Ian Mac wrote:You have an unhealthy interest in the Daily Mail mate............

Its VERY absorbant.

Goodnight all,

Actually, I'm guilty of being lazy. I should actually post up routine maintenance work done to my car (if I could get the Flash Flickr uploader to behave itself).

It'll help him if he see some soothing pictures of standard cars.

fair play but ive just never had any decent experiences of korean cars, all of them that people I know have had have always had horror stories about them, but at the end of the day thats my opinon of them

and to be fair if it hadn't been for people modifying 300's then i would not have any experience of them and in all fairness would probably just look at them as crap old shopping trolleys (as all my friends do untill i take them for a spin), but because of the drift scene i have now got interested in them and appreciate a clean unmodified version as much as the next person whereas before I wouldn't look twice at one, if no one modded 300's i think you would soon find there to be alot less on the road + also for this forum to get alot quiter, as not many people would want to own one just to keep it garaged and never go out in the rain I believe most people would find that kind of ownership quite pointless

goodnight everyone

You have a point although to be fair my 19000 mile 340 lives outside 24/7 and is in daily use. My experience of Korean cars is only based on my wife's Picanto but on that basis alone I really can't fault them.

I fully expected this thread to provoke a response but I had no intention of causing offence and I trust we are all adult enough to take onboard all view points.

On that note I'll wish you all goodnight.

Check the ratio of drift/modified 300 vs saved and kept original ratio from this very site and you all know why Mac is worried, why I'm worried and why Duvel is worried, I'm sure there are more too.

Ever decreasing number of 300 series cars we are soon facing situation where there are soon no possible to find any original cars to buy, that is situation quite close here already.

Often those modifications are also just thing of young ignorant mind which gets bored soon and car ends up to banger racing in few years, it would be good at least to acknowledge of situation and give young ignorant mind to choose with knowing bigger picture, it is true it is their own ride and they can do whatever they want to.

I personally don't have much of against modifications that are done in such manner that you can easily restore car back to original state. I don't have against race cars either, but you know how hard it is to find original Mk1 or Mk2 Escorts or late RWD Corolla's, rally and drift scene have sourced all, rest are at museums, I don't think it is good future for 300 series cars, but I don't know how that could be changed as that is where things end at this rate.

Versatility would be great, but point is that there is not much of it really, most are drifted to death (in total, not necessarily on this site).

Making modifications so that car can be restored should be preferred method from my opinion.

I guess i must be mega guilty My car has been sat without moving for months...I intend to swap an Injection B230 with a better version of Bosch Injection (probs from same car)in place of the B200E with its more primitive Injection...

I will be modding for gains beacuse a true performnce+economy gin can be gained=WIN WIN SITUATION!

Truth is a far as newer vehicles come-i like the way modern turbodiesel drive-the torque is lovely (and im only 22 and im doing motorvehicle tech)..It definatley harder nowadays to justify any real gains from doing modifications to a modern vehicle which is already very efficient (perf and economywise).

Is converting from a b200 to b230 in a volvo 360 a tasteful modification? I think it is tbh-Wht do you guys think?

Edcase 300 wrote:
Is converting from a b200 to b230 in a volvo 360 a tasteful modification? I think it is tbh-Wht do you guys think?

I think so.
Youre doing it for a reason, and for a good reason. Its going to improve the car and improve your enjoyment of it.
What better reason to make a modification?

Sweet

OK to summarise then, this thread is going in three directions:

1.people's personal preferences
2.are mods are detrimental to the V300 scene?
3.Albania

The classic scene is always going to be split among those who prefer a car which has been left in it's original state, others who like subtle modifications, and others who like to add gullwings and a V12. There is no right and no wrong, just one's own personal preference.

On this forum, the amount of modified cars (I'm generalising and am bundling together lowered suspension, matt black bonnets, different engines, welded diffs) seem to outnumber the ones which have remained largely unchanged. Is that representative of the rest of the V300 population? Not necessarily. On the Dutch V3C forum, it's the other way around. The handful of German V300 owners are so busy with combatting the dreaded rust, and looking for the last remaining cars, that modding just isn't an issue, particularly with the MOT restrictions we have here.

I stick with my view, that rising popularity of the V300 can only be good. It may make it difficult for people like me (who cringe when they see a bucket seat) to find an original example in a number of years, but who knows what the market would have been like in 5 years' time if the cars had kept their dull, boring image which they had in the 90's and early 2000's?. Many a „modifier“ will have welded a sill or two, and maybe kept a car going for just that little bit longer than if it had just been a cheap, throwaway car.

