Got off topic on a thread and I recall many talking about their toys so share a few,,,all of them. Built,modified or stock. You know who you are because you took pics of that ride and look back at it in the parking lot as you walk away
Here is a Slingshot I drove around the states a few years back for a St.Jude fund raiser.
Got off topic on a thread and I recall many talking about their toys so share a few,,,all of them. Built,modified or stock. You know who you are because you took pics of that ride and look back at it in the parking lot as you walk away
Here is a Slingshot I drove around the states a few years back for a St.Jude fund raiser. View attachment 22359 View attachment 22361
Wow, such a cool... thing :D
And what beautiful scenery!
And for a good cause as well!! Nice!
Well, here's mine that I sold like 1.5 years ago. It was with our family since new for 26 years. Rolled off the production line in the next town over, and came right to our door.
Opel Astra 1.6si (owned by GM)
8 valves, a 101PS (74KW), from 1994, with power-nothing and assisted-nope included. Airbags?, who needs em when you're soft in the head!
I know it's not a looker, not fast at all, not special in any way except that the mods on it were worth twice as much as the car was at the time I sold it. Still I do miss it.
It required zero maintenance apart from what was expected like oil and belt changes every couple of years. I had to change the rear wiper motor and heater core cos both were 20+ years old at that point and the car only seen a garage for like 3 years of it's life.
It never ever left us on the side of the road, even when it almost blew the headgasket cos the water pump got stuck and I failed to notice the temps rising. That was the single time it had to be babied for the trip to the mechanic, with the cabin blower set to full speed full hot to manage the engine heat in the traffic jams. Otherwise, you could drive it like you stole it every single time.
I had so many great trips and memories with this little shitbox! From going on a family cruise through Europe, setting a time record for my daily cross city route in the middle of the day with an avarage of over 50kph, to tailgating and once it moved over, slooooowly and painfully overtaking a Porsche Cayanne at 180kph on the highway lol
It did a lot of stuff I never expected it to do.
It became the first car of the guys daughter I sold it to. Unless he kept it for himslef, cos he really liked it on the test drive.
It's still on the road (goes off to check the govmnt. database...), yep it is. No crashes reported either. I hope it serves them as well as it did us!
Mods were:
- Bridgestone Potenza 195/50 R15 on a 6.5" wide multispoke random Italian brand rims, instead of whatever stock r13 4"wide steelies were on it. (OEM spec on some versions, in Japan?? lol)
funny thing is that the tires still worked fine after 12 years of use, 5-7 years after they should've turned rock solid and got thrown away
- Eibach sport springs with slight lowering (20/40mm)
- Koni orange (front adjustable) street shocks
- Brembo vented discs up front, with I can't recall what type of pads but it helped with the overheating on long hard braking like 180kph to 0kph on the autobahn they once had to do
- Lengthened and slightly larger diameter cold air intake with boyracer cone filter, custom calculated by me, original rezonance box delete. Result was torque came on sooner, by like a 1000rpm even, but had less top end. Very good for the city/hills around here, an actually noticable difference. And ofc the sound was soooo much better even with the stock exhaust.
- unbranded Angel Eye headlights (cos a new OEM cost twice as much per piece as the set of angels and origs. were junk after 20 years. Also, for the street racer boy looks ofc)
- some random Sony MP3 CD head unit with random Pioneer speakers. I listened to the exhaust and traffic 99% of the time anyways
- Real Carbon Fiber... covered plastic interior bits like shifter/handbrake surrounds and such smaller parts that I could take off easily enough! it added at least 500KW! And also about as much weight in kilos cos of all the resin I used. Fully custom, made by me. I quickly gave up on this "art" though it was left as is. Buyer didn't really care, probably replaced em already. They were fugly.
- Tesco (= like Walmart) seat covers! They actually did their job (changed like 5-6 times over the years), I pulled em off for the sale and the upholstery was spotless!
Overall usability and safety, unlike with most modded cars, was improved. Much better handling, shorter stopping distance were the goal and it achieved those, 95% thanks to the waaaay better tires. The ride quality was trash to start with, it didn't get much harsher (once I've thrown away my previous cheap TA Technics "performance" springs and dampers), but it felt much more confident and poised. You could chuck it into a corner and expect to come out alive on the other side cos you could handle the understeer by playing with the throttle. Something it couldn't do before for overall lack of grip. The extra bit of low-end grunt (well, more of a louder whisper) helped with everyday life as well, especially on the hilly terrain here.
