Now a fully paid member of the hairdress club! (new car)

AtomicBanana

AtomicBanana

AtomicBanana

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Joined
28 Sep 2003
Posts
1,724
Location
Leamington Spa
So after 4 years of driving a 1996 1.2 clio, I have finally purchased a new car!







Only a few quick snaps, as I just can't stop driving it long enough to get any decent shots!

What can I say, this car has blown my mind after driving my boring Clio for 4 years. I've already had it sideways round a few mini round abouts late at night. Such an amazing feeling, so much feedback; I know exactly what's going on, when the back is going to come out and it makes me feel like a driving god even though I am clearly not. Roof down + after market exhaust sounds lovely too! Had it out in a wet car park the other day as well, drifting around within minutes with a grin ear to ear!

The combination of good handling + decent tyres is pretty mind blowing (my Clio is on ditch finder specials), I just throw it into corners 20mph faster than I think I can go, and it just grips without a touch of tire squeel.







Have I also mentioned pop-up headlights are the coolest things in the whole world? :D Now I'm not driving the battered clio, may even try to make the motors meet...
 
No worries, I forgot a lot of the stuff I was going to post actually!

The car is a 1991 mk1 1.6. I paid £1850, with a spare set of wheels (with decent tires) and a decat pipe, which I may fit later. There's only a few minor niggles which many of them get for this age; few tears in the roof (but it's been raining solid last few days I've been out and it's completely dry inside), electric windows are slow (but do work) and the headlights don't pop up when you try and flash them (but they will pop up with the button and flash normally from then onwards). All tiny niggles that aren't too difficult to fix.

Me and a friend are doing the student breakaway in it, can't wait!
 
:D RWD for the first time is a great feeling,but spend as much time on wet carparks as possible so you learn what it's gonna do, when it catches you when you dont want it to it's handy to be instinctive with it :)

Tom.
 
:D
AtomicBanana said:
No worries, I forgot a lot of the stuff I was going to post actually!

The car is a 1991 mk1 1.6. I paid £1850, with a spare set of wheels (with decent tires) and a decat pipe, which I may fit later. There's only a few minor niggles which many of them get for this age; few tears in the roof (but it's been raining solid last few days I've been out and it's completely dry inside), electric windows are slow (but do work) and the headlights don't pop up when you try and flash them (but they will pop up with the button and flash normally from then onwards). All tiny niggles that aren't too difficult to fix.

Me and a friend are doing the student breakaway in it, can't wait!
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Fantastic choice ;)

Slow electric windows is usually due to aged rubber seals restricting the glass. Fix this with some silicon spray (I think) before the motor and linkages get put under too much pressure and fail.

You need the flash pop up mod for them to pop up when you pull back on the stalk. It isn't standard on older models.

Enjoy it! :D
 
rG-tom said:
:D RWD for the first time is a great feeling,but spend as much time on wet carparks as possible so you learn what it's gonna do, when it catches you when you dont want it to it's handy to be instinctive with it :)

Tom.
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Indeed. The interesting thing is my 'training' in Live For Speed with my g25 seems to have paid off somewhat ;) I also did a day in an mx-5 like mine at 'Drift Academy' at Silverstone. I was hooked, to think I had to wait over a year to get my own!

Luckily this limited training seems to have helped; not to go into too much detail but there were one or two cars in the carpark (empty other than that) and I ended up briefly heading straight for one. Luckily I did the right thing and corrected it. But that was more than enough for me to calm down, tell myself off, and start looking for some track/drift days to go on instead! I will also try and seek some *completely* empty car parks this time :o

You need the flash pop up mod for them to pop up when you pull back on the stalk. It isn't standard on older models.
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Ah, thanks for that! It was an issue I was going to look up today as I wasn't 100% on how this changed over the years.
 
Nice! why does your handbrake though appear to have a case of the major erection!
 
Hahaha! Many years of being over zealous with my handbrake on the clio :S I'm gradually getting used to the fact that this one actually works, and doesn't need to be pulled up quite so much :o
 
Git!.... :mad:

I want one!.... :(

And when My Divorce becomes final and I sell me Civic I'm getting one!!! :D

Nice one Dood!!!... :cool:
 
Nice, if somewhat pants alloys! After 2.5 years or so I still love mine and dont plan to ever sell it. If I really crave more performance I might eventually supercharge or turbo. Nothing beats nailing these round bends.
 
mrmoose said:
My best mate picked up his mx5 yesterday. Red, p reg, 1.8, for 1500notes.
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Prices have hit an all time low even for the 1.8 When I bought my R plate Mk1 1.8 in Feb 2006. I paid £2500. At the time this was a stunning deal. Now the Mk1 1.8 starts from just £1400. Part of it is the economic downturn I think with few people moving to "expensive" sports cars. In reality the MX5 is dirt cheap to run and fuel is not an issue. Unless you cain it all the time it will return fuel economy in line with any other 1.8 engine really.
 
mattpc said:
Prices have hit an all time low even for the 1.8 When I bought my R plate Mk1 1.8 in Feb 2006. I paid £2500. At the time this was a stunning deal. Now the Mk1 1.8 starts from just £1400. Part of it is the economic downturn I think with few people moving to "expensive" sports cars. In reality the MX5 is dirt cheap to run and fuel is not an issue. Unless you cain it all the time it will return fuel economy in line with any other 1.8 engine really.
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Im thinking of saving up and buying one now. We're driving down through europe and back next month so should be a right laugh. We are both a little worried though as we thought the boot would be a bit bigger.
 
LSPIII said:
Yay! Another person on this forum joining in. See you at registration!
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I think I may start a thread very soon! Seen a few people from here mention it... I'm going to be a bit of a loner otherwise!

Nothing hair dresser about that. It's a classic ! Enjoy
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Hehe, I do actually trust the majority of Motors to know they are actually decent little cars, amazingly I've not had anyone make any hairdresser comments at all, which is a pleasant surprise. Though really, after I rode around a 125 'rat bike' for 6 months and loved every minute of it, I realised I didn't care what anyone thought at all :D
 
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Aye, I'm sure it will. Though I'm sure most of the time simply asking them 'Have you actually driven one?' will shut them up ;) That or a quick drift around the nearest roundabout!
 
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