So - My ultra-high mileage 20VT is giving me far too much grief (it died twice yesterday and again this morning ) and I'm looking for a replacement Coupe, so that I can swap all my go-faster bits into - engine, suspension, that sort of thing.

To help you out, I'm looking at the low mileage Moonie Plus that appeared a few weeks ago - I'm thinking that a Chrono Grey LE would be very different and I rather like the idea of the dark metallic Red Plus. Edz's LE is also tempting

So, if money wasn't an issue, which Coupe would YOU go for?

Trouble is Nigel - they all sound nice!

Chrono all the way!!

i love the colour!!

or.. go custom colour..

so think mental, like mid night purple or some thing like that!!!!

Having seen a Moonie for the first time (Jurgens?) I'd have to say that. It's metallic but looks more pearlescent in the flesh. The way the light hits it is

I also saw my first pearly white, and I prefer the Moonie.

Electric Blue Plus or Vinci Grey LE.

i'd say plus or le too, although a our ages Nigel i'm not convinced an le is the way to go. so in summary, the moonie or a plus!!

That's funny, I'm still considering parting with my

Yep, electric fuel efficient cars are on the horizon, as are hush puppy boots with zips in the middle

if money was no issue a plus or le with a custom paint job that pearl alfa colour that lad in canada has had his done! would be a 1 off

or this!!

clicky

I'd got for low mileage and keep it for a weekend toy - as your daily drive though those low miles won't be there for long.

I think it would need to be a plus or LE, I'm not a fan of the LE interior so I'd go plus, and make it a very late one with airbag seats.

Moon grey will be lush and not need polishing every day (gotta bear in mind how it'll look at the end of the week with your miles.

Chrono is just unusual, not my cup of tea but it'll stand out.

I still have a hankering for a shiny rosso red but you need to keep up with the polishing + waxing to make them look good. A shabby rosso is a mess

LMFAO!!!!!

10k... would rather walk!

Nothing wrong with a moonie plus:



Needs a certain light to look good though. Oddly enough it looks great in sunny weather and in very drab weather. On a regular day it can look a bit dull and grey

I would go for a vinci personally, you could always sell the LE seats and put + in

lol,it does look like a ferrari!!!

jeeez..........gotta say although it's no to my taste it appears to have been lovingly done

I'd err towards an electric blue plus. Sometimes I look at my porto and think it's a little wishy washy. And then the wallet starts twitching, and the sensible part of my brain starts finger wagging!

I saw a matt black (maybe more satin black) Mercedes on the motorway this morning and was surprised how good it looked.

A Coupe would look way better and very "stealth" in matt black with a body kit and enormous wheels.

Then get the engine modded to get the RUSH jet engine sound (maybe start with something that has been modified already) and job done

Then keep the current Coupe as well for those times when being a little bit discreet is needed.

Sorry to rain on the party but 'If money was no issue' (within reason) unfortunatly I wouldn't be buying another Coupe although I love them, I'd go for something a bit newer. I suppose quite a few will share the above view.

It'd be cool to win £10K worth of 'Coupe vouchers'

No actual cash value - they can only be spent on a Coupe, Coupe parts & labour

For you nigel I'd say whichever one is mechanically spot on.highest compression,standardish witha full detailed history. As you like the colour I'd be tempted to try And find one of the very few sprint blue plus's

I would go for a plus. In the following order

Yellow > Red (solid) > Moonie > Red (Metallic) > met blue

he's transferring his engine etc over rubes - where's my photoshop buddy?

Pearly White Plus for me with a Sprint Blue Plus a close second, but guessing you fancy a change of colour.
I wouldn't go for a dark red metallic again, no praticular reason, just don't think it works well with the shape of the Coop IMO.

Plus's are so cheap that i would be seriously tempted in your position.
Not to mention there newer and therefor you should be able to prevent any rust forming in the usual suspect places.

I would go for a plus probably, in electric blue (if they did those?!)

I've PM'd Edz about his Vinci LE and I'm waiting for a return call about a Moonie Plus

I'd go for the Chrono LE that's for sale here minus the spoiler.