I bought a OEM 2.0 GSi (150hp) engine for it ages ago, but it never got installed. I still need to sell that though, the missus is getting cranky cos the box it's in takes up half the balcony...
First pic is from the day I washed and polished it at my friends house, the last time before putting it up for sale. My current ride sitting on the right. (2008 E83 X3 30D)
Second one is from the day of sale, family came down to say goodbye.
Last pic is proof of what an absolute amateur can achieve with a cheap excenter polisher from amazon and some one-step polish, and that's not even waxed and buffed! Before state on the right, After on the left.
I like showing my car off when I can, because it was the best financial mistake I've ever made. I'm going to get my money's worth!
This thing has been across the country, and I had it in the UK at one point as well. I bought it in 2014 and it still only has about 41k miles on it. When I lived in the UK i just drove it back and forth to work and every once in a while took it out for a country drive. I took the train or walked everywhere else so I didn't put many miles on it at all. Driving this thing on the English country roads was heaven. My one regret is not driving it to Germany and putting it on the Nürburgring.
Wow, such a cool... thing :D
And what beautiful scenery!
And for a good cause as well!! Nice!
Well, here's mine that I sold like 1.5 years ago. It was with our family since new for 26 years. Rolled off the production line in the next town over, and came right to our door.
Opel Astra 1.6si (owned by GM)
8 valves, a 101PS (74KW), from 1994, with power-nothing and assisted-nope included. Airbags?, who needs em when you're soft in the head!
I know it's not a looker, not fast at all, not special in any way except that the mods on it were worth twice as much as the car was at the time I sold it. Still I do miss it.
It required zero maintenance apart from what was expected like oil and belt changes every couple of years. I had to change the rear wiper motor and heater core cos both were 20+ years old at that point and the car only seen a garage for like 3 years of it's life.
It never ever left us on the side of the road, even when it almost blew the headgasket cos the water pump got stuck and I failed to notice the temps rising. That was the single time it had to be babied for the trip to the mechanic, with the cabin blower set to full speed full hot to manage the engine heat in the traffic jams. Otherwise, you could drive it like you stole it every single time.
I had so many great trips and memories with this little shitbox! From going on a family cruise through Europe, setting a time record for my daily cross city route in the middle of the day with an avarage of over 50kph, to tailgating and once it moved over, slooooowly and painfully overtaking a Porsche Cayanne at 180kph on the highway lol
It did a lot of stuff I never expected it to do.
It became the first car of the guys daughter I sold it to. Unless he kept it for himslef, cos he really liked it on the test drive.
It's still on the road (goes off to check the govmnt. database...), yep it is. No crashes reported either. I hope it serves them as well as it did us!
Mods were:
- Bridgestone Potenza 195/50 R15 on a 6.5" wide multispoke random Italian brand rims, instead of whatever stock r13 4"wide steelies were on it. (OEM spec on some versions, in Japan?? lol)
funny thing is that the tires still worked fine after 12 years of use, 5-7 years after they should've turned rock solid and got thrown away
- Eibach sport springs with slight lowering (20/40mm)
- Koni orange (front adjustable) street shocks
- Brembo vented discs up front, with I can't recall what type of pads but it helped with the overheating on long hard braking like 180kph to 0kph on the autobahn they once had to do
- Lengthened and slightly larger diameter cold air intake with boyracer cone filter, custom calculated by me, original rezonance box delete. Result was torque came on sooner, by like a 1000rpm even, but had less top end. Very good for the city/hills around here, an actually noticable difference. And ofc the sound was soooo much better even with the stock exhaust.
- unbranded Angel Eye headlights (cos a new OEM cost twice as much per piece as the set of angels and origs. were junk after 20 years. Also, for the street racer boy looks ofc)
- some random Sony MP3 CD head unit with random Pioneer speakers. I listened to the exhaust and traffic 99% of the time anyways
- Real Carbon Fiber... covered plastic interior bits like shifter/handbrake surrounds and such smaller parts that I could take off easily enough! it added at least 500KW! And also about as much weight in kilos cos of all the resin I used. Fully custom, made by me. I quickly gave up on this "art" though it was left as is. Buyer didn't really care, probably replaced em already. They were fugly.
