An old bloke's motoring history

[biggbn]

Originally Posted by Wagon Sailor

We were in the Xedos. Some bitchcow with a phone stuck to her ear came screaming round a blind corner in her Golf. The lane was barely wide enough for two cars. I’d have probably gone for a glancing blow, except that I saw a small head next to her: a three-year old on the front seat with no booster! I chose the telegraph pole rather than the VW. I hit it at a speed low enough to keep the airbags intact. Bitchcow’s driving did the rest, raking her car all down the side. The Mazda was written off.
So was Bitchcow’s marriage, as it turned out. She hadn’t been paying attention – she was in a hurry to drop off her boy at playgroup before going on to meet an estate agent for a shag on the side.


The 2.5V6 Galant was a fabulously comfortable mile-eater, let down by a well-performing but fragile automatic gearbox. Mitsubishi had long known about the problem, but had never done anything about it. Ours had had a new box installed just before we bought it, so we thought we were safe. Hah! £800 every 24,000 miles at an independent specialist or £1800+ at a main dealer? This was unacceptable in the extreme. What could have been a great car was seriously spoiled by penny-pinching (ie: using a part originally designed for something else, or so I was told).






The Ford’s twin-cam engine had been strong to the end, but eventually we got tired of the annual tradition of “welding come MoT-time”. We sold it at the same time as the Rover V8.
Meanwhile, our son had passed his test. We bought him an AX. He pranged it at a roundabout, making a typical beginner’s mistake. He bought a sporty-looking but actually pudding-engined Saxo. When that wasn’t good enough, he bought a Mini City E and sneakily lumbered us with a Citroen we didn’t really want.






When the lad wanted money to upgrade from the 998cc Mini runabout to a bonkers 1380cc minivan, we saw an opportunity to ditch the Saxo.

The van went like a rocket (between head gasket changes), the City E merely plodded along nicely. It even managed to get round Castle Combe.
The Mini was uprated with a 1275 Metro engine, but needed more work. On the one hand, it’s a car I knew how to fix: carburettor, a distributor you can turn to get the timing right by ear, and didn’t need any tools I wouldn’t have picked up along the way when working on my old bangers. But to be honest, I’d really rather prefer to fart around on a car forum than to skin my knuckles in the cold and/or wet. You can’t have it all, can you?





Car 61 was one of Hungary’s finest. It was another one the lad had owned before us. He’d used the low-power, minimum-slip 4WD to its best effect, pulling cars out of trouble in the snows and doing ridiculous things on Salisbury Plain. The Justy’s last hurrah was a 1000 mile continental trip. Every home should have one.

Huge fan of oddball Japanese cars, love that Mitsubishi. One of the first cars marketed with an 'intelligent' autobox that learnt your style of driving, if not how to stay in one piece!! Had a few baby daihatsus, brace of Subaru, brace of mk1 mr2 Toyota, two swb landcruisers and an old Camry and a Nissan 300 zx twin turbo manual with upward of 300hp...thst was fun!! Silvia import sx200 with an lsd too, also an epic car

Edited to add three mitsis. A '76 colt two door, kind of escort mk1 style, with a galant 2000 engine and 5 speed box and I think Sapporo rear axle. Total flying machine when I was about 19 and a brace of boxy early eighties galant saloons, one a turbo which was a machine back then, and my first turbo car

[EssexExile]

I really liked my (not 2.5V6) Galant, a lovely car to drive. We only bought it because the dealership was very convenient, then we moved 200 miles & the new dealership was very inconvenient. Then we sold it & almost immediately a new Mitsubishi dealership opened in town. But we'd already bought our V70 from a local dealer that, soon after, went out of business so we didn't have local dealer again.

I give up.

[Wagon Sailor]

We’d had enough of the Galant’s gearbox wobblies and disposed of it. The only Hondas I’d had so far were bikes: it was time to see what Soichiro’s cars were like.

I wanted an Accord Type R. I wanted it in black and I wanted it without a spoiler. We tried out a post-facelift in red, with a spoiler. The car was fine: we just weren’t sure about the seller.
Driving past a dealer’s, I saw a shiny blue 5G Prelude, glinting in the sunlight. It wasn’t perfect, but it was lovely. And it wasn’t expensive. It went well and had enough of a rumble to set off car alarms. The Accord would have to wait.




Within weeks, a spoiler-less Pirates Black ATR did come up – and it was only a few miles away. It was exactly the right spec, at exactly the right price.