I know there are two schools of thought on this, but personally I wouldn't tit about with an LE - IMO those ones should be left standard(ish) as a representation of a low-volume version. I guess Pluses also, to an extent.

Mechanical mods can always be backed out though.

you obviously haven't seen Patch's 'RipSpeed' Special yet

Of course not Duncan, no-one has. However, go to a meet and I can see a good 6 or 7 of the car you own, in different colours too - Oh! The excitement, the thrill of it all

Don't wander from the safe path mate

We all know that whatever I buy, it will look fairly close to standard, but it WILL have all the engine and chassis mods from my current car

I'm fairly surprised that the vultures haven't started circling for some of the juicier bits of my current car - plenty of time yet though...

Begs the question Nigel - if yours in getting unreliable, why transplant and potentially carry the issue over? Why not repair what you have?

(I know the answer really, we all need a new toy every so often, and this is a way of justifying it to the domestic accountant!)

I take the line of Cappo and several others of keeping the Plus's and LE's as they are, everything else fair game. After all, why create your own car off a limited edition model? .. a standard 20vt or a speed 6 offers a blank canvass.

back to the original thread, I would go for a plus model , Electric Blue or Moon Grey as they are offer a colour that is almost unique. and of course they are the late models

Cappo - my reliability issues are electrical - any transplant will retain all the electrics of the new car - it will just be engine / suspension / brakes - that sort of thing

surely getting the electrics sorted would be cheaper than transplanting everything?

or is the bodywork a major factor as well ?

Sorry for jumping your thread Nigel, bit of a sore head after yesterday's game ...

Duncan - Mind your own and I'll take care of mine

nigel you could put your coop back to standard and give it to your young one

it would have to be a vinci or chrono plus Nigel......

it does sound like a lot of work though - I would have thought it would be cheaper to have your sprinty completely re-wired and a new custom loom.

Possibly, but I already know that the body needs a couple of grand's worth of work as well

Its a no-brainer really

EDz Vinci LE.

A nice Plus for Mr Nigel! Beg Ed for his Sprinty Plus, THE best colour and spec coupé

Full engine transplant or just the fancy bits?

Solo still have that red shell up.......

My choice would be Plus, bodywork is more important than the colour itself.

Going to see a 2000 'W' dark metallic red Plus on Saturday morning - fsh, new MOT, new turbo (which will obviously be going up for sale) - looks good in the piccies

Fingers crossed - I rather like the dark metallic red - same as my first Coupe which I wrote off

The plus colour is different though, it's light metallic red

Yes indeed looks very good in pics nice colour

Didn't know that - learn something every day

you are taking the piss aint you?

personaly id try and leep frog into a coupe thats almost got everything already done then sell off all the bits off your current coupe, the headache of transplanting and the time to do it right is just LONG!

I love crono gray! its a colour that shouts limited at you, iv seen one at rogs with the plate F14 TLE and it looked the class!

That's Pondmans, and it's a Vinci

is it? ok well it must of been another i remembered the plate from but rog did have a crono up there and it was MINT!

if i remember it had a plus grill on it

Vinci

Et voila, the Vinci lineup from brooklands in may!

I know yours is causing some issues Nigel but sometimes it's 'Better the devil you know'. After all these years owning one you must know that what ever new coupe you buy will need money spending on it, tracking strange squeaks and rattles etc. Keep what you have and spend the money on fixng the electrics and perhaps a good respray? You must be looking at about £5k for the new car and engine swap?

That's about right, however, consider this argument:-

Fix current car....
£2,000 for bodywork - this will be a circa 3-year fix only - the rust WILL come back - the only way to properly stop it is a full strip and lots of new panels - £4k+ (already priced up through Carlt)
Other problems are:-
Aircon leak
Sticky pistons in the Brembos
Very tired rear subframe bushes
Dodgy electrics

New car - £4k
Swap bits - about £1k in labour
However, I will then have a huge pile of bits to sell (essentially enough to build the Sprinty back up again, although it would still have iffy electrics and a leaky aircon rad) - I reckon I could get £2k if I rebuilt the old car

So - work out for yourself how much I might get for the following items:-

Engine (only 40,000 miles)
Brand new standard turbo
6 speed gearbox
wheels
brakes
standard suspension
Miltek exhaust
Zender bodykit
Bonnet
Headlamps
My super-supportive Hyundai seat conversion
Dial rings
MP3 head unit
and a million other little odds and sods before the shell goes to the crusher

At least a couple of grand in that lot, I reckon.

