Well, I'm not ruling it out, but this was supposed to be a downgrade to save some money! As you'll see below, I'm no stranger to modified cars, but I also appreciate them as their designers intended.
Anyway, to the car history. Sadly I don't have pics of the earlier ones. I'm old, and some were pre-digital camera! Pretty much all work on these was done by me.
First up, the cabriolet. This was a 2.0 Avantgarde with a weird spec. Full leather, electric roof, manual windows and no central locking! By the time this picture was taken it was running a full 5 stud conversion with 280mm front brakes and was sitting on a Bilstein/H&R suspension kit. It had a Miltek cat-back as well. I'd retrofitted the electric windows and central locking, as well as fitting a lovely blue mohair hood.
This was sold to find the first of the Audi S2s. This one had a beige leather interior and was standard other than an MTM 262 chip. Great car, but had some mystery ECU problem that meant it wouldn't shut off the electrics properly.
I followed this with my Mk2. God, I loved that car. I started off life as a 1.8 16v KR, standard other than a suspension drop (on unknown springs/shocks). By the time I was done, it was rocking a 2.0 ABF on the standard K-Jet (rolling roaded at 163bhp), as well as a lovely set of 15x8 BBS RMs.
The Mk2 got a bit rubbish to use as a daily over winter. I had to pick up my son from Nursery down some dark bumpy lanes and it was downright scary. At this point sensible dad mode took over the the Passat arrived. Standard other than a set of BBS rims and an Upsolute remap to 192 bhp. Nice comfy car and reasonably pokey for its size. the only I did in this one was retrofit the MFD sat nav kit.
After 6 months the Passat got really boring, so I sold it and bought a friend's Mk4 GT TDI 130. This had a Jabbsport map (~170 bhp or so), a JOM coilover kit (rubbish), 17" Audi TT comps in black and a Recaro Golf Anniversay interior. Lovely car this one. I also fitted an uber-rare VDO OEM SD card MP3 player.
After a trip to the Nurburgring with a friend I was left questioning why I, as a die hard petrolhead, was driving a diesel hatchback. I needed something quick again, so a I did a straight swap for the 2nd of My S2s. This one was on some BBS LM replicas. Whilst they weighted as much as the moon and ruined the handling, they looked awesome ;) It was on a set of RS2 springs which made it sit slightly lower. This one was running standard power. The only mod I did was to fit the awesome Audi 90 rear plinth which had the reflective material the whole way round.
After the realisation that only a multi-millionaire can keep an Audi S2 in reasonable condition (complex, fragile + expensive parts = a great combination), I decided to get something cheap and sensible. I met one of those criteria; cue the VR6. This one had a big dent in the rear quarter and a hideously cracked leather interior. It drove ok though. It came with a great set of Koni adjustable shocks and H&R springs. I then sorted the dent, fitted Eibach ARBs, a Neuspeed strut brace and Corrado speedlines. The best mod I did though, was the gearbox. These are well known as lazy cruisers, in part due to the long gearing. I've got a mate who worked at a gearbox repairers who helped out after I'd spent a couple of hours with a ratio calculator. We ended up with a slightly longer 1st and a much shorter final drive. Afterwards it felt just like a big Gti. Great car.
The VR died due to a combination of electrical problems and the birth of my 2nd child. I actually broke it on my drive - my neighbours weren't impressed. The other thing that killed it was the need for a car for my 2nd planned 'ring trip, due in just over a week. In the end I just got a bank loan and bought my first BMW - a 330ci Auto. To make it slightly more interesting I retrofitted the paddle shift steering wheel from an SMG M3.
The need to sort my finances out meant that the 330 was with me for only 6 months. It was replaced with something much cheaper, and much worse - a 306 GTI-6. When I say worse, GTI-6's are great cars. This one was not a fine example. It was bought on impulse and was a mistake. The gearbox was almost entirely missing the syncro on 2nd and the rear beam was almost hanging off. I replaced the rear beam mounts and drove it like I stole it for 6 months then sold it. Sadly I've got no pics of that online.
I replaced the 306 with a Puma. Loads of fun this one, though it turns out the previous owner didn't understand the concept of antifreeze. 2 days after I got was the coldest day for quite a while. -12 if I remember correctly. So, why was the car overheating? Hmm, not sure those coolant pipes should be quite that solid. Yep, the water pump was attempting to push ice around the system. After it thawed, I sorted it out and it ran ok. I left this one alone, save for some general maintenance.
After 9 months of trying to squeeze two children in the back of it (not often luckily, the wife's got a Galaxy for day to day stuff), I had enough and sold it to a guy who was going to drop the engine into his Fiesta Zetec-S. I then got probably my favourite car, and the one I regret selling the most. Here, I give you, the BMW 330ci clubsport. For those who don't know, this was a special limited edition with unique wheels, a chavvy boot spoiler (that I loved), front corner splitters, 15kg less sound proofing and a weighted gearknob. It was such a great car; fast (ish), smooth, awesome looking. Shouldn't have sold it.
The thing is though; it wasn't an M3 and I always wanted an M3. I solved this by replacing it with something that was an M3. The car was an e46 M3 SMG, meaning it had the fantastic, but fragile and expensive semi-automatic gearbox. I got the relevant software and installed the SMG software into the gearbox which made a real difference - the blips on downshifts were addictive. The car itself was very good, though a little shabby. In the end though, I just grew tired of it. It had a redline of 8000rpm and made peak power at 7900rpm. This just didn't suit my driving style and I wanted something with some actual low/midrange grunt. It was also truly crap when cold - very slow gear change, and kangarooing all over the place.
This brings us up to date.
I'm glad I had the M3, despite losing quite a lot of money selling it. It was a box that needed to be ticked, but in the end it just wasn't for me. I know it's early days and I'm still in the honeymoon period but I'm having more fun the Golf. I'm not skilled enough behind the wheel to really take advantage of the M3's RWD layout, so the concept of being able to accelerate mid corner without fear of flying through the scenery backwards is quite refreshing.
The Lupo I alluded to in my earlier post was actually my (now) wife's car, as were the Mk2 Golf driver and one of the Mk4 TDI's. She also had a Peugeot 205 1.6 Gti for a while, though she only drove it twice - I had it the rest of the time while she drove my Passat B5. She's now driving a Mk3 Ford Galaxy 2.0 TDCI which much to my surprise I really enjoy driving. It has no right to handle as well as it does for something so big! Here's the Lupo:
Phew, long post. Time for a nap!