- Tesco (= like Walmart) seat covers! They actually did their job (changed like 5-6 times over the years), I pulled em off for the sale and the upholstery was spotless!
Overall usability and safety, unlike with most modded cars, was improved. Much better handling, shorter stopping distance were the goal and it achieved those, 95% thanks to the waaaay better tires. The ride quality was trash to start with, it didn't get much harsher (once I've thrown away my previous cheap TA Technics "performance" springs and dampers), but it felt much more confident and poised. You could chuck it into a corner and expect to come out alive on the other side cos you could handle the understeer by playing with the throttle. Something it couldn't do before for overall lack of grip. The extra bit of low-end grunt (well, more of a louder whisper) helped with everyday life as well, especially on the hilly terrain here.
I bought a OEM 2.0 GSi (150hp) engine for it ages ago, but it never got installed. I still need to sell that though, the missus is getting cranky cos the box it's in takes up half the balcony...
First pic is from the day I washed and polished it at my friends house, the last time before putting it up for sale. My current ride sitting on the right. (2008 E83 X3 30D)
Second one is from the day of sale, family came down to say goodbye. View attachment 22363 View attachment 22365
Last pic is proof of what an absolute amateur can achieve with a cheap excenter polisher from amazon and some one-step polish, and that's not even waxed and buffed! Before state on the right, After on the left.
I like showing my car off when I can, because it was the best financial mistake I've ever made. I'm going to get my money's worth!
This thing has been across the country, and I had it in the UK at one point as well. I bought it in 2014 and it still only has about 41k miles on it. When I lived in the UK i just drove it back and forth to work and every once in a while took it out for a country drive. I took the train or walked everywhere else so I didn't put many miles on it at all. Driving this thing on the English country roads was heaven. My one regret is not driving it to Germany and putting it on the Nürburgring.
My favorite ride ever. Was my daily driver for 8 years. I've missed it since I sold it in 2012.
Twice I pushed it up to 160mph with the top down. It is deafening above 80, like sitting a foot away from a hurricane; but it didn't even tug at my hat.
My favorite ride ever. Was my daily driver for 8 years. I've missed it since I sold it in 2012. View attachment 22372
Twice I pushed it up to 160mph with the top down. It is deafening above 80, like sitting a foot away from a hurricane; but it didn't even tug at my hat.
Had a chance to drive one of those Jags way back when. It was a dealer demo, the opportunity came up for complicated reasons I already explained in some thread here somewhere years ago. God I loved it. The sound, the wind, the speed at which I could stop from 160kph inside city limits coming to a red light while the dealer guy turned white beside me... yeah, great memories! Great car!
Not mine but sharing a little engine porn View attachment 22374
How about bikes?......
Sold this little gem to a surgeon who has a garage full of beauties... View attachment 22375
Not mine, a family members ride. GT S
I will try to look up the recording of it's sound that I made a while back as it drove away, I could hear it like a mile away still. Holy hell it's so loud and so beautiful!
My old '07 Ninja 650R. Was my rebound after an accident that put me in the hospital on another 650R. I was really proud of that engine bay lighting - soldered it all up myself! Had a PC5 I tuned myself along with a few intake & QoL modifications. Such a fun, torquey machine!
I'll get photos of the current bike and the double-duty commuter/track car up shortly --- just don't have any photos on the laptop of them.
My old '07 Ninja 650R. Was my rebound after an accident that put me in the hospital on another 650R. I was really proud of that engine bay lighting - soldered it all up myself! Had a PC5 I tuned myself along with a few intake & QoL modifications. Such a fun, torquey machine!
Speaking of Maseratis... View attachment 22385
Not mine, a family members ride. GT S
I will try to look up the recording of it's sound that I made a while back as it drove away, I could hear it like a mile away still. Holy hell it's so loud and so beautiful!
