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Back In My Old Account, Big Thanks To Stuart Silvester :-)


Rick-Manta
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Yay! I have my old forum account back, many thanks to Stuart (Stoo2000) for taking the time to sort that out for me, and I will be rejoining the club come next payday as I've been very proud of being a club member for the years that I have been.

It's been a while since I've been with both the club and the forum so it's nice to see a few familar faces on here. Loads of people who i've dealt with in the past, buying and selling parts, met at Billing, possibly had sex with :D .. I must admit, I'm surprised how many seem to 'not' be here now, but I suppose life is constantly changing for everyone and quite often circumstances don't always allow for classic car ownership and restoration. Since leaving the club and selling my Mantas, parts, tools and my beloved GTE that I was blown away to have won the best hatchback at Billing 2011, the car dealer who pulled my pants down on the price made a video of the car here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBdg7d3Acbk I really would like it back but I don't know who ended up with it, however I now have a C-reg hatch which I'm trying to replicate this GTE in condition and appearance.

For those who i haven't had the pleasure of meeting and to keep in the spirit of this section, my previous manta history is as follows:-

2000-2001 A723 ONM Opel Manta GTE hatchback auto in silver. 277,000 miles, daily driver. Eventually crashed in head-on collision with an uninsured driver!

2002-2004 E908 FHO Opel Manta 1.8S Exclusive Hatch. White. Bought for me by my first wife. It was a rotbox, daily driver (I had a Cavalier MK2 CDi as back up car) ended up as a parts car and unfortunately scrapped due to excessive corrosion.

2005-2007 A62 EPM Opel Manta 1.8S Berlinetta Hatch. Anthracite. Daily driver, extremely good mechanically, tastefully modified and eventually sold to a guy who had a penchant for Austin Allegros, naturally it was too powerful for him and he called me apologising that he crashed it after a year or so. I only sold it as I had a brand new 56 plate Chevrolet Lacetti which I still own and drive every day plus it's more modified each year it ages.

2007-2009 E80 YND Opel Manta GTE exclusive coupe with a Rover V8 engine. Glacier white. Bought as an unfinished V8 Project, I experienced my first Manta breakdown (typically the only Manta to let me down had a Rover engine in it) I spend a fortune of money and bruised a lot of knuckles to get the car to show standard, it was also the fastest accelerating car I've owned, and I've owned a MK1 Golf Gti 1.8 and a Toyota Supra!! Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djuq2xoCp1E I had some rot issues like my last exclusive and the shell I think ended up scrapped but every useable part from it ended up saving many other mantas and the engine and conversion parts were kept for an earlier B-series.

2008-2011 HWL 780S Opel Manta SR 1.9 Early B-series coupe. Sapphire Blue. This car changed hands a few times in the club and although I'm more of a late B-series hatch guy, I did really like the look of it. After experiencing the 'old skool' Manta for a while, I sought to tackle some of the rot issues. The car did seem to have far more rot than I first thought and much of it was covered my previous 'MOT standard' repairs, however I did sucessfully weld a self made inner wing section and several other areas before selling the shell as an unfinished project which went to a guy using it for racing (who bought another car from me), the engine went to a yellow MK1 Cavalier (club car for a few members)

2009-2011 A686 FUP Opel Manta 1.8S GT/J Hatch. Red with black viper stripes. Bought from a club member just as a 'fun car', a few modifications and club history. A lot of work done to the car but eventually sold to a Chevette enthusiast..

2009-2011 B734 ??? Opel Manta GTE hatch. Polar White. Bought as was quite cheap and to use for a bit of fun and as a spares car. As soon as it was parked up, it never started again, but served to donate several parts to other projects. The shell itself went to the same person who collected the early B, so could possibly be a race car now.

2009-2012 B376 UMJ Opel Manta GTE hatch. Anthracite. A beautiful 16k mileage example that I spent a fortune buying, a fortune having resprayed and other restoration. Having come 2nd place in the 'CC' concourse at Billing in 2010 and still to this day extremely honoured to get 'Best Hatchback' at Billing 2011, I regrettably sold this car to a dealer who basically insulted the car to get it cheap and I got no where near what I wanted, but I had met someone online and was moving from Oxford to Bristol to live with her and we now have a beautiful baby daughter together :wub: .. I'd really love to know where the car is now, it doesn't look like it's in the club unfortunately, it'd be nice to have it back but I'm not going to hold my breath.

2014-date C157 HNY Opel Manta 1.8S Berlinetta hatch. Anthracite. A recent purchase, the previous owner welded the diff for drift racing but I'm determined to get it back on the road and in a similar condition to my last car. Loads of work to do here..

I think that's all of them, I have owned 30 other cars mind you :wacko:

Edited by Rick-Manta
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