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August 2015 - dcal

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    Posted: 26 Jul 2015 at 12:53pm

Congratulations on winning August 2015 MOTM Dave! How does it feel to be our exclusive Member Of The Month and having your name up in lights?

When I saw your Private Message I had no inclination of what it was about, so when I opened it, needless to say it was a shock!

I had a massive grin on my face for a while after, which for people who know me must of been a very funny sight, since my resting face has been described as 'miserable' to put it politely!

I was very very happy to be selected for this award it was totally out of the blue.

We’d love to find out about you the person. Please tell us about yourself and what you get up to, away from the NPOC.

I am not the best at talking about myself but here goes, I'm from Sunderland and I'm 34 years old. I work for a snack bar factory, in the new product development department, designing snack bars and protein bars used for various sporting activities.

Outside of work I enjoy various sporting activities, mostly weight training although my aim isn't to become huge, I do it mostly because I enjoy it. Two years ago I was extremely unhealthy (as a few of the other members I've met at NPOC meets will testify), I embarked upon an effort to get healthy and lost five stones in weight and now I'm happy.

I'm engaged to Aimee and we have a child on the way and I also have my beautiful daughter Maisie from a previous relationship, who I see as much as I can.

I'm a bit of a Sci-Fi geek and I love heavy metal and rock music, even sporting a rather ridiculous mop of long hair for many years in my youth, which until recently, was still the image on my driving license!

I know it’s been a while now but can you remember how you found the NPOC forums and are we any good? Would you happily recommend the club to other Nissan Primera owners?

It was when my ex was carrying Maisie and I had my old 6th generation Toyota Celica and needed a more practical car. I remember my dad had two Primeras when I was younger and so I Googled Nissan Primera and that brought me here.

I've been a member on other forums for cars and other subjects and there's always an "element" of keyboard warriors or trolls but I have never seen that here at NPOC. I would recommend NPOC to anyone, on the basis that you will get the advice you need regardless of the model you have. It's quite a special place here.

You’ve now racked up over 5 years of membership here at NPOC - Massive respect and well done! What keeps you coming back and signing in every day here?

It’s usually to ask a pointless question, that after five years of being here and owning four Primeras, you’d think I should know the answer! But mostly for the sense of community, the members here are more than just user names on a computer screen, they are people who I've met or they've met each other and we all seem to have a bond, if that makes sense.

You’re an Elite Member here (our highest level of paying membership and respect to you too)!! Are you still getting value for money with that? And please sell us the reason, why everyone should become Elite.

Although I haven't taken advantage of any of the discounts, I feel like the Elite Membership is worth it, if I think back to all of the questions I've asked and all the money I've saved, by simply being able to access the knowledge of the forums. It's payed for itself many times over and I feel the small fee to help keep NPOC going, is well worth it.

So let’s get to onto cars.. Give us your car ownership history from the day you passed please and I’d love you to accompany this lot with some olde photos if you have them? Leave any Nissan Primera’s out of this lot for the time being Dave.

I passed my driving test at the relatively late at the age of 24.

My first car was a Peugeot 206 1.4 in electric blue. It was a lovely car until I scraped it all the way down one side, on the roller shutter door in the back of my dad's pub, about a month after passing.

I then made a rather foolish move to my first Celica. It was a GT4 and needless to say the insurance was very expensive! I was young and reckless and traded the 206 for something I couldn't afford, so I quickly had to sell the GT4.

Next was a Rover 414 (Honda Civic shape) and this was woeful, though to be fair to the car it never gave me any problems, it was just mundane and I wanted more power.

I then got another Celica but a non turbo Celica GT and I kept that one for a few years.

Other cars I've had in and around my Nissan Primera ownership have been; An Almera, a Rover 25 and a K11 Nissan Micra.

What was your favourite out of all of them and why and any you really regretted letting go?

The second Toyota Celica was my favourite. It was powerful enough and handled really well and I loved the look of them. I don't regret selling it because of the reasons at that time but if I could have one of them back, it would be that one.

Now then, it’s Primera time!! I lost count looking through your forum posts in preparation for this Q&A LOL! But I think you’ve had 3 or 4 Nissan Primeras since you joined us in 2010 with a P11 GA16DE. Leaving out your current P11 GT, please tell us more about the previously owned Primeras and what happened to them?

The first Nissan Primera which I bought was the P11 SRi GADE16. I didn't know the GT existed and as many may recall, I was always looking for more power out of the GA16, even building a custom air intake and investigating the idea of cams and manifolds etc. But ultimately it was the wrong car, I then decided to sell it and I “half bought” a P11 Mystic but upon inspecting the car prior to completion of the sale, I found it was severely rusted all over and decided I would have to break it instead.

My second Primera was my red P11 144 Sport and that one I gave a lot of attention to but still I'd made the mistake of buying the wrong car, I buy on impulse quite a lot LOL, it still wasn't powerful enough. Fate stepped in with this red one after trying to sell it, it would not start when the buyer came to take it away, so I kept it until my relationship with my ex ended and I found myself in financial dire straights. I had a sale of car parts and personal belongings and the car went during that time.

