Your Guiding Star?

[Jay]

Was just thinking about a post today and thought it amazing that one particular car sparked a person into buying a Starlet.

Looking back I realised that there was one GT that did play a part in my own decisions:

This was a 1991 EP82 GT in green that I saw for the first time in a neighbouring village and thought - now that looks different. I asked around and no-one could tell me engine size or model.

Next time I saw it was around 15mins after it had rearended a Metro into a field. It actually looked pleased with itself and surprisingly even more aggressive than I had remembered on the first sighting. I was between cars at the time and the rest is history.

I even found it a few years later in the Starlet Graveyard up in Saintfield, it doesn't look like much but it was enough to inspire. (RIP Buddy) :



Looking back, was there any one particular EP that made you choose Starlet?

 

[Mike_ep91]

mr coreys car 1st time i seen it i wanted one

 

[willo-1]

well a couple of years back i was cruiseing in my little frenchie cti mi16 and as known now a ep91 glanza come up beside me i thort nice and went to wave bye bye and the little f***er took of, loved them ever since.

 

[Toby@ToyTuning.com]

Yeah good thread Jay, nice to know you can remember yours shame it's RIP now but looks quite happy there in the Sun!

Way back I was outside Honda having a fag and I noticed a little UK spec SR bumble buy with a gran at the wheel, obviously she had been back to the dealer after her old Starlet and the savvy salesman had persuaded her to get a SR with the TTE bits. I did some research, found one and bought one!

But, that wasn't what got me into the turbos. When I had the SR back in 2001 think it was a friend I hadn't seen for years phoned me to say he had also had a Starlet, a Starlet turbo. I was like "a what?"

He picked me up, took me for a spin, and when I get home I spent an hour on google (was that around then? Maybe altavista), found Fensport, and ordered my front cut from a GT to do a conversion, I had a very very severe case of turbo fever.

3 months later this was born and the rest was history.

Good thread though nice to look back and see how it all began for each person.

T

 

[Toby@ToyTuning.com]

mr coreys car 1st time i seen it i wanted one

Always loved that picture.

T

 

[drew-turbo]

when i was 16 i was working at a backstreet garage next door was a sort of performance place mainly hondas and one day i saw a starlet i didnt know what it was all i knew was that it was turboed i presumed straight away it was a 2litre :haha: i thoght wow and i got home did some research didnt find much only car reviews and i realised what they where i soon made my mind up

 

[1998glanzav]

Great thread Jay

It started for me 5 years ago. A friend of mine had bought a 1998 white Glanza with a white set of alloys. The car was totally standard apart from the dump valve, induction kit and exhaust. He used to constantly overtake me on the way home from college with a big smile on his face. The size and power of the car was what really interested me. I liked the fact that the bodykit was subtle yet the tuning potential was massive.

I then took a spin over to Mayo after seeing one in the Autotrader that had just been imported. It was white with brand new white alloys aswell. I took it for a spin, and I was instantly hooked. The only problem was that it was an automatic that was converted into a manual. The work was top notch but insurance would be a problem

At this time I could not get a a reasonable quote on any Glanza as I was still on a provisional licence. I then bought a 2001 toyota corolla, and in 2007 bought a brand new 2007 VW Golf Sportline in white with the full bodykit.

This did not last long however, as a few months later, after rolling the car down a 10ft drop, it was safe to say that it was a write off. I then took the money from this and purchased what I always wanted in the first place- my beloved Glanza

I still have the Corolla as my daily driver and the glanza is currently my project/hobby

 

[gv1.3]

I had seen lots and lots of the little flyers around Dublin and they always interested me. Back then there wasnt much info on them and when I went online I found www.glanza.net and rather than finding info on the car it had one picture and one picture only..... I felt it was there to remind people of what can happen when a little car is pushed beyond its limits... I immediately wanted one and shortly afterwards I was out test driving. I still dont know the story of the car in the picture though.

 

[12345678]

inspiration

i worked in a pub from i was 16, and there was one of the locals who drove a 96 glanza in white, full lip kit, white 5spoke advans with blue lip and an hks exhaust. it looked the rod, and i wanted one. so worked for a shit wage, bought 99 glanza, had to get a refund (after 6months of waiting) as seller couldnt put it on the road due to sva, legal insurance cover no longer available so drove various french shit and got a gt last year - FINALLY lol.

 

[Aidan-G]

for me it was seeing a glanza wizz around dublin,a white one in particular it was spotless and a funny noise off it when it changed gear!loli was amazed:haha:

then i baught my first one(a glanza)when i 16 would you believehad it for ages before i got insurance,i baught it off aland,a member on here..it was him who gave me the link to this site....years ago!haham,madness

 

[davehart]

My first car was my Grandad's old UK EP91.

