WildCards
18-12-2006, 12:29 PM
Richy kindly took me to Crediton yesterday to pick up my latest purchase. What appears to be a half way decent Peugeot 205 1.6 GTi track day car, the guy I bought it from was a decent enough chap and has spent a fair chunk of time and money on this car before being offered an Impreza for the track.
It was an eventful day, here's what happened:
I saw the car on ebay a few weeks ago, and after some messaging and telephone discussion we agreed a deal we were both happy with, I was to buy the car, a trailer and as many spares I could drive away with on the day for a very reasonable price.
We left Stoke at 08:30am in Richy's trusty old Transit and headed south to Crediton, Exeter. A pretty uneventful journey of pi55 taking and oggling and we arrived at the pickup point for 12:30am. After having a nose around the car, a cup of coffee and a chat we set about loading the parts into the van.
As you all know, I'm no mechanic, so to say I didn't have a clue what was going into the van is an understatement. I need to have a good sort out and start getting my head around engines and greasy bits, but the car did come with a few items I recognised, a (fingers crossed) healthy aluminium MI16 engine, a few sets of wheels with a mix of tyres, body panels, rear beams etc. Stuff I should be bale to get some money back for anyway.
Anyway, the trailer was a single axle jobby which had been stored away for some time, and no one knew it's condition, although it seems we all thought it'd be better than it was. No ramps, no ropes, a buggered jockey wheel and a lot of rust. It did however have independant suspension, was braked and the guy had supplied some lights to attach at the back.
With no ramps, loading the car wasn't going to be easy, especially as it sits so low. In the end we decided to lift the front of the trailer with an engine hoist and chock the wheels so they didn't move, and I drove the car onto the ramp. It was a snug fit, the car sits slightly wider than the average due to the 309 rear beam and front wishbones etc, I've probably got an inch of platform either side of the car.
With the car on the trailer and the van full, everything was pretty low, so low that we had to get an angle grinder to the buggered jockey wheel and whip it off, but with that gone, the trailer sat nicely hooked to the van. I paid the man and we were off. It took a fair bit longer to get back to Stoke due to the weight, trailer etc and that the car was held on by the handbrake and a small piece of rope around one front wheel. We stopped at several places but couldn't find anything that would tie it down securely, so we bought a tow rope and rigged a semi safe harness for the car from that.
We arrived in Stoke at 10pm, we stopped in Brum to pick up a gearbox for something else, which took about an hour and I eventually got home to Leicester for midnight. It was a good day, I just can't wait to get out on track now.
I'll take some pics when the car is clean, I get home in the light and it emerges from my garage. Until then i've put some stuff in my vbGarage if your interested.
A HUUUUUGE thank you to Richy, for without him, i'd have never got this car up here. He's not as daft as he looks you know! And thanks to Lily for putting me up, putting up with me and feeding me over the weekend, I owe you both one.
As a thank you i'm taking Richy for a fun filled track day at Cadwell Park on Saturday Feb 3rd, if anyone interested in coming we'd love to see you. It's £99 open pit if your interested.
It was an eventful day, here's what happened:
I saw the car on ebay a few weeks ago, and after some messaging and telephone discussion we agreed a deal we were both happy with, I was to buy the car, a trailer and as many spares I could drive away with on the day for a very reasonable price.
We left Stoke at 08:30am in Richy's trusty old Transit and headed south to Crediton, Exeter. A pretty uneventful journey of pi55 taking and oggling and we arrived at the pickup point for 12:30am. After having a nose around the car, a cup of coffee and a chat we set about loading the parts into the van.
As you all know, I'm no mechanic, so to say I didn't have a clue what was going into the van is an understatement. I need to have a good sort out and start getting my head around engines and greasy bits, but the car did come with a few items I recognised, a (fingers crossed) healthy aluminium MI16 engine, a few sets of wheels with a mix of tyres, body panels, rear beams etc. Stuff I should be bale to get some money back for anyway.
Anyway, the trailer was a single axle jobby which had been stored away for some time, and no one knew it's condition, although it seems we all thought it'd be better than it was. No ramps, no ropes, a buggered jockey wheel and a lot of rust. It did however have independant suspension, was braked and the guy had supplied some lights to attach at the back.
With no ramps, loading the car wasn't going to be easy, especially as it sits so low. In the end we decided to lift the front of the trailer with an engine hoist and chock the wheels so they didn't move, and I drove the car onto the ramp. It was a snug fit, the car sits slightly wider than the average due to the 309 rear beam and front wishbones etc, I've probably got an inch of platform either side of the car.
With the car on the trailer and the van full, everything was pretty low, so low that we had to get an angle grinder to the buggered jockey wheel and whip it off, but with that gone, the trailer sat nicely hooked to the van. I paid the man and we were off. It took a fair bit longer to get back to Stoke due to the weight, trailer etc and that the car was held on by the handbrake and a small piece of rope around one front wheel. We stopped at several places but couldn't find anything that would tie it down securely, so we bought a tow rope and rigged a semi safe harness for the car from that.
We arrived in Stoke at 10pm, we stopped in Brum to pick up a gearbox for something else, which took about an hour and I eventually got home to Leicester for midnight. It was a good day, I just can't wait to get out on track now.
I'll take some pics when the car is clean, I get home in the light and it emerges from my garage. Until then i've put some stuff in my vbGarage if your interested.
A HUUUUUGE thank you to Richy, for without him, i'd have never got this car up here. He's not as daft as he looks you know! And thanks to Lily for putting me up, putting up with me and feeding me over the weekend, I owe you both one.
As a thank you i'm taking Richy for a fun filled track day at Cadwell Park on Saturday Feb 3rd, if anyone interested in coming we'd love to see you. It's £99 open pit if your interested.