Wow, just stumbled across this section. I wondered what you fellow car nuts all drove. A mixed bunch to say the least; some great, some ....err... Each to their own hey...
Here's my motoring career to date. In three decades of driving, here are some of the cars that I have owned and used, loved, loathed, regretted and occassionally been glad to see the back of, or wish I'd never sold, in rough purchase order;
1963 Fiat 500 D My first ever car, bought for me by my parents as a joint Christmas/Birthday present when I was a car-crazed 12 year old - that's what you get for being born on Christmas Day like me!. It was very old and cost them £5, and I wrote it off by hitting my mother's beloved apple tree in the back garden!
1968 Honda S800 Coupe My first real car for the road, in which I passed my driving test at 17. When I passed, I also bought an S800 Roadster, which I scraped, due to rust, along with the Coupe . Ouch
1972 Honda Z Coupe These were such fun, and cheap to run as a poor 18-year old student, that I ended up having three of them. They all rotted away, naturally.
1977 Renault 5 TS and 1979 Renault 5 Gordini Rolled like a 2CV; went like rockets!
1981 Peugeot 104 ZS Coupe Very rare in England, and very underated. A Mini Cooper S with Pininfarina design; perfect
1981 Fiat X1/9 1500 Nice car, but got sick of being called a hair dresser(!), so I stupidly bought its big brother, a...
1980 Lancia Beta Monte Carlo great to look at, hell to live with and drive, then a
VW-Porsche 914, which was worse, but at least confirmed my general dislike for boring German cars!!
1957 Citroen 2CV Fun, fun, fun, but it got stolen, never to be seen again
1983 Innocenti De Tomaso Especial One of the very last built with Mini running gear before the Daihatsu switch, The only one in England at the time; imported from Italy, converted to RHD, and rusted to almost nothing within 18 months. If you know of one for sale today, please let me know 'cause I'd love another one (and I am being serious - they've even now disappeared in Italy)
1977 Citroen Mehari Amazing, with some of the funniest journeys I have ever had; always being stopped by the police thinking I must have been a tree-hugging lefty up to no good because I drove a car with no windscreen, which I am most definately not!!
1972 NSU Ro80 With a Ford V4 installed - yuk! But oh, that styling, and ohhh, that depressingly functional Bauhaus interior that made listening to Stockhausen seem like fun
1973 Fiat 130 Coupe Oh dear, the start of my costly Pininfarina coupe phase; beautiful to look at; but a bitch to own
1972 Peugeot 504 Cabriolet I really wanted the Coupe body, but very rare here and couldn't find one. Sort of like the 130 to own, but duller to drive, and just as rusty
1982 Lancia Gamma Coupe Okay, I had it bad, but I could not afford a Ferrari 400i or Rolls-Royce Camargue, especially after owning this pile of dung. Handled like a hovercraft, and broke down with alarming regularity, but could forgive it anything with those stunning looks
1971 Alfa Romeo Junior Zagato 1300 Came to my senses at last, sold all the Pininfarina 2-door barges and bought one of my dream cars which I then owned for 16 years. Astonishingly lovely, and the car I most regret selling to this day, which is way I'm on the hunt for another one (if an Alfa SZ doesn't get me first)
1972 Matra M530 LX Whilst I was searching for a Rene Bonnet or Matra Djet, I came across this and bought it like a fool. It was like driving a Renault 16 with sporty handling, and after all those stunning Pinin coupes, I had to redress the balance with an ugly car, and the M530 more than made up for that
1965 Panhard 24 CT A genuine RHD UK market example, which was rare even when new as the Panhard cost more than a Jaguar E-Type in England in 1964. Just a fantastic car, but sold it to fulfill my quest for a Djet.
1971 Alpine A110 This was my poor substitute for a Djet, as I knew the Matra was a better car but seemingly impossible to find before the days of the internet. (it took me 5 years to find mine) A nice car, but not good enough to now be worth the crazy money that they fetch today. Of course, when I had mine, they were still cheap, and I sold it for less than I paid for it. I now weep at the thought of what it would be worth today, but I still believe that cars should be enjoyed, not bought as investments to sit in heated garages and never used.
