For those interested in "Modern Classic" Cars

[boxbrownie]

2 hours ago, spamcan61 said:

I've fancied a C30 T5 for a while as I share your liking for the looks, mind you might reconsider my position judging by this leaky windscreen business. :-/

It’s a Focus in Swedish National costume 

[spamcan61]

15 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

It’s a Focus in Swedish National costume 

A Focus ST at that ;-) I need to buy a mid life crisis car before I'm too old for a mid life crisis lol. Was going to look at a Lexus LS430 t'other day but it had sold. As you can tell I don't have a specific idea what kind of mid life crisis car I'm after!

[boxbrownie]

59 minutes ago, spamcan61 said:

A Focus ST at that ;-) I need to buy a mid life crisis car before I'm too old for a mid life crisis lol. Was going to look at a Lexus LS430 t'other day but it had sold. As you can tell I don't have a specific idea what kind of mid life crisis car I'm after!

Mid life crisis...forget the ST go for a Cossy........we can afford it 

[monkeysarefun]

 

 

 

Here Holden V8s' have shot up in price since last year, thinking is that we've all got so much money due to covid - not sure how that works because everything  is just normal  other than no one can go overseas  -  but anyway. 

People who couldn't afford V8's the first time around are buying the cars they wanted a few years ago and now fuel prices are way down and you can borrow  money for hardly any interest prices are going nuts. A ute went for over a million bucks recently - makes the $20,000 mine cost in 2013 seem a bargain!

 

From some internet site so it must be true:

 

Rather than spending money on overseas holidays, Australians are treating themselves to cars, caravans, boats, jet skis and kitchen renovations. And rare Holdens.

 

Earlier this month, a V8 Holden ute sold for $1.05 million – the highest recorded auction figure for an Australian road car – and a Holden Commodore with the last ever serial number went under the hammer for $750,000.

 

 

Mr Gaffy said the value of cars from the 1940s and 1950s was starting to wane “because the people who really like those cars are getting too old.”

He said there was also strong growth in the prices of Japanese performance cars from the 1990s and early 2000s.

 

“The prices of some Subaru WRXs have doubled in the past 12 months. Iconic Japanese performance cars and Australian performance cars are really starting to increase in value,” said Mr Gaffy.

 

There is one final curiosity to all this: if Australians were prepared to pay this much for a V8 Commodore years ago, maybe the Holden factory wouldn’t have closed.

 

 

 

[big jim]

Had some replacement coilivers fitted yesterday, the bilsteins were just too low with very little adjustment left so I swapped them for a brand called Tein, another used eBay item though, got my mate to fit them and set them up for me, it’s now no longer got drive shaft judder and I don’t scrape the drive lip when I drive up it, in my opinion it could do with going down about 10-15 MM all round as it’s sitting at pretty much standard height, I’ll give it a week to settle then review it then

 

while the car was at the mechanic he also fitted me bigger brakes of a mini R56, not massively bigger like the brembo brakes you can buy but enough to make a huge difference in braking power! 

 

getting remapped tomorrow 

[big jim]

Dropped the car by 10mm, not much but it looks a bit lower now, happy with it at that as it handles great and there is no drive shaft judder as with the lower bilsteins 

 

 

had issues with the remap, the system crashed and wiped my ecu so the garage have fitted a temporary’ piggyback ECU until I can get down there again and have mine put back on, the piggyback however is tuned up to pretty much what it will be once complete and it’s putting out 221bhp at the crank, 191bhp at the wheels which is insane! It’s fuelling great so has torque right throughout the whole Rev range, got no graphs as there was no point as it’s not my ecu but will have some when it’s finished 

 

annoyingly on the way home a 4x4 kicked up a stone on the M6 and cracked the windscreen so it’s also booked in for that to be done now too! 

[96701]

We have this in the garage. Suzuki Baleno registered March 1998. 1.6 engine, just over 81000 miles, passed the last 3 MOTs with advisories and worth little to nothing, and there aren't many about.

 

 

 

I'm thinking that I might like to spend some money on getting it back to how it looked when new and to get it set up properly to drive like it used to when we first got it in June 1998. So it might mean a strip down, a few new cable harnesses, maybe leds in the dashboard illumination (quite a lot of lamps have blown), new vinyls.

 

I welcome your views, could this become a modern curio?

Edited April 18, 2022 by 96701

[billywhizz]

Only just found this thread. Here‘s my modern classic. Less than 300 V6 estates left on the road in the UK. Ideal for lugging layouts around!

 

Edited March 8, 2021 by billywhizz
Add photo

[monkeysarefun]

52 minutes ago, billywhizz said:

Only just found this thread. Here‘s my modern classic. Less than 300 V6 estates left on the road in the UK. Ideal for lugging layouts around!

