I was given and then collected Dinky, Corgi & Matchbox cars from when I was about 2 or 3 and kept on collecting them. Still have them all, most in the boxes. When I was youn and we used to go for days out in hte car my party trick was to hang my head out of the window with my eyes cloased and I could identify the make and model of cars that were coming in the opposite direction (usually up a hill for this!) by the engine sound.
When I was about 10 my sister had a friend who's boyfriend worked in a garage. They always used to turn up in something interesting. One Christmas they cam in a Mini Marcos and he took me out for a spin down the bypass. We hit a 100mph - the first time I'd been at that speed!
I always used to clean my Dad's car every week (got me into that habit!) and then when I was 12 we were on holiday in Ledbury and went to pay a visit to go around the Morgan factory (hooked on that one ever since!). Through my teens I used to buy Autocar & Motor every week and Classic Cars magazine. The classic bit was starting to bite in then. Learnt to drive at 17 & bought my first car Escort 1300XL at 18 and did most of my own maintenance then. Went to the motor shows and classic car shows at the NEC a few times.
The fun of motoring was knocked out of me for a few years with doing 50,000 miles a year in a succession of Cavalier 1.3L company cars for which there was no choice over. brought the fun back in when the company car went by buying a 6 month old big bumper Golf GTi. That helped bring the car nuts bit back into my life. Ever since I've found myself hankering back to the classics and now the Morgan does that with some modern day reliability.
