I've been lurking for a short while on this forum and decided this morning to do the big "announce", so here goes... (sorry if this gets long winded & boring - I'm known to be a bit verbose...)
My name is Terry - friends call me Tez (you guys can too). I'm in my early 40's and have a beautiful wife, kids, mortgage, two cars and live-in-father-in-law. We try to fit all this onto a 1/4 acre suburban block in Croydon, Melbourne.
Ever since I was a little tacker, I have loved Minis, and have owned (with my wife) up to three simultaneously apart from our other cars. My daily driver for about 4 years was a 1965 Mini deluxe with a whomping 998 cc donk pushing out a factory 34 HP I called "Boris". Boris was the most fun I've ever had in cars, but circumstances change and needs change and several years ago, we sold up our Minis (kinda wish we hadn't now, but thats water under the bridge. Since then we bought a new, Tiger-Mica shiny VX SS Commodore (which was a lot of fun to drive I must admit) but REAL thirsty driven the way I drove it.
In the 4 years we owned that car, our needs altered yet again as we bought a trailer-sailer (we sail too). That little puppy is 9.0m long on the trailer and weighs in at a midge under three tonnes and so the SS went and we got a second-hand 80-series Landcruiser. All this time, my wife had had an EL fairmont and she loved that car - I did too. 12 months ago we decided to trade the EL in on a newer model and now have a BF fairmont as Kim's car, and an 80-series 'cruiser as my daily driver.
Well. (still with me?)
Petrol prices are not going down... Kim will not part with the Fairmont (good for her) without the word 'divorce' somewhere in the sentance, and so I started thinking of ways to curb the $70- a week fuel bill for my 'Cruiser alone. We can't get rid of the 'Cruiser coz we need it to tow the boat (and it's cheaper to run than an SS!) but still not cheap enough.
Looking about for a CHEAP daily driver to get me the short distance to work, and to the shops etc. without getting wet, the options are slim.
We could go for another Mini, but these days, they are either a total basket case needing several thou spent on them and six months to rebuild, or a modern whizz-bang thingo (NOT cheap) or something else.
Enter, the Mightyboy!. Much like a Mini in size - not sure about the power thing tho', luxury on huge 12' wheels (up from the 10s I had on Boris) and offering 50+mpg = 5.4l / 100k's... Sounds about the right place to be, and only 25 years old or so as opposed to 40+ years for a Morris Mini. Being a ute will have it's benefits too.
So I poked about on ebay and watched them come up and go for about 6 months and got a feel for what they were costing, and what we could get for our buck when along can a car in great condition in Queensland the owners needed to sell quickly for their own reasons. I jumped on it and got it at what seems to me to be a very reasonable "buy it now' price, based on what I've seen in the preceeding 6 months.
So the car is on a transporter on it's way down here as I type - due on Wednesday with no rego, but from all I've seen hopefully not too far from RWC.
I have great expectations for this little beastie - haven't come up with a nick-name for it yet, but thinking about "killer-wasp" after the recent ad on telly about the "200 killer wasps" and this thing is only 19...
We'll see.Everyone talks about what they can do to get more poke out of their cars - I'd love to go the other way and keep the performance the same (NOT having driven it yet of course, this might all change!) and get fuel economy up to say, 70 - 80 mpg from it...? - I wonder if that's really the same thing...
Anyway. Nice to meet the few of you still awake after this great diatribe, and hope to meet a few of you in person some day.
Here's some pics of the car - I'm not a great fan of white cars, but I can change that... I know I'm not going to be a purist with this car.
Cheers for now.
