Fast Coupes Of The Eighties And Nineties
Discussion
I had a passenger ride in the back of a yellow A610 just like that along the lanes around East , Dorset back in the 1990s. Maybe the same car? It was clearly a step up in all departments compared to my brother’s GTA Turbo (which he still owns). The proprietor of Dieppe specialist Eurotec Allan Matthews was the driver.
spoodler said:
reddiesel said:
Have we had the Subaru SVX yet ? I only ever met one person brave enough to part with his money and that was Stephen Conway who owned the Jewellers shop in Milton Keynes Shopping Centre . Some years later running into him driving a Mercedes SL500 I inquired after the Subaru . After a litany of failures most involving the Gearbox and a difficulty in sourcing parts he claimed to have traded it for "ten bob" against the Mercedes .To give him his due he was philosophical about the experience . Anyone have any experiences of the SVX , there cant be many of you ?
When I had my Subabru pick up, there were a few folk in my circle that were into other Subarus. One had a Leone coupe, there were a few variants of the Coupe based on the same running gear as the pick up and saloon. Another chap was well into his SVX coupes. I don't know how they stacked up when new (probably badly and expensive), but as an older, interesting choice, they were a fantastic car. Fast, powerful, very competent, well appointed and charismatic with the indestructible feel of that era of Subabru... Also, without doubt, full of Quirky Subaru charm. I'd have one tomorrow in preference to many a much lauded rival - if I had good reason to own something as modern.Chances are tho' I would find myself a '70s GLF in preference...
No idea if its still there.
Back in the eighties I had persuaded myself that I needed an Alfa GTV so went to Roger Clark's dealership at Narborough. All was well - at first - but when I saw that the headlamp reflectors were already going brown with rust I had to change my ideas. The 3.0 litre engine was to die for, as was the handling, but it was such sorrow that I parted with my wallet still in my pocket.
lowdrag said:
Back in the eighties I had persuaded myself that I needed an Alfa GTV so went to Roger Clark's dealership at Narborough. All was well - at first - but when I saw that the headlamp reflectors were already going brown with rust I had to change my ideas. The 3.0 litre engine was to die for, as was the handling, but it was such sorrow that I parted with my wallet still in my pocket.
Did we ever get the 3.0 litre in the UK? I thought the 2.5 was the biggest and South Africa got the 3.0.Turbobanana said:
lowdrag said:
Back in the eighties I had persuaded myself that I needed an Alfa GTV so went to Roger Clark's dealership at Narborough. All was well - at first - but when I saw that the headlamp reflectors were already going brown with rust I had to change my ideas. The 3.0 litre engine was to die for, as was the handling, but it was such sorrow that I parted with my wallet still in my pocket.
Did we ever get the 3.0 litre in the UK? I thought the 2.5 was the biggest and South Africa got the 3.0.
DodgyGeezer said:
Turbobanana said:
lowdrag said:
Back in the eighties I had persuaded myself that I needed an Alfa GTV so went to Roger Clark's dealership at Narborough. All was well - at first - but when I saw that the headlamp reflectors were already going brown with rust I had to change my ideas. The 3.0 litre engine was to die for, as was the handling, but it was such sorrow that I parted with my wallet still in my pocket.
Did we ever get the 3.0 litre in the UK? I thought the 2.5 was the biggest and South Africa got the 3.0.
EDIT: And Lus1fer above!
Dapster said:
DodgyGeezer said:
Turbobanana said:
lowdrag said:
Back in the eighties I had persuaded myself that I needed an Alfa GTV so went to Roger Clark's dealership at Narborough. All was well - at first - but when I saw that the headlamp reflectors were already going brown with rust I had to change my ideas. The 3.0 litre engine was to die for, as was the handling, but it was such sorrow that I parted with my wallet still in my pocket.
Did we ever get the 3.0 litre in the UK? I thought the 2.5 was the biggest and South Africa got the 3.0.EDIT: And Lus1fer above!
lowdrag said:
Apologies - the memory fades. But whichever engine it had, it was still rusty, even in the showroom. And I think it was already over one year old yet still unsold.
Do you ever wonder, "What if...?", though? What if you'd just asked the dealer to replace the headlights and haggled hard? Did you miss out on the most characterful, engaging ownership prospect?Regarding overage stock: nothing unusual in my experience. Where I sold Peugeots in the early-mid nineties we couldn't get rid of 205 / 309 GTis to save our lives. Same with 106 Rallyes: nobody wanted them. We were allocated dealer stock, and if it didn't sell or dealer transfer by a particular point in time we had to adopt (pay for it), which made it much harder to transfer between dealers.
The flip side was that, occasionally, I'd end with one as a demonstrator: I had 2 205s (1.6 and 1.9), a 309 and a 106 Rallye (the first series, with the white steel wheels). A little later the same happened and I got a 306XSi and an S16. I accidentally sold the 605 SVE 24V the day before we had to adopt it, otherwise I'd probably have ended up with that, too.
Sticks. said:
I remember being on the M25 in the early 90s in my Maroon Mk3 Escort Popular and one of these overtook me in the exact same colour. It looked incredible, I wanted one so badly. I also remember when the Calibra came out, another car that looked incredible.In my first job I was earning decent money and wanted a decent car. I wanted a Renault 19 16V so went to the dealer to look at one. It was a stinking hot day and for some reason they had a Rover 220 coupe there with the targa top off. I took it for a test drive and ended up buying the first car I saw, which I quickly regretted. Look at how ugly it is, what was I thinking I could have just got the Audi instead.
It was exactly the same as this one, people called it the old mans car.
The person who parked next to me at work got a BMW E36 318s coupe. This rubbed in how I had bought the completely wrong car and done no research whatsoever, just bought the first thing I saw.
Years later I bought a Shed Cougar 2.0 on eBay for £1K that had a full tank of fuel, 6 months road tax and an iPod interface I took out and sold on eBay. It was pretty crap if I am honest (althought the 2.0 Zetec black top was great) but I had several people stop me in petrol stations to talk about the car.
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