Hello There!

[gan_pi]

Hello All,

I've been lurking on here and smiling to myself thinking of all the petrolhead tinkering going on across the nation.

Martin introduced me to the forum after a chat about a spirited drive around Kielder forest (btw if anyone is heading that way ensure you give yourself about a half day extra and a shed load of fuel so you can go & play, the roads are addictive over there).

Anyway, you all are probably more interested in the motor. Currently its a Ford Focus ST170, the 02 or phase 1 version that doesn't look like the demon tweeks catalogue was stuck to it by a 4 yr old I'm fairly happy with the car in stock form, the idea with this was to enjoy driving again after an A6 chunker I had previously. I bought the car whilst I was in London and it proved great to blast around outside the city, absolutely dire for town driving - lousy turning circle, heavy clutch, familiar story I'm sure. But once out on the A roads and some B roads its fantastic, grippy enough to have the passengers scared, and rapid enough to get the finger from motorbikes as I pass them ...

Prior motors?

the aforementioned A6 was a tank I grabbed when I just wanted a runabout. 198,000 ish miles on the clock, 2.5 v6 estate jobby. I could easily have lived in it, until the day when the brake pedal went to the floor on the M1 (ruptured union on n/s/r lost all fluid). Got away totally unscathed thanks to some of the driving techniques I've been taught over the years - this was some pretty extreme engine braking

Before the A6 I had an A4, the TDi version, a great motorway tourer but nowt special. Probably the most fun I had with this was seeing a wrx400 warming his tires(!?) on the slip road for the m60, so I mimicked him. the car was rolling like a dingy in a storm (yes I was considering how far I could go and kept it controlled) the guy in the scooby wasn't impressed and blasted off into the outside lane, for a moment until the inside lane undertook the outside as they were all driving like pricks - a common occurrence outside the trafford centre. the a4 came to an untimely demise when a disagreement between who had the right of way in Croydon between my germanic saloon against a frenchy van was summarily solved via the laws of physics and the n/s/r wheel was removed from the germanic in the manner of a flesh wound. given the force (wheel bearing had been snapped) I was impressed that the door was fine. this was the second 'styling reconfiguration' I'd had as previously a drunk stolen Espace tried to make the drivers door concave (with me in it) the massive strengthening bar in the door took the force and saved me - well made these auto unions! but it seems like the frenchies & germans continue to disagree on borders

Before that was my first real car, le ooh la la Nicole Clio. one in the 1.4 RT guise, god I had fun in that PoS and the prior owner had been an RAF pilot - he apparently drove it the length of the country a couple of times a month only on motorways. the thing ran beautifully (for a frenchy) but everything else was falling off it! this car got one of my first daft mods when I spend several hundred hours putting a carputer into the boot, back in the days when you simply couldn't get mp3 on a ICE rig I had a laptop running a custom dash display with 2 weeks worth of music. these days you can do this with a £15 stereo from Aldi!

Probably the most fun car I've ever had though was the first (unreal ie off road non-legal) car. this was a XR2i MoT failure that I bought for £60 it ran but the steering was out, emissions shot, most electrics kaka, brakes unbalanced, tires illegal, windscreen cracked. properly a case of 'one careless prior owner'. via some neat deals I swapped the nicer xr2 bits with a friend who was doing up a fiesta. this got it stripped down to essentials and skinny wheels before taking it to some private ground and learning to rally drive in it. there are a few parts of a fiesta that may not appear to be important but bloody well are! the rear seat for example....taking it out massively changed the handling (a friend swears that the back of the car was flexing once removed!?). the exhaust was removed with the surgical precision that can only be achieved when combining a failed series of brackets, a pothole and 40mph in reverse (that went with a bang) and a few others. this car was a real laugh, handbrake turns forwards and backwards, blasting around and generally doing everything you shouldn't with a car until the final destruction party. on stripping the engine down afterwards I have never seen anything like it - pieces missing from pistons, the crank was scorched, one valve missing totally. once you've learn how to break em, you can figure out how to fix em

The Focus is ok, but nowt special and beginning to show signs of Ford build quality (another post shortly on that)...I'm on the lookout for a new motor. I love going mountain biking and wild camping so need to lug some gear from time to time which the focus isn't good for. so I'm after a rwd or 4wd estate. Seeing Haydn's GTB has gotten me considering one, alternatives are the BMW straight 6 models (older version - i hate this concave curve approach they have now) or if I were to see a volvo 850 t5 I wouldn't say no.

cheers guys,

[tommo]

What an intro!

Welcome to the boost dude, sounds like you'll fit right in!

[Andy]

Hey there Just a quick hello for now cos I'm in the pub on my fone, I'll be back later to properly read your intro!

[hadyn]

Welcome to the Boost mate.

Your post is probably the most thorough introductory post I have ever read on ANY forum.

You obviously love cars, so you've come to the right place

I also recommend the Legacy GTB completely

[Martin]

Hiya Ben... great to see you on here! Thanks for the opening post too... great read!

[kimi]

welcome

[mart609]

Hi and welcome to the boost!

[jeb]

Hello!