What was your 1st car & what is your fave of those you had.

[Tsavo]

I am not going to bore you with my list of cars as I am new here and you may not give a toss.
So......my first car was a Nova Sr, white with brown and yellow recaros (great colour choice there )
My car at present is a Volvo V40 2.0 turbo sport, and this I can safely say is my favourite car, love it!

[oman5]

Is this thread still running? My first motor was a morris Ital 1.3.. about all I could afford to insure at 17 seeing as I didnt want a mini. Yes, it was crap at handling but it was mega reliable and did 40 mpg.

favourite car was a '92 Granada scorpio 24v- the one with the cosworth "developed" engine. This was the only car I paid serious money for, I used to actually polish it and feed the leather seats. It was a seriously fast car, and it would actually kick down at 120 mph and take off again.it was immaculate and only got sold when the kids started arriving and I couldnt handle an average of 21 mpg any more. I wish I could have kept it.

[dodgyken]

Here goes:

1) Peugoet 306 1.6XR - Brilliant chassis
2) Vauxhall Vectra 2.5 SRi - First introduction to 6-cylinders
3) Ford Focus 1.8 LX - Company car. Great chassis - lift-off oversteer on demand - brillinat fun.
4) Ford Focus LX TDCi - Company car
5) BMW Z3 2.2 - Straight 6 engine - slightly soggy chassis - but still a great drive.
6) Volvo S80 2.4 (company car) - sooo comfortable, awesome stereo.
7) Volvo 240 GLT 2.3 - hhhhmmmmmm lots of torque, just brilliant. Then the head gasket went
8) Volvo 740 2.0GL - Supremely reliable 26,000 miles in 18 months, without a problem. Excellent
9) Volvo V70 T5 Phase 1 - love the power, hate the FWD. Warped the brakes after 1 particular enthusiastic run
10) BMW Z4 3.0 - loved it. Looked great, superb engine, good handling, good sized boot. Rubbish ride.
11) Mercedes W124 E280 - effortless cruising, unbelievably compfortable, great loadspace. Stupid sloping rear screen
12) Alpina B2.5 - screamer of engine, LSD. Rust and the ability to let go at 120mph on track
13) Volvo 760 GLE - lovely engine - lovely engine note - comfort. Not allowed in Switzerland and doesn't tow 2000KG
14) Volvo V70 D5 - plenty of power and torque after tweaking. Great seats and ergonmics. Economy not great, and too heavy.

If I had a choice I would go back to having the Merc, the Z4 and the Alpina. Now I have the Volvo and a smashed Alpina waiting to be repaired

[Clan]

My first car was one i had wanted since i was 12 it was a signal red Sunbeam Imp Sport and was lucky to have a loan from mum to buy one when i saw it in a local used car showroom just after i passed my test .
I still have it , have driven 300,000 miles in it and done lots of modifications ,I first turbocharged it's 998cc engine in 1983 , i made my own manifolds which took me 3 months alone . but the results then were phenomenal . although the smallest turbo chargers at the time were for a 1300 cc engine ( IHI RHB5) it started producing boost from 3500 rpm and went all the way to 8000 and beyond if you were brave producing about 170 bhp , over 4 times the power of the standard IMP .
The sunbeam Imp was racing in the British Touring Car championship at the time and won the championship outright in 1970 , 1971 and 1972 , reputedly putting out 135 bhp from it's Naturaly aspirated 998cc engine , which cant be too far from reality as it was clocked at 135 mph down hanger straight at silverstone in the races . I had great fun driving my Imp around for decades , it has been off the road the last couple of years as i'm freshening up everything ready for another long innings with this time a T6 turbocharger :-)
I still get a smile when i go out and sit in it , much like steve on here with his Mist blue 244 will in 20 years time ..

[Laney760]

Originally Posted by Clan

My first car was one i had wanted since i was 12 it was a signal red Sunbeam Imp Sport and was lucky to have a loan from mum to buy one when i saw it in a local used car showroom just after i passed my test .
I still have it , have driven 300,000 miles in it and done lots of modifications ,I first turbocharged it's 998cc engine in 1983 , i made my own manifolds which took me 3 months alone . but the results then were phenomenal . although the smallest turbo chargers at the time were for a 1300 cc engine ( IHI RHB5) it started producing boost from 3500 rpm and went all the way to 8000 and beyond if you were brave producing about 170 bhp , over 4 times the power of the standard IMP .
The sunbeam Imp was racing in the British Touring Car championship at the time and won the championship outright in 1970 , 1971 and 1972 , reputedly putting out 135 bhp from it's Naturaly aspirated 998cc engine , which cant be too far from reality as it was clocked at 135 mph down hanger straight at silverstone in the races . I had great fun driving my Imp around for decades , it has been off the road the last couple of years as i'm freshening up everything ready for another long innings with this time a T6 turbocharger :-)
I still get a smile when i go out and sit in it , much like steve on here with his Mist blue 244 will in 20 years time ..

How wonderful to still have your first car. You may have seen my first car too was a Hillman Imp, still have a photo of it, a white one. My Dad taught me to drive in it, oh the shouting that he did!........

[Clan]

I feel sorry for most younger people today There are few who actualy know which car they want or stick with any particular one because the mass market cars are all the same . No individuality , they all look the same , have identical engines what ever the make , and smell the same and all interbreed identical features . You open the bonnet and they look like a washing machine , so hard to choose your individual characteristics and stick with them , At least we have found a common goal here, ...Volvos .
Yes the Imp was "a great car to learn motor racing in" Ayrton Senna said .
I have posted a picture of mine , and parked outside it's suppling dealer in Bournemouth in the 1970's where i used to make a yearly pilgrimage for tuning parts , and George Bevan in his triple championship winning car ..

Lets see your white Imp ..

[Laney760]

Having trouble uploading it, scanned it, comes up as a bmp image, when I try to upload it getting 'IE cannot display the web page' but I am connected to IE, will try again later

[Laney760]

Surprised, old snapshot from an instamatic type camera, too many pixels, had to use free web software to resize, mine not working.. Mine looks like a pretty basic model! Yes, I agree about today's cars, at the meet I went to I felt that I had the most interesting engine apart from the Amazon, when the bonnets were opened to the common-rail diesels I was very dissapointed! I do love a proper old engine! I'm more interested in my engine that any other part of my car

[Clan]

Nice classic old picture , looks like a 1969 basic model £509 new :-) did it have door bins?

[Laney760]

Originally Posted by Clan

Nice classic old picture , looks like a 1969 basic model £509 new :-) did it have door bins?

Afraid I don't remember that far back! I think it was you who posted on here to someone who had run their Volvo engine out of oil that you wouldn't be surprised and nor would a Vovlo dealer if it ran after they refilled it? I think the main reason I keep my rusty old Merc 307D Mercedes Motorhome is for the engine - you can park these vehicles up for years in fields, put a charged battery in 2 - 4 years later and they'll still run even if they've not been turned over and 'oiled'.... It's the most simple diesel engine I've personally seen, very mechanical, they go on for ever, and it's between my front seats, very handy, only downside is priming, nightmare. People do Volvo type mileages in these, a friend in Cornwall has done 750,000 on one engine.....