If someone wants to buy the Sprinty and save it, they're more than welcome to make me an offer - its got some rust - all cosmetic - but its very solid underneath. Most of the car is still very shiny, following a respray three years ago.

If you have the time and inclination to do all that lot then go for it!

I'd just use it as an excuse to get a vincy grey LE with the wife.

Wifey (who its fair to say is NOT a petrolhead, but is very good with what's "right" in respect of colours and presentation) took one look at the Vinci LE exterior and said "hmmm - nice and classy". However, when I clicked on the piccy of the interior, her face dropped and she made a comment that somehow involved boudoirs and Bakewell

decision made.....

shame you dont buy that speed 6 sprinty off carlt

So have you picked the lucky car? If so post some pictures!

just a teaser - not happy about the rear spoiler, but its not too difficult to sort out

good choice fella

So its as good as it was in pictures then nigel looks a very nice car

Not typically a wine red fan, but that looks very sound

No Nigel! No! You could have had Another Ferrari!

A plus hey? very nice

Very nice indeed Nigel. I like the rear spoiler *runs*

Great colour Nigel, good choice

Quite similar to my first Coupe, which had skirts and Plus wheels

One of the very few piccies I have is one of Matt Neal about to thrash it to within an inch of its life at Rockingham



I'll see how I feel about the spoiler - my initial reaction is to have it taken off, but I haven't seen it in the flesh yet, so I'll reserve judgement until I do

Damn

The Plus wasn't good - if anyone need to know more, please PM me - to be fair, the dealer wasn't a Coupe specialist, so he wouldn't have known about the issues, but suffice to say, I would only pay £2k for this car, due to the work required.

Ah well - the search continues....

I wasn't sure about that colour anyway Nigel

Never mind. Don't rush into anything, there's LOADS of coops out there! It's a buyer's market!

Difficult, when I need a car for work - I have a hire car for Monday's 300-mile business trip, but its the train for the rest of the week (unless I can get the Sprinty working again - going to have another look this evening)

When i was looking for a shell.... found sprinty 20vt in really good condition on pictures , but when i come to see that , it was absolute shed i would not even take it for free.

P.S Sprinty blue with ZENDER body kit is PERFECT , this is my honest opinion.
It's nice to have something rare or limited , but you can get 20v in perfect condition much cheaper and buy wiring loom from Contrycruzing.
( Just a thought)

Your wheels aren't dissimilar to mine Nigel, I think they will suit a Vinci very well indeed
I think Vinci looks very classy on a coupe.

`
nigel as mentioned above it is definately a plus that would suit best..men of our age should not be seen with interiors resembling a michael jackson jacket (le)in fact sitting on a micheal jackson like seat should be left to the kids ...if you see what i mean

When I bought my Sprinty, it was not my first choice of colour, but it was the right car at the right price - lots of history and great condition

Now I'm looking again, I have to try to take the same view - the condition and history is the first consideration and the colour comes a close second

I've just got of the phone to Ed about his Concours-winning LE - with a bit of luck, I should be going to see it tomorrow, if not on Monday

oops there goes my foot again right in it..
i hope you see it was said (as are a lot of my posts)as a wind up i have twice tried to buy one and would have the right one tomorrow (id just change the seats :D)

I've seen plenty of red leather interiors on BMWs that truly are

The LE is a far nicer and bright red. Would I take it over the Jizzbag Plus Recaros? No.

what a nice car though i think most of us would have it if we could afford it..
i know what you mean about the right car at the right time..i am not a fan of scotts green but in order to build a 400+ car with the £3500 i got for my last car ...there was only one way to achieve it and that was to but jamies old coop with its big list of mods and a 340 bhp set up..i got it for a very good price (with broken engine)..so i understand that. if i had a choice i would have bought edz a long time ago

Stunning!

