Probably had this kind of thead before, basically your lowest and highest point in your coupe ownership:-

Low:- Finding out a week after buying the car from Poweritalia that the bottom end was knocking.

High:- Rog sourcing and fitting a new engine for me.


Austin

This is with coupe number 3


high-the call off countrycruising saying the cars passed it mot,come and collect

Low-day before collection ,insurance quote revoked and unable to insure the car on collection.My bro had to bring her back(he drove her first) and now she still sits on the drive as i plough through trying to sort my insurance out.

High - Auto Italia photo shoot a couple of weeks ago at Bruntingthorpe and going over an indicated 170mph.

Low - Having the car off the road for over a year after 3 ringlands breaking.

The highs definately outweigh the lows.

Low - err now....helix clutch packed up after 10 months.

High - winning TOTB last year in a genuine daily driver, while most other cars were trackday specials

Low - three weeks ago - telling the wife it was broken yet again, and having to sell my small collection of Corgi models to help pay for it

highs- having a lovely car and having a stunning girl from my office saying she couldn't belive her luck getting alift to work by a sexy man in a sexy car lol
down sides, spending all my money and time to get the coop up to my standards.

High: The first drive home after I'd bought my first one.

Low: I suppose the only letdown I ever had (coolant hose of death, about eight miles from Barbz and fixed by him in no time for peanuts). Getting towed to his place over the speed humps of south London was pretty painful.

high - picking my plus up and of march

low - seeing it towed by the aa when the cam belt snapped

High: Seeing everything disappear into the distance in my rear view mirror over and over again on the way home from Peterborough to Norwich on the day I bought it.

Low: Totting up the bill for the new turbo, brakes, thermostat, and rad i needed within 3 months of buying it.

High, The monthly meets both me and emm look forward too, the raw of the 5 pot WHEN I get to open it up

Low, watching in horror at bonnet flipped up at 60mph, The electrical fire I had 2 months ago, the battery exploding 2 months ago

The lows out way the highs....

Highs: whenever I'm driving it

Lows: whenever I'm not driving it

High: Pulling away from an a-road roundabout driving the car home for the first time & feeling the turbo kick in.

Low: Five weeks later when my auxiliary belt snapped & jammed my cam belt ruining the entire top end

(Back in good order now though!)

High: First drive home and showing it off to EVERYONE I know.

Low: Seeing the mess the body shop had made of repairing a scratch

I have never ever EVER seen your Coop belfastjohn! Got any pics for us?

Theres one floating about on an old old thread from the last Italian car day at Cultra a couple of years back. I'll see if I can find the links.

But I've tagged another week onto my hols so I'll try to take a few pics and post them up. Mind you I'm crap at taking photos. Dont hold your breath though. Its taken me over 2 yrs to fill in and print off an FCCUK membership form.

It's now been sitting on the sideboard in an addressed envelope with a cheque awaiting a stamp for the last 4 weeks!!!

High- The 1st time you spend all day valeting it and then spend all night sneaking a crafty look at it

Low- Waiting/ Expecting for something to go wrong, or someone driving in to it

You have 'Fiat Coupe rare.'

And then you have 'belfastjohn Fiat Coupe rare.'



I look forward to seeing this mystery machine.

Mines the grey one

Thanks to Darmtb

They took me from behind

And in Darmtb's words

belfastjohn's shiney car !


And just to keep this on subject, the compliments my car got at this meet was also a highlight of coop ownership.

That's a gorgeous Coupe belfastjohn

How come the dash strip is silver though?

The whole car looks silver, well now it looks 4 shades of silver! Though the courts have awarded me £2500 compensation against the place responsible.

That was another high/low mixed point of coop ownership.

I usually always describe it as silver, it's just it says grey on the books that I refer to it as grey. But the car, including the dash strip is (well was) all the same colour.

Maybe you're just not used to seeing such a clean shiney interior

Highs: Driving the car for the first time after a month in sunny weather after driving a slow Rover diesel


Lows: Breaking down in Scotland in the pouring rain 400 miles from home!

Highs: seeing my first coupe on the owners drive looking mint with just 19k miles on it then driving it home.

Lows: writing it off after 5yrs of love......... more recently (yesterday) shearing a stud of the exhaust manifold on coupe no.2 whilst replacing my turbo!

my first coupe--

high--driving the coupe for the first time(giggle factor!)

Lows- seeing it for sale on pistonheads and not having the cash to buy it back!

Highs - The satisfaction of actually changing 8 exhaust valves reasonably successfully and then driving the car. The pleasure of driving a perfect example of a 20vt (thanks darmtb )

Lows - Finally giving up on my 16vt and accepting that its rattly bottom end and low oil pressure meant it was never to be salvaged, and worst of all having never driven it

haha, why the black 20v turbo icon, since ive been on the forum i thought you were a fellow ink black owner??

Hope you're not haha-ing at the fact someone turned my coop into a muti-shaded eye sore Tommy

As for the 20VT icon in black...Is it? Do they come in different colours then

I've never really noticed. But if I'm giving the impression I'm driving around in a Bic Biro Blue coop, I may have to consider changing it

Action considered and conclusion reached - I cant be bothered

Nope, simply laughing at your icon

high for me - driving the coupe home the day i picked it up!

low point - going into the back of an old git who had stopped on a green light...

high - gt28rs proalloy front mount, blue flame exhaust and chip all at once sitting a car lenght behind 4wd evos launching,

lows - seeing 78 psi on a compression test yesterday ..

High - either a) when a young lad walking down the road turned, pointed at my previous 20VT and said to his mate "WOW!! cool car!!!"

or b) entering Auto Italia concours at Stanford Hall this year with my Plus.

Low - 3 days after having the front bumper resprayed on my previous 20VT, some d!ck in a car park bumped into it, cracking the paint and then driving off, despite me being parked literally miles from any other car (as usual!)

High - seeing my son's face on his 21st birthday when I gave him the keys to his first Coupe

Low - seeing my son's face last night when I diagnosed a snapped cambelt

If he is your son Nigel, surely he's now looking to go forged

high- Driving through Boston town centre in a convoy of 3 yellow coops, with everyone pointing and looking

low - crashing into the back of DanDan

high - driving it for 6 weeks

low - a lot

High - The first tunnel run with the windows open.

Low - Seeing my flaking lacquer on the roof getting worse over time and not having the spare money to get it corrected.

High- Getting the Coupé
Low- Turbo blowing on the day of purchase
High- Lovely 5 cylinder burble of the engine
Low- Engine expiring after 10k miles
High- Shiney Front end respray
Low- Paint reacting and going off after 1 month
High- Another front End respray
Low- Paint reacting and going off after 1 month (again)
High- Having immaculate bodywork
Low- Woman manoeuvring into drivers door, mother reversing into bootlid

Geez I’m a miserable git

High: A gloriously sunny week last August spent touring Sutherland in the Coupe with my big brother, especially seeing the grin on his face the first time I let him drive it.

Low: Standing in the rain watching as it was taken away on a trailer last week when I finally gave in and sold it (after 6 months of sitting in the garage SORNed 'cus I had no money to repair or run it).



I've already started saving up for another, but for now at least I've got the memories.