Cheap, reliable runaround car or future classic

pinno

eric draven wrote:

A guy who I worked with about 10 years ago had a V70 T5R 250bhp? that was bloody quick for a big estate car,there was a programme on Quest a couple of years back called Engine Addict,and they squeezed 700bhp+ out of this engine.

Kin 'ell. :roll:

eric_draven

Pinno wrote:

eric draven wrote:

A guy who I worked with about 10 years ago had a V70 T5R 250bhp? that was bloody quick for a big estate car,there was a programme on Quest a couple of years back called Engine Addict,and they squeezed 700bhp+ out of this engine.

Kin 'ell. :roll:

I have been trying to find it on YouTube to put a link up,but with no luck,they did do a lot of work to it,massively beefed up con rods,pressed bars down the water ways between the cylinder sleeve and the outer block to strengthen the piston barrel,and they put on a huge turbo,when the engine was complete they placed it in a 4x4 that they drive up quarry sides in Scandinavia,the guy who built the 4x4's reckoned it would not have enough power and torque to do it like the big V8's they use,but it did it's job it was built for

lesfirth

Veronese68 wrote:

Pinno wrote:

Yes but MG's are sh1t.

I really can't argue with that.

I can .I was around at the time.They were a 2 seat Austin Cambridge.
You always knew when you were in a Classic British Sports car. The smell of rotting carpets was overwhelming.

pinno

eric draven wrote:

Pinno wrote:

eric draven wrote:

A guy who I worked with about 10 years ago had a V70 T5R 250bhp? that was bloody quick for a big estate car,there was a programme on Quest a couple of years back called Engine Addict,and they squeezed 700bhp+ out of this engine.

Kin 'ell. :roll:

I have been trying to find it on YouTube to put a link up,but with no luck,they did do a lot of work to it,massively beefed up con rods,pressed bars down the water ways between the cylinder sleeve and the outer block to strengthen the piston barrel,and they put on a huge turbo,when the engine was complete they placed it in a 4x4 that they drive up quarry sides in Scandinavia,the guy who built the 4x4's reckoned it would not have enough power and torque to do it like the big V8's they use,but it did it's job it was built for

This?!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtSGK_9bnMM

Wet liner engine block?

Damn tricky those Renault engine's, especially the cooling system. Did a head on a Renault 5 once, never again.
Did a starter motor on one of those and dropped a damn carburettor nut down the manifold during re-assembly. Never again. Did a clutch cable on a Renault 11 Savannah 1.7l (quick as anything). Never again.

crumbschief

Pinno wrote:

eric draven wrote:

Pinno wrote:

eric draven wrote:

A guy who I worked with about 10 years ago had a V70 T5R 250bhp? that was bloody quick for a big estate car,there was a programme on Quest a couple of years back called Engine Addict,and they squeezed 700bhp+ out of this engine.

Kin 'ell. :roll:

I have been trying to find it on YouTube to put a link up,but with no luck,they did do a lot of work to it,massively beefed up con rods,pressed bars down the water ways between the cylinder sleeve and the outer block to strengthen the piston barrel,and they put on a huge turbo,when the engine was complete they placed it in a 4x4 that they drive up quarry sides in Scandinavia,the guy who built the 4x4's reckoned it would not have enough power and torque to do it like the big V8's they use,but it did it's job it was built for

This?!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtSGK_9bnMM

Wet liner engine block?

Damn tricky those Renault engine's, especially the cooling system. Did a head on a Renault 5 once, never again.
Did a starter motor on one of those and dropped a damn carburettor nut down the manifold during re-assembly. Never again. Did a clutch cable on a Renault 11 Savannah 1.7l (quick as anything). Never again.

Haha never say never Pinno,btw i am also a fan of the V70 T5,never drove one but would like to see and try one and maybe lower it further.

pinno

That one in the pic above has been lowered. Couldn't imagine you in a Volvo CC.

crumbschief

Pinno wrote:

That one in the pic above has been lowered. Couldn't imagine you in a Volvo CC.

True,i find there is something interesting about that one though,If i had a lot of money i might have some fun with a few other makes,a fun way to pass the time for a bit.

pinno

crumbschief wrote:

Pinno wrote:

That one in the pic above has been lowered. Couldn't imagine you in a Volvo CC.

True,i find there is something interesting about that one though,If i had a lot of money i might have some fun with a few other makes,a fun way to pass the time for a bit.

Yeah - the very thing:



[Robin Reliant Kitten]

darkhairedlord

Pinno wrote:

eric draven wrote:

Pinno wrote:

eric draven wrote:

A guy who I worked with about 10 years ago had a V70 T5R 250bhp? that was bloody quick for a big estate car,there was a programme on Quest a couple of years back called Engine Addict,and they squeezed 700bhp+ out of this engine.

