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Cars with 'character'

Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2016 1:58 pm
by bam_bam
You know, a car that you or a mate owned that wasn't exactly a lemon but it had:
- foibles
- imperfections
- idiosyncrasies
- life-threatening defects

I'll start; when we were 17, a mate had a Holden Torana LC 3.0L that he'd ploughed into his girlfriend's front yard, much to her mum's horror. Anyway, this little gardening excursion caused the tracking to pull right, constantly. I drove it 30Kms on a McDonald's run once and it near killed us at every left-hander. Turning right? No worries, just let go of the wheel, just a little bit, letting go all together would put you off the road. Turning left, a little bit tricky, anything requiring more than a quarter lock needed extra persuasion from the handbrake. After driving it like for year, let's just say that left-turn handbrakes were a bread 'n' butter manoeuvre. That said, it was still so much fun to belt around in, admittedly it was a lot more fun before he took it gardening but it still had a load of character.

Next.

Re: Cars with 'character'

Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2016 2:36 pm
by Eddie555
1984 when I was 18 I had a mk1 golf gti. My god that car was like a go kart compared to the mk2 RS2000 I had been previous. I was driving the golf everywhere like I'd stolen it until one day I took an island a little bit too quick and clipped the rear wheel on the exit. The car crabbed like a son b1tch after that so I got rid. Those were the days lol.

Re: Cars with 'character'

Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2016 5:45 pm
by Rw@@dy
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My mk1 golf gti, had it coming up to 2 years now. I love it's character and the fact it's nearly as old as me lol. Only I can start it or drive it, no one else has been able to get in and do the same. It sits in the garage for 6 months of the year and will do the same as long as I can own it

Cars with 'character'

Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2016 6:26 pm
by HYFR
It wants to kill you with every prod of the throttle but it puts a huge smile on your face !


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Re: Cars with 'character'

Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2016 7:04 pm
by Surrey Sam
RWD, low gearing, weighed nothing and a zippy 1300cc engine = huge fun

Bought it out the local paper, 1 owner and only 1500 miles from new! It was used by an older guy to take his garden waste to the tip, instead of getting the car dirty. I used it as a run around for a year and sold it on for over 3k more than I paid. It was a really handy car to have around and I actually miss it :cry:

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Re: Cars with 'character'

Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2016 7:44 pm
by HYFR
^ is that a car ?!

Re: Cars with 'character'

Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2016 7:58 pm
by Surrey Sam
HYFR wrote:^ is that a car ?!
According to the Oxford Dictionary, the definition of a 'Car' is:

A road vehicle, typically with four wheels, powered by an internal combustion engine and able to carry a small number of people

So I can be applicable to the topic with that definition and considering mine had three seats and yours only two. More so :assflash: :D

Re: Cars with 'character'

Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2016 8:21 pm
by HYFR
Surrey Sam wrote:RWD, low gearing, weighed nothing and a zippy 1300cc engine = huge fun

Bought it out the local paper, 1 owner and only 1500 miles from new! It was used by an older guy to take his garden waste to the tip, instead of getting the car dirty. I used it as a run around for a year and sold it on for over 3k more than I paid. It was a really handy car to have around and I actually miss it :cry:

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Re: Cars with 'character'

Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2016 9:20 pm
by Surrey Sam
You saying my Kei truck was half ass'ed :cry:

It was the Porsche Cayman of the commercial car world :lol:


Re: Cars with 'character'

Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2016 9:22 pm
by HYFR
no, I love it .. just think it looks odd !

like a dog with a horses head !

Re: Cars with 'character'

Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2016 9:42 pm
by Surrey Sam
Damn..they say dogs look like their owners :shock:

Re: Cars with 'character'

Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2016 11:54 pm
by MikeFish
Surrey Sam wrote:
HYFR wrote:^ is that a car ?!
According to the Oxford Dictionary, the definition of a 'Car' is:

A road vehicle, typically with four wheels, powered by an internal combustion engine and able to carry a small number of people

So I can be applicable to the topic with that definition and considering mine had three seats and yours only two. More so :assflash: :D
So according to the Oxford Dictionary is the Tesla Model S not a car?