The Mitsubishi was thus replaced by two Hondas, each of them nicer than it to own. Why hadn’t we thought of that before?

My Dadsold his Corolla after a few years and bought an economical car that had surely been made for nothing more than pottering. But to snigger at his Daihatsu Charade would have been a mistake. Its little 3-cylinder engine proved as happy to do the German trips as most other modern cars, and it delivered better economy than many diesels.
Mother had given up driving by the time Dad died, so she sold the car to me. Unfortunately, it was already 30 years old and the willing, but hard-worked engine was knackered, along with much of the rest of it. I didn’t keep it for long: it was like chucking out a member of the family. If I didn’t shed a tear when it went, I should have.



The blue 5G stopped working in Sainsbury’s car park. Just like that. I towed it home. I replaced most of the ignition parts. It still wouldn’t work. We went through a **** year on other fronts and I left it the garden. It’s still there, waiting for money and/or effort.
Another Lude came up for very little dosh: a black one this time. It would do for spares, I thought. It turned out to be as least as good if not better than the first baby. Our first shakedown cruise was to take it to a wedding … in Norway. It’s so far managed at least a dozen mainland European countries, but now sits in the sunshine next to the car it replaced. One day, one day?

[biggbn]

Originally Posted by Wagon Sailor

We’d had enough of the Galant’s gearbox wobblies and disposed of it. The only Hondas I’d had so far were bikes: it was time to see what Soichiro’s cars were like.

I wanted an Accord Type R. I wanted it in black and I wanted it without a spoiler. We tried out a post-facelift in red, with a spoiler. The car was fine: we just weren’t sure about the seller.
Driving past a dealer’s, I saw a shiny blue 5G Prelude, glinting in the sunlight. It wasn’t perfect, but it was lovely. And it wasn’t expensive. It went well and had enough of a rumble to set off car alarms. The Accord would have to wait.




Within weeks, a spoiler-less Pirates Black ATR did come up – and it was only a few miles away. It was exactly the right spec, at exactly the right price.



The Mitsubishi was thus replaced by two Hondas, each of them nicer than it to own. Why hadn’t we thought of that before?

My Dadsold his Corolla after a few years and bought an economical car that had surely been made for nothing more than pottering. But to snigger at his Daihatsu Charade would have been a mistake. Its little 3-cylinder engine proved as happy to do the German trips as most other modern cars, and it delivered better economy than many diesels.
Mother had given up driving by the time Dad died, so she sold the car to me. Unfortunately, it was already 30 years old and the willing, but hard-worked engine was knackered, along with much of the rest of it. I didn’t keep it for long: it was like chucking out a member of the family. If I didn’t shed a tear when it went, I should have.



The blue 5G stopped working in Sainsbury’s car park. Just like that. I towed it home. I replaced most of the ignition parts. It still wouldn’t work. We went through a **** year on other fronts and I left it the garden. It’s still there, waiting for money and/or effort.
Another Lude came up for very little dosh: a black one this time. It would do for spares, I thought. It turned out to be as least as good if not better than the first baby. Our first shakedown cruise was to take it to a wedding … in Norway. It’s so far managed at least a dozen mainland European countries, but now sits in the sunshine next to the car it replaced. One day, one day?

Had two charade triples, one a diesel turbo, and a daihatsu move triple, had the old pop up light prelude in 2.0 16v 4ws auto spec and the next gen in 2.0i spec, really rate hondas. Had a wee civic 1.6 16v GTI, the 'breadvan ' shape, a mk1 crx 1.5 and 2 mk2 crx 1.6, an accord 2.0 coupe and a 3.0 v6 accord coupe, a wonderful but flawed car by the time I got it!! I still maintain the 4ws prelude was one of, if not the, best handling cars I ever owned. Beautiful car.

Always wanted an accord type r but have been scared by the stories about the soft gearboxes.

[Wagon Sailor]

JK Setright rated the Prelude a one of the best cars ever made - and he had three versions of them. He argued that as there's a bit of give in all mechanisms, all cars had passive rear steering anyway, if only to a tiny degree, so why not make a proper job of it.

The 'soft gearbox' was an issue on the original iteration of the ATR and the very early facelift models. Synchro ring failure affected fifth and reverse. Most of the ones still on the road have been permanently fixed now. Ours went at about 130,000 miles.

I liked the 'Q' car element of the spoiler-less version. Car magazine used ours for a feature on Type Rs some years ago:

[biggbn]

Originally Posted by Wagon Sailor

JK Setright rated the Prelude a one of the best cars ever made - and he had three versions of them. He argued that as there's a bit of give in all mechanisms, all cars had passive rear steering anyway, if only to a tiny degree, so why not make a proper job of it.

