Hello everyone, first post here, my name is Martin and was once the owner of a 1989 GTM coupe which i sold about ten years ago. I've checked on the DVLA website and it is still on the road and is taxed till next year, hopefully someone on here may know of it's whereabouts or may actually own it. I'm not wanting to buy it back or anything, just wanted to say a few things about my experiences with the car whilst i had it.

The car in question is registered Q782 JWX and was bought by me from a chap in Leeds around 1994/5. I think he bought it from the original builder.

When i bought it it was in it's original white gel coat and had a early remote change 1275 engine and gearbox with a 40 dcoe weber carb and cooper s discs, it was little bit tatty around the edges but i drove it for about a year or so doing little bits to it as i went along, the engine and gear box where changed for a later rod change gear box and SU carb as the weber drunk petrol like it was going out of fashion. Changing the gearbox came up with a good scenario though, the gear stick end still had the old remote change and coupled to the rod change box it reversed the gear selection. 1st and 2nd were where 3rd and 4th should be and 3rd and 4th were where 1st and 2nd should have been!! Took a little bit of getting used to!! I also fitted a pair of front seats from a Honda CRX which where a tight squeeze but managed to get in. I also changed the front brakes to Metro vented 4 pot calipers.

Then the dreaded tin worm took over and it was taken off the road for about 4 years. I replaced the rotten sill and floor pans with new metal and even widened the drivers side seat area to enable back and forth movement of the wider seat. i also fitted a gear selector from a mk 3 ford escort which sorted my gear selector issue. The original builder had fitted wider arches ton the rear and i took the opportunity to remove these as the original arches where still underneath, i also removed the rear bumper as i thought it looked ugly. I did want to change the rear lights to mimic those of the old opel manta MK 1 but never got round to it. i also fitted Metro bonnet vents to in front of the rear arches to try and improve cooling which it always suffered with. The whole car was then painted in Rover Tahiti Blue 94.

I continued driving it for about another year after this, i even had a trip to the west coast of scotland in it, but in the end it's overheating issues got the better of me and i sold it.

It's good to see that it is still out there, although i believe it is now red. If anyone knows of it, then here is a piece of it's history. I do have some photos as well that i can put up once i scan them.

All the best

Martin.