| HERE ARE THE VEHICLES THAT I HAVE OWNED IN PATTAYA, THAILAND |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| FIRST THE MOTORBIKES |
| The first motorbike, bought around 1992, was a 100cc Honda, air cooled, two stroke, with the fuel tank under the seat. |
| This was part exchanged for another Honda in 1999. This one has a four stroke water cooled engine of 125cc capacity and is still in use today (2006). These type of bikes can be bought new for about 500 pounds, about a quarter the price you would pay in the UK! |
| Myself and Chan posing for these photos. |
| NOW THE CARS |
| This blue Toyota Soluna was the first car that we bought between Chan and myself. I beleive it was bought in 1998. When Pat and Malcolm were here over the Millenium (2000) we did a big tour around Thailand.We started in Pattaya then Kanchanaburi to see the bridge on the river Kwai. Then on to Sukothai, the ancient capital of Thailand before the Burmese invaded. Then we continued north to Lampang, lampun and finally Chiang Mai where we stayed for a few days. We came back via Khon Kaen and Ayudeaa, finaly driving back through a large National park, to arrive back in Pattaya. We did find the car a little small for four people to tour over such a long route of about 2000 kilometres. During the time Chan and I owned this car it notched up quite a haevy mileage and was involved in two or three quite dramatic accidents. As a result of one of these incidents a truck managed to do so much damage that the car was almost writen off. The body was never the same again, after the repair, that we decided to part exchange it for a new Soluna. Chan took the car up to the main Toyota dealer in Pitsanuluk where he managed to get quite a good deal on a new bronze coloured car. (see below) |
| NISSAN MV 1.6 LITRE |
| TOYOTA SOLUNA 1.5 LITRE |
| I bought this Nissan MV pick-up soon after I arrived on a permanent basis to Thailand at the beginning of 1998. It was a very inexpensive vehicle to buy as it is made in Thailand so does not have any of the import taxes loaded on it. It proved a most enjoyable and useful vehicle to have because it had almost sports car performance. It was lighter than a car so had very good acceleration. After fitting wider wheels and tyres I found the steering a bit heavy. I corrected this by fitting a second hand power steeringt kit which cost only £100. This solved the problem and I did many kilometeres in it over the years I owned it. I was at the time teaching English and this involved quite a lot of travel. I also did two trips up to the Laos border in it and also took it to Chaing Mai when my friend Michael Doland packed up after living in Thailand for about twelve years. We loaded up the Nissan with all his goods and chattles and drove back to Pattaya fully laden.I sold the car in 2004 when I returned to the UK to sell my house in Southampton. A friend of a friend now ownes it and as he is only here for short periods, I can still use the pick-up if I need to. |
| TOYOTA SOLUNA MK 2 1.5 LITRE |
| The bronze Soluna mark 2. I never really liked this car as it never seemed to perform as well as the old blue Mark 1. The engine was very low on torque and as a result one had to use gobbs of revs to get anywhere. However it did sterling service as a 'Taxi'. Chan took customers mainly to the airport but also, on occations, went on longer trips throughout Thailand. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| NISSAN CEFIRO 2 LITRE V6 |
| I returned to UK in 2003 to sell my house in Southampton. The whole process took one year almost to the day. I then went back to Thailand and purchased a very nice Condo in Jomtien, outside Pattaya. At the same time I needed to buy a car, as the Nissan pick up had been sold before my return to the UK. I decided that I would look for a largish saloon because I planned to tour Thailand and I thought I would like to do this in some comfort.
