What have you done to your MK 7 today ?

[SRGTD]

Mine took me and my OH for a lovely sunny day out to Brooklands Museum in Weybridge - https://www.brooklandsmuseum.com/ a great place and today was an event for the 50th birthday of the Ford Capri My first two cars were Capris and although in reality there weren't the last word in engineering or driving dynamics, I do look back fondly to simpler times when all you needed was a socket set and a Haynes manual and all the little maladies were easily sorted. Mind you, it was a good thing as there were things going wrong fairly often Anyway, it was a great day and some beautifully presented cars, some of them very rare too. Never seen so many RS3100s in one place! As soon as I got home I was looking at adverts for sale and trying to convince myself keeping one on the drive would be fine...

Sounds like a good day out Watts.

One of the regrets of my youth was buying an Escort XR3i (I had two of them and a non injection XR3!) when I could have bought a nearly new Capri 2.8 injection Special. I think the fact that the Capri was RWD and potentially a bit tail happy in certain weather / road conditions put me off. I’d have loved to have owned one of the run-out 280 Brooklands Capri’s in Brooklands Green only paintwork.

Nostalgia just kicked in and I just Googled Capri 280 Brooklands...........

https://www.motoringresearch.com/car-news/features/ford-capri-280-road-test/

[Watts]

There was some tail happy action up the test hill today! A fair few were clearly fitted with turbos and some V8s, they got up the hill pretty sharpish! There were a few 280s but I must admit to being fond of the earlier models. There was a great looking 1970 3000E in red. One of mine was a slightly later facelift 3000GT in yellow. If only I'd been able to keep it...

[Yusee]

Mine took me and my OH for a lovely sunny day out to Brooklands Museum in Weybridge - https://www.brooklandsmuseum.com/ a great place and today was an event for the 50th birthday of the Ford Capri My first two cars were Capris and although in reality there weren't the last word in engineering or driving dynamics, I do look back fondly to simpler times when all you needed was a socket set and a Haynes manual and all the little maladies were easily sorted. Mind you, it was a good thing as there were things going wrong fairly often Anyway, it was a great day and some beautifully presented cars, some of them very rare too. Never seen so many RS3100s in one place! As soon as I got home I was looking at adverts for sale and trying to convince myself keeping one on the drive would be fine...

I know exactly what you mean about the simplicity of older cars. In fact I have just this week bought a 1988 Peugeot 205 gti.
Had one when young,  which i’d mainly self service (or my dad would).
Couldn’t be happier- 2 Gtis to choose from, depending on mood. One raw, one cooked. Marvellous!

[Watts]

I know exactly what you mean about the simplicity of older cars. In fact I have just this week bought a 1988 Peugeot 205 gti.
Had one when young,  which i’d mainly self service (or my dad would).
Couldn’t be happier- 2 Gtis to choose from, depending on mood. One raw, one cooked. Marvellous!

 

[Philb280]

Mine took me and my OH for a lovely sunny day out to Brooklands Museum in Weybridge - https://www.brooklandsmuseum.com/ a great place and today was an event for the 50th birthday of the Ford Capri My first two cars were Capris and although in reality there weren't the last word in engineering or driving dynamics, I do look back fondly to simpler times when all you needed was a socket set and a Haynes manual and all the little maladies were easily sorted. Mind you, it was a good thing as there were things going wrong fairly often Anyway, it was a great day and some beautifully presented cars, some of them very rare too. Never seen so many RS3100s in one place! As soon as I got home I was looking at adverts for sale and trying to convince myself keeping one on the drive would be fine...

Sounds like a good day out Watts.

One of the regrets of my youth was buying an Escort XR3i (I had two of them and a non injection XR3!) when I could have bought a nearly new Capri 2.8 injection Special. I think the fact that the Capri was RWD and potentially a bit tail happy in certain weather / road conditions put me off. I’d have loved to have owned one of the run-out 280 Brooklands Capri’s in Brooklands Green only paintwork.

Nostalgia just kicked in and I just Googled Capri 280 Brooklands...........

https://www.motoringresearch.com/car-news/features/ford-capri-280-road-test/

I was lucky enough to have a 280 - wanted a Capri when I was younger but something else always seemed to crop up , so sold an Accord Type R and bought the 280 - fully restored paid just £3000. Sold it in 2008 after 7 years of ownership and regretted it ever since. Great fun to drive and a proper head turner.

[Jim_mk7.5]

Great blast out in the Peaks yesterday am.. Covered 60 miles and averaged 22 from filling up though but worth it 

[Exonian]

I know exactly what you mean about the simplicity of older cars. In fact I have just this week bought a 1988 Peugeot 205 gti.
Had one when young,  which i’d mainly self service (or my dad would).
Couldn’t be happier- 2 Gtis to choose from, depending on mood. One raw, one cooked. Marvellous!

What engine? 1.9 or 1.6?
I had a 1988 1.9 back in the day. Great fun but shocking quality!
One of the best fun per ££££ cars ever built and I nearly bought a restored one some years back, I’ll assume they change hands for much more money now(?)

