Regrets...I've had a few...

[jinx]

Just been reading about the Leige-Rome-Liege wining Healey 3000 driven by Pat Moss and Anne Wisdom. Was struck by the last quite from Moss about the car's life after the win

"It was written off twice but repaired. I wish I'd kept the bloody thing - I sold it for £1100"

I imagine the asking price today would be somewhere between 100 and 200 times that figure. Top notch restored 3000's are over 100k now without ever winning anything.

I'm usually quite stoic about parting with any car (stiff upper lip) but deeply resented having to sell my S1 E Type after space and my luck ran out. I miss both my RX7's and as a result, don't have an engine bay to show you but it occurred to me we all probably have similar stories of regret - objects of desire we mistakenly fell out of love with or sacrificed on the altar of practicality/survival.

Care to share?
I have tissues and a large bottle of empathy. It could be good for you - cathartic even.

[clive]

OK, looks like nobody else missed any cars they used to own  ----------but I do 

I bought the Jag (3.8 with overdrive) on my 18th birthday,
It was an ex chauffeur driven car all its life and when the director of the company retired he took the car with him.
I paid just £175 for it and apart from one scratch on the side it was immaculate.
As these were not even collected then, I just viewed it as a fast tow car and drove it into the ground!

One other notable set of wheels was the 500 AJS I had as a kid which was an ex-Sammy Miller trials bike, identical to the bike below.

Some of the others need no explanation

[Richnzj]

My old fb on its way to get 2jz swapped

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[re japi]

175£ for a Jag? (using Jezza Clarkson voice at Jag)

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[re japi]

Well, about a decade ago, I had BMW 750 1996. I did have hate/love relation with it. When it worked, I did love that car. When I sold it, new owner destroyed it complete write off. I was sad

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[Eccentric shaft]

Well, some regrets, I suppose.
But mostly about buying junk cars without having the garage or equipment to fix & maintain them...   
Briefly had two Opels (GM never again!) Rekord C, three-door caravans. One of them a hearse, so both smelt of corpse and formalin.

66 Cortina was my third car and I kept it for 33 years. It was originally lagoon blue, was then resprayed in Opel (oh, no!) 331 turquoise, then finally in Aquatic Jade Metallic.

Parts cars, including an ex rally-rigged 65 Cortina GT and a couple of estates I scrapped or handed on to new owners.
Had a bright yellow 1972 Landie diesel that belched out massive clouds of smoke and for some bizarre reason ten years later I bought a petrol-engined one from 1974 (see pic). It didn't run any better...

More fun with the 1972 Lada 1200. Came without keys but with a complete wasps nest in the boot 

Then my Mazda 616s of course, which both perished before 1990, and in 2012 the JDM-spec Mx5 1,8 iS that re-converted me to Toyo Kogyo stuff. A few years later the Cortina was replaced by Rx7 FB, Rx7 FB by Rx2 and here we are. Only wish I got here sooner!

Btw: can you tell us some more about that lovely Rx2, Clive?

[clive]

That wasn't the RX-2 I owned as I couldn't find the pictures, but it was the same model and colour.

I bought the car from a dealer who bought a complete collection and the RX-2 was included. I bought the car to offer it for the same price as I paid for it to club members, so the car wouldn't be lost!.

It really needed a good clean and tidy up as it was all complete, 30K and one lady owner, sure enough it sold immediately but sadly the guy who bought it stripped the car, then sold it on as a project.

As happens with projects, the car got sold on a few times, still in bits I then lost tracks of it.

Probably still out there somewhere in a lock-up in bits 

[Eccentric shaft]

Sad. Needs tracking down and saving. So common with cars like this: too rare and precious to throw away, but often end up with people without the time, money and/or energy to get them back on the road. A lot of such "model kits" stocked away, owned by people who will never be able to restore them, but stubbornly deny it and refuse to sell. 

[jinx]

...owned by people who will never be able to restore them, but stubbornly deny it and refuse to sell. 

Well then, we won't go into how many years some of my treasures spent in bread skips beneath the bed or under tarps awaiting sufficient funds to make the next step possible, though I don't remember ever parting with one that did not drive away. (For the purposes of total transparency I should probably admit that one of them did break in half when the new owner removed the body...but he had driven it away...to the transporter at least.)

[boosted]

Blimey theres a few...
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. But im sure the decision i made at the time were well thought out
Biggest regret.. selling the Evo 8 FQ300.. in recession for £7500.
Skyline r33gtr.. that was a scratched that itch...
My Silvia S12.. no where to keep it. Funky 80s oldskool turbo coupe. Lot of fun especially with mbc wound in on the t28 turbo waiting for boost.
The rx7 FB that i let slip through my hands but crash repairs and ill health was the right decision....and my failed race career...lol
Its all gravy though.

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