Tell us about your first fast car experiences

[Bobby Dazzler]

It was a great job. I often used to tell myself how lucky I was to be able to drive so many fabulous cars and get paid for the privilege. Admittedly the pay was just peanuts, but I didn’t care. I got to meet quite a few celebrities, mostly footballers, when delivering cars to them. Most of the time I had one of the cars for travelling to and from work because there was rarely enough room on site for all of them. Turning up at home in a Rolls Royce or brand new 911 got the neighbours’ curtains twitching. When I pitched up in this one day a fellow petrolhead neighbour walked over and simply said “Bastard” before walking away

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Brilliant! You deserved his comment too coming home in such a stunning car!

The F355 is one of my all time favourite cars, sporty looks but graceful lines.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

My first drive in a fast car was my mates dads MG Maestro Turbo when I was 19. 150 bhp but 60 in 6.5, so no slouch.

The first fast car I owned was a Capri 2.8i. First time I also went over a ton in. 125 on the M40.

The MG Maestro Turbo was properly fast in it’s day, one of the very quickest hot hatches, if not *the* quickest hot hatch at the time.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

What is the hold plumbers have over people?
Last summer my mate Don had promised his plumber who is doing work on both his house and business premises that he would provide a special car to take his son to the school Prom. On the day, he found he was supposed to be somewhere else and so asked me to be chauffeur for him.
I duly took the lad to the venue and managed to let the car off the lead very briefly on the Crewe southern bypass on the way.
We really scored top trumps on arrival machinery and left a lucky young man deeply impressed in front of all his peers. Plumb crazy!

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...and what have I got to chauffeur it?

You never disappoint!

Proms these days are crazy, the cars which turn up are ridiculous, and it seems that it’s your fault rocking up in the XJ220, everyone else had to raise their game!

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Talk of the Cougar reminds me of another Ford coupe that was similarly underrated, the Ford Probe. I think it looked better than the Cougar that succeeded it. I had a Probe for a while about 20 years ago and I thought its looks were quite stunning. The 2.6 V6 engine was not bad either but the build quality was maybe not up to European standards.

I sold it to a couple of guys from Belarus. We met at the vehicle registration office at 9.30 in the morning and they were so drunk they kept falling over. They bought the car and I had to deliver them and the car back to their hotel .


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I also thought the Probe was a looker, and has aged really well which is unusual for a progressive design. I think it was a bit “American” in it’s design/setup for UK tastes, which is a shame because it served to do better than it did.

 

[gaz_l]

Talk of the Cougar reminds me of another Ford coupe that was similarly underrated, the Ford Probe. I think it looked better than the Cougar that succeeded it. I had a Probe for a while about 20 years ago and I thought its looks were quite stunning. The 2.6 V6 engine was not bad either but the build quality was maybe not up to European standards.

I sold it to a couple of guys from Belarus. We met at the vehicle registration office at 9.30 in the morning and they were so drunk they kept falling over. They bought the car and I had to deliver them and the car back to their hotel .


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^^^^^^^^

Gareth Cheeseman!

Cheers,

Gaz

 

[Deleted member 6183]

my late dad sold industrial gasses, one day he brought home a massive tanker, no idea how or why he did this but it was probably late 60s so times were different.
While not technically fast he drove us up the big hill behind where we lived, halfway back down he casually announced that he couldn’t stop now if he wanted.
That made it feel faster than I would have preferred.
A few years later he had bought a fiat 124 special T, not particularly fast but nippy. My mum and I were driving somewhere in the countryside in the fiat when a large red faced farmer type started bothering us trying to pass, mum dropped him, he was tamping so she did it again and again until we came to a village.
He went mental, mum laughed in his face and I flicked him the Vees from the back seat.

 

[anglaslt]

^^^^^^^^

Gareth Cheeseman!

Cheers,

Gaz

Glad I googled that

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[Swotty]

I think I live very close to you. Is your Vette white & did you used to play golf with Tony M******L of Les Encabanes?

I'm in dept 47 ... are you in the Lot (46)?

Sorry, the 'vette is bright red ... I believe the white ones (or is it yellow?) were special editions.

 

[Swotty]

My first drive in a fast car was my mates dads MG Maestro Turbo when I was 19. 150 bhp but 60 in 6.5, so no slouch.

The first fast car I owned was a Capri 2.8i. First time I also went over a ton in. 125 on the M40.

I had a Montego turbo from '86 - '88 ... had the same engine, I believe? Looked the business (black with huge red turbo logos ). Went O.K. in a straight line but had terrible torque steer. Funnily enough, I didn't see that as a really quick car at the time. Sold it to get my first company car .... an XR3i.

