The Hangar Motoring Thread

[Beerfish]

Not really a thread for motor sport per se. More a thread for your experiences motoring. Talk about your car. Talk about cars you've had. Talk about cars you'd like to have. Bad driver stories. Encounters with car sales people, trades good and awful.

Ready, set, go!

 

[Doss]

+road trips, without it becoming a travel thread.

I've done two in my life. 18 days driving around most of Tasmania. Took the car over on the boat. Then around South Island for ten days two years ago. Got another nine day trip to South Island in April.

Both amazing places to go for a driving holiday.

I've owned three cars. I bought a 1996 Mazda 626 in 2006 when I got my licence. Was a manual. Good car, but written off in 2008 when I was sandwiched on Bell Street. Luckily I was only slightly hurt.

Replaced that with a 2001 2.6L V6 Holden Vectra, and got almost seven years out of it. Was a great car to drive, but in the end it just died.

Fiancé and I then jointly bought a 2010 Peugeot 308 in early 2015 to replace it. It's going well.

Dream car would be C63AMG.

 

[Beerfish]

I'm planning to post later this evening after the draft with pics and several sherberts under the belt.

 

[tesla1962]

nice thread
this is the car i have always wanted, just 122 of them made
impractical i know, and the antithesis of my standard issue white hilux
#carporn

 

[Beerfish]

nice thread
this is the car i have always wanted, just 122 of them made
impractical i know, and the antithesis of my standard issue white hilux
#carporn

Looks like Tubbs' car from Miami Vice. Ferrari Daytona Spyder?

 

[tesla1962]

Yeah, there is just something about Ferraris IMO

 

[Howard Moon]

There is no love affair quite as rich or lasting as a young man and his first car.That car for me was my midnight blue TE Cortina with the grey vinyl roof.





I loved that thing with every fibre of my being, not just because it took me places, but because it did it against all odds, it was a fighter. We had been through much together and come out the other side better people, me, and Doug (that was his name). its true we have to move on to bigger and better cars, but it was with great regret for me when i became Douglas.

Lets begin at the start. My friend used to work at Bi-LO,when we were 16, we had an idol, he was an older guy of around 20 who was too cool for school. He had a TE cortina, midnight blue, lowered to within an inch of its life, grey lambs wool set covers front AND back, personalised plates.. it was da bomb. ...and the way he drove it was pure skill, he used to feather the handbrake round the wet roundabouts, he could land it in a shoe box.

So years pass and i turn 18, get my licence not long aftet and progess to flailing mums boatlike kingswood around the place.. but it didnt feel right, it wasnt mine. i hapened to run into old mate down the shops who was now driving a burgundy LTD, we got to talking and i said i always loved that cortina of yours.. oh really he said? do you want it? its clapped out and needs work but $500 and its yours. I didnt ask any questions, i was no mechanic, i was just a whistful kid who wanted that car! SOLD.

i drove it home, it wasnt as it used to be, it maybe had 3 of 4 cyclinders working, it was on deaths door, i drove it down the driveway and parked it under the carport... it didnt move for 6 months. Sometimes i would just sit in it and listen to the radio - i had no real motivation to fix it and truth be known i didnt know how so i gave up. Dad said he wanted it moved one day, We have a steep inclined driveway, we attached a rope and began to tow it up, rope snapped...doug broke free and was freewheeling down the drive - no brakes (i cant actually rememer why it had no brakes?) doug was picking up speed fast, he was either going to go thru the gate, travesere the backyard and demolish the back fence, or i could take aggressive action. I Turned the wheel and hit the carport upright which snapped like a twig, but we came to a stop. I was devo.. my car!... i shouldnt have been, not a single bit of damage, Doug was made of sterner stuff.

But that was the wakeup call, dad said it was time to get this thing going. Next door lived a mechanic, we went to the wreckers together and purchased a 250 xflow out of an old falcon. "this thing will fly!" he said. so we set about fitting the large 250 where the small 4 cyclinder once lived. It was a tough gig, the mounting plates where the transmission bolts up wouldnt line up, we had to bolt up thru the floor cowboy style.

Doug now had an engine! no exhaust or extranctors yet... but it was the first time we gave him life, put the screwdriver across the starter motor points, BOOOMM what a sound, he lives! Neighbour fanged it up the road, so loud, so primal.. thats an untethered muscle car right ther, and its mine!!

Dont get excited he said, we will probably never get this thing registered, without a proper engineers certificate. Ill fix that he said. At the footy club we had a guy, bald, biker beard.. he could get anything you needed, anything. He mate i said, roadworthy? $400, letterbox, Tuesday.