1981 Matra Murena This replaced the Innocenti as my everyday car, and could not have been better, despite that noisy old Chrysler engine. As with so many of my cars, this was LHD and never sold in the UK, so it always drew a crowd of perplexed admirers where ever it went.
1965 Matra Bonnet Djet Dream came true, and I finally found a Djet in Lyon, which I bought back to England, making this only the second example in the UK. There are now five here, two of which by spooky coincidance are based at Goodwood where I work! What are the chances of that hey? I've now had mine for 18 years, and I guess it will be with me forever (or unless I can't raise enough cash for an Alfa 33 Stradale and have to sell it, but I'll probly sell my spare kidney before that!)
After this I had a string of new company-owned cars, including a
Fiat Panda 4x4 (great),
Fiat Uno Turbo (too fast for its own good), and then over
50 Saabs, including 11 9-3 Viggens in a row, as I was the Saab product planning and PR manager for 15 years; a great place to work until GM screwed the life out of it, although Saab will now hopefully be restored again to its former glory as that it is finally out of GM's fumbling grip with clueless bean counters calling the shots that wouldn't know a good car if it ran them over.
1963 Citroen Ami 6 So ugly, it was beautiful, and made everyone smile, or feel sick!
1976 Acoma Super Comtesse A 49cc horror, with steering inferior to the Titanic's. Mad but fun, and very smelly
1979 Arola 14 I'd always wanted a car with perspex doors, as you do, so the Arola was a natural fit. Vastly superior to the Acoma, in case you've ever wondered!
1958 Citroen Type H Van Sublime, handles like a Mini Cooper in very slow motion, and scares my neighbours into believing that its very presence outside my garage is devaluing their house by the hour! I hope it is, so that I can buy another garage to keep some more cars in (afterall, a Chapron Delage needs a lot of space - in my dreams!)
1951 Bristol 401 My first ever British car, and one of the finest too. Anyone that used to read L J K Setright's challenging column in CAR magazine will know of his love of Bristols. Reading his stuff as a kid, I used to think that anyone that enthused over Panhards and Citroen CXs must have known what he was talking about, and having now driven many Bristols, I can really appreciate why he rated them so highly. They are just fabulous, and I recommend that every home should have at least one. I still own the 401, and get's better every time I drive it. The only down side is that I sold the Alfa Junior Z to buy it. If only I could have had them both, but that's just being greedy (and beyond my megre budget too)
1972 Bristol 411 Series 3 Oh, heaven. The best steering of any car I've ever driven (and that includes a Citroen SM, which is saying something!) and my first ever V8, which sounds magical, but drinks petrol not just for Britain, but for the entire Commonwealth! Sadly, the 411s huge thirst was the reason I had to sell it recently, as even a trip to the local pub was costing me two week's salary in fuel alone! Still a great machine though, and sorely missed. I'll have another one one day I hope
1988 Reliant Scimitar SS1 Ok, I know, but hey, it was cheap, and has a better chassis than a Mazda MX-5 Miata , making it ideal as an inexpensive but fun track day car, as long as you don't look at it. Poor old Michelotti must have died in shame!
2004 Smart Roadster Coupe After many years of driving company-funded cars, I had to buy a real car for every day use when I left Saab and moved to Goodwood. Living around 100 miles (160 k/ms) from the Circuit, frugal running costs were key, and the Smart fits the bill perfectly. Having now had it for 3 years and 90,000 k/ms, I can't believe how good and what fun it is. The fact that it was designed by my friend Michael Mauer is a bonus (I worked with him at Saab), and it has the key in the proper place (the middle) just like a Saab too. I also now have use of a new BMW 5-Series Touring, which I hate with a passion. Why so many people buy modern BMWs when they are such average/poorly concieved/ugly cars is a mystery to me; just goes to show what clever marketing and the 'power of the brand' can do. I'll just keep wearing that paper bag on my head when I drive it in case a real car enthusiast recognises me, as 99.9% of current BMWs in Britain seem to be driven by complete idiots that you would not want to meet at a party, second only to Volvo drivers, who are mostly beyond help (and this from a guy that owns a Scimitar SS1 and Arola 14, so what do I know?!!
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