 

[Deleted member 113659]

I had a Montego turbo from '86 - '88 ... had the same engine, I believe? Looked the business (black with huge red turbo logos ). Went O.K. in a straight line but had terrible torque steer. Funnily enough, I didn't see that as a really quick car at the time. Sold it to get my first company car .... an XR3i.

And along the same lines, I remember the Rover 600Ti. There was one in the local Rover dealer when I was a teen. It was British racing green. Lovely wide (at the time) silver alloys with ultra low profile tyres. It looks the dogs and I believe they were very quick. But 200bhp through the front wheels, it also suffered from silly torque steer.

 

[Teego]

I have one of these, currently being renovated. Straight 6 twin carb version of the Healey triple carb motor. Drove it back from Holland after purchasing and never went above 130 kph (80 mph in old money) but she was stable and solid at that speed and capable of more. Sadly only the 4 speed manual.

Looking forward to getting her back after the lockdown.

Ours was 3 speed manual with OVERDRIVE operated by a push-pull handle under the centre dash. Horrible thing: Lift off throttle to engage O/D, pedal to the firewall "kickdown" to revert to direct drive. And the bloody thing freewheeled when throttle lifted in O/D.

 

[SW18]

You need to see my 6’4”, immensely fat, 85 year old step-dad get out of my Porsche.

I used to have a low-slung cabrio that the grandparents liked to ride in. The best way to help them in and out was to open the roof first!

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

And along the same lines, I remember the Rover 600Ti. There was one in the local Rover dealer when I was a teen. It was British racing green. Lovely wide (at the time) silver alloys with ultra low profile tyres. It looks the dogs and I believe they were very quick. But 200bhp through the front wheels, it also suffered from silly torque steer.

The 600ti was a really wonderful car, it shared the same engine as the 800 Vitesse and 220 turbo “Tomcat”. I blooming loved those cars, the engine was fantastic.

I used to work in a bank during school holidays I’d often run errands for the Managers which meant using their cars - most of them had Rovers with that turbo engine.

I loved the Coupé and especially with the glass roof panels, and I really enjoyed hustling the huge Vitesse, but the 600ti was the sweetest handling of them all.

So much so I came very close to buying one, but whilst at the dealer I noticed the Rover 220 SDi which was just about the quickest diesel you could get before the Golf TDi 110.

There probably weren’t many 21 year olds ogling over Rivers, not knowing which to buy! I toyed with the MGF too but couldn’t resist the thrust of the 220 SDi. Great car.

 

[anglaslt]

Oh yes, a Rover 827 Vitesse. I had one of those. It was my first non-Ford and I learned for the first time what customer service really should be like. Warranty claims were dealt with without question and the car personally handed over after service. I'd never experienced that with Ford

 

[Deleted member 113659]

Oh yes, a Rover 827 Vitesse. I had one of those. It was my first non-Ford and I learned for the first time what customer service really should be like. Warranty claims were dealt with without question and the car personally handed over after service. I'd never experienced that with Ford

Just curious but I wonder if Ford and their Customer Service have improved somewhat since then? I guess they’ve all had to up their game given the competitive nature of mass car sales of the modern era.

 

[SW18]

Just curious but I wonder if Ford and their Customer Service have improved somewhat since then? I guess they’ve all had to up their game given the competitive nature of mass car sales of the modern era.

Hmm, like Merc dealers, you mean...?

 

[Deleted member 113659]

Hmm, like Merc dealers, you mean...?

Well, I’d say Fords reliability is much improved nowadays compared to the era in question. But judging by some of the opinions on the forum MB has gone the other way from their glory days before they became more focussed on mass sales?

 

[anglaslt]

Just curious but I wonder if Ford and their Customer Service have improved somewhat since then? I guess they’ve all had to up their game given the competitive nature of mass car sales of the modern era.

I would like to think so but then again it's been quite a while since I've been impressed with either MB or BMW It's a pity because it doesn't take a lot of effort to make a customer feel valued.

 

[Jobsworth]

Noel Edmond's car, do you maintain it for him?

He bought it from my pal next door to use while he was here for his court case with the bank I think. He must have liked it as he shipped it back to NZ when he had finished here. He has some trust issues with larger corporations it seems, so asked me to give it a proper service and check over before leaving Ben to button it up and get it shipped over. We toyed with the idea of a Mr Blobby key ring, but ran out of time in the end.

 

[poormansporsche]

My first supposed fast car was a MK2 Vectra 2.2 SRi. 150 bhp stock but spent shed loads on engine mods pretty much everything possible to do to a NA engine. Only topped out at 215 bhp but was like a race car engine. I had to drive around with the air con on all the time as the cams were so aggressive the car would stall under 1000 rpm. Zero torque but get it over 5000 rpm and it would scream like a banshee and embaress a lot more expensive metal. I still have a fondness for them.