Get rid of the red and it would be stunning.

ktm - yes, I know you were just playing

TBH, my first choice would be a very late, very low mileage Plus, but they have all disappeared (annoying after there have been so many good ones recently)

Its a shame my car hadn't died a couple of weeks ago - I would have had Patch's Plus in a shot

However, I now have the chance of a VERY clean Vinco LE, so I'm going to have a much closer look to see how I feel

TBH, the only thing that's put me off an LE is NOT the seats, but the fact that the dash strip isn't the same as the body colour - however, on a Vinci, it must be very close, so far less noticeable than on a red or black LE

I'm sure you could get hold of a dash strip and get it sprayed any colour you like, would not be too much work to swop it out...

To be honest I quite like the dash trim with mine been red I think it would be a bit too much red in the cabin.

Looks like I'm destined NOT to have an LE

Edz has understandably decided he can't bring himself to sell his Vinci

So - that's three LEs that I was interested in - all become unavailable in the last 48 hours

the search continues....

I'm not having a dig at EDz but why have it for a sale for months on end only to not sell it when someone finally wants it at the overly inflated price he wanted?

Most odd.

To be fair to Edz, he was "pricing it NOT to sell" and hadn't had any serious interest to challenge his position

However, when I told him I had a wedge of cash burning a hole in my pocket and that I wanted to come and view the car today, he was forced into making a final decision on whether he wanted to sell or not.

Sadly for me, he's chosen not to sell, but that's his prerogative.

All of this is directing me towards a car that I originally wanted to see, but the owner is on holiday for another two weeks

Unless someone comes up with a stunning Plus in the next fortnight, I'll be reverting to my original plan

Joe has a Vinci, talk to Patch he might give you some tips on how to get him to sell up

On a serious note try and get yours up and running again or buy a runner and wait for a good coupe to come up. Good luck nigel.

I think it may still be in Belgium Anthony if it is the one I'm thinking of.

Did it go bang or did he sell it?

Well - some good has come of it - instead of trundling to London in a 1.1 Punto to view Edz's LE, I've spent the day sorting my car, with some results

I'd already found and replaced a blown coilpack on No1 cylinder, which was causing a misfire under any kind of load



However, within a day, the misfire was back and so was the dodgy electrical behaviour.

I was convinced the problem felt like an iffy earth, so I've supplemented the earth strap from the engine to the chassis (and then up to the battery) with another heavy-duty cable.

Went out for another drive - misfire still there

I decided to replace all the coilpacks, just to see if this was the problem - as soon as I pulled the No1 coil out, I realised I'd found the issue - the replacement coilpack had also blown. Thankfully, I had a spare NGK BKR8EIX plug - fitted it and all is well again. I still get a very slight misfire at 1.5 bar, but I'm guessing that the other four plugs are probably past their best as well, so I'll replace them ASAP

So - the pressure is off - I have a working car which means I can search for a replacement at my leisure. I'm still looking though, as the Sprinty's rust problem always meant it would meet its maker in the next few months anyway

Not Sharon's old car? Complete with comedy wiper noises?

I understand what you're saying and I'm not having a go at EDz in anyway but the car has been advertised for 6 months. Why bother? If I'm not sure I want to sell my car, I dont advertise it.

I hope you get the car you want Nigel

Yes, although the wiper noise got even worse, so we replaced the mechanism with one from a scrap car

Still going strong - did 200 miles on less than half a tank yesterday, going up to Yorkshire to see the dodgy Plus

The bottom balljoints are clunking and there's a clicking in the rear suspension, but engine-wise its still trundling along quite nicely

Its got another couple of scuffs though....

Nigel, just been browsing on Pistonheads, as you do, and seen a nice Black LE, good miles, going for 3,850 in London, got a feeling its Reza q off here who was trying to sell his mint LE, but not sure what happened, got a feeling its him.

Also my cousin is thinking about selling his mint Black LE, just had a full respray, wheels refurbed, I think new tyres all round and very well maintained with a long list of new parts.

2000 black plus on autotrader with 43k on it, kanny expensive but is open to offers

coop

Hmmmm, what would I buy...

Maybe my old coupe back!

Isnt it up for sale at the minute anyway Owl.....