For those interested in "Modern Classic" Cars

[russ p]

57 minutes ago, MJI said:

 

Not sure but the 1.3 SR was not that quick, the 1.6 injection was around 100bhp, but was released after I had got a proper job.

 

The SR was only 70bhp

[Nick C]

1 hour ago, Stubby47 said:

 

Mine did 82K before I changed it for a Sierra estate. I was crossing the road in Truro sometime later when the new owner almost knocked me over - a very bizarre feeling !

 

Did yours have the white wheels or like mine just the white hub caps ?

 

I think it just had ordinary black steel wheels, the hub caps had long gone - as had the original Ford driving lights, but the brackets and wiring were still there, so it got a decent set in their place.

[Stubby47]

I'd had mine just 3 weeks when someone pulled out in front of me, resulting in a new front, bonnet, o/s wing, bumper and radiator.

The replacement lights were not the special slim versions, so eventually chipped the bonnet paint as it touched them everytime it was opened. 

Took the Ford garage longer to repair the car than I'd had it.

[Two_sugars]

The early Nova SR with the 1200cc motor was  little screamer rated at 98bhp.

When offered the choice between the Gaffer's BMW 18i or the Nova, . . I always took the Nova.

 

 

John

[peanuts]

19 hours ago, russ p said:

 

 

Wasn't the nova sport over 100bhp with the optional irmisher cam kit making it the most powerful nova but from a 1300. 

One last year sold for over £65000 

the sport was way over 100 horses fantastic chukable little pocket rocket iirc the EU version badged as a corsa could be had with an irmsher   fuel  injection kit  . can understand why it went for that price ! 

 

the 1.2 novas were used for the "nova challenge" a mixed rally ,hillclimb,sprint , championship winner usualy got a works car for the RAC rally most ran the little hatch but one guy used a saloon got loads of sponsorship 

[big jim]

Had the mini back on the dyno today with a custom bluefin ECU map loaded up and it’s now producing 218.6 bhp a rise of 8bhp over the stage 2 chip, comparing graphs it would appear that the car is fuelling a lot better at the top end compared to the stage 2 chip

 

anywya I’m happy with 218 (for now) the final mod I’m at do is swap the supercharger pulley for a 17% one which may give me another 10-15 bhp (safely)

 

 

218 bhp is 50bhp above standard as it is!

[RANGERS]

On 11/01/2020 at 23:20, russ p said:

 

I think  the SRi was 1800 which is what  the mk2  GTE was at launch with the misleading top speed of 126mph 

The SR on the launch  of astra mk2 was rare but the SRi was very rare 

I had it the opposite way round, the Mk1 SR was around from 1982 to 1985 and sold in penny numbers (it was expensive by comparison to better equipped GL models and offered no better performance). It’s immediate successor was the mk2 with the same 1.6, 90bhp carb engine which Wasn’t a big seller either and only lasted two years, so was pretty scarce. When the GTE graduated to 2.0, the SR inherited the 1.8i from the first generation of GTE cars in 1987, becoming the SRi in the process. It lasted another five years until the end of Mk2 production and spawned the Belmont/ Astra saloon in the process. They were favourites of the company car set as they were competitively priced and had the all important “i” badge. The hatchback SRi had also become available as a five door which increased the appeal.

 

 

[big jim]

My sister, as well as the Astra SRI had a cavalier SRI too, about a H reg iirc, that was stolen twice as well! 
 

saw a stunning nova GTE the other week, looked completely standard, concourse style 

Edited January 14, 2020 by big jim

[russ p]

Mk1 Astra and kadett SRs were very good looking cars possibly even better than the GTE but as stated above the engines were just the same as the rest of the range 

Some of the early ones weren't hatches but 2 doors with a small boot lid ala Audi coupe and princess. 

On the subject of modern classics I've arranged for my maestro EFi to get restored today. Got fired up before Christmas by a mint mk1 metro turbo but as I missed out on it have decided to get the maestro done. Not a massive amount of bodywork with the shell although it does require arches .

Needs a door and it's also getting a brand new never used engine 

[RANGERS]

36 minutes ago, russ p said:

Mk1 Astra and kadett SRs were very good looking cars possibly even better than the GTE but as stated above the engines were just the same as the rest of the range 

Some of the early ones weren't hatches but 2 doors with a small boot lid ala Audi coupe and princess. 

On the subject of modern classics I've arranged for my maestro EFi to get restored today. Got fired up before Christmas by a mint mk1 metro turbo but as I missed out on it have decided to get the maestro done. Not a massive amount of bodywork with the shell although it does require arches .