I got that back in 2002 and was far to busy getting drunk and not bothering driving for the next four years until I actually started looking into starlets. I became fond of GT's and when I wrote my red UK one off.....it was the perfect time to step into turbo world

 

[ragz]

wen i wasnt old enough to drive i wanted one

i finished work, stood outside under shelter waiting for the rain to calm down so i can run to the train station

a colleage walks out after 10 mins

talked to him for few mins then he offered me a lift as we lived pretty close by to one another

walk to the car park n he's walking towards a silver quad light GT
got in loved the ride home fell in love with the car aswell

u can guess the rest

<------

 

[stuart]

lol quality Ragz.
I fell in love with a (shhh, dont tell anyone) a Glanza, started looking on auto-trader and import places. Had about 1500 saved to buy an old E30 BMW, found a trader, then saw a bang-tidy green standard GT, went down the day I saw it to buy it, with a loan from the parents, but by time I got there it was sold. - Guy told me he had a black quad coming in, he sent me pictures from auction etc and here I am now!

 

[mickscanlon]

i was on the way to look at a levin.. geard g who is also on dis was bringn me in his glanza.. he let me drive it an holy shit was i impressed... his car is a beauty... the lad also had a glanza up dare so i bought that glanza.. delighted to cos i smoked a levin shortly after.. was a happy day...ha ha..

 

[alan_d]

then i baught my first one(a glanza)when i 16 would you believehad it for ages before i got insurance,i baught it off aland,a member on here..it was him who gave me the link to this site....years ago!haham,madness

You dont know how it feels to hear that after all these years!
That car I sold lived on to be BOVs wagon of much justice!
I can remember the day in my head vividly, meeting your relatives after such a long drive to ours, and having a cuppa in the kitchen together - good times!

my formative memory of my first gt was back in 06 when my brother started driving, and took me to the carpark to see the cruise.

There was a guy who came tearing along the seafront in this little black thing, it had mad arches, totally blacked out, with split wheels, the dish being gold, all the trim on the car was gold, quadlighted, and to this day, wore a kit that ive never identified!

the waaaaaapcheeeecheeecheee as it lifted off still rings in my head after 13 years.

I wanted to know what it was, and it was only after a few weeks that my brother approached him for a chat. turns out it was an ep82, brought up from michael maddens.

I can still see the glowing GT badge as it took off into the night.

My inspiration to build the first one came from a few people locally.
Seeing YBYs pioneering (for ni) TD04 build back when he lived here totally took me by suprise, as I had never witness levels of detail or cleanliness in an NI GT. James and John C both have to take a lot of credit for the level of GT tuning here in NI.

Trev and Jay also, for guiding my grubby mitts to many JDM parts too, these gentle GT giants are far too modest - they also play a huge part in NI GT History.

 

[dan]

First time i ever saw one was years back and it was kellys old white GT (before I knew her) It was up for sale up i couldnt afford one at the time, years went past and I just knew I wanted one, and when I got to know kelly and ben even more and having the pleasure of a passenger ride in the k24 i just knew it was the car I wanted. At the time of buying there wasnt that much going about then I came across a Standard Green GT (same as kellys, bear in mind kelly had only had hers a couple of months at his time and was fond of having a different colour car to the rest) I went down to the garage, noticed it needed a few bits doing, got it for a decent price and bought it. Rolled up to a local jap meet were kelly was waiting and a few others, and I swear to god, if looks could kill! she was pissed! but then, got to love the car as it was identical bar being manual. The Reg was was Identical bar the 3 digits. They were brother and sister.

 

[lingl9z]

i saw a few down ace cafe when i was 16 i think, then i learnt to drive got a licence and found out a mate of mine was selling one when i was 17, got a quote on it was alot but was willy to pay for it, day before i went to pick it up someone crashed in to the side of him, yup... write off! so lost interest for a few years untill i could get the money to pick one up, was between this and an r5, went jap in the end! :rockon:

 

[Dan3SGTE]

Good thread this

Back in 2005 my friend was getting one off a guy from his work, i had never seen or even heard of the thing ad back then these cars were scarse! Very rare indeed esecially down south... he said it was a 1.3, i had a saxo VTR at that point thinking my car was the nuts(as you do lol) and remember saying my car will beat yours etc etc....... hahaha, yeah, we went head to head to get my arse completely handed to me!

He then lost his license 2 months lata and i purchased it off him Had the car ever since then, only got it completely stock lol.......

 

[Enzo]

good choice jay, snap wi you Toby

in 2oo2 came across this black uk spec ep after searching for a new car for about three months, it kept on beasting back at me whilst searching auto trader daily, ended up bartering the guy down to a steal, it subsiquently got written off a few years later

 

[monka]

was looking for a new car to buy, and a guy at work brought in japenese performance.

in it was a feature on a blue glanza, went down the importers the next day. saw a gt and glanza, prefered the gt, never looked back. lol