I know the feeling. We sold our Ghibli and picked up a new Levante. I don't understand the mind of women...I think this body style is so much nicer than the SUV but happy wife,happy life. Sweeeeeet
I pulled a Hoovie (from Hoovie's garage youtube channel, the dumbest automotive channel in all of youtube), and bought the cheapest 6cyl petrol coupe BMW in the country! (that is Hungary)
My dream car has always been the Jag XJ220, but as it had been unattainable from the start, I settled on the E46 M3 as my slightly more attainable choice. Obviously that never happened either and with the current trends in prices it never will, so I took the third closest option, an 2001 E46 320 Ci with the 2.2l 125kw 6cyl and 125k alleged miles.
The Rough stuff:
It's RHD UK import (LHD country), it's on the smallest cheapest possible factory rims with junker tires, it has a totally ruined open exhaust (literally sounds like a broken pan, AKA your neighbors very loud shitty stock 1.4 Civic with a fartcan at 2am), the interior looks like a crime scene thanks to absolute neglect over 20 years and one of the previous owners (out of at least 12) being a painter, the handbrake doesn't work (probably disconnected, typical for this series), the AC is disconnected which results in constant max heat coming from the vents, the trunk looks like a playground sandbox with broken bits of plastic trim everywhere, all the rubber/plastic seals around the windows are dried up and cracked open, the rear parking sensors are 3 out of 4 dead (BMW tradition, ask any owner ever), the trunk only pops with the key, there is no keyhole in the drivers door only the hole, the passenger side only opens from inside, the left wiper is loose on it's arm, the headlights point everywhere except directly in front of you and the high beams emit less light than the lows, the plastic covers on the ashtray and cubby hole above pop open after the smallest bump in the road, there are scratches and missing clear coat and ugly overpaints all around the bodywork... and I'm sure there are a million more small things wrong with it. BUT
The good shit:
The suspension is tight, there is almost NO RUST on the underside which is unbelievable (at least non that would be more than slight surface spots), brakes are fine, engine pulls fine, it doesn't overheat (yet, we will see how it fares after the heating is fixed), the central locking, electric windows, radio, multifunction sports leather steering wheel works, asc works (traction control), it has a brand new left headlight (more on that below) and it has some other positives surely which I can't think of right now... so yeah, it's actually drivable and fun!
Yes it can drift, the only good thing about the shitty tires.
So I spotted the car just randomly browsing the local used car site, and I was like eh why not check it out, it's cheap enough and I've never really tried to buy one before... So I rang my bimmer experienced friend cos he always owns several bimmers at any one point in his life, and decided to check it out. I usually dismiss 99.9999% of potential buys just by looking at the photos, how they were taken, the effort they put into it, and mostly a gut feel. This time I didn't, mostly because it was too cheap to ignore and for very clear reasons (RHD, crappy paint).
The seller didn't pick up the first day as we tried during the day at "normal" hours. Next day we tried after 7pm, he picked up and said we could check it out any day at night. This was on Thursday, my friend wasn't available until Sunday night, so we left it at that. On Friday the seller wrote a message that the car had an advance placed on it by another buyer! I was devastated. I didn't think it would hit me so hard, I wasn't even hyping myself up about it... Anyways, Saturday night comes around, I check if the ad is still up... it was! I wrote to my friend who was in contact with the seller (cos of his experience) that maybe, just maybe he should send a msg if the car is still available.
I got a message from my friend a couple minutes later:
"You lucky fucker!"
The car was indeed still up for grabs as the previous buyer couldn't pay the whole price! I was ecstatic! It turned out he was a 18yo buying his first car, probably with money from his parents, and I imagine daddy wasn't very thrilled when the boy told him what he was trying to buy lol
So on Sunday night, we went to check out my future shitbox. It was at a really shady place. It was shady mostly because it opens at 7pm. Yes, at night. I got serious GTA spraynpay vibes from the place. They got a car wash, a paintbooth, 3 garages with lifts , the whole shebang. They only operate from dusk till dawn, mostly working on broken down cars that are brought in from the nearby highways. Sadly there are no strippers and/or vampires. Anyways, the seller was a rather nice guy to talk to, he wasn't pushy or typical salesmanish, he told the story of why he bought it and why he wants to sell, seemed legit. (tldr bought to convert LHD on request for a distant family member, but the guy bought another car instead)
So after an hour of freezing to the pavement deliberating with my friend, I decided that I had enough of just daydreaming in front of the ads, and bought it!
