Andy Ran's Driveway - My Car Journey from Past To Present

[andy_ran]

I thought It was about time that I started a bit of a blog for the current brace of cars that are littering my driveway and other areas.

I have, as most PHers, a condition of compulsive car buying (having 46 cars in my 22 years of driving) I love all cars from bangers to exotics.

Here I will put up the ups and downs of my driveway. Hopefully someone will find it interesting and want to read it.

So what do we currently have on the drive:

Impreza WRX 95' - I bought this car for my daughters mum 14 years ago, she sadly passed away last year and I have inherited the car back and intend to get it back on the road for my daughter so she has something to always have that her mum cherished. I have bought a 2nd car with a blown engine to help with hard to obtain parts



Its in a bad way having been off the road for the past 5 years - I will follow on with progress as we go

Mercedes SL500 96 - I have had this for about 6 years now, love it to bits and I have recently done a full suspension refresh, all arms bushes shocks etc - It needs a front wing repair and one of the rear screens has split (again)



Polestar 2 with Performance Pack - The daily driver, had it 2 years now and done 41k to date. Its a massively impressive car. So far its been cost free bar 2 sets of tyres. Last set in Dec 22, I swapped to PS4s after the OE tyres wore out and it just made it even better.



L322 TDv8 4.4 Range Rover Vouge SE - The family wagon, I love the L322 and this is my 2nd. Its just turned over 100k and its brilliant. This months its had a full service including front end lower arms. 4 new tyres with General Grabber UHPs - Its a well spec'ed car and I simply love it



Lamborghini Murcielago 6.2 Manual - The crown, and the car I have dreamed of owning for as long as I can remember. I was fortunate enough to get this is 2021 and its just simply perfect! Giallo Orion with Black leather with yellow diamond stitched seats, Larini Exhaust, LP wheels and rear lights. Last month it was treated to a full service including new coil packs - Its my Halo car and to me the ultimate in perfection



For those who are interested, here is the complete history in chronological order - Happy to share memories on any of the below if anyone's interested

Almost all where personalised but nothing ott, just oem+

1. Citroen Saxo 1.1
2. Toyota Corrolla Gti 16
3. BMW 325i E30
4. Pug 405
5. Golf Mk4 GT TDI 130
6. Lotus Elise Mk1
7. Golf MK1 Gti with 2ltr 16v Engine
8. Golf MK4 v6 4Motion
9. Lotus Elise Mk1 with 225hp Engine
10. Golf MK4 v6 4Motion
11. Seat Cupra R225
12. Rover 25
13. BMW 325i M-Tech II
14. BMW 730i E38
15. Ford Escort 1.8 mk6
16. Ford Focus 2ltr mk1
17. Nissan Skyline R32 GTR 400hp
18. Audi A4 Avant Tdi
19. Nissan R32 GTR 685hp
20. Audi B7 RS4 Avant
21. Nissan Silvia S15 Spec R
22. BMW E39 530d
23. 1963 Beetle
24. BMW E39 M5
25. Subaru Impreza Wr1
26. BMW E60 M5
27. Volvo 850 T5 Estate
28. Porsche 911 “997” Turbo
29. Lexus LS400
30. Saab 93 Aero
31. Mercedes CL500 (W215)
32. Mercedes CL63 AMG (W216)
33. BMW X5
34. Mercedes E320
35. SL500 R129
36. Range Rover L322 TdV8
37. Lexus Is200
38. Aston Martin V12 Vantage
39. Audi A8 – D2 Sport 3.7
40. Audi A8 – D3 W12
41. PoleStar 2
42. Lamborghini Murcielago Manual
43. Range Rover TDv8 Black
44. Impreza WRX STi
45. Audi S8 D4
46. Impreza WRX STi 2
47.

Edited by andy_ran on Tuesday 24th January 19:44

[Ambleton]

May as well start at number 1

Naturally I'm drawn to god awful st boxes and sheds... Especially ones in between newer metal as there's almost always an affection/story to be told.

So I'm interested in:
1, 4, 7, 12, 14, 23, 27 & 29

[andy_ran]

Ambleton said:

May as well start at number 1

Naturally I'm drawn to god awful st boxes and sheds... Especially ones in between newer metal as there's almost always an affection/story to be told.

So I'm interested in:
1, 4, 7, 12, 14, 23, 27 & 29

Here we go!!

