Double Double Toil and Trouble

[Bonnyboy]

Seeing cabrioletturbo's  (Igor's) white car next to a gold car sitting in the same garage got me to thinking...

In my late teens and early 20's (before marriage and kids and mortgage) I spent all of my money playing with cars and motorcycles.   I was always astonished at how two cars built with approximate similar ages refurbished by the same person can be so different in character.

I had 2 Honda Civic's, 2 Honda Accords, 2 BMW 2002s and 2 MGBs.   After getting two up and running I would sell the inferior car and keep the good one.    Usually once I started working on a car I would find a parts car cheap that needed a simple fix therefore ending up being too good to be a donor so I would fix that one too and get another parts car.  All of my parts cars turned out better than the car I started with.

If one falls into my lap I may just get another pagoda to play with and was wondering if those of you with experience with multiple pagodas find the same thing that I experienced where two cars of similar vintage built up by the same person can have totally different natures (except my BMW 2002s) ....or are Pagodas fairly similar if up to snuff?

for example if I put all new rubber parts like subframe and engine and tranny mounts. shocks, similar tires, brakes, etc. etc. should the cars feel and drive similar - After major refurbishing the BMW 2002s were so close that I chose to keep the one I did based on interior condition and colour - I gave my little sister the pretty blue one (not original colour) and I kept the Malaga (Maroon)  one.  But they felt about the same.   The MGBs and Civics and Accords were totally different - like night and day.

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

Hi Ian,

I don't have two Pagoda's, however, have seen many side by side (even one besides mine with only 3 numbers different in the VIN number). I guess the answer yo your question must be "where have the cars lived and how have they been serviced and maintained over the years.

People talk about "originalities" of our cars like "is it all original?" In my opinion the car was original when it left the factory. Once it has a few years under it's belt it is IMHO no longer original.

Dieter

[Benz Dr.]

After 30 years of working on Pagodas I've probably driven 100 different cars. They all have similar driving feel but some are better than others. Only the best ones have a nice, tight, crisp, feel with sparkling performance. I've even seen fully restored cars that still didn't have it and I've seen lepers that really surprised me.

A lot depends on what was rebuilt and how well it was done. No two cars ever seem to wear out in exactly the same way.

[stickandrudderman]

‘‘Twas always thus. Even back when I was doing PDIs you could notice some marked differences from car to car of the exact same model.
I’ve spent hours trying to get some cars to deliver better performance and they simply will not cooperate.
Others are only to willing to respond to a bit of fettling.