Looking around at options it soon became apparent that, value for money, the Nissan Cefiro came out on top. Chan and I spent a few weeks hunting for a good one before Chan found a privately owned two litre Cefiro in Bangkok. It was a low mileage car and immaculate. We purchased the car and still have it today. It proved a very good car for touring, very comfortable and fairly economical. I have enjoyed two tours up north to the Chiang Mai area. However I soon realised that using it on a daily basis around Pattaya was OK but I would really like a smaller, ‘nippier’ vehicle. So it was decided to sell the gold Toyota Soluna and I would use the money from that car to get something suitable for myself. Chan then took over the Cefiro to use as a limo service to the airport and beyond. The car is still going extremely well and I can still use it for touring when I so desire! Other than tires, brakes and air con pumps, no other work on the car has been necessary. When fuel prices went up at the beginning of 2006 we did consider installing a gas fuel system on the car but as fuel prices have now come down again we have put that idea ‘on the back burner’ for now. |
| TOYOTA CELICA 2 LITRE TURBO |
| 1973 DAIMLER XJ6 4.2 LITRE |
| A good friend of mine from Sydney, Dr Harry Mitchelmore, bought this car in 1994. I elected to look after the car when Harry is not here in Pattaya. The car was bought from a car dealer here in Pattaya but the owner came from Bangkok. The car is in splendid condition, especially the inside which has been re-covered in hide to a very high standard. The car has only been taken on a couple of long runs. Eight of us took the Daimler and the Cefiro to Chiang Mai in 1995 and before that Harry drove the car down the east coast to Ko Chang, an Island near the Cambodian border.
The car has behaved fairly well but has suffered a few electrical faults as is the want of Mk 2 XJ6’s. On my last trip to the UK, I went with a shopping list of mostly electrical spares which has proved to be very useful. I also came back with two rebuild kits for the carburettors as it became apparent that the engine was consuming vast quantities of fuel. The Daimler used more than twice the amount of fuel that the Cefiro used on the journey up to, and back from, Chiang Mai! Because Harry now spends very little time in Pattaya, it was decided to try and sell the car. However, partly due to the sudden rise in petrol prices, these types of car are now very difficult to sell. There are now four Jaguar-Daimler XJ 6’s on sale in the Pattaya area. I should not really include this car in this list of vehicles that I have owned as, of course, I do not own it! However because of various visa regulations concerning who can own a car in Thailand, Harry could not put it in his name so it is now in my name. So , with Harries’ permission, I have included it as the final entry in this section. |
| With the cash from the Soluna I went shopping for a car in Bangkok. The cars I intended to look for included the 325 BMW, the Honda Prelude and lastly the Toyota Celica. Chan and I drove around the car dealers in Bangkok and looked at many cars but, initially, we could not find any Celicas to look at. It was quite difficult to find a suitable, two door 325, they seemed to be quite rare. There were many 320’s to inspect, however. I did get the impression that the BMW range of cars could be quite expensive to maintain and I was sure that spare parts would be expensive. There were, however, many 523’s for sale but they were too similar to the Cefiro to be considered an option.
We looked at many Preludes but, although I did not drive one, I thought that the spec would not produce the sort of performance I was looking for despite the fact that I did like the ‘look’ of the car. Eventually we spotted an advert for a Celica that looked promising. We had to drive to the other side of Bangkok to find the dealer but it was worth the effort as the car appealed to me immediately. The deciding factor was that it had been fitted with a two litre turbocharged engine and the performance was quite surprising. The original engine, I found out later, would have been a 2.2 litre non turbo unit. Chan bargained with the dealer and got the price down to a very acceptable figure. So a couple of days later we went back to collect the car. The first thing we had to do was to register the car in Chonburi which entailed taking the car to the registration and licensing office which was located just outside the city of Chonburi. The car was made in 1963 but was in very good condition; however, any car of that age would soon show up one or two problems. It soon became evident that the clutch hydraulics needed some attention. A new master and slave cylinder were ordered from Toyota. The slave cylinder fitted to the engine proved not to be standard, the new one was too small and this made the clutch pedal very heavy. The unit was bored out so that a larger piston could be fitted. This corrected the problem of the heavy clutch pedal. The next problem was a burst water hose. Unfortunately I did not notice quite in time and, as a result, the cylinder head gasket started to blow and had to be changed. I had decided, having seen other Celicas fitted with larger wheels, that the 15 inch wheels would have to changed to 17 inch. After a lot of searching we found a very nice, almost new, set of suitable wheels and tyres. Buying second hand saved a lot of money! To date the only other problem to arise is a noisy wheel bearing which is about to be changed. Plans for the future include possibly fitting a body kit and a slightly redesigned front end so that a larger intercooler can be fitted. The intercooler on the engine is far too small and is sited so that very little air manages to pass through it. Also I am considering a complete re-spray as I do not really like the present, rather drab, blue. I envisage the car painted with a lighter blue similar to the Subaru colour. |