 

I miss sports aerials, its amazing what a difference they make to a car!

[Hobby]

3 hours ago, 96701 said:

We have this in the garage. Suzuki Baleno registered March 1998. 1.6 engine, just over 81000 miles, passed the last 3 MOTs with advisories and worth little to nothing, and there aren't many about.

 

 

I'm thinking that I might like to spend some money on getting it back to how it looked when new and to get it set up properly to drive like it used to when we first got it in June 1998. So it might mean a strip down, a few new cable harnesses, maybe leds in the dashboard illumination (quite a lot of lamps have blown), new vinyls.

 

I welcome your views, could this become a modern curio?

 

The only comment I'd make is that if you do do it then regard it as a labour of love and don't expect to get any money back. Its a common run of the mill car and will never be worth anything worth while. 

 

Personally I'd say if you fancy it, do it! But I'm a fan of the run of the mill cars, exotica do nothing for me, 

give me a 1.3 Marina or 1750 Maxi any day over some overpowered sports  car! But, Hey! I'm bias!! 

 

(And also in a minority of one on here) 

[96701]

9 minutes ago, Hobby said:

 

The only comment I'd make is that if you do do it then regard it as a labour of love and don't expect to get any money back. Its a common run of the mill car and will never be worth anything worth while. 

 

Personally I'd say if you fancy it, do it! But I'm a fan of the run of the mill cars, exotica do nothing for me, 

give me a 1.3 Marina or 1750 Maxi any day over some overpowered sports  car! But, Hey! I'm bias!! 

 

(And also in a minority of one on here) 

You might be a minority on here, but a friend of mine has recently bought a Metro! In yellow! I wasn't expecting it to be worth any more money than it is now, and I do consider it to be "run of the mill" even though there might be slightly more old Balenos than Marinas.

 

On a very silly note, I did once own a brush painted Austin Princess.

[big jim]

Final figures from the remap on the mini, 225bhp at the crank, 195 at the wheels and a lot of torque throughout the Rev range 

 

 

the dotted line is the initial run figures (156bhp at the wheels), the black line is the fuelling 

[Dunsignalling]

Even sillier, a mate of my younger brothers once had an early-sixties Singer Gazelle "finished" in Paisley wallpaper. Quite well fitted around all the curved panels, too.

 

I always thought it would have been a lot easier to do on an Arrow series....

 

John

[simon b]

Might not be to everyone's tastes this one, but here's a quick pic of my modified Benz.

 

[big jim]

Gangsta! 

[boxbrownie]

12 hours ago, big jim said:

Gangsta! 

Nah.....can’t be....we can see inside the cabin.....

[Quarryscapes]

C30 No.2 After a wash. Hopefully this one is going to last long enough to do some stuff with! (Already have new Eibachh springs and the Whiteline Anti Lift Kit salvaged from my Mazda 3 to go on, just need to sort out new shocks, wishbones and Top Mounts now to assemble it all. )

[peanuts]

Spotted this in for its mot today trying to remember when i last saw one nevermind in that good condition 

[boxbrownie]

1 hour ago, peanuts said:

Spotted this in for its mot today trying to remember when i last saw one nevermind in that good condition 

And with only 45K miles it should be pretty good........I wonder how long the owner has had it?

 

It appears it has averaged about 250 miles a year for the past 15 years......with some year just a few miles.

Edited March 16, 2021 by boxbrownie

[steve1]

Owned by a little old lady who just used it to go the church on Sundays?

 

steve

[boxbrownie]

9 minutes ago, steve1 said:

Owned by a little old lady who just used it to go the church on Sundays?

 

steve

About right.......two and half miles each way to church and back every Sunday would do it......and she was never late 

Edited March 16, 2021 by boxbrownie

[Dunsignalling]

2 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

And with only 45K miles it should be pretty good........I wonder how long the owner has had it?

 

It appears it has averaged about 250 miles a year for the past 15 years......with some year just a few miles.

If the mileage pattern has been consistent, chances are the same person has owned it throughout.

 

Excuse my relative ignorance of cars with oval blue badges, but is that an XR4i? About 20 years ago one of our local PWay guys had a red one. IIRC the side windows in the back were in two sections with an intermediate pillar.

 

John

[monkeysarefun]

Can I ask what it is and why does it need so many rear spoilers?

 

 

[stewartingram]

Not spoilers - they are 'pram handles', used for pushing it (well it is a Ford).

 

Stewart

[Dunsignalling]

2 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Can I ask what it is and why does it need so many rear spoilers?

 

 

If it's what I think it is, there's a 2.9 litre Cosworth V6 under the bonnet and 4wd.

 

John