Journals of a Hobbyist Car Enthusiast | Blog 1

Cars have been a part of many peoples lives, in a large or small amount, and the mark they leave on people differs from person to person. I was brought up around cars and motorsport; it made a huge impact on my life with routes and decisions as I’ve grown up. This series will document my experiences with cars and the culture that comes alongside being an enthusiast, I’ll open this up with a bit of detailed information about myself.

Before I was born my folks were couriers, its how they met and that is o’ so romantic. Whilst they’d been together my dad raced in Mini Cross, a rally cross style that was limited to retro Mini Coopers – these weren’t your average Mini’s however; fully caged, fibreglass panels, Perspex windows. The only thing that really remained ‘Mini’ were the engines, and even then they were built by what is now Swiftune Engineering.

The races were featured on Eurosport back in the day and I’m not sure of how good he actually was but he had fun, and that was the most important thing about it.

Then I came along and there had to be either me or racing, since I’m still here I presume the family funds didn’t allow for motorsport – at least not Mini Cross. It managed to stick about for a while and I do have some very vague memories of being trackside but ultimately the cost to race was higher and higher and we just couldn’t afford it.

Naturally something had to replace the Mini’s, go-karting theoretically is a step back in racing career ladder – but it made for a cheap, accessible and a wife approving sport that both Dad and I could venture out for every other weekend. We’d load up the car at 7am, move the kart from the wall-hanger to the trailer/roof of the car and journey across the country to Tillbury racetrack (which sadly closed in 2013). It was a great day out for us; we’d meet Dads friends at the McDonalds about half way through the journey and then convoy down to the track.

I was a tad more sheepish when I was younger and never raced the karts, which in hindsight was a great loss to me, but I was a more than willing pit crew/tea boy. I remember the pride I had when I saw Dad and his friends ripping up the track ahead of people in better built karts, very much superhero like to a young Jim. I helped out as much as I could when they rolled back in to the pits after a session, I would have loved to of been a braver kid but I think Dad saw it and respected my feelings for it – he got me involved as much as I wanted too but he really wanted me to get some seat time.

Karting faded out after a few years, family events and such made it difficult to get out there and my folks both worked basically 24/7. The aftermath left us without motorsport apart from the BTCC and F1 on TV, so it wasn’t all bad.

The performance aspect of motoring didn’t just extend to motorsports, our family has had some immensely cool cars too – and it is certainly this side of that played the bigger part in the car itch that I have. Off the track my Dad ran a parts shop, this led to us having some painfully cool cars on our driveway; Rover SD1’s, Mini’s, an E28 Sharknose, a Sierra XR4x4i, this list goes on and on and doesn’t extend to just performance cars. The Subaru Impreza Turbo 2000 wagon was a personal favourite of mine.

Owning some of these cars came with lifestyle changes that as I was growing up came to notice, letting the turbo charged cars idle before shutting down, looking for rust on the British Leyland cars and the Haynes Manual collection which would just grow and grow with each new addition to the family. Living with these machines taught me more of the placing of a car in a family and respect for the cars themselves.

My parents went there separate ways when I was in my early teens, and it worked out really well – everyone is happy and at the end of the day you can’t ask for anything more than that. At this point in my life I was more focused on other hobbies and school, usual teenage stuff, so cars took a back seat in my interests but always manifested when it came to gaming and talking points so the passion was very much there.

Around the age where you can start driving (17 in the UK) I was still very focused with my education, whilst also working at a supermarket – I had transport sorted for these so driving didn’t really come until I was 20/21.

At 19 some of my friends and I pooled together to rent out a workshop space so we could work on cars in a warm and roofed environment. The guys brought the car nut back out of me and I very much rekindled my love with cars. We had some cool cars in there, starting with old VW’s and eventually broadening to JDM stuff, it was great and I wanted a slice of it because it was great helping out, but I did long for something of my own.

Then came the Jetta…

2014 saw me in the midst of my first year of studying animation at university, a big and slightly chaotic life change that I was in love with. I’d moved nearly 200 miles away from home in Essex to a nice place, so logically I wouldn’t need a car.