Needs a door and it's also getting a brand new never used engine 

Theres a nice looking MG Montego in the auction at Kings Lynn on Saturday week. The estimate of £4 - 6000 seemed a tad on the high side to my uneducated eye. Mind you, the 1500 Beetle at £2-2500 will be an absolute steal if it fetches even twice that figure.

[russ p]

15 minutes ago, RANGERS said:

Theres a nice looking MG Montego in the auction at Kings Lynn on Saturday week. The estimate of £4 - 6000 seemed a tad on the high side to my uneducated eye. Mind you, the 1500 Beetle at £2-2500 will be an absolute steal if it fetches even twice that figure.

 

Austin Rover stuff is at last starting to go up in value,  the metro turbo I was interested in wa 17k but with only 7k on the clock of an 84 car is why. It was also the last arum white mk1 on the road but then there are only six of any colour 

Problem was most got scrapped to donate their engines to minis but very few actually got installed as once people realised it wasn't straight forward they got binned

[Quarryscapes]

I used to Rally a Nova 1,4SR (mk2) which was quite a mish mash of bits. Standard 14NV Block, Head from an early 1.2 (increases compression ratio), inlet from a 1.3 Astra to mate it it to my existing  Weber twin barrel carb and a Kent Camshaft. Suspension was stiffened and lowered and it carried an OMP 6 point Roll Cage. Then I binned the anti roll bar and dropped the front tie rods. To top it off, I rattle canned it yellow. To date I haven't driven a hot hatch as can come close to agility of that little rust bucket. 

[MJI]

Best handling hatch I have driven came from a Scottish factory and had forest springs fitted.

 

I remember following a Mondeo once on the way to work wondering why its inside rear wheel was lifting in corners.

 

Another day I was wondering why I was looking out of the drivers door window to see where I was going on a freshly stonechipped road.

[big jim]

 

[roy h]

here is my  little French thing. Had this one for 13 years now and have had many happy hours flying round/ working on it. its still a 1.4 but has had a lot of work to the engine brakes ect. biggest upgrade was fitting EFI using a adaptronic ecu to control it all. last time it was mapped was a safe 215BHP @25 psi.  Always had a Renault of some sort and have a 2000 plate clio and a megane sport but these cars from the 80/90's just love them

[big jim]

Ooh that’s nice!

 

they were ten a penny back in the 90s on the modding scene but are a real rarety now, you only tend to see them as show cars rather than daily drives

 

same as the MK1 punto GT and sporting (I had a GT)  you just don’t see any of them about any more as most were thrashed and crashed or rusted away!

 

looking at my cooper again yesterday I finally got round to painting my bonnet scoop black and refitting the missing headlight ring, I also changed the vinyl wrap on the rings from carbon fibre look to a Matt black finish 

 

 

 

[monkeysarefun]

One of the RAAF'ies at work has been on 2 year deployment to Aghanistan and is back spending his deployment allowance on one of these, Should be a modern classic in years to come. This is the only colour it comes in but should prevent those "Hmmm where did I park my car?" moments in big car parks..

 

Here's something off the net from a US website about it:

 

The Ford Mustang R-Spec packs a supercharged version of the pony car's 5.0-liter V8 and is an official product from the Blue Oval's Australian division. Don't get too excited, though, because it's only available for folks Down Under, and the model has a limited run of 500 units. Prices start at $99,980 AUD ($67,471 USD at current exchange rates) and deliveries begin in early 2020.

 

 

Oddly, Ford of Australia doesn't offer specifics about the engine's horsepower output. The supercharger is a Roots-type unit that displaces 2.65 liters and runs at 12 psi of boost. Judging by these figures, this unit might be Ford Performance supercharger from earlier this year. The Blue Oval touted it as increasing the 5.0-liter V8's muscle to 700 horsepower (522 kilowatts) and 610 pound-feet (827 Newton-meters) of torque. For additional cooling, there's an aluminum intercooler and full-face radiator. The R-Spec only comes with a six-speed manual gearbox.

 

Ford of Australia builds the R-Spec as a collaboration with Herrod Performance, which is the largest distributor of Ford Performance Parts outside of North America. The firm supplies the vehicle's active exhaust that has Quiet, Normal, Sport and Race Track settings.

The R-Spec rides on Ford Performance springs that make the car sit 0.787 inches (20 millimeters) lower than a stock Mustang GT. and there are MagneRide adaptive dampers. Adjustable stabilizer bars are 5 millimeters bigger in front and 3 millimeters larger in the back. It sits on 19-inch wheels with Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires. 

