Cars

Cars. Welcome to geek central, unless you're into cars... ;o)

First up, my current pair of Vauxhall Omegas.


Black Betty, the Beast of Blaxhall... This is my 8th Omega, a 2003 3.2l manual MV6 This was a Thames Valley undercover car before I got it. Black leather interior, twin zone climate control, DAB MP3 CD player with Bose speakers, Irmscher grill and spoilers front + rear, a bargain at £1,150 from auction!	This is my 7th Omega, a 2001 3.0l MV6 estate bought to replace the first estate. No man should be without an estate car.... This again was a Thames Valley traffic car, but being another Armed Response car it has the heavy armoured doors!

Next up, my latest toy, a Mitsubishi Shogun SWB

I bought this because in January 2010 I was snow bound in the cottage for a few days, so after a search on the internet I found something to get me to work whatever the weather threw at me! Well loaded with stuff including toys like cruise control!

Now on to the Omegas I've owned in the past....


This is my first Vauxhall Omega, an ex-Thames Valley 1996 3.0l MV6. Bought in 2001 with 115k in the clock. At 178,000 miles I sold this to a mate in when I bought the next one in 2003...	This is my 2nd Omega, another ex-Thames Valley MV6. Bought with 95,000 miles on the clock, retired in March '06 with nearly 230k miles clocked up - and it only stopped on me once!!

This was my 3rd MV6, a Lincolnshire CID saloon bought direct at auction. Written off whilst stationary, but the insurance money paid for the next one (the estate) with some to spare!	This is my 4th Omega, a 2001 3.0l MV6, and my first estate car. This was a Lincolnshire traffic car. The huge, flat boot is very handy!! 184k on the clock when I retired it with a blown head gasket.

And this was my 5th MV6, this time a Wiltshire Constabulary Armed Response vehicle. Very shiny & very red! Written off by an idiot in an Audi.	At one point in 2007 I had three white Omegas to choose from in the morning...! And now in 2009 I have 3 again, two white and Black Betty.

My 6th Omega that I owned - It aws a 3.2l manual MV6. This one came direct from Derbyshire Police, and they even filled in the holes and re-sprayed the roof before I got it which was nice. The 3.2 was a Pursuit Vehicle, has a fly-by-wire throttle and was very VERY fast... Written off by a tw@t in a transit van, but I got £500 more in insurance than I paid for her over three years previously!

I do most of the maintenance on my cars myself, here's some photos from a while back

1996 Omega V6 cambelt change - 1996 cam cover change - 2000 Omega V6 cambelt change

Other cars of note that I've owned....


My Audi Ur-quattro that I owned in the 90's. Very, very fast....	My Seven... now sold and hopefully being loved still.


I've owned five Opel Kadett coupes, ranging from 1.2l to 2.0l in engine size. This one was most fun!	I've owned four Opel Mantas, most ended up fairly heavily modified, and about the only original part of the one above was the body shell...!


My 1991 Carlton GSi 24v - more toys than Santa on Christmas Eve!	My SAAB 9000 2.3 Turbo - 1997 run out build, with everything loaded on to it including the 250 bhp Aero engine.