Kin 'ell. :roll:

I have been trying to find it on YouTube to put a link up,but with no luck,they did do a lot of work to it,massively beefed up con rods,pressed bars down the water ways between the cylinder sleeve and the outer block to strengthen the piston barrel,and they put on a huge turbo,when the engine was complete they placed it in a 4x4 that they drive up quarry sides in Scandinavia,the guy who built the 4x4's reckoned it would not have enough power and torque to do it like the big V8's they use,but it did it's job it was built for

This?!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtSGK_9bnMM

Wet liner engine block?

Damn tricky those Renault engine's, especially the cooling system. Did a head on a Renault 5 once, never again.
Did a starter motor on one of those and dropped a damn carburettor nut down the manifold during re-assembly. Never again. Did a clutch cable on a Renault 11 Savannah 1.7l (quick as anything). Never again.

My sister had Renault 5. Timing chain went, so we cut a hole in the bulkhead, changed the chain, welded it back up. Truly horrible, worse than the allegro she replaced it with.

darkhairedlord

Here you go.
A lot of people name the kids after cars, lucky they weren't knocked up in the back of a wartburg

crumbschief

Pinno wrote:

crumbschief wrote:

Pinno wrote:

That one in the pic above has been lowered. Couldn't imagine you in a Volvo CC.

True,i find there is something interesting about that one though,If i had a lot of money i might have some fun with a few other makes,a fun way to pass the time for a bit.

Yeah - the very thing:



[Robin Reliant Kitten]

Cheers,kitten,i think about one of these now an then and in that colour too.

pinno

darkhairedlord wrote:

Truly horrible, worse than the allegro she replaced it with.

No way.

Allagro's remind me of those lovely, well built, elegant British Leyland incarnations. Things of beauty, things to behold, like:

The Austin Princess:

pinno

Meanwhile, out of Ze fazerland at the same time as that ^ came this:



Okay I know the price tag makes it incomparable but still.

Fiat Super mirafiori anyone?:



Rare as hen's teeth. That is a replica. There's a lot of that about. Seems to be a growing trend and some of them look really good.

mouth

I must admit, I've always loved a fast Ford, given an unlimited budget I think I'd be looking for something Sierra with Cosworth power. Sadly, they're upwards of £50k these days.

I've driven a 270bhp V70 T5, and while it was bloody quick - really took me by surprise - I was rather uninspired.

darkhairedlord

Mouth wrote:

I must admit, I've always loved a fast Ford, given an unlimited budget I think I'd be looking for something Sierra with Cosworth power. Sadly, they're upwards of £50k these days.

I've driven a 270bhp V70 T5, and while it was bloody quick - really took me by surprise - I was rather uninspired.

As a lad I used to work at long man's where they did a lot of the development on the escorts Rs turbo, specifically the modification for rally and touring car racing with close to 300bhp. We had a fresh from factory car heavily Modded and used on the Rolling road. It still had the shipping notes in the window and Ford used to send customers to us for demonstrations, even though the car had never been registered. Anyway, long story short, I was the youngest so it was down to me to get the fish and chips on Fridays. 19yrs old, choice of wheels from the car park, metro turbo, 205 gti, rs 1600i, mini moke...... Ah rs turbo, what could possibly go wrong.
About 10 mins after getting the fish and chips we had a visit from the police who were unable to identify the car as it flew up the road, I had forgotten to put the trade plates on, it was unregistered and the tyres were nearly shredded. Fortunately the works insurance covered me for racing on the public highway and my boss put it down to some kind of rite of passage. So, for me, rs turbo.

pinno

Good Jackanory that.

Mate had an accident in his Mini pick up. Well, I was in the passenger seat and the brakes failed going down a hill and crossed the busy King's drive road (Eastbourne) without any collision and down this rough dirt track with driver pumping the brake pedal like crazy and me in the passenger seat in a fit of giggles... until, we neared the fence at the railway track.
I knew what he was thinking - between the concrete posts but he 'missed' and smashed the front o/s wing and headlight into the concrete upright supporting the fencing. I was still laughing as he chased me around the car telling me it wasn't funny.
Before King's drive down the hill was sheer fear and after crossing the road, sheer relief.