The third Nissan Primera was a P11 144 Sport+ (tiptronic / auto) which again I bought on impulse and couldn't really afford at this time, so I sold that one too.

So we know you’ve had a few now haha.. What got you into a Nissan Primera to start with, was it on the list of cars to own back in the day, or a chance encounter?

My dad had two P10 Primeras as company cars and I remember them being fun to ride around in, so when I needed a "sensible" car the Nissan Primera was first on my list.  

All this talk about the Primeras, let’s find out more about yours please. Let’s see some photos of your Kuro Black P11 GT and tell us all about the spec and all the goodies she has:

Ironically given all the modifications I lavished on the other Primeras, I haven't gone down the power mods route with this one but it has had some cosmetic mods which are listed below:

Clear side repeaters

Clear rear lights

18” Fox Racing multi spoke alloy wheels

White dash dials

New gear gaitor and gear knob

What’s your favourite thing / part about the GT?

The handling - After all my power craving, when I finally got the GT I realised it was more fun going round corners, than it was making rapid progress and although I'm happy with the performance of the GT (I'd say it's quick rather than fast), it's in the bends that I get the biggest smiles.

So imagine this.. Money is no object and you can build yaself the ultimate Nissan Primera, you can do anything you want here Dave – What would you create?

A four wheel drive and turbo’d VVL powered beast but still maintain a sleeper status, I wouldn't want it being heard from miles away either.

Let’s talk spanner ratings, I know you’re a “hands on” type of guy. On a 1 – 5 scale, where are you on the scale?

Probably a 2. I take on projects when I have no idea what I'm doing!

Is there anything you’d never take on or attempt, when it comes to car mechanics or repairs?

I would draw the line at anything that involves me going under the car.

Time for the quick fire question round!

What makes you smile? 

When my daughter says or does something, that reminds me that she is like me in so many ways, despite her not being with me as much as I'd like.

What makes you sad? 

When Maisie has to go home.

Tell us something we don't know about you..

I can run really fast.

Your favourite colour? 

Blue.

Your lucky number? 

17.

What will it say on your gravestone?

It's better to burn out than to fade away.

Your favourite drink (any)? 

Double Maxim (Sunderlands very own version of Newcastle Brown Ale).

Your sub £10K second hand dream car would be? 

A nice 5 series BMW.

Your sub £30K second hand dream car would be? 

Recently I've been admiring the Jaguar XF.

If you could steal the keys to someone else’s car (on NPOC) for 1 day, which car would you steal and why? 

Sprint”s eGT (photo below) - I've never driven a P10 and that one looks like it would be a lot of fun.


You’ve got yaself out to some North East Regional Club Meets before but we’ve never seen you at any other Club Meet sadly! When are we all going to get to meet you and the car finally? We’d love to see you at one of the big National Car Meets.

The trouble is these events are always at weekends and that's when I have Maisie. At the moment she's a little too young to come along and sadly not into cars but when she gets a bit older we may get along to a national meet.

Tell everyone who has never come out and joined us at a Club Meet, why they should..

It's a great way to put faces to the names and see some of the other cars and maybe steal modification ideas too LOL!

So 5 years of NPOC membership Dave, is there a defining club memory in that lot somewhere?

I don't know really but possibly the near unanimous approval of my red strip modification on the red 144, getting credit from so many people whose cars I'd admired, was a very good feeling.

NPOC for life (regardless of what car you own and drive) or leg it when you change car?

For life! I did briefly wander off while I had the Nissan Micra but I found myself logging on again anyway. It really is about the people of NPOC and not just the cars they drive.

Tell Carlos Ghosn why he needs to bring back the Nissan Primera brand:

Everybody else still builds a family car. Rebadge that new Infiniti we’re going to build here in Sunderland and scare the hell out of the “blue oval” again, like they did with the P10.

Most petrol heads have a nick name / pet name for their cars. What’s yours and why?

The GT goes by the name Jo, just because it's in the cars registration number. A bit boring really but my cars have always been "she’s", so she's Jo.

Member Of The Month is all about highlighting the unsung / unknown heroes around this club and also their cars, should they be driving a Nissan Primera. You’ve been here for years now and you’re one of our regular forum users, helping to keep the place ticking over nicely - Thank you Dave! With my thanks out of the way, it’s over to you to see us out.. Congratulations once again for winning Member Of The Month for August 2015! Please end this feature, in your own words and feel free to thank anyone who’s made this one possible.

I'd just like to say thank you to the Admin Team for picking me, I know I've been around for years but I don't spend a lot of time answering questions in the General Sections, not because I don't care, mostly because I don't know the correct answers LOL.

There's a few members I've known on here for years now, who have helped me out both on the forums and in person too, including but definitely not limited to the following guys and I just wanted to give them a shout out:

Chris “Geordie”, Brian “p11primeragt” and Frank “rrbarny”, all of whom (and countless more) who make up the backbone of the club – Thank you.

I don't know what else to say really and I hope I haven't rambled on aimlessly through this article.



Congratulations once again to Dave!

August 2015 MOTM - dcal

Written by essNchill

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