Get some photos up (unless you have in another thread), I’d love to see it.

Mine creaked, squeaked and rattled like hell and was only a couple years old at best when I had it.
It bad non assisted steering too which was really heavy and at odds with the lightness of the other controls. Definitely one car you’d never need a pedalbox for!!
Mine had the common fault of stalling if steering lock was applied at low revs. The front drop links used to fail too.

A friend of mine had a Team Hartwell modified 1989 1.9 at the same time. His rattled less and went much faster! I think it was 160 bhp and had a very noisy stainless exhaust.
He also had Bilstein suspension which made the ride height a bit more sports hatch like and unlike mk2 and mk3 Golf Bilsteins they didn’t ruin the ride quality.
He ended up chopping it in for a Mazda MX5 of all things then promptly ended up needing a bigger car again when he got his girlfriend pregnant. C’est la vie!


Back to Capris, when I was at school one of my best friends’ older brother had a 3.0 Ghia auto in gold with a brown vinyl roof. Not a bad car for an 18 year old apprentice!
Many fond memories of that rude engine noise and its ability to do some impressive wheelspins!
Nearest car to it nowadays would be a 5.0 Mustang I guess?

[Yusee]

I know exactly what you mean about the simplicity of older cars. In fact I have just this week bought a 1988 Peugeot 205 gti.
Had one when young,  which i’d mainly self service (or my dad would).
Couldn’t be happier- 2 Gtis to choose from, depending on mood. One raw, one cooked. Marvellous!

What engine? 1.9 or 1.6?
I had a 1988 1.9 back in the day. Great fun but shocking quality!
One of the best fun per ££££ cars ever built and I nearly bought a restored one some years back, I’ll assume they change hands for much more money now(?)

Get some photos up (unless you have in another thread), I’d love to see it.

Mine creaked, squeaked and rattled like hell and was only a couple years old at best when I had it.
It bad non assisted steering too which was really heavy and at odds with the lightness of the other controls. Definitely one car you’d never need a pedalbox for!!
Mine had the common fault of stalling if steering lock was applied at low revs. The front drop links used to fail too.

A friend of mine had a Team Hartwell modified 1989 1.9 at the same time. His rattled less and went much faster! I think it was 160 bhp and had a very noisy stainless exhaust.
He also had Bilstein suspension which made the ride height a bit more sports hatch like and unlike mk2 and mk3 Golf Bilsteins they didn’t ruin the ride quality.
He ended up chopping it in for a Mazda MX5 of all things then promptly ended up needing a bigger car again when he got his girlfriend pregnant. C’est la vie!


Back to Capris, when I was at school one of my best friends’ older brother had a 3.0 Ghia auto in gold with a brown vinyl roof. Not a bad car for an 18 year old apprentice!
Many fond memories of that rude engine noise and its ability to do some impressive wheelspins!
Nearest car to it nowadays would be a 5.0 Mustang I guess?

Just bought a 1.9. Would've happily bought a 1.6, but happened to see a 1.9 which looked to have had an easy life- 25 years with one couple who hardly used it for the last 10.
My first 2 cars were Peugeot hot hatches- a 309 XSi ( which had the 1.6 115bhp engine) followed by a 1.9 205.
It's the only car I regret selling.
They do rattle, no doubt- not as well put together as veedubs but I think they're actually pretty robust.
Didn't have any major reliability problems with either of mine back in the day.
The fuel injection systems are a bit erratic- never idle smoothly- and the 309 was afflicted by a stalling issue I never really got to the bottom of- but neither ever broke down despite both going into high mileage.

They are pretty expensive now- I paid just under £8k for a few owner car with 96k miles- everything works, engine is strong, body and interior excellent. I drove it 160 miles back to the Midlands from Sussex last week- surprisingly stable at motorway speeds- more miles in 1 journey than it had covered in the last 10 years! Thoroughly enjoyed the drive- the car was as I expected and how I remembered from over 20 years ago. Only thing I had forgotten was how heavy that steering is when parking. Bloody hell it's hard work!
I intend to keep my golf and 205 a fair few years and use them both regularly- I reckon the 205 will be cheaper to run given that it shouldn't depreciate, nothing will be too expensive to fix, and insurance is costing £96 per year for 3000 miles!
I had to do a clever bit of man maths to convince the wife it was the right thing to buy a car I don't really need.
Anyway, I feel very lucky to own 2 brilliant and contrasting hot hatches- i'm a bit of a technophobe but will try and get some pics up when I work out how to do it!

[Jim_mk7.5]

Look at you two Pug fanboys, you need to take this conversation to a new thread! 

[fredgroves]

I remember the 205. My best friend had one back in the day.

He needed a new clutch and was told by the spares counter that there were 4 possible ones for his model/year and that to bring it in so they could see which one he needed. He brought it in and they scratched their heads... seems that there were five possible clutches... and they had never seen the fifth one and he walked away without a clutch :-/

Gotta love French parts bin specials.