The background to this was that the owner of said mini was areal tight wad. Paid pittance for the pick up to drive to work but owned a SAAB Turbo and an RS MK3 Escort (kitchen maker, only 1 down from plasterers). He split the cost of the mini with his mate who worked with him. He didn't want to drive his prized possessions to work.
This was Friday and he didn't want his mate to know he crashed the mini or the circumstances.
My friend stitched a new wing on it and did some welding as well as fixing the brakes on the Saturday and I sprayed the wing on the Sunday - as if a new wing wouldn't be glaringly obvious and as if he didn't have the cash to fix the brakes well before they failed and if he knew what he was doing, he would have switched the engine off in gear at the time the brakes failed.

Anyway, he asks me to come with him to pick up the mini in the Escort on the Saturday. I refused to drive the mini and took the Escort.

He was chatting at my friend's Dad's garage and I decided to go ahead of him. There was I in this smooth and reasonably fast car for the time, listening to the stereo loudly (Ofra Haza - always reminds me of the mini incident) was playing. I looked at the Speedo and suddenly realised that I was doing 70 which was equivalent to doing 30 in my mini van, if you see what I mean. I panicked as a) I was approaching this roundabout on Lottbridge Drove and b) I was in a 30 limit and locked the brakes up leaving rubber for 25 feet right up to the high kerb on the roundabout.
I got out of the car a bit red faced to look and was luckily a couple of feet off the roundabout.

Some 3 or 4 days later, on his way to pay my friends for the weekend job, he saw the rubber on the road and said "Look at that - I wonder what tw@t did that".

I sat there shaking my head in agreement pretending to know nothing.

It wasnae me.

darkhairedlord

I had a 67 mini that all the brake shoe adjusters had seized or sheared. Three or four pumps in advance of every brake application taught me to think ahead. Never had a car accident in 33yrs of driving; I put it down to anticipating the round ahead always expecting someone doing something stupid, and remembering the "only a fool breaks the two second rule"

pblakeney

Back on subject...
Soon anything with decent performance since cars as we know them will no longer be for sale.

Wheelspinner

Mouth wrote:

twist83 wrote:

Bikes`n`guns wrote:

Anyhoo.

BMW E46 330ci is a future classic and an awsome daily driver. Cost me 3.5k with 50k on the clock and a full history.

Mines is an auto and I always manage 30+mpg, up to 36 on a longer run.

E46 M3

E46's will always be classic, no matter what running gear is underneath. Two colleagues of mine (in a relationship with each other) both had one at the same time, his a 330ci cab, hers some monster diesel hard top, and both regret selling. The M3 is one of my favourite cars of all time, but I just can't justify the running costs. In terms of stuff like fuel economy, going for a 'spirited' drive will return single mpg figures, and even a independent BMW specialist will ask you for upwards of £600 for an Inspection 2. The dream is a yellow cabriolet with black roof.

The 330ci is probably the best compromise, but I'm currently contemplating a 530d.

I had an E46 330ci convertible, gorgeous thing. When I picked it up, the dealer had on display his new personal car, an E46 M3 convertible, in full Individual trim. 'Brass" paintwork (my favourite colour, and had an E39 sedan in that, also Individual trim), but the interior was the full pimp Parchment leather with black piping and the birch timber trim. Black roof.

Just. Effing. Gorgeous.

Now have an E61 530i (wagon) and although it's "nice"... it's my least favourite of the lot. That 2003 E39 M Sport was the best, one of the very last ones delivered to this country because it was an Individual and the new model E60 had been on sale for a few months before that one was even delivered. Wish I'd kept it.

pinno

PBlakeney wrote:

Back on subject...

Why?

mouth

PBlakeney wrote:

Back on subject...
Soon anything with decent performance since cars as we know them will no longer be for sale.

Which is almost a good thing, given how 'sanitised' the roads are becoming. I've had my license just shy of 20 years, and driving is far less fun than it was when I used to rip my first car (a mk2 Astra Belmont - I thought it was a 1.3, my Dad says 1.6 - imagine a spotty youth getting insurance cover for such a magnificent weapon now) around. Admittedly mind set possibly comes into this (as a bus driver by trade, I'm much more cautious with protecting my license in mind), but I don't really remember the last time I went for a drive, 'for fun'. Many of my colleagues find their driving passion in two wheels these days.

pblakeney

Pinno wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

Back on subject...

Why?

Volvos were always boring.
Even ones with big engines.

pinno

PBlakeney wrote:

Pinno wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

Back on subject...

Why?

Volvos were always boring.
Even ones with big engines.

Fair enough. Let's just have blanket ban on Volvo talk.

Quiet roads up here. I sometimes have a drive for 'fun' but as far as putting the foot down, nah - prefer to have a comfortable cruise (sometimes with a bod in the passenger seat finding the rattles. I hate rattles).

pblakeney

PBlakeney wrote:

Volvos were always boring.
Even ones with big engines.