The 'soft gearbox' was an issue on the original iteration of the ATR and the very early facelift models. Synchro ring failure affected fifth and reverse. Most of the ones still on the road have been permanently fixed now. Ours went at about 130,000 miles.

I liked the 'Q' car element of the spoiler-less version. Car magazine used ours for a feature on Type Rs some years ago:

Ljks was one of my favourite motoring writers. My Porsche 928s4 had mechanical 4ws also. Setright much preferred the mechanical system to the later electronic ones. I may yet have an ATR, said to handle wonderfully

[S60D5-185]

Originally Posted by Wagon Sailor

Another Lude came up for very little dosh: a black one this time. It would do for spares, I thought. It turned out to be as least as good if not better than the first baby. Our first shakedown cruise was to take it to a wedding … in Norway. It’s so far managed at least a dozen mainland European countries, but now sits in the sunshine next to the car it replaced. One day, one day?[/COLOR]

Lovely looking car that Prelude.👍

[Wagon Sailor]

Originally Posted by biggbn

Setright much preferred the mechanical system to the later electronic ones.

Both systems work very well - once you get used to not parking too close to a kerb!

Originally Posted by biggbn

I may yet have an ATR, said to handle wonderfully

They do, they do. We had fully adjustable coilovers on ours and managed to set up a balance that somehow complemented the LSD.

Originally Posted by S60D5-185

Lovely looking car that Prelude.👍

I agree!


You’ll be relieved to learn that there are not many cars to go now.


My best mate is a bloody good self-employed carpenter; he’s used 740s and 940s for years as his firm’s van, one after another. This one had an only-just-functioning turbo among other issues but was still running: he needed to replace it. Would I take it off his hands for roughly scrap value? Yes, please, I’d got loads of stuff to move.





The 4-door, AWD Integra DB9 is an extremely rare car. I know of one in Russia and there are a couple on Cyprus, which are all that stop mine being unique in Europe, I believe. This car was ruined. It had a blown bottom end and rode on cut springs. It needed saving. I saved it. It now does regular Scottish and German runs without raising a sweat and a year or so ago took us to the south of France and through the Alps.






The Civic Coupe was another runabout. I’d intended to use it as a donor for the Integra, but my garage matey told me he’d rather have a different engine ….
It was in really good nick so we going to use it as a daily. What a pity, then, that a Beemer wrote it off on of the tiny roads near us. (It wasn’t difficult – the car’s monetary value was pitifully low.)





… so I bought this instead. Rough body; marvellous mechanicals.

[biggbn]

Originally Posted by Wagon Sailor

Both systems work very well - once you get used to not parking too close to a kerb!


They do, they do. We had fully adjustable coilovers on ours and managed to set up a balance that somehow complemented the LSD.


I agree!


You’ll be relieved to learn that there are not many cars to go now.


My best mate is a bloody good self-employed carpenter; he’s used 740s and 940s for years as his firm’s van, one after another. This one had an only-just-functioning turbo among other issues but was still running: he needed to replace it. Would I take it off his hands for roughly scrap value? Yes, please, I’d got loads of stuff to move.





The 4-door, AWD Integra DB9 is an extremely rare car. I know of one in Russia and there are a couple on Cyprus, which are all that stop mine being unique in Europe, I believe. This car was ruined. It had a blown bottom end and rode on cut springs. It needed saving. I saved it. It now does regular Scottish and German runs without raising a sweat and a year or so ago took us to the south of France and through the Alps.






The Civic Coupe was another runabout. I’d intended to use it as a donor for the Integra, but my garage matey told me he’d rather have a different engine ….
It was in really good nick so we going to use it as a daily. What a pity, then, that a Beemer wrote it off on of the tiny roads near us. (It wasn’t difficult – the car’s monetary value was pitifully low.)





… so I bought this instead. Rough body; marvellous mechanicals.

Jeez, we are almost, no pun intended, in accord again. I had forgotten about the civic coupe, owned three of them, two 1.5 and a 1.6, the 1.5s same as the one you pictured and the 1.6 the next generation. Totally forgot about them as happens when you have had over 200 cars!! Had a 760 saloon with the prv v6 and a 940 2.3lpt. Great cars. That IS a rare teg!! Like many hondas, the civic coupes always felt much quicker than their relatively small engines and handled beautifully.

[Sotosound]

Love this thread.