Adam Jones, Michael Vergers and Michael Mallock. It did 3 full laps of the full Rockingham oval once.
Great car, loads of room inside, very comfortable, tiny engine with superb fuel consumption. By the time it died from catastrophic electrical problems, the car had acquired panels in red and purple, due to some unfortunate incidents.
Peugeot 106 1.1 dark blue
Owned from early 2004 to April 2011
This was my fiancee's car, so we both used it. Same engine as the ZX, great fuel consumption, cheap to run and easy to work on. Not much to say about it, it failed its MOT drastically and needed new brake discs and pads, a new exhaust and a new cam belt. No point buying bits and spending money on a car that is worth next to nothing, so I scrapped it.
Vauxhall Vectra SRi 2.0 1999 silver
Owned from May 2011 to present
A mechanic friend of mine knew the car and had worked on it. It was owned by his neighbour whowas trying to get rid of it. I bought it for £150, with one month of MOT and 1 month tax left on it. The car looked clean and tidy and I was pleasantly surprised when it passed the MOT with no problems, just a recommendation for 2 new front tyres. I changed the cam belt on it because I had no idea when it was last done. The car has done 157000 miles.
It has air-conditioning, ABS, traction control (seriously) and drives fine. The engine is not as bad on fuel as I thought, for a 2.0 litre engine. No complaints whatsoever about the car and if dies in 6 months it will still have been a great deal.
Last edited by
Faustus on 24 Aug 2011, 05:15, edited 4 times in total.
Following Formula 1 since 1984.
Avid collector of Formula 1 season guides and reviews.
Collector of reject merchandise.
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. Full Peco exhaust system with de-cat. K&N induction kit. Cobreau bucket seats with 4-point harness on both. Excellent car, unfortunately it got written off through no fault of my own. 
I obviously won't drive it straight away after getting my license but I'll certainly be glad to keep it. It's in metallic 2-tone gray, with AMG rims and adjustable sport suspension.
but I'll probably drive anything else (the car it'll be is a guess) before beginning to drive that one. And I won't use it that much either since it does 17,63l/100km on road (dunno how many mpg are that) and, being so long, it's a pain in the ass to park. I'll namely use it to date my future girlfriend 
