I've had waaay too many at 26.
1998 Mk1 1.2 Clio
1992 Mk1 1.8 16v Clio
1996 1.8 Ford Escort
1998 S2 106 GTI
1998 Punto GT Turbo
2001 Ph1 Clio 172 (the start of an unhealthy obsession)
Longest car owned, ended up at 240bhp with a supercharger
Ended up on fire
Then another bought for a runaround.
1997 Fiat Coupe Turbo (340bhp) swiftly broke
After a bad run of breaking cars I bought
2004 Golf R32
5 weeks later it was crashed into
So I bought my 4th Ph1 Clio 172 for a runaround and drove it to Paris.
I then bought another Ph1 Clio which was 330bhp, which again broke too soon so as did the runaround I was using for a second car.
I then bought ANOTHER Ph1 172, which I kept reasonably clean.
I then decided to go for the Jap approach, which again ended badly, as something minor broke and I got bored of it.
ST205 Celica GT-Four
A friend had bought a Ph1 172 which had some very good modifications, nothing special, just right and running around 190bhp. So I sold the GT4 as I wanted this car after doing a few trackways with him.
It then turned into the greatest Ph1 I ever had. Ended up tidying it up and bolting a supercharger on again, everything done on my driveway in the space of four weeks. Car ran faultlessly and made 250bhp on a map suited for the last car the ECU and SC kit was on.
Within days of it being finished I decided to tag along with some friends and head over to the Nurburgring. On a whim and fingers crossed it would be ok, it was brilliant, no issues and nearly got there on one full tank. Well I changed my brake pads on the way as I knew they would need doing at some point.
Amazing trip
The white one was my old one which ran 330bhp, on this trip it had a different engine that ran about 210bhp.
The when we were back I ran it all summer, tidying it up and looking nice, upped the boost a bit and it started breathing oil so was broken for bits.
We then started saving for a house so to tide me over I got a clean low mileage Ph2 172 which was a great all a rounder with some suspension tweaks and refresh.
Which also got taken to the Nurburgring last year
The weather wasn't as great most of the trip
I then sold it for the final bit of the house deposit
I then spent 6 months without a car sharing the Missus' Corsa VXR, which I did not like and then we clubbed together after knowing our monthly outgoings for the house and bought Rocco.
Reading back through that I've actually missed out a few projects in between!