As I revealed on an earlier thread I have finally realised a longstanding desire to acquire a very early 16v N/A and return it to a very high standard of, er, standard-ness

I am of the belief that the 16v N/A will be the first of the Coupe range to achieve classic status. This is due to the linked facts of a very import volume (circa 700 ever imported) and the fact that as a "base" model, a lot of cars will not be rescued when they fall into disrepair.

I'd love to know how many are still on the road, but I would be very surprised if its more than 500 and I wouldn't be surprised if its less than 200.

So - its an early 'M' plate - chassis number 25013, and a build date of (I think) May 1995 - quite possibly a dealer demo car. Just 73,000 miles, with full service history. Very standard, apart from a (loud) Peco exhaust and some replacement seats (from a 20v).



Already on the to-do list

Thermostat (running at less than 70 degrees on the motorway)
Cambelt (only a few thousand miles since the last replacement, but it was about four years ago)
Wheelarches - all are bubbly, but have been sprayed over to stop it getting worse - not pretty though, so they will be professionally sorted, along with..
Repair to slight rear end bump. Just below the lower offside rear light ring and also just behind the rear wheelarch. It's almost undetectable, but the paint IS slightly cracked, so it needs sorting
New exhaust - looking for an OE system

For now though, its a case of elbow grease - I don't think the engine bay has EVER been cleaned...

A bit of under-bonnet cleaning, ahead of a visit to Motormech this weekend

before... ...after

Still plenty to do under there, especially the bonnet and the suspension tops, but it's certainly looking a bit more loved...

Woohoo

Motormech has given it a broadly good report

Offside wishbone is knackered (explains the weird handling)
Rear brake pipes are just starting to corrode
Thermostat is stuck open
Could do with a cambelt to be safe

Other than those few things, it is very good - extremely solid underneath, with just a couple of very minor areas of surface rust, which will be very easy to treat with some rust-inhibiting underseal.

Chuffed...

This restoration is tuning Begbie-esque...

I bought the 16v with some of my redundancy money, with the intention that the extra money from the new job would pay for the work.

However, the new job turned out to be utterly awful and after just a couple of months, my salary dropped by £15k a year

This left me with no cash to spend on luxuries like the 16v, so it's sat almost unused since May

However, yesterday, I picked up a rather dirty, but basically sound leather interior from Joe78 and I've spent the day cleaning and treating it

Looks MUCH nicer than the 'orrible, mucky 20v cloth that was in there before.

Just got to save up for the thermostat and cambelt service now - then I'll be able to drive it a bit more (scared to drive it too much at the moment, as I have no idea when the cambelt was last done)

Still trying to find out a bit about the car - I've only ever seen one other 'M' plate car (and that was being scrapped at a yard in Birmingham)

Is there any way to know the chassis numbers of cars still on the road?

Another three months passed - another update

I've broken something on the 20vt (turbo suspected), so it's at Motormech for investigation, which means that the 16v is being pressed into daily service for a while.

I've just picked it up from Motormech, following a fair bit of work:-

Wishbones
Cambelt & all tensioners
full service
Replacement exhaust (nice & quiet)
Thermostat
Fresh MOT

So - I now have a Coupe that's very much as Mr bangle originally intended and I have to say, it's rather nice to drive. The 16v steering and handling is very 'pure' compared with the slightly artificial steering weight of the 20vt

It's going to be a bit of an education getting used to only 130bhp and rather more body roll than I've had in recent years, but in a strange way, I'm quite looking forward to it.

Big cleaning session tomorrow, so there may be some piccies.