XSeries-forum

[quote=""CondorX5""]Had a Nissan Patrol......................did nearly 300 000 miles in it in total and only had to replace a clutch plate!!! [/quote]


Now that is a very impressive reliability testimonial.

[quote=""AW8""][quote=""CondorX5""]Had a Nissan Patrol......................did nearly 300 000 miles in it in total and only had to replace a clutch plate!!! [/quote]


Now that is a very impressive reliability testimonial.[/quote]

It was a fantastic vehicle - well built, easy to maintain, no complicated electronics to go wrong, but still very luxurious and comfortable for the time (1994)- and NOTHING, absolutely nothing, ever stopped it going anywhere....dropping down into dry river beds, terrain that even mountain goats found hard going, mountain rescues - managed a good way up places with no roads!!! Trouble was, it was huge and ponderous - fine in wide open spaces like where we were in remote African terrain, but back in blighty it wasn't much fun in little town centres, parking (anywhere) except a truck park! and it was manual - with health and mobility issues it became difficult for my partner to use, so the time came to say good bye Lots of memories with that car......it was kitted out for Mountain Rescue and as a kind of Medic-on-the-Move vehicle and it came in very handy in the course of my work as a solo practitioner for a quarter of a million patients (and our GPs whinge at 3000 people on their caseload )!!!! Must seek out some pics amidst stunning scenery, its quite impressive looking all-white with loads of chrome and a huge Aussie bullbar which actually saved our lives when we hit a cow wafting over the road in thick fog, plus the car was unscathed except for the bullbar and we were able to drive on instead of collapsing at the roadside with smashed radiator and the rest. Oh those were the days.....another story for another time!!! Wish we had digital pics then......

I'm very lucky, I decided at 19 to go to sea to become a deck officer. bveing a car nut I splashed out at the age of 22 (year 2000) on :



next was



then bought a house so needed to free some funds



speed was needed a year later



needed another BMW



which led to a need for slickness



and now the fleet, soon to be replaced by an E53 and hopefully a 996 turbo! Am 33 now

I do like the 5

A lovely set of cars finnie

1974 'M' Reg VW Type III 'Fastback'. I passed my test in July 1980 and bought this for £700 two weeks later. It was rear engined, heating system ran off the exhaust, windscreen washers were powered from the spare tyre - which had to be kept at 46psi - and there was a boot at both ends. I never got used to a petrol tank in front of me. There was no servo on the brakes making emergency stops very scary.

It could just about get to 70mph although the even red lined at 3,800rpm!! For a first car it was great as it was built like a tank but proved very reliable.

One lasting memory I have is going to college one freezing January morning and the hose feed from the washer bottle, which came in to a needle valve in the steering column, came off and dumped two litres of freezing screenwash mix straight in my lap! It takes litte imagination to know what that looked like, and it felt worse. No one believed my story at college until I proved the connections to them.

I followed that one with a 1978 Vauxhall Cavalier Sportshatch (written off by a Merc), a 1985 Opel Manta GT/E, 1991 Vauxhall Calibra, 1992 Mk3 Cavalier SRI, and 3 Skoda Octavia Estates. I was working for Surrey Police in the 1980's and got to play with all sorts of interesting toys. Their mechanics taught me all I know about maintenance and I've been forever grateful fot their efforts. I also had the dubious pleasure of a Maestro as a company car (it was rubbish!), a Peugeot 309 Diesel(no turbo!) and an excellent Montego SLX Diesel.

Saab 99. BBO 312L. 1972. 1985 cc single carb engine. Cloth seats, heated air to rear screen, folding rear seat and luxury of luxuries: heated drivers seat!

Peter T

[quote=""petert""]Saab 99. BBO 312L. 1972. 1985 cc single carb engine. Cloth seats, heated air to rear screen, folding rear seat and luxury of luxuries: heated drivers seat!

Peter T[/quote]
You like your heated seats don't you

oh yes - it was a rarity to have on a 1972 car and my mates and Uni were suitably gobsmacked. Now I'm in Canada I've went for the heated steering wheel as well! Funny how sometimes the smaller accessories add much more perceived value than the more expensive ones.

Peter T

My first car was a Nova SR. It started off silver but I soon had the bright idea to spray it skip yellow...which led to me getting pulled by the police at least twice a week!
I thought that 1.3 litres was a colossal size for an engine back in the day - as all of my mates only had measly 998cc fiesta's etc

The passenger footwell was always wet through and on one occasion two 6in mushrooms appeared over the space of a weekend

I owned it for about nine months and "upgraded" to the Nova GTE - Classy

I remember them my friend had a gsi, and sprayed it pineapple yellow, and then cut the springs to lower it, lol, looked great, but jumped around all over the place sure i got a pic somewhere will try and dig it out.