porkpie700
Buy & Sell Member
I remember cruising through the Pennine Mountains over a decade ago now in my first Micra - a 1989 K10. I turned to my passenger and joked, “I’d love to go back in time and bring back a brand new K10”. Little did I know that in late 2017 I would find the next best thing – a virtually brand new twenty year old car!
An elderly chap had purchased a new K11 back in 1997 and had averaged less than three-hundred miles per year until his passing. A friend of his family purchased the car with the intention of giving it to his son, who promptly rejected the idea. Well, his loss soon became my gain.
When I viewed the car the odometer displayed 5486.7 miles and the factory-new smell still radiates from the interior. Every part on the vehicle was factory original including the filters, oil and unfortunately – the tires. The former owner explained that there was no service history because the car had not yet had its first service. I shook my head in disgust and withdrew the dipstick. The golden-brown oil resting against the “MAX” mark reassured me that the 1.3 was fit to make the three and a half hour journey home.
The drive home revealed that some fine-tuning would be needed in order to iron out a few idiosyncrasies. The throttle seemed to behave like a digital switch, jolting the car violently as it was feathered to regulate speed.
When coming to a stop, the engine sat at around 1100RPM and seemed to wait for about six seconds or so before returning to idle. This odd little quirk made shifting difficult as the gears struggled to mesh. A sticky and incorrectly set dashpot/idle-up valve was to blame for both issues and was quickly remedied.
With the adjustments made and a major service done, I stripped away the exterior and applied litres of Waxoyl to the underside and into cavities that could make a Navara blush.
The alloy wheels are only a temporary feature while the original steel rims are repainted and fitted with fresh tires. Aside from perhaps fitting the period-correct wrap-around rear spoiler, my intention is to simply preserve this great little car.
An elderly chap had purchased a new K11 back in 1997 and had averaged less than three-hundred miles per year until his passing. A friend of his family purchased the car with the intention of giving it to his son, who promptly rejected the idea. Well, his loss soon became my gain.
When I viewed the car the odometer displayed 5486.7 miles and the factory-new smell still radiates from the interior. Every part on the vehicle was factory original including the filters, oil and unfortunately – the tires. The former owner explained that there was no service history because the car had not yet had its first service. I shook my head in disgust and withdrew the dipstick. The golden-brown oil resting against the “MAX” mark reassured me that the 1.3 was fit to make the three and a half hour journey home.
The drive home revealed that some fine-tuning would be needed in order to iron out a few idiosyncrasies. The throttle seemed to behave like a digital switch, jolting the car violently as it was feathered to regulate speed.
When coming to a stop, the engine sat at around 1100RPM and seemed to wait for about six seconds or so before returning to idle. This odd little quirk made shifting difficult as the gears struggled to mesh. A sticky and incorrectly set dashpot/idle-up valve was to blame for both issues and was quickly remedied.
With the adjustments made and a major service done, I stripped away the exterior and applied litres of Waxoyl to the underside and into cavities that could make a Navara blush.
The alloy wheels are only a temporary feature while the original steel rims are repainted and fitted with fresh tires. Aside from perhaps fitting the period-correct wrap-around rear spoiler, my intention is to simply preserve this great little car.
