Elsewhere (Southwest Scimparts), you can read about my restoration of a derelict Sabre Six, involvement in Road-rallying, and trials and tribulations at the hands of 30-year old machinery that is determined to come to a halt in the most inconvenient places.

Although the car probably killed the railways, it is now playing a part in the revival of preserved lines, many of which are only accessable by road.

Much as I love cars, and love driving, I have all too often found myself rueing the price we have to pay for our wheeled freedom. Dead cats, for example (car 1, cat 0). Still, without roadkill, the crows would be feeding on something else, and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall would have to bait his eel-traps with his own cooking.

I have always found a satisfaction in working on my own cars, and the rebuild of the Sabre followed by the years of rallying, of crossing the Channel to visit the continent, even of just popping out for a drive through the lanes in an afternoon, forms a culmination of years of dreaming. I shall have to give myself a new challenge now, possibly to have a smart car for a change.