In that April I was home with my family and friends for a belated birthday visit, I was chilling with my friend Chris, which was very typical of any home visit, little did I know that I was about to meet my first car. Chris got a call from another friend of ours, asking whether he was interested in his (crashed and ‘stored’) MK2 VW Jetta – at the time Chris was rolling around in a gorgeous Mercedes W124 190e, so he asked if I was interested. I was.

A few hours later Chris and I pulled into a field and after some searching was greeted by our friend and the remains of the Jetta. From that moment I knew I was getting it, the front end was ruined, it was on bricks and was covered in bird mess - £160 later and it was mine, I had just bought a car I didn’t need without even having a licence.

From the get go it was a logistical nightmare, we had to wait a few days until we got a trailer to move it with and a car suitable enough to do the moving (it was not suitable enough to do the moving). Then, without keys, locked steering and seized brakes, the 5 hour slog of rotating the car 90 degrees and pushing it about 30ft forwards and finally onto a trailer. Needless to say it was the most nail biting and painful 5 hours of my life BUT after that, an immensely sketchy journey back to workshop and finally the ballet of manoeuvring it into said workshop the Jetta was in and safe.

The front end damage was severe but not too far gone for repair, thankfully the car came with an original Jetta front end to replace the smashed Golf one it came with and apart from some slight warping of the battery tray the only thing that was required were body panels.

As I went too and from university the whole restoration took a good 9 months just getting the car roadworthy and legit enough to pass an MOT test – in that time I completed my first year at university and get my licence (finally). After a lot of time and patience she was road ready, after a fresh MOT and a service she flew through with one headlight advisory (the lights were upgraded soon after).

Doing bits on the Jetta when I was home quickly became the most stress inducing therapy, and now the car was road legal I could push ahead with the plans that I had for it. Servicing was the easiest thing, the 2G 1.3 block was tiny and left a ton of room in the engine bay, and replacing the low quality fluids I put in with the good stuff transformed it.

Naturally though, as with any old VW the problems rolled and rolled in: earth issues that turned out to be the alternator, a mysterious leak, surface rust, the list went on but again I still loved it. Due to me being at University for much of the year I only got a short time with it running smooth enough for me to daily it, so going back for a week or 2 here and there was awesome.

When I was away from the car it was essentially all I thought about, the course I did was pretty intensive so the car and cars in general were very much keeping me from stressing too much. The plan I had for the Jetta itself was coilovers, wider arches, tinted lights, some little and wide wheels wrapped in nice tyres with a touch of stretch on the sideway. In all a wide, aggressive look that complimented the old school 80’s boxy body style – then in time I planned for a PD110/130/150 diesel swap for more power and torque over the slow, but fun 1.3.

Sadly life and insurance got in the way as it does with many projects, for someone who at that point had been driving for a year the insurance was going to be immensely high with suspension adjustments and aftermarket wheels alone. This alongside what it was worth, I had to make a decision based on whether this particular Jetta was worth all this work when the MK2 market then was in a slump. I was in a position where I needed money and my freelancing game hadn’t taken off – so she had to go.

The sale of the car was a story in itself, but I’ll write a selling guide and base it on doing the exact opposite of what I did. There’s a whole lot more on the Jetta as well, but the sketchy stories would just go on and on and this was supposed to be my life with cars so I’ve hit all the main points. So long story short the Jetta went about 3 months after the guy said he’d collect it, my reason for not ditching him and selling it to someone else is that I know it was going to a good home. He assured me it’d be restored after it was stripped for fibreglass mould templates, and he had a race ready 2G engine to go in it.

Car wise that about brings us up to now, I’ve had a lot of influences and Car Club Subete is about sharing my experiences with the world and giving back to car culture. Next up for me hopefully is a Mercedes W202 C230K, cheap to buy, luxurious compared to the Jetta and most importantly – driftable. When that is I don’t know, I have a few things to sort before I look for a daily again, but I have this idea and I’m going to stick with it.

This isn’t quite everything with my life with cars but I feel like I’ve touched upon the important stuff, there are plenty more stories that I’ll share in time. Cars have been a huge part in my life, even when they don’t take up the majority of what I do I think about them almost constantly. I have plans, my friends have plans, and sharing that with the world would be incredible – seeing what you guys are up to in the community would be great as well as you could even get featured.