1, The worst car i have ever ever had, my dad convinced me it was good deal as it had 2 years free insurance, so I tapped up the finance and bought it new.... After 6k it dropped a value and was always going wrong! Hated it so much I parked it up at 12 months, but the Corolla GTi and fought to hand it back to Citroen - Who eventually agreed - I dont have any photos of this car

4. I needed a cheap car to do miles in, bought a 405 1.9 tdi and it was brilliant - did loads of miles and sold it off when i could afford a newer car. The mate i sold it too ran it for 5 years odd before he got rear ended. - I dont have any photos of this car sadly

7. The golf, what a machine - well built with a 2ltr 16v, Ashley exhaust, Koni adjustable coilovers, G60 brakes - It was flipping amazing but the shell was rotten - It was a Campaign too! I sold it to a good friend who did his best to save it and kept it on the road for as many years as he could




12. I needed a cheap car, I paid £150 for it and it had retro fitted AC which eventually failed and the car went up in flames - No photos of this car

14. My first v8 - Luxo barge fantastic and cemented my love of big cars - I had the exhaust done and it sounded fantastic - Full spec with the 4:3 TV too!



23 - The beetle - 1 owner car I bought from the decided wife, it had 40,298 miles on it!! the plan was to rebuild it for my daughters mum but she lost interest as soon as she realised it involved more than just looking at it - Sold it on as i bought it. I do regret not doing this car





27. The Skip -Volvo 850 T5 - I got offered this from a chap on the BMW5 forum who bought it as it was cheaper than the hire of a skip. I ran it for over a year and it was fantastic - 20mph you could put the clutch in, floor to the limited and drop the clutch and do rolling 2nd gear burn outs for what felt like miles. I sold it when I got offered the Ls400 and a mate used it as his fishing car for years!

I had to do the PCV on it, serviced it and just abused it



29. The Racing Gold Lexus - I loved this car, cost me £350 and I only opened the bonnet to put washer fluid in. Had it a year and it cost me nothing over that time. I used it as my daily

[Chunkychucky]

OP - sorry for your loss, great idea to revive the old Scooby for your daughter! Best of luck with the 'restoration' (however mild/sever it needs to be), look forward to future updates

[andy_ran]

Chunkychucky said:

OP - sorry for your loss, great idea to revive the old Scooby for your daughter! Best of luck with the 'restoration' (however mild/sever it needs to be), look forward to future updates

Thank you! Its quite bad but saveable. Fortunately for me my brother is a car panel beater, fabricator and painter - So he is going to lend a hand or 5

[Fuzzarr]

That's quite the car history! Seems you like to try loads of different flavours, nice one.

I love the R32 GTR and used to spend many an hour looking them up for sale online, when you could get a lightly tweaked one for £10k or less. Interested to hear about your experiences with them!

[Sycamore]

Take away all of the cars you have now - Which has been your favourite?

Favourite can mean whatever you like it to

[andy_ran]

Fuzzarr said:

That's quite the car history! Seems you like to try loads of different flavours, nice one.

I love the R32 GTR and used to spend many an hour looking them up for sale online, when you could get a lightly tweaked one for £10k or less. Interested to hear about your experiences with them!

The R32 GTRs where some of my all time favourite cars. I imported my first one Landed in the UK for £4k!!
Although on the day I took it home, I roasted the clutch so it cost me another 1k for a decent dual plate OZ unit... And there i went down the slippery slope


This was the day I got off the lorry in the UK



As it was when i sold it. I didn't go crazy, steel turbos, decent exhaust, Map etc and a Du-Luck original body kit. It was a fantastic car. You could drop the clutch at redline on a hard launch and it would just go! So street able too

Sold that to by my second, it was primarily built in Japan by a company call Decide 226 (look them up) with lots of goodies from Mines, HKS, ATTKD. It has a big T51 HKS single Turbo, 2.7 HKS bottom end, Cams, OS Gearset, triple plate clutch, ATTKD Coil overs, the list was long, and at the time bonkers. I could easy get into the 10s at pod in it on road tyres.







And the two together when I had them both for a very short period of time



The white car was bonkers fast, but you had to wait for the power. When it came in however you held on tight. It rev'ed to nearly 9k and made the most amazing symphony of sound.

I had the black car 3 years, the white one 7 years

Edited by andy_ran on Tuesday 24th January 14:44

[andy_ran]

Sycamore said:

Take away all of the cars you have now - Which has been your favourite?

Favourite can mean whatever you like it to

Thats both an easy and tough question

Easy answer: My Favourite is the Murcielago, it has been my poster car and the halo car I always wanted and have manged to trade my way too!

Hard Question: But so many others have meant equally as much to me, at possibly at the time more... The GTRs where spectacular. The RS4 was a turning point in my car life and one of the few new cars I had. M60 M5 for the V10. The Aston Martin V12 Vantage for everything. The tuned Elise was possibly the best drivers car I have ever had and would be one to choose to hunt bigger more powerful cars in.

So hard to choose, But if i have to just go from here to there and need to choose a car for nothing special, I really like the Range Rovers still.

