My first car?

[mattbrown]

As the title says, im 17 in jan and am bored of my moped now, dont know what car to get?

Under 1k if poss?

Something differant,

No corsas, saxos, novas, no chav cars basically!!

Matt

[Tom3012]

nissan micra LOL

[sparrow.2]

How about one of these. Not the sexiest car around but cheap and unreal mpg. Also has added bonus that you can sleep in it at race meets because the seats fold away completely.
Has the added benefit of being seemingly completely invisible to the law...

But as I said it is damn unsexy



There is one on ebay at the minute.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1997-SUZUKI-WA...d=p3286.c0.m14

[Rich D]

that baby could snap knicker elastic at 500 yards !

" hi girls do you wanna come and see where i sleep when i race my RC cars ? "

lawl !

[sparrow.2]

Originally Posted by Rich D

that baby could snap knicker elastic at 500 yards !

" hi girls do you wanna come and see where i sleep when i race my RC cars ? "

lawl !

Hadn't actually realised it sounded that sad


There is a deeply dark side to our hobby that you can't tell anyone you meet especially women... No matter how you start you always get "the eyebrow", followed by the sad smile. Usually end up feeling like you ought to be wearing a hat with a propeller on it...

Thank god I wakeboard too. Infinitely better opener!

The car is cool though, slept at many wakeboarding events in it too. It kinda grows on you

[Rich D]

Originally Posted by sparrow.2

Hadn't actually realised it sounded that sad


There is a deeply dark side to our hobby that you can't tell anyone you meet especially women... No matter how you start you always get "the eyebrow", followed by the sad smile. Usually end up feeling like you ought to be wearing a hat with a propeller on it...

Thank god I wakeboard too. Infinitely better opener!

The car is cool though, slept at many wakeboarding events in it too. It kinda grows on you

Yeah i think its kinda cool too in an inverted snobbery kind of way !

I don`t think he`ll get away with it at 17 though. Only for comedy value

You could paint it red and pretend to be Postman Pat Matt !

Yeah, there is no good way of breaking the news about racing toy cars is there . If they don`t do it then they wont "get it" !

Mrs Oople aside ofc. !

[MK999]

Unfortunately you will realise as i did that the "chav cars" are chosen by hooligans for a reason, they're generally small lightweight cars that are relatively cheap to insure because of engine size and go as well as a larger car because of their weight. I ended up with a nova but it's far from chav, more like shopping wagon Fiesta might be worth a look, generally avoided by the majority of what most people would call chavs. Ford KA if you can stomach driving a girls car for the small consolation of not looking chavvy

I used to have Novas but my flatmate at uni was big on them and eventually convinced me, they're actually not bad cars, well i lie, they're total crap, but they're fairly reliable and light as hell so shift pretty well on small engines. (According to the haynes manual a basic spec nova weighs 20kg less than a mk2 lotus elise) Also if you can work on an rc car you can probably rebuild a nova from component parts with a haynes manual Just don't crash in one, they have very little in the way of body panels in the way, and you can forget about door bars too

Other than that look at larger cars, probably be hell to insure because of the all round larger engine sizes and it'll be slow as hell, but it will work, and you might be better off in an accident

[RogerM]

Originally Posted by Rich D

Yeah, there is no good way of breaking the news about racing toy cars is there . If they don`t do it then they wont "get it" !

My good lady and I first met when I got home (I was in a house share with her sister and a mate from work at the time) from a national at Basingstoke back in 2002 and before we were even properly intorduced she dived in and helped me unload my car into the house .... 1/2 hour later we were in the pub and next month we'll have been together 6 years ....... and she still packs / unpacks my car for each meeting .... although now it's so I don't forget stuff / get mud on things!!!

You have to find the right woman (she also loves proper Minis nearly as much as I do!!) then it won't matter that you spend a stupid amount of time and money on model racing cars!!


Naturally she'd suggest a classic Mini for a first car too.

[mobile chicane]

Originally Posted by sparrow.2

Hadn't actually realised it sounded that sad


There is a deeply dark side to our hobby that you can't tell anyone you meet especially women... No matter how you start you always get "the eyebrow", followed by the sad smile. Usually end up feeling like you ought to be wearing a hat with a propeller on it...

Thank god I wakeboard too. Infinitely better opener!

