Late to the party, but family fleet

"BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires" (biturbo228) 09/02/2014 at 09:14 • Filed to: Family Fleet

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Ours is a little substantive...

Mine:

- 1999 Alfa 156 V6 . Great car, probably best all-round car I've driven. Was my main DD for about 5 years. Taught me just how fun cars can be :) currently waiting on replacement of the headers to be driven a lot again.

- 1992 Jaguar XJ40 4.0l . Current main DD, stunning car as well, great mix of old-school and modern touches. Driven it for ~5000 miles so far, and it's been excellent.

- 1974 Triumph Spitfire MkIV . Main project, will be a 226bhp/ton lightweight monster when I'm finished (2.5l injected Triumph I6, various lightweight bits to offset the weight and suspension mods to take the extra speed).

- 1994 BMW E36 325i . Another great car, every bit the equal of the Alfa but in different ways. Bought from my mate as an MOT failure for £300, driven for 3 months, crashed and nearly repaired (all in one piece, but the junkyard radiator I've got leaks and the thermostat is stuck).

- 1996 Lada Niva . Ludicrous thing. Bit of a project when we bought it, but driveable. Drove it around until the steering box broke. Fixed that and drove it around until the front diff blew. Currently awaiting replacement of that :) will be driven on the road, despite the feeling of dread it will impart the driver, any passengers and any innocent bystanders that happen to be in the vicinity.

- 1988 Fiat X1/9 . Accidentally bought for £330 from eBay (lowball bid that stuck). Was squashed by a tree last Christmas and awaiting parting out. Real shame and I want another :)

- 1989 Jaguar XJ40 3.6l . Oldest project, had since I was 18. Was swapping out the auto-box for a 5-speed when it was squashed by the same tree as did the Fiat. Currently awaiting parting out.

My dad's:

- 2003 Alfa 156 JTD Sportwagon . My dad's current DD. Nice car, been through a few turbos but we reckon that's the garage we took it to buying cheap reconned turbos. Feels every bit as powerful as the V6, but that's only the feel of the torque. It's definitely not as quick.

- 1990 Maserati 228 . DD' by my dad for a number of years, left for too long and started to go rusty, will be restored. It's this car that leads me to believe that the reputation of the Biturbo is unfounded, certainly in the later injected cars. It's at 116k, never had a major fault, never let him down and still starts fine after sitting for extended periods of time.

- 1970 Porsche 914/6 . Was owned by my great uncle, who drove it to Iraq and back without an oil change, spinning a bearing in the crank. My dad got it for free, machined out the spun bearing seat, fitted an oversized bearing from some lorry engine and drove it for quite a while. I used to love it when my sister was ill in primary school as I could get taken to school in it :) currently needs new rear calipers, a respray on the bootlid and an idle-jet fixing on the carbs.

- 1949 MG TC . Bought by my grandad as a wooden shell on the back of a flatbed. Built up from that into a really nice example. Still in good condition, but we really need to build a garage to keep it in soon or else it'll start deteriorating.

- not sure of year, maybe 2002 Ford Transit . White van, ubiquitous and useful for picking up big parts like bonnets :) could probably fit the whole Spitfire tub in the back

My Sister's Boyfriend's

- 2001 Peugeot 106 GTi . White non-sunroof, reasonable amount of engine work and lowered suspension. Absolutely flies. Currently off the road while getting together bits to convert it to ITBs. Looking for 180-220bhp and a bit of a track-weapon.

- 2002 Peugeot 406 Coupe HDi . Diesel with a rather good remap. Up from 131bhp to ~200bhp, and a whole lot more torque. Bloody fast. Definitely faster than the Alfa V6 and BMW. Gorgeous, gorgeous car too. All for £1800 :)

- 1999 Peugeot 106 GTi . His old GTi, needs new shocks but apart from that driveable. Off the road though. Can you tell he likes Peugeots?

- Kawasaki Zephyr 750 . His nice bike. Great condition and bloody quick.

- Yamaha XT600E . His daily bike. Currently being converted piecemeal to a SuperMoto while being ridden frequently.

- Yamaha DT125LC . His first bike. I think he plans on restoring it, but I'm fairly certain he has difficulty letting it go (which seems to be a household trait).

Other family members (less cool-car oriented)

- 2002 MG ZR . My sister's old car. Blew a head gasket (K-Series is prone to it with the stock gasket). She drove it around for a while, which in an engine that really doesn't tolerate overheating probably means it's dead. She wants to keep it and swap a new engine in.

- Nissan Almera . My sister's current car. Who cares about year, it's an Almera. Thoroughly bland dependable car. Nothing much else to say really.

- 2004 Honda Stream . My mum's DD. Civic-based 7-seater. Another thoroughly dependable car. I've driven it to France and back once or twice. Surprising amount of steering feel for an MPV. Tyres squeal at a hilariously low speed and when you push into the upper rev-range it sounds like the engine is mooing in distress.

- VW LT35 Horsebox . Shared by my mum and my sister. Hulking thing that's taking up valuable parking real estate ;) used fairly frequently though, so it gets a pass

- Nissan Qashqai . My Grandpa's current car. Very nice looking, but in the one ride I've had in it it felt very cheap inside. I think I might be spoilt by expensive cars bought cheaply though, as opposed to cheap cars bought expensively.

- 2002 Honda Stream . My mum's old car, and my grandpa's old car after that. Used as an interim vehicle for a while by me while the Alfa needed work. Really needs to be sold. Just taking up space.

Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 09/02/2014 at 09:21

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Jesus christ, your family is glorious.

Jobjoris > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 09/02/2014 at 09:25

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Lots of projects, not only need MOAR MONEYS, need MOAR GARAGESPACE as well I suppose! That 914/6 is awesome! LHD I suppose?

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney 09/02/2014 at 09:34

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Thanks man :) it would be better if I could convince my sister to replace her Almera and MG ZR with an MGB or an MG TF (she likes MGs, but she'd rather spend her money on horses).

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > Jobjoris 09/02/2014 at 09:50

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Yep :) we've got a plan for more garage space. There's an existing garage on our house, but it's too small and doesn't make good use of the space. We'll pull that down, lay down a big concrete base and make hopefully a 6 berth garage area (3 x 2 berths, inclusive of workspace).

At the moment, we've got nearly all of a concrete base down for my sister's boyfriend's bike garage. Then we can move his bikes out of the existing garage and pull it down :) oh, and we've also got

Just thinking about it, I'm really bloody lucky. So few people in this country have anywhere near that amount of space.

Oh, and the 914/6 is RHD :) converted by my dad at some point. Makes it a very rare 914/6! I certainly haven't seen another in RHD.

Jobjoris > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 09/02/2014 at 13:13

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I think the 'normal' 914 didn't come RHD from the factory either, that's why a lot of them were dead-cheap in the UK and re-imported to Germany early 90s. Some say there was a small RHD-series in '73. Crayford Auto Developments (Westerham, Kent) did the RHD-conversion but this conversion alone was almost as expensive as a Spitfire so that resulted in only about 40 conversions.