What is your favourite car?
"Dad, how many cars have you had?” Well that got me thinking and as I slowly listed out all of the cars I had owned or had in my possession, I realised I have had a bucket load!
Happy new Year team! Hope 2024 treated you well, and 2025 is going to be a big one. I have a lot of plans for this year, so i’m excited to see what it brings.
Ill start this one off that this is not going to be a post for everyone, though I did start this blog off as a lasting memory for my kids to look a back on my thoughts, things id experienced and did. So this is more for them and the odd car enthusiast or those that are just interested in following along each week. I’ll be away camping in my favourite spot by the time you read this, so keeping it light for a few weeks. I’ll be reading a heap of material and researching some more content to expand on, and hoping to at taking it to a new level for 2025!
When last year I talked about finishing off my project car, Stacey, and how much it meant to me, and the journey along the way. This is what follows and what led to that project. I wasted no time in coming up with this post to recount my car history and some little snippets of info about me personally along the way.
Having a conversation with my son who asked me, “Dad, how many cars have you had?” Well that got me thinking and as I slowly listed out all of the cars I had owned or had in my possession, I realised I have had a bucket load! Weird as it doesn’t seem like a lot until you start writing them all down. Like I was actually surprised at how many I have had. Now whilst some of these photos are not my exact car, they are the same colour and year of the car I owned/used for a period of time.
So here’s the list and a story to go with each...
My very first car, my parents gave to me on my 16th Birthday.
1976 Mitsubishi Lancer
Engine: 1.3 litre, 4 cylinder, 60 kW (83hp) of power!
This is the first car I did 100km/hr in and taught myself how to do J turns, or hand brake slides for those old school people. She was written off outside my house after someone slammed into the back of it doing a u turn! I thought it was cool at first, cutting and polishing the paint, installing black sporty wing mirrors, air horns, and even painting the air scoop and dip stick in a navy blue. What was I thinking?
1983 Ford Cortina
Engine: 2.0 litre, 4-cylinder, 64 kW (86 hp) of power and 140 N⋅m (103 lb⋅ft) of torque.
Oh the Boat anchor! I brought this from my parents when my first car was written off. I then had to rebuild the engine as the valve seats went, so ended up being my first engine rebuild, working at nights with Neville, a family friend, in my parents garage. Was a great experience, and she ran amazing after the rebuild!
It also sounded mean as after I blew the muffler apart during an accidental backfire1. Sounded like I had a real grunt motor under the hood.
1991 Honda Civic Si
Engine: 1.6 L DOHC four-cylinder engine and produced 130 PS (96 kW; 128 hp) (D16A9)
After getting sick of my boat anchor, I upgraded to my beloved Honda Civic. These are iconic, and mine was a little rocket. Though auto, I loved cursing around in this car, a thumping stereo that I spent well over $10k on, it was worth more than the car!
1991 Nissan Primera TE
Engine: 1,998 cc, 4-cylinder, 16-valve, 4-cycle DOHC, SR20DE
My first foray into importing car from Japan that was crashed damaged, in an effort to repair it and sell it. Unfortunately I fell in love with it. It corners so aggressively that it felt like it was on rails. It had plenty of power for a young buck, around 150hp and was a true drivers car being manual! It did end up selling it for what I spent on it, but it was an awesome wee car. The standing joke was that I hadn’t seen any Black models, when I brought it and told everyone it’s cool and rare cos it’s black! Then everywhere I went I saw a black Primera. But there weren’t many TE’s around. TE was the top speck without a turbo.
1977 Holden Statesman HX
Engine: 5.0 L, 8-cylinder petrol, Holden 308, 240HP.
EVERYONE who follows me knows about this car! If not read my posts previously, or check out ScottKesseler.com.
This is the photo I took the day after brought it!
1981 Toyota Corolla DX Station wagon
Engine: 1,290 cc 4K-U (II) engine.
This was an epic little wee wagon. Though had a tragic end after 6 months, I decided to take it to a local river bed to rally it, until one of my friends jumped it over a bank straight into a tree stump. Needless to say it died on that river though we towed it out of the river to recycle it into car parts
1996 Subaru LX Wagon
Engine: 1597 cc, 4-cylinder, unleaded petrol,Maximum torque: 128 Nm, Maximum power: 66 kW or 88HP
I brought this when I moved back from Fiji as I desperately needed a car. Again a great car for a little 1.6 litre. It sounded amazing with an air pod filter, and being manual I used to give it death. It also was the first cam belt I ever fitted to a car, and did it in under 4 hrs. Just drop the radiator out take of the front bumper and just sit in front of the engine!
1989 Toyota Corolla
This one was a loner from my girlfriend at the time(thanx Vic), when I was between cars and couldn’t afford to buy one being a poor working young man. Though I did own the Statesman, she was parked up in a garage(a very tiny wee garage!) cos I had no money to fix it up and it was becoming very costly to run as my daily driver. This car, the mighty Toyota Corolla would not die! It ran so rough, took 15mins to warm up, and wouldn’t drive very fast or far if you didn’t take the time to warm it up!
It had an affectionate name Zoomy! It was not!
1991 Mazda Familia - Company Car
This was my first ever company car, when I started at a business called Explore more. Only story I have of this car was the first night I drove it I got pulled over by a cop, and breath tested, failing the initial test. I had been out for dinner and had a couple of beers. Thankfully I passed the blow in the bag test, though he was more interested in the EX sticker on the side of my car and what it meant. Very Strange!
2003 Toyota Echo RS - Company Car
This was my second company car @ Explore more. I changed to this in an effort to save the company money in fuel and running costs. It ran on the smell of an oily rag!
As this post turned out to be quite long I have cut it in two. Again I was quite surprised how long this list was.
Hope you have a good week final chapter next week…
The Wrap
And that’s it for this week! Sorry I know that was a long one, and very self indulgent but this one is for the kids, and any car enthusiasts out there. It was quiet interesting writing this and looking back at the volume and types of cars.
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Until next week…