Or more like, I started the process by paying an advance, which meant that the car had to go through MOT, paperwork had to be filed and taxes needed to be payed. It would have taken me at least 2 months or more (yes it's that bad), so I immediately jumped at the offer of the seller who said he can do it by next days end! I signed what had to be signed, payed the advance, and then left.
Jumpcut to next day afternoon, phone rings, it's the seller: "the MOT guys crashed your car".
I'm like WHAT THE FUCK! How?? He said something about the guys trying to park it at the MOT center and accidentally let go of the clutch while it was in gear, so it crashed into the back of a truck. Front left lights broken into several pieces, hood bent, bumper busted. Thankfully there was no more damage, nothing really serious. So after hearing some offers as to how they could make this right, I took the deal of paying a quarter of the price less for the car and getting new lights for free.
And that's the story of why the front is slightly crashed in the photos below.
Monday night we picked up the car, all the paperwork and taxes and other bureaucratic bullshit was complete, as promised! The hood was bent back mostly into shape, the headlight was changed for a new one. The tank was empty so we went to the nearest petrol station because it was literally running on fumes, engine was barely coughing along, and arrived at the pumps just as the guy closed up at 11pm. Silly thing this covid, now all petrol stations closing for the night, a years ago almost all of em were 24/7. We got really really lucky cos we found an automated station just a mile away and could finally fill it up and drive home the 30 miles or so.
if you're curious why it looks a bit crashed see in the spoiler section in bold, it wasn't when I agreed to buy it lol
Today is Wednesday, 2 days since I bought it, and for the first time I saw the car in daylight! It's rough, but it will polish to a slightly nicer turd soon enough. Or it will be run over by a russian tank. Time will tell.
Anyways, here it is in all it's "glory", my very own first project car!
Goals list:
Short term
- buy Yellow (gold) and Black Badges! DONE, in shipping! well actually it's just a carbon style colored decal overlay, but it's the best I could find
- basic service (fluids, filters, sparkies and so on) and check over the car by real mechanic
- fix/change the very illegal sounding burbling rattling muffler (already have guy for it)
- change rear diff main silent block (or whatever it's called in english, it's the rubber thing holding the diff in place)
- get some okay tires for my 18" wheels that I got with my X3, they will fit perfectly (should happen tomorrow, depending on what's in stock)
'shopped pic from first night, still dirty, should look like this, maybe a bit bigger even
- get headlights aligned
- check/align suspension if needed
- check if there are airbags in the car or if the ab light is just unplugged which is the most likely
- get hood bent back into shape (already have a guy to do it)
- get new kidneys for hood cos broken (already ordered, cos obviously the most important lol)
- get aircon connected and tested, parts are in the trunk for it, if works awesome, if not or significant leaks, bin it and add the heater valve that's missing
- add anti-theft device(s)
Long Term
- try to fix rear PDC sensors (have spares in the trunk)
- get new right headlight cover to match the left
- get M or even better, CSL style front bumper
- attach carbon decal to roof (just cos I already have it, I'll do a photoshop before I do it cos I'm not sure if I wanna)
- change the truly god awful seats and maybe even rear bench to something a human would sit on without being coerced
- get a small lip for the trunk (or even better, a CSL style large lip spoiler)
- fix paintjob and other defects on the bodywork, recondition plastics, change rubber seals where easily possible, make it pretty as much as possible with small money
- get the NFS:MW M3 GTR style silver decal set for the body, cos the blue is already kinda the correct shade (it's far from it but meh, details...)
Very very long term
- gut it, add race seat, add crash bars, add turbo, because racecar
or if it cleans up nicely overtime which I doubt
- LHD conversion, huge profit (the worst LHD versions go for 4 times as much with way more miles and rust)
Oh and the cost of all this pile of junk? roughly a 1000usd for the car, and another 1000 in taxes and 1 year of insurance
By comparison at the time the next closest 6cyl coupe (LHD version) in price is about 4500 bucks with roughly 200k miles, the closest 4 cyl version is 3000 ish but nobody want's to buy that obviously.
Congrats Lorddarthvik on the project
Nothing is more satisfying than turning a wrench on something that stirs the soul.
Now to spend and wrench and spend and wrench,....You know the drill
Keep those mods posted and share share share
