6 Cars in One Year - A New Year's Reflection

"Autohaus Derp" (autohausderp) 01/04/2016 at 18:10 • Filed to: Car Histories, Miata

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It just dawned on me while reading !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! that I have owned/registered a few cars in the past year. Six to be exact! In two countries. Here’s the rundown with a quick review of each.

Start of 2015 (in the UK): 2 Cars

Car #1: 2006 Polo TDI 1.9 TDI PD130 (aka Bandito)

Owned Feb 2014-April 2015

Mad little car this was, it had very much Jekyll and Hyde personalities. It was an excellent DD, with a six speed gearbox, climate control and cruise, good for over 60mpg (UK gallons).

I remapped it to ~170bhp/300lbft, and it would suprise a lot of things on the road! I do miss this thing a lot. Only sold it when I confirmed my departure to the states.

Car #2: 2007 Subaru Impreza WRX GB270

Owned November 2014-February 2015

Suffice to say, one of the quickest and rarest cars I’ve ever owned. A limited edition for the UK market with a bunch of prodrive goodies , this car was no. 199 of a limited run of 300 cars. Insurance for me as a guy in his 20s was killer though, and I had to sell it to make way for...

Car #3: 1994 Eunos Roadster (aka Yellow)

Owned February 2015-Present

Probably my favourite car I’ve ever owned. Imported by my Dad from Japan in 1999, he whacked on a supercharger and used it as a track toy for over 15 years, melting pistons like they were going out of fashion. Now running a very tame tune and a forged bottom end, she is currently being looked after by my family in the UK until she can be imported over here. I will be going back to the UK every now and then, and each trip will include conditioning maintennace to make sure she’s ok!

Car #4: 1997 Volkswagen Polo 1.0 (aka Nurple)

Owned May 2015-July 2015

As soon as I confirmed I would be going to the US, and the DHS decided to let me in, I had to get rid of a lot of my personal posessions, pretty much everything except Yellow had to go, so I sold my Daily (el Bandito), and bought a short term runaround - enter Nurple, the £300 Polo.

Now this was probably the most fun and rewarding car experience I ever had. After buying the car I decided to use it to raise some money for a good cause - and do some crazy crap to it for laughs too. So, I decided to “Rat” it, and auction it off for charity when done - raising money for the hospice that looked after my Grandmother when she passed away the previous year. I documented t !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (where it was subjected to a bit of flaming, but that’s beside the point) should you wish to take a look.

The finished car is below:

The roof rack was made from a pallet, the roof itself was wrapped with wood-effect vinyl, and just about everything on it was DIY or donated by friends from the car scene. Checkout the youtube vidoes if you want to see some of the excellent bodges that went into the car.

Pictured next to my Dad’s Chesil Speedster for contrast:

I had so much fun ruining that car, and the final auction raised £880 for the Weldmar Hospice Trust. Sold it a week before I got on the plane.

Car #5: 1986 Chevrolet Camaro V6 (aka Kaylog)

Owned July 2015-Present

As soon as I got to the USA, I was fed up of being car-less, and more importantly, not having a toy car to mess with, and go to meets in etc. My one brief when choosing this car? Had to be something I couldn’t get in the UK, and manual.

Yes it’s a V6 and it is very, very slow. But it is very clean and rust free, and has a nice aftermarket exhaust, so the noise keeps me amused for now.

I also used this car in Rally North America’s Ohio Valley 700 during October. Here she is in full rally gear.

The car performed perfectly during the 1,300 mile trip, and helped us raise $1,000 for the Epilepsy Foundation of Western Ohio.

She’s currently in storage away from all the nasty nasty road salt. (Yay Michigan!)

Car #6: 2015 Ford Escape (aka Ferd Escurp)

September 2015-Present

Meh.

This was a lease takeover from a colleague who left the country. The 1.6 ecoboost is not the way to go. It has a mightycarmods sticker on it now. At least it’s 4wd!

End of the year: 3 Cars, 2 in storage in different countries.

So that is my year in car ownership. Certainly varied, but far from dull. With the exception of the Ferd Escurp. That is pure dull.

Comments welcome! Can anybody beat 6 cars in 2015?

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > Autohaus Derp 01/04/2016 at 18:18

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I love it.

Leon711 > Autohaus Derp 01/04/2016 at 18:23

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I miss Polos. so much.

I take it you gert a jerb in the US now? is it in the industry?

Autohaus Derp > Leon711 01/04/2016 at 18:30

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I don’t really miss them TBH! I think after owning 4 I’m done with that experience, haha. Yes my job is in t’industry here, actually with the same company I was with in the UK for 3 years prior.

TheJWT > Autohaus Derp 01/04/2016 at 18:44

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Thanks for the shout out! I’m pretty jealous of all those cars haha!

(Okay, maybe not the Escape... The plane behind it is pretty rad though...)

pjhusa > Autohaus Derp 01/04/2016 at 18:49

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Did you come at your own will?

Autohaus Derp > pjhusa 01/05/2016 at 08:55

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I did actually! The career opportunity was very important to me and I fought very hard for it.

Autohaus Derp > TheJWT 01/05/2016 at 08:55

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You’ve got to be the only one in the world who’s jealous of Nurple the polo!

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Autohaus Derp 01/07/2016 at 15:03

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Fantastic.