a small update

Jun 20, 2008 17 Replies

Well been away from here for nearly a month now,


You'll be pleased to here i didn't buy a laguna V6 or any other wonky touring car rep style car



i bought this last night instead


formatting link



formatting link



its a 1990 309 Gti 1.9 8v 146k miles with FSH rather tidy full stainless exhaust and manifold slight drop obviously the 16" hocks cam and headwork etc etc etc


few problems though :)



manifolds chuffing alarm is tempremantal(poxy clifford) one of the rear windows doesnt open and thers a bit of play in one of the track rod ends



tax and test till nov 475 pounds


still got the LCR and the octavia derv sheds just added a bit of unreliable french tat


old skool i like, i remember when i was 15-16 seeing these a lot in max power! although that one looks a bit nicer than the crap in max power back in the day

Old School!!! They only just came out recently! As did max power... Where were you all when earlier on when everything was happening?

Mmm chaved up 309 form piston heads! Good luck.

I wonder that quite often. Max Power was the end of an era. People used to tune cars to improve them, to actually make them go, handle and stop better. Cars and Car Conversions was required reading if you owned anything that could be tuned by Joe Average, David Vizard was a hero to many, and everyone who owned a Manta, Capri or Escort knew how to fix them.

When Max Power came out it all turned to s*it. "Fit neons, remove springs, fit loud exhaust (preferably with atmo dump valve and K&N hot air cone) and s**te stereo, ask any female within a mile if she takes it up the arse".

Not true, when Max Power first came out it was actually quite a good read. It wasn't till after a year or two it all went to s*it, about a year later Fast Car went the same way and C&CC died.

My Cosworth was featured in Max Power in '98. It's gone to s*it a few years before that. John Bishop? used to go out with a girl who lived right near me and I used to chat cars with him before he got into modifying, when he'd just bought his little red Nova SR. Nice lad, although he was pretty clueless at the time. Did a very nice job on that Nova - but in typical MP fashion went way overboard with it after a while.

I've still got some of the older issues in a box somewhere, any idea what month your Cosworth was in? I binned most of them but probably still have the first few years.

October '98. Although the Cosworth was listed as being 385 bhp - because I'd sold it, and they didn't bother to ask me about the spec - they appear to have guessed most of it, listing Brembo brakes etc when it was fitted with standard Cosworth ones. The spec they list is utterly comical and totally inaccurate other than they recognised some BBR bits.

formatting link
Look at the bottom right of the picture - looks like it says 385bhp Cossie Sapphire to me hehe.

formatting link
That one is in Scarborough :-)

formatting link

That's the issue, and yes, that's the car. They guessed 143 bhp out

*and* had the cheek to use a pic of the Cossie for their "buying guide" for a while afterwards.

formatting link
>

I looked at a couple of issues at the end of last year and it has improved. Featuring Hotrods, proper old modded retros and twin turbo big budget mustangs.

So some hope yet? I used to love Street Machine magazine. Guess its gone the way of the Dodo as I've not seen it for years. Custom Car is still out there but it was always a poor relation.

Street Machine was great, but Tony Thackray went off to Spain to make toy cars or something, someone else started a "Classic American" type mag, and SM ended up being a joke. I think it died a few years ago.

Classic American is what is left of Street Machine. CA started as a column, then a standalone, then they merged under the CA brand.

If you can find it, Retro Cars Mag is back. First issue is out now this month. I haven't found one yet.

For just your normal performance cars, Performance Car magazine is pretty good if you can find it anywhere.

formatting link
The Long Termers are just normal blokes' cars (couple of guys from ClioSport are contributors, one with a new 08 Scooby STI (the new shape)).

MSAs have them in. In fact MSAs seem to be a great source of any car mag you can't find in shops.

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required