GavinShoebridge.com

My many strange and unusual cars

My first car: 1976 Honda Civic 

I reckon cars have greatly improved my life since my very first car back in 1995, shown above. It was a 1976 Honda Civic EB1 which my dad brought for me from a car fair, fueling my newfound sense of adventure. I love how many fun times I’ve had in, outside of, and because of cars. I love what they symbolise: freedom.

You can click on any photo on this page and it will open in full size.
I’m also hopelessly addicted to them in all their shapes and sizes – and it’s worrying. The funny thing is, I can hang on to the same phone for years, and my laptop is seven years old, but cars? I’m already contemplating my next one. The only thing stopping me from having a garage like that of Jay Leno is my income: I’m a humble wage slave. However, I’m quite happy that way. Well, most of the time.
Anyway, let’s continue with this list of cars, including photos (and videos where available) of my cars through the ages. Here’s a little video of my first car, a 1976 Honda Civic.
Related video: Yes, surprisingly, I actually have video footage of my first car recorded back in 1995. I was 15 years old, and I was clearly insane. I still have no idea what I was doing when I recorded this video. It’s truly surreal.

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My second car: 1982 Mitsubishi Mirage GLX.

This was the second car in my collection, with its 4-cylinder 1.2 litre engine and Supershift gearbox, which I learned to shift through all eight gears (four gears with manual overdrive) pretty damn quickly.
Related video: I got a little carried away with gadgets on this poor car. The strangest of which was this in-dash water despenser. This video is from 1997, and captures my madness well.

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My third car: 1987 Nissan Skyline 3.0 TI

This was a beast of a car. The 3-litre straight-six engine was full of torque and the automatic gearbox put the power to the rear wheels with the perfect ratio to get tyres spinning even in dry conditions. That car was seriously quick but also seriously comfortable.

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My fourth car: 1986 Lada Niva 1.6 4×4




This grossly underpowered Russian off-roader was a hell of a lot of fun when taking it up Muriwai Beach and generally splashing through puddles. Even when its timing belt fell apart and one of the valves fell into a cylinder, it kept on going, just.

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My fifth car: 1983 Mitsubishi Tredia


Like my second car, this Mitsubishi also had the “Super shift” gear ratio selector, giving it a theoretical eight gears, if you could be bothered cycling through them all. The car also had every imaginable option of its day and was built for comfort, not for speed.

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My sixth car: 1991 Mazda MX5 Eunos Roadster


A friend, who is a police officer, agreed to stage the top photo, pretending to pull over my car. 🙂 As for my hair in the bottom photo, what can I say… it was the late 90s.
My 1991 MX5 (known in the USA as a Miata – mine was actually branded as a “Eunos Roadster”) was a great, fun car to own. I bought it as a Japanese import in the year 2000 and it was ideal for cruising around with the hood down and getting sunburnt.

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My seventh car: 1987 Mitsubishi Galant Eterna 1.8


Like the Mitsubishi Tredia and the Nissan Skyline, this was another velour-coated cruiser. In fact, with its measly 1.8 litre engine, cruising was all it could do. Still, it was incredibly comfortable for sitting in traffic.

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My eighth car: 1986 Toyota Cressida 2.8


Just like my other sofa-cruisers, this Toyota Cressida was a dream to drive. Electric everything, leather seats and a cool digital dash. It was like a smoking lounge on wheels.
Related video: I ended up paying $2200 to have the car repainted because I loved the shape so much. Oh, and I had loads of spare money – unlike now!

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My ninth car: 1991 Toyota Soarer 4.0 GT V8

Related video: This was a 4-litre Japanese V8 and it was smoother than any German or American V8 I’ve ever driven. You could put a glass of water on the engine when it was running and it wouldn’t ripple. Warning: I did a adolescent burnout at the end of the video because I was 22, I had loads of money at the time, and I simply didn’t care!

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My tenth car: 1988 Honda Prelude XX 4WS


Related video: I sold my V8 Toyota Soarer and thought I should get something a bit more sensible, and 4-cylinder. So I bought a Honda Prelude with cool four wheel steering which you can see in the picture above. It was a great car with all the options as you can see in this video:

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My eleventh car: 1988 Mitsubishi V3000 Super Saloon



This Mitsubishi V3000 was another 6-cylinder cruiser. The engine was as smooth as silk so you couldn’t even feel or hear it when idling, and the seats were as soft as clouds. That car could move though. The only problem was all that power went to the front wheels, so don’t expect to go anywhere fast when it’s raining.
Related video: A bit of a tour of my old Mitsubishi V3000 cruiser.

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My twelfth car: 1971 MG B GT


My dad and I decided to restore a dying MG B GT. It was a year-long project to get our hands dirty and it was great fun. We filled up all the imperfections and changed the colour to silver. In the end, I took ownership of the car. It was a great little head turner.
Related video: Here’s how my dad and I restored this car back in 2002:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_6jShsUA_M 

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My thirteenth car: 1991 Toyota Corolla Levin GT Apex


My dad ended up buying the MG off me because I wanted a change and I couldn’t afford to keep fixing it, so I went for something soulless yet reliable: a 1991 Toyota Corolla Levin GT Apex. It was ideal for crawling through Auckland traffic. I eventually sold it when I moved to Australia.