The number of V300s on the roads is always going to decrease. Steel rusts, plastics degrade. The question is, is the „modding“ speeding this process up or not? What will the future be in 5 years' time? Let's look at Volkswagen / Opel. If you want to buy a VW Golf 1 GTI now, or a Scirocco 1, or a Manta or a GT, it's very hard to find one which is still original. And prices for these original cars are consequently higher than ex-project cars (who wants to buy someone elses project, the fun is building it yourself, I guess) But … at least these modified cars are still there. If the car had been a Toyota Starlet, or a VW Derby, or a booted Nova, they would have been scrapped long, long ago.

It's also good to look at other classic car scenes and compare. Take Mercedes for example. 99% of classic Mercs are unmodified. Maybe it's just undignified, a bit like lowering a Rolls But numbers get drastically reduced by something unknown to V300 owners: the „Export factor“. Every other day, a huge freighter leaves Hamburg harbour for Africa. Yesteryear, they were filled with 70's W115s and W123s, today they're packed with '80s 190Es and 230Es, tomorrow, the 90's cars will be shipped out. And it's not just Mercedes. When was the last time you saw a Peugeot 505 Estate with 3 rows of seats? Go to a bush-taxi rank in Senegal and you will know.

V300s don't get exported. They're still among us. Some are being cherished, some are being drifted, some are on scrapyards, but at least they don't get forgotten which means that in a few years' time, people will still be looking out for them.

Oh, and Albania. Europe's last unknown. I've always wanted to drive there. In a 300 of course

Tom

trabitom99 wrote:OK to summarise then, this thread is going in three directions:
1.people's personal preferences
2.are mods are detrimental to the V300 scene?
3.Albania

trabitom99 wrote: Some are being cherished, some are being drifted, some are on scrapyards, but at least they don't get forgotten which means that in a few years' time, people will still be looking out for them.
Tom

i dont get in scrappies mega often, but its quite rare to see a 300 there. Ive only ever seen two.
Which is odd. Theres less and less on the road, so where are they going? Or was there just not a great number produced in relative tems?

Oh, and on the subject of Albania, is it true that everyone there has white hair and pink eyes?

volvosneverdie wrote:i dont get in scrappies mega often, but its quite rare to see a 300 there. Ive only ever seen two.
Which is odd.

Say 4-5 years ago 300's were a regular sight around my local 3 scappies (bored during Uni lectures!)... maybe one/two per scrapyard most visits. The worst was seeing a 60k mile 360GLT with no rust in there..! And a Mk2 GLT that if it came up on ebay now it'd be an easy resto job...

I think over here most of the 300's have already been scrapped...(in terms of the everyday car) if you know what I mean... most people are busy scrapping mid-late 90's cars now.

SteveP wrote:

volvosneverdie wrote:i dont get in scrappies mega often, but its quite rare to see a 300 there. Ive only ever seen two.
Which is odd.

Say 4-5 years ago 300's were a regular sight around my local 3 scappies (bored during Uni lectures!)... maybe one/two per scrapyard most visits. The worst was seeing a 60k mile 360GLT with no rust in there..! And a Mk2 GLT that if it came up on ebay now it'd be an easy resto job...

I think over here most of the 300's have already been scrapped...(in terms of the everyday car) if you know what I mean... most people are busy scrapping mid-late 90's cars now.

That makes sense Steve. Theres even fewer on ebay it seems these day, even from when I started looking a couple of years ago.
Im er, not sure what my point is here, but I think usage and natural has possibly killed more cars needlessly over the years than the new-ish 'drift' phenomenon?

possibly anyway,

Albania is beautiful country, we should maybe all do a road trip there drive with hundreds of V300's trough europe to rise awarness of this endangered species which should be saved:


I'm sure BBC would be interesting of such reality tv show road trip too so that should easily cover expenses, they do make even much worse shows

volvosneverdie wrote:i dont get in scrappies mega often, but its quite rare to see a 300 there. Ive only ever seen two.

Well when I was in the scrappie after Christmas there were 6, but it was a big yard.

macplaxton wrote:

volvosneverdie wrote:i dont get in scrappies mega often, but its quite rare to see a 300 there. Ive only ever seen two.

Well when I was in the scrappie after Christmas there were 6, but it was a big yard.

Yeah dude, but your Volvo luck is bordering on the mystical.