The car is cool though, slept at many wakeboarding events in it too. It kinda grows on you

I have to race motorbikes to make up for it and I have a long tertm girlfriend

[low13]

im 17 in september and i'm thinking of getting a 205 1.9 gti,ok insurance aint to cheap (1300 quid a year on my dads policy) but i reckon a pretty good first car and some can be picked up for about a grand add yamaha r1 carbs on it and about 170 hp -200 hp is expected

[Richard Lowe]

How about looking for somthing the next size up but a bit older? For my first car I looked at the usual suspects (Fiesta's ect) but they all felt like little tin boxes with buzzy, gutless engines.
(I ended up with a comedy F reg 1.4 Cavalier, but only because my Dad sold me it for £1! It had no power at all, but as it didn't have any grip either and the dampers were stuffed it was good fun )

The lower end/older Focus or Astra is really cheap for what you get, will be reliable and cheap to fix, my little Astra hasn't missed a beat in the 5 years I've been thrashing round in it. It can hold it's own against my friends new Civic type-R round corners, I get raped on the straights though with a 1.6

[mattbrown]

Cheesus major responce!


Wel im handy with the tools as i ride and restore motorbikes, if i get anything vauxhall it will be red topped, voiding my insurance and probably killing me as my driving/bike riding is very stupid! If its ford itl be 2l mondeo zetcd, i will not have a ka as a frinds mum has one and there rearly trearly bad, although she's not!


I fancy a metro turbo??

Rot boxes but i fancy a challenge


Rc racin gets me alot of stick but the missus likes it, she even works in the shop sometimes, the lads all take the piss but not reli the gals??

Matt

[RogerM]

Metro turbo ..... now I think the Metro is a majorily under rated chassis (when modded it can cut it with the bets hot hatches as anybody whos watched them race will tell you) but the turbo lump, in stock form, is a bit of a dog and in modded form needs lots of TLC to keep the transmission in one piece!


Chris, I build all my own motors and do all my own machining other than crank grinding and the balancing.
The key to getting god economy out of an A series is all in the mapped ignition and induction system, LOTS of work to the carb and inlet. The 1380 was built with drivability and torque in mind so was relatively mild (97bhp) compared to what she has now (122bhp) so was easy enough to drive smoothly and on cruise very good on fuel.
My current engine build will not be ...... 1380cc, BMW K1200 head, custom cams to my own profile, Gt28rs turbo (the last two combine to give a reasonable power band of between 3000 and 8250 on paper) and 10.2:1 CR. Theoretically it should be 300bhp plus and others with similar specs are achieving that ..... and dead clutches!!!

Check out www.specialist-components.co.uk to see what can be done, I use a lot of John's components .... which may explain why I am so skint .... .LOL

All I need now is to finish the shell to put it in!

[Lee]

I restored a mini for when i was 17, it took me a year to do but it taught me a lot, i had it fully de-seamed, and de-bumpered. The bumpers were re-profiled with body filler, it looked smart too on mini lite wheels 10x6`s

It started off as a city but i fitted the usual bucket seats, 5 point harnesses, my own carbon dash and centre console. It kept me off the streets Originally it had a 998 in it but i soon got bored, my dad gave up rallying and i nicked the engine out of the rally car 1430 with webber carbs, fast road cam etc.

That thing flew, well it left an unmarked cop car standing from the lights but more of that later

It was super unreliable though, i was only doing 40 mile a day but it drank fuel like there was a hole in the tank. And motorway driving was just a chore.

I love mini`s but they are not safe anymore, when you look at the other super minis they have all grown and obviously hit a lot harder than a little mini does. (just ask my brother)

If you look, at the fiestas/golf`s etc of the 80`s and look at them today you will see that they have grown over the years, is this done to make way for the ford ka`s and polos etc?

[Southwell]

These are a great second hand buy!!

[Spoolio]

I know it was stated you had a £1000 for the car but have you budgeted for the insurance as well?

This is likely to far exceed your car budget, even if you do it in your mum or dads name. By the way don't think you are pulling a swift one on the Insurers by doing this as its been done for years so it is built into the premium-rating structure. It may be cheaper than doing it in your own name but remember (I think Direct Line are the only exception here) that only the policyholder, ie your mum or dad, will earn the No Claims Discount.

RogerM, my Mini is ace (1275 Mini 35 is in timewarp nick with 8800 miles) and never gives me any trouble at all. Although it hasn't moved out of the garage for 2 years .