Aesthetically, the R-Spec gets a new front fascia with larger intakes and black surrounds around the daytime running lights. There are stripes over the hood, rear deck, and sides of the body. The rear spoiler and mirror caps get a gloss black finish.

 

[SWT442]

Been enjoying the thread, there's some lovely cars being posted in it! Been considering posting mine for a little while, but didn't really think it contended as being a modern classic. But screw it, it may well be in a few years!

 

My contribution is a 2007 Chrysler 300C Touring, nothing outlandish but also not quite mainstream. Mine, however, has the 5.7 V8 Hemi in it. I'm led to believe, but can't really confirm, that there's not that many of this particular combination of body type and engine in the UK. Punching the details into howmanyleft.co.uk showed that at most 72 were registered, and I've seen a figure of 75 cars banded around elsewhere, but who knows? I've certainly not come across another one in person in just under 4 years of owning the brute. I'm only the cars second owner, with the previous one apparently being a little old lady! It's got a few miles on the clock, it's spitting distance away from the 100,000 mile mark, but still drives very well indeed.

 

Bar general maintenance, the only real work has been the replacement of the stock exhaust. It's been virtually straight piped, with just a pair of cats and a small back box on it, just to tone it down a little bit. Oh, it also had an engine rebuild after I ran through a flooded section of road one night after only having it 6 months, a very expensive mistake indeed! It sits on 20" Startech Monostar 5 spoke alloys, added after purchase but a legit option for the car. The Hemi is an excellent engine, capable of shutting down a bank of cylinders when cruising around to save on fuel. It puts out 340hp, not a huge amount but not bad either, and can do at least 20mpg on a run, if your bothered by that kind of thing. Power runs through a 5-speed automatic with Tiptronic, which is... pretty naff to be honest but does the job and drives the rear wheels. And, as it's a Touring, there's a good amount of space in the back for hauling model railway stuff about! Very important!

 

Anyway, here's a couple of pictures: 

 

 

 

 

In due course, it'll receive a cold air intake to give the throttle response a bit of a boost plus a full tidy up of the bodywork to get rid of the swirl marks, dings on the bumpers and stone chips. The alloys will be given a refurbish at some point as well. All funds pending!

 

As an aside, to balance out the big gas guzzling V8, I keep it sensible with a little, boring and economical Mercedes A180 CDI as the other car! I think it might even fit in the boot of the 300C...

 

 

Andy.

[boxbrownie]

You might want to reconsider the “cold inlet” mod, or you may well have another engine rebuild on your hands after a sudden ingress of H2O.........

[MJI]

Good use of an older Mercedes floor pan with the 300C.

 

It means it can actually do corners.

[tom q vaxy]

someone might enjoy this:  http://theoldmotor.com/?p=178615

[SWT442]

8 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

You might want to reconsider the “cold inlet” mod, or you may well have another engine rebuild on your hands after a sudden ingress of H2O.........

 

The car doesn't go out in bad weather, so I'm safe there! It should be in a better position, as the stock intake before the filter drops down to a similar level as the fog lights. The cold air inlet will sit within the engine bay, behind the headlight. In theory anyway...

 

6 hours ago, MJI said:

Good use of an older Mercedes floor pan with the 300C.

 

It means it can actually do corners.

 

Agreed. Although it's no sports car, I personally think it's pretty agile through the corners for its size and weight.

 

Andy.

[boxbrownie]

23 minutes ago, SWT442 said:

 

The car doesn't go out in bad weather, so I'm safe there! It should be in a better position, as the stock intake before the filter drops down to a similar level as the fog lights. The cold air inlet will sit within the engine bay, behind the headlight. In theory anyway...

Andy.

Fair enough, but it’s supposed to be a cold air intake, not exactly cold under the hood and definitely not colder than the air channeled through from the standard intake, I have always wondered about those intakes.

[tom q vaxy]

a mini - of sorts:

 

https://silodrome.com/marcos-mantis-gto/

[SWT442]

On 26/01/2020 at 19:37, boxbrownie said:

Fair enough, but it’s supposed to be a cold air intake, not exactly cold under the hood and definitely not colder than the air channeled through from the standard intake, I have always wondered about those intakes.

 

It'll sit where the current filter is, above where the stock intake goes into the filter, so in theory there should be some cold air getting to it! In most kits I've seen, the mounting creates a 'wall' of sorts between it and the engine block. I'll be honest, there is also a vanity aspect to installing one rather than trying to acheive any performance enhancement. It's a bottom of the pile job though, so not something I'm desperate to do.

 

The kaput EGR valve on the other hand, is top of the pile!

 

Andy.