I had a roadworthy.

I got extractors fitted and a resionator on the back, Doug just hummed, such a great note. It was apparent that previous owner never quite lowered the car properly, he just cut 2 coils off the springs, it must be said the 250xflow was much heavier... Doug would just sag and bottom out on most speed humps, but man, he looked so sick! like he was eating the road. He had the black darth vader front grill from the next model along, the unpolished alloys.

Doug and Moon were ready to fulfil a strong and lasting relationship..

He had some deep down flaws but I chose to concentrate on physical appearance. I'd go to kmart every day looking for another contraption... We had halogen fog lamps, air horns... The battery meter would drop to zero when I'd blow the horn.... The paint was beginning to look shabby so I bought 10 cans of midnight blue touch up paint and repeatedly did the entire duco (looked as good as it sounds)

But the flaws! First of all the valve stem seals were shot, it would blow a massive cloud of smoke on starting, looked bad but no real issue. The windscreen wipers didht work, I used some solution on the screen that made the water drops fly off.

First week I didht really attach the battery in properly, I was a bit close enough is good enough... I came flying around a corner then the car just went dead and smoke belowed out from the bonnet. What the?

The battery had come loose and shorted or earthed, it burnt out the fuseable link.

It was a rocky beginning.



to be continued....

 

[Beerfish]

Love it Howie. You never disappoint when on topic.

 

[Lore]

I just nearly got sandwiched on the freeway. There's two lanes, fairly steady amount of traffic in the left one (where I was). I was boxed in because someone was trying to overtake when three idiots come down the on-ramp, the second tailgating the first, who was pacing off the guy ahead of me, and the third one directly beside me. Normally I'll jump in the right lane and make space for everyone, but because I was being overtaken at the time I had nowhere to go, I couldn't brake heavily because of the person behind me and the other merging traffic. Trying to figure out what the guy next to me is going to do so I can get out of his way because if we both do the same thing we're stuffed (really I shouldn't have to do anything because his lane ends and it's not a zip merge, but he hadn't accounted for the gaps in the existing traffic and it was either work together or collide). Meanwhile the people in front attempt to have an accident as well and you don't know if they're suddenly going to brake while the guy next to me accelerates into the gap in front of me or something. Ergh Ended up on the horn-that-I-never-use and lateral positioning to the right of my lane because the on-ramp was ending and there was a barrier (and that guy wasn't slowing down at all, he was coming in whether we liked it or not). The overtaking guy probably freaked out a bit and made space for me so I moved in behind him and left the rest to sort their own s**t out. And I had Mum in the car with me as well, as if you need someone else panicking when something like that happens.

If the three of them had gotten up to speed on the on-ramp, maintained a safe gap and merged around the existing traffic that never would've happened –.–

 

[Beerfish]

I need to get a dash cam. Everyone needs a dash cam.

 

[eth-dog]

I currently drive a Suzuki Swift. It's a pretty good little car.

Dream car is a Lambo

 

[Beerfish]

Dream car is a Lambo

What kind of Lambo?

 

[eth-dog]

What kind of Lambo?

Huracan Coupe.

 

[Beerfish]

Huracan Coupe.

I can't go past the Contach myself. Old as the hills now but still would prefer over the newer ones.

 

[eth-dog]

I can't go past the Contach myself. Old as the hills now but still would prefer over the newer ones.

Yeah, fair enough. I'll probably never be able to afford one, but it's nice to dream.

 

[Beerfish]

Yeah, fair enough. I'll probably never be able to afford one, but it's nice to dream.

Same. A friend of mine's dad had a Uracco for a time when he was a kid. His dad was one of those guys that bought cars overseas, had them shipped back here and then on sold them. I hadn't even heard of them before but suffice to say any Lambo is going to be pretty special.

 

[DapperDon]

Is this the place to discuss motorboating?

 

[Beerfish]

Is this the place to discuss motorboating?

No. GTFO.

 

[DapperDon]

 

[sameolds33]

Not a car person but love driving holidays. This song, one of the best. The Triffids' Wide Open Road. Music thread?

 

[Beerfish]

Legend.

 

[Howard Moon]

No room for joshys Green machine in here?

 

[Lore]

No room for joshys Green machine in here?

I doubt it's a manual, but if it is do you reckon he coasts in neutral?

 

[Howard Moon]

What's neutral?

He just knows of n d and r

 

[Doss]

I need to get a dash cam. Everyone needs a dash cam.

I may actually invest in one of these for the New Zealand road trip.