Edit - Exception. P1800. Got me back on to Volvos. Dammit!
Driving for fun. Can be done perfectly well, and safe on quiet country roads in 2nd & 3rd gear. Ratios dependent.

Wheelspinner

Why does "driving for fun" have to equate to lunatic speed? :?

Today, on a fabulously sunny spring Sunday, we went for a drive down a spectacularly beautiful coast road, in a convertible, roof down, tunes up and sunnies firmly fixed in place.... at between 30 and 40 mph max. It's a winding road around cliffs, over water, past gorgeous views.. why hurry? There was a fair bit of traffic on the road, all doing the same, but who cares?

pinno

Wheelspinner wrote:

Why does "driving for fun" have to equate to lunatic speed? :?

Today, on a fabulously sunny spring Sunday, we went for a drive down a spectacularly beautiful coast road, in a convertible, roof down, tunes up and sunnies firmly fixed in place.... at between 30 and 40 mph max. It's a winding road around cliffs, over water, past gorgeous views.. why hurry? There was a fair bit of traffic on the road, all doing the same, but who cares?

Because the presumption is that the combination of youth. speed and sillyness in recollection, was 'fun'.

pblakeney

Wheelspinner wrote:

Why does "driving for fun" have to equate to lunatic speed? :?

I had a debate with a colleague who's neighbour had a Boxster S. He couldn't see why anyone would want such a car as you would never be able to go flat out in top gear.
Completely missing the point.

mouth

There can't be many new cars available in the UK which don't have a top speed capable of breaking every prescribed limit on our roads. The difference is you're more likely to get caught these days. I've never really been a speed demon, to the point that in my early 20's while my mates were killing their Saxo or Punto I was beating them from the lights in the leather luxury of a big Rover saloon. It's more about being involved for me these days. A perfect drive for me would be something like the Stelvio pass in a manual rwd 2 seater - capable of ripping your arms from your sockets or getting well into 3 figures on an autobahn all the same.

Tracks are for speed.

pinno

Super Jackanory. Some names have been changed but not all

My mate 'Ben' takes his cars all the way to Scotland to get sprayed. He has 2 Renault 5 Gordini turbo's, 1 Renault 5 Turbo, a Lotus Sunbeam and Gartrac Escort Mk3. Painting cars in the SE is very very pricey as some of you may know.
Recently, on a visit to his sprayer, a stock of ex Rally Art parts - everything bar the shells was revealed to him. Sold to his sprayer by the man who sold Rally Art to Mitsubishi. Let's call him 'Ralph'.
After selling the Rally Art logo and business, Ralph then enjoyed a number of years in a high position at Rally Art as part of the Mitsubishi works Rally department based in Essex. He's 89 now.
Ralph sold all the bits to 'John' the sprayer (who has his own collection of classics) and not just any old bits - all marked for Pentti Airikkala. The stock includes 2 x 2000 works Turbo engines worth £38,000 in 1982.
All these parts were supposed to be crushed but the only thing crushed were shells with the external fittings including glass, doors boot and bonnet and also the headlights to make the crushed vehicles look as complete as possible before they were crushed - if you see what I mean. Ralph couldn't bring himself to bin all these ex-works parts. There is enough parts to build 3 works Lancer's (bar 1 engine). At the end of '82 there were 2 complete Lancer's. Ralph has one of them and the other went abroad, location unknown. It was never used as it was a spare and was never registered for UK road use.
Ben was offered all the parts for silly money and he accepted the offer. The potential now is to build at least 1 works replica that would be as close to the real thing as you could get. The downside is finding a Lancer shell...

There's a bit more to the story as there is a guy in Warwickshire with 2 full works prepared shells but 'hasn't got the cash' for the parts plus an engine but a deal might be struck except... Ralph has the log books for 2 Works Lancer's. Ralph owns a log book for his. The guy in Warwickshire does not want to part with a shell if he doesn't get the spare logbook (which can be matched to the parts - you do not need a corresponding chassis to register a car if all the major transmission parts match). So a slight dilemma as Ben wants a log book. Ralph is willing to part with the spare log book for a reasonable sum.

It requires finding a Lancer shell.

Watch this space.

pinno

Another detailing job.

...and a very, very happy customer. No machines were used in the making of this detail. In fact, it was previously machine polished and despite that, there were a lot of missed bits. You could feel it under the clay bar. After all, the clay bar if done properly, covers every square millimetre of the paintwork.













BTW - any apparent imperfections are due to the camera lens and reflections.