[Tractor Driver]

I’m going to ask about another ‘lesser’ car. Golf GT TDI 130. How did you get on with that? I had the 115 version back in 2001 and loved it.

[andy_ran]

Tractor Driver said:

I’m going to ask about another ‘lesser’ car. Golf GT TDI 130. How did you get on with that? I had the 115 version back in 2001 and loved it.

My first "proper car" I bought it from VW in Ashford, it was one of their own cars. 6 months old
Black recaro leather, 3 door.
I ended up doing a stereo install, oem+ styling and had a hand made set of headlights
Car was quite well known in the MK4 golf world
I did have it mapped too, went bloody well! Cemented my love for German cars

I kept it for 2 years, never had any issues with it. Did 40,000 miles in it - it was just brilliant 👏 as you can see I started down a journey with many more Golf's after this one

Edited by andy_ran on Tuesday 24th January 19:57

[Mr Tidy]

That's a brilliant car history, with some pretty special ones along the way. But I can see why you love your Lamborghini poster car the most!

[andy_ran]

Mr Tidy said:

That's a brilliant car history, with some pretty special ones along the way. But I can see why you love your Lamborghini poster car the most!

Thank you. I will continue to put up my journey with it on here too

[Carlos24]

Amazing history and some lovely cars, the white R32 looks mega! I had a WR1 as well and once I got the knocking rear dampers swapped out for coilovers and a good fast road setup it was amazing, I still want another Impreza for that reason.

[andy_ran]

Carlos24 said:

Amazing history and some lovely cars, the white R32 looks mega! I had a WR1 as well and once I got the knocking rear dampers swapped out for coilovers and a good fast road setup it was amazing, I still want another Impreza for that reason.

Thank you! The White R32 still stands as the longest I ever owned a car. The SL500 is getting close now.
It wasn't without its issues, nothing major but the original HKS cast manifold cracked, so I had a full custom stainless one made up. A moment of "Low oil pressure" scared the whatssit out of me, luckily it was just a dead sender unit - I fitted a full setup of Defi Gauges at that point to keep things in check.

The WR1 was a car I didn't keep all that long, maybe 6 months - I did a PX deal on it against my S15 I had at the time, believe it or not, back then it was so hard to sell!!! do regret not bonding with it more mind you. It was running about 480hp as i took ownership, stupid fast with that sort of power but the gearing was sooo short it didnt really suit the power. It also had a full Hayward and Scott exhaust which was a bit too loud for regular use IMO, but sounded amazing when in it!!
I think the WR1 has one of the best colours to grace a car too.. I wonder if its still about

Here was my WR1





I am looking forward to getting the 95' Impreza back on the road - I know what you mean about being a a proper fast road car and how addictive they can be

[andy_ran]

Update on Range Rover

New Pad all round. Was getting the annoying squeal on slow down and when it was serviced a few weeks ago they noted they where getting a bit low

I was supposed to take some pictures but the time was running away

Old pads where down to about 4mm - Ware sensor hadnt worn through

In with all new Brembo pads front and rear, disks looked good and still within thickness guidelines so they will last out these pads

Stops nicely again and no annoying squealing when slowing down - Win Win today

[andy_ran]

Attended a local car meet today. Weather was lovely, if a bit "nippy"

Was good to give the Murci a run, first time since its major service and its so so so much better for it



A few other stand out cars to me.. A Honda City Turbo II - What a brilliant car, never seen one before today



And a Ford Granada Scorpio - My dad used to love these when I was younger, we had 2 at one point! One was black like this but had the full RS body kit and the Cosworth 24v motor, so many fond memories of them



After the meetup a few of us went off to the local pub for some much needed warmth and a hot drink

[andy_ran]

The old Range Rover had its MOT today

Lovely to see a pass and no advisories

[Dr G]

andy_ran said:

Was good to give the Murci a run, first time since its major service and its so so so much better for it

Is that the one where they do valve clearances? Do they go off by much? I can imagine that would liberate a couple of extra ponies afterwards.

As "silly" cars go I can think of little to top a Murcielago with a manual. Lovely

[andy_ran]

Dr G said:

Is that the one where they do valve clearances? Do they go off by much? I can imagine that would liberate a couple of extra ponies afterwards.

As "silly" cars go I can think of little to top a Murcielago with a manual. Lovely

The valve clearances check / adjustment isn't due yet - they are due at 25k, mines only just done 22k

Next service I will have the valve covers off and do a check I suspect

From what I can gather, some cars need shims while others don't. Ed from vin wiki has done 45k iirc and never had his lp640 done

And thank you, its always been my "silly car" I can't think of anything I want to have more - to me it's perfect ??

So here for no other reason than I like this photo someone took here it is again ??