Re: Cars with 'character'

Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2016 11:58 pm
by Ian_C
Surrey Sam wrote:
So I can be applicable to the topic with that definition and considering mine had three seats and yours only two. More so :assflash: :D
No way does that thing have three front seats?!

Does it have a 'half' middle front seat like say some Landrover Defenders used to? Where you straddle the gearstick haha

Re: Cars with 'character'

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2016 8:40 am
by Surrey Sam
MikeFish wrote:
Surrey Sam wrote:
HYFR wrote:^ is that a car ?!
According to the Oxford Dictionary, the definition of a 'Car' is:

A road vehicle, typically with four wheels, powered by an internal combustion engine and able to carry a small number of people

So I can be applicable to the topic with that definition and considering mine had three seats and yours only two. More so :assflash: :D
So according to the Oxford Dictionary is the Tesla Model S not a car?
It would seem that the devils spawn is defined as an Electric Vehicle and not a Car. Then one of those half way jobs is called a Hybrid Car.
Ian_C wrote: No way does that thing have three front seats?! Does it have a 'half' middle front seat like say some Landrover Defenders used to? Where you straddle the gearstick haha
Yes, one of those seats where as a man, you really don't want another man to be driving you.

Re: Cars with 'character'

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2016 10:13 am
by IanH755
I have a routine, after selling a "nice" car (R34, 740i, RS6 etc) I always replace it with a variety of crappy French diesels which have to last until I decide to buy a nice car again. The following is a true list (not exaggerated for comedy effect) of the faults of just one these, a L-Reg 5 door Citreon ZX 1.9D aka L344KKY (or L334KKY) aka The Mighty Leaky which I owned for 9 months in 2004 -
  • No air filter or air filter housing fitted. It sounded better but would also suck leafs/twigs/hedgehogs etc into the engine.

    A 2ft long 10-5mm wide crack across the rear passenger floor from left to right.

    A holed exhaust directly below the crack, so the car would fill with exhaust fumes as you drove (nearly gassed my friends wife to death).

    A flammable picnic throw jammed into the crack and used to block the exhaust gas which "melted" into a plasticy plug which filled the worst of the crack unless you opened a front window, which dragged the fumes back into the car.

    Front CV joints that sounded like I had door gunners fitted whenever I turned the wheel, sounded awesome.

    Front door locks which froze in the Open position during winter when the door was opened so they wouldn't shut. I had to bungy cord the internal door handles together to stop the door opening when cornering.

    A boot with no lock held shut with ty-wraps and a Kellogg's Cornflakes box rear window. I broke the boot lid and replaced it with a lockless one from a scrappy and then days later broke the glass in the new boot because I accidentally smashed the window with a screwdriver in a rage because a braided hose I was making had just slipped a single sliver under my thumbnail.

    The engine wouldn't turn off so you had to drive it forward into a kerb, put it in 5th and stall it to stop the engine. It would still drive without the key fitted.

    No bonnet release cable so a hole cut into the grill and some paracord run through to the drivers seat.

    No stereo so I could only listen to the random rattles/squeaks/groans of the car.

    French electrics which meant that when it rained the headlights would randomly flash in time with the wipers.

    Heading to Silverstone to watch a Drift day I sold the spare wheel at a services on the M1 to a drift competitor with a flat. About 5hrs later I realised my front tyre had delaminated and I was now stuck.
I eventually killed it in a retarded way! I drove to a supermarket in winter at 8.55pm and it had just started to snow. At 9.30pm I came out and a thick layer of snow covered everything. As I drove out (following the same route I drove in by) I was concentrating heavily on the ground as the 4-6in snow covered the markings. It was at this point, travelling at 20mph that I caught a quick flash of red right infront of me, however I wasn't able to stop before smashing into the snow covered carpark pole-style barrier which was dropped at 9pm to split the car-park in two. I stopped with the barrier bent over the roof of my car destroying the barrier, a smashed windscreen, bent A-Pillars and a Trolley boy who ran over to say "Why'd you do that?" like it was deliberate! My issue now was how was going to drive back the 5 miles to my home? Simples, I "Ace Ventura'd" it back, in a blizzard, in the freezing cold with ice forming on my face, genius! I scrapped it the next day and that was the end of Leaky, gone but not forgotten!