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My fourteenth car: 1992 Mitsubishi Lancer GL


Upon arriving to Australia, I needed a set of wheels. This 1992 Mitsubishi Lancer GL was ideal. Until I realised the air conditioning didn’t work! 🙂 It was just a runabout for a short time, as I decided to own my first 3-cylinder engined car instead:

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My fifteenth car: 1998 Daihatsu Sirion 1.0



Related video: This 1998 Daihatsu Sirion was the newest car I had ever owned at this point (filmed in 2006). I bought it when I moved to Australia and it was a great little car for the city. I like the engine note too – it was different.

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My sixteenth car: 1989 Honda Prelude 2.0 XX 4WS


I moved back to New Zealand and needed wheels, fast, so I went for something simple and reliable: another Honda Prelude.
Related video: I’d always had good experiences with them, and they have by far the most gadgets for the lowest price. ABS, cruise control, four wheel steering, air conditioning – all years before the competition. Check out the four-wheel steering in this video.

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My seventeenth car: 1991 Nissan Laurel Club S


I decided I needed another comfortable cruiser and this 1991 Nissan Laurel Club S with its 2.0 litre straight-6 engine was ideal. It didn’t have a lot of power unfortunately, but it was still a real comfy cruiser, as you can see in the interior photos above.

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My eighteenth car: 1987 Mitsubishi Tredia – converted to run on batteries



Related video: Of course this is the car that started my love affair with electric vehicles. If you haven’t driven one, then you don’t know what you’re missing. Here’s me mockingly driving to the gas station back in 2009.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOkisF6JF7E

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My nineteenth car: 1992 Toyota Estima Emina

Don’t ask. Let’s just forget this ever happened, ok?

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My twentieth car: 1995 Mazda Familia 1.5

After the previous four-wheeled disaster (long story), I needed a reliable econobox and this Mazda Familia was ideal. It just did what it was supposed to. Then, I moved to the Slovak Republic – as you do.

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My twenty-first car: 1998 Daewoo Matiz 0.8 3-cylinder


Related video: This little Daewoo was doomed from the start, but I still poured a crapload of gadgets into it, including “swamp cooler” air conditioning. It was good fun, but ultimately it decided to die rather than be driven by me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f23b5e8-BQ

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My twenty-second car: 2006 Suzuki Swift 1.3


This was a much better car than the Daewoo, and I poured all manner of crazy gadgets into it. I even installed a Raspberry Pi computer into the dashboard.
Related video: I even added a cool remote start function – not easy in a manual transmission. Here’s how I did it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLoZpr6AVJM

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My twenty-third car: 2011 Peugeot iOn electric car



My twenty-third car was also my second electric car, this time being a factory-built model. There’s an entire website dedicated to my adventures in this car which you can find here, but to save you the time, here’s one of the most recent videos I’ve made, where I installed a fully functional kitchen into this tiny electric vehicle. Because I can!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFhVLbQPpcI

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My twenty-fourth car: 2001 Hyundai Accent

After moving back to New Zealand at the end of 2018, I needed a cheap & cheerful set of wheels to get around, and this $2000 Hyundai was the perfect solution. It used very little fuel and was cheap on maintenance – both very important when you’re not employed! My plan was to get a job and eventually upgrade, but then something else happened…

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My twenty-fifth car: 2008 Hyundai Elantra

I moved to Florida in 2019 and needed a set of wheels. As I was still living on savings, I couldn’t really afford to run out and buy a fancy car, so this 2008 Hyundai Elantra did the trick just fine. It’s a very comfortable cruiser for those long American highways. Though, finding a car with manual transmission in the USA was no easy feat!

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My twenty-sixth car: 1982 Lada Niva

I bought this 1982 Lada Niva from a seller in Seattle, Washington and drove it all the way across the USA in preparation to convert it to run on electricity. If you’ve made it this far, you might have noticed I already owned one of these in New Zealand. Although common elsewhere, they’re incredibly rare here in the USA.

To watch the video of my purchasing the vehicle and driving it across America – which was not without its share of drama, click on the video above.

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My twenty-seventh car: 2012 Daihatsu Mira

Well, after yet another marriage ending, I returned home to New Zealand without the Lada and grabbed a cheap & cheerful 2012 Daihatsu Mira. It’s actually quite an interesting little car, and you can see it in the video above! But even when I bought this little car, I knew it would be a stop-gap until I could buy a car to finally convert to electricity. And now, with the problem of unfaithful and overmedicated spouses no longer holding me back, I decided to actually make it actually happen with this next car!

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My twenty-eighth car: 1977 Austin Allegro

This is it! The car I’m finally going to convert to run on battery power. The worst car ever made by British Leyland! I’m leaning towards using a Nissan Leaf drivetrain, but anything can change. There’s so much room in that engine bay for motor components, but not much room for batteries, so it should be an  interesting transformation.

I’ll also be documenting the conversion to electricity via my electric car website.

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