It's an odd thing watching your car go. I've never really sold a car privately before and there's that strange feeling of guilt and regret as you see the back of it disappear.

I remember buying my coupe. It was back in 2005. I was a hungover and decided a little retail therapy was in order (BTW I don't advise this as you may like me get a little carried away). Browsing the autotrader, the old alfa spider appealed. Then I read the stories on maintenance and that appeal soon diminished. Porsche 944? Even bigger horror stories. Nissan 200sx. Hmm yes, but there were only a handful of okayish ones in the price bracket I was looking at. Then I remembered the hoorah the motoring press made about a FWD turbo car back when I was in sixth form. A period I read Performance Car with joy from cover to cover.

PC gave it five stars, citing the serious bang you got for your buck. But how much were they now? In my price range was the answer.

I drove down to bournemouth to have a look at a 20vt which was pretty cheap. Unfortunately when I got there it was really tatty and the dealer didn't offer me a drive in it. I walked away feeling slightly dejected as those tiny pictures had painted a much better car in my mind. Still, I was 80 miles from home and didn't have plans that day. I searched the web for other coupes for sale and noticed one on ebay.

It was advertised by an independent Jaguar garage in pulborough, that didn't seem like much of a detour so I called them up and arranged to view it. I arrive at the garage and the car was just being wiped down. The difference in condition between that and the previous one I saw was night and day. Okay so it didn't have aircon or leather, but she was in great condition and relatively low miles with service stamps to prove. We went for a drive and she felt great. Steering was light and felt direct. The turbo whistled along merrily as I enjoyed the A roads of sussex.

On our return there was a little haggling and a deal was made. The car would be serviced and I would pick it up the following week.

I'm sitting on a bench at clapham junction station. A man dressed as charlie chaplin (walk and all) passes by me and I think it's slightly odd, but hey this is London.



Them my phone rings. It's my sister calling. That's odd, it's 9:30am and she never calls me.

"Where are you?", she asks.
"Umm. On my way somewhere", I'm vague with her as I didn't want my off the cuff purchase being fed back to my parents, whose voice I could hear saying, 'you live in london, you need a house, not a car'.
My mothers voice in my head is interrupted by my sisters in my ear. "Are you going into work today?".
"Maybe later, why?"
"Stay off public transport. There's reports of something bad happening on the tubes."

The day was July 7th.

So I could never really forget that day. My drive back from sussex was a joy, though it was always remembered by the horrors that unfolded in London.

As the years rolled on, I've made my contributions to the forum and have had fond memories of the hours spent here. I've laughed hard and particularly remember the bollywood spoof someone made of DocFrag and someone else coming to blows over which turbo was better.

The vs section of the forum was always a source of amusement, where welformed would spend alot of his time posting, amusing us all with tales of victory around the dual carriageways of milton keynes.

There was a time when the group buy section was constantly hot with offers. Nigel and brake buys. Highwayman and the prolific Proalloy FMIC group buy. Cosmograph selling PRV's. We were then at a time where 300bhp was considered alot. Stage 1 mods were drilled air boxes, GrahamL's G-Tec chips and a stainless steel back box. A Unichip was an expensive upgrade and we considered DocFrag to be crazy for running a GT28RS with endless sessions spent at PTS luton looking that bit more power. It felt as if those days of (tuning) innocence were the most fun. Who remembers the PTS unichip group buy setup by Rog20vt, where we all watched that thread with great anticipation as each and everyone of us booked in a date and posted the results later?

Fleamaps. It makes me smile when I see this as there was a time when Leighton spent more time and money down at the perfect touch rollers than most of us put together. But they consistently got it wrong, to the point where Leighton got so fed up he decided to do it himself. My hat goes off to you Leighton for working it all out.

Anyhow, I ramble on down memory lane. I just wanted to say thanks to those of you who have made it such an enjoyable place in the early days as I think the forum has changed as people move on.

Final thanks go to the people who looked after my car. The 'proper' specialists I've dealt with. Roger from PowerFiat, Barbz from TourqueItalia* and Paul from Motormech.


*That one's for you chrissy.

Actually. Final thanks go to the club for making sure this forum exists and allows non club members to post.

Great post Kenno

No probs Nellybear. My coupe left squeak free thanks to the hours I spent applying that felt tape you sent me!

Jesus, that was at least 5 years ago !!!! Good old VW rattle tape

I know. Good times.

Good luck Kenno in what you decide to do now

Funny that about July 7 - I flogged my first Coupe to a guy in Cambridge that day and just about managed to avoid the knock-on of the travel carnage.

Good post, like most of us, more good memories than bad. Let us all know what you end up with.

That was an excellent post Kenno.

Bought back a lot of memories for me reading it. Those early days really were fun weren't they.

I hope you will stick around and continue to post, even though you are now Coupeless.

Roly, a baby and some form of baby lugging unit.

I've test driven both 330d and 335d tourings so it'll be one of them hopefully.

Great post Kenno.

I recently re-read that unichip group buy thread. It makes for some interesting reading.

Ross

I guess we'll see you on Sunday then Ken!

Let me know if you need a lift

Excellent post Kenno

Good luck with your future car and hope you'll stay around on here

Hope you'll be back at some point mate, I know i'd miss my sprint blue baby. I haven't got a clue what car to buy when there are little Mr C's running around!

No!! That`s not a tear in my eye... Something got in to it...

I had four cars so far and sold them all privately... I only felt the way you did when i was selling my little yellow 2000 Fiat Punto Sporting 1.2 16v and then worse when i was selling my 2004 Alfa Romeo 156 1.9JTD Veloce... Felt like my heart bled from guilt and betrayal...

I`m only new here but with a post like this you realize what great place this forum is! So happy that i`m a part of it now.

Great job Kenno and good luck with whatever is that you`ll be doing from now on!

Ivan

Are you saying Charlie Chaplin played a part in the bombings that day??

No, of course not Daniel. He's been dead for years.

Great post Kenno.

Thats a brill post.

Stay around coupe or no coupe nice people always welcome

Good post

Great post and good luck.

Nice post Kenno.Good luck.

Why you still here then?

That was an incredibly poignant read.

Great post Kenno,

Was a lovely car too!

All the best,

Chrissy, Oh & lol!

...Update...

(No the coupe's not back)

But I sold the Caterham a couple of weekends ago and surprisingly I didn't feel the heart strings tug anywhere near as much.

Not sure whether it's because I:

1. had only kept the Caterham for a year
2. knew the Caterham was always going to be a short term thing
3. loved the coupe more
4. thought the rear end of the coupe was more attactive than the caterham
5. was holding a big fat bankers draft

I'll say it was 3.