In the summer of 1995, I got my first car.

It was a bright orange 1980 Austin Metro 1L (NAU314W). No it wasn’t my choice. My dad was buying and also paying for the insurance; the Escort Mk2 or even a Fiesta I would have preferred were significantly more to insure. I had the option of a Skoda, a Lada or a Metro. I went for the latter 🙂

It cost £350 and I think about the same to insure. I managed to get her up to 84mph once but it certainly couldn’t be described as quick – that was with a certain amount of run up and downhill aid. Still, she was fun to drive, with her floppy gearbox and basic interior – not only was there no stereo, there was nowhere to fit a stereo. My dad wired one in and it sat on the floor of the passenger footwell. It was a ‘secure’ one where you slid pretty much the whole unit out of a metal cage and took it with you. Used to weigh a ton in my college bag! Another Stewart Armstrong (my late pops) fitting was the fan switch (with ‘FAN’ tippexed in his wonderful handwriting) so I could manually turn the fan on in traffic (after overheating one day in Grim old Grimsby).

My brother took over once he was 17 (and crashed it many, many times, the end result being it 10% shorter and only one-wheeled drive) with me borrowing my dad’s rather executive 1984 Ford Granada 2.8L (A34GRJ) auto in ‘Mink’ – a browny-grey metallic colour that looked a lot nicer than it sounds. This was a huge beast of a car compared to the Metro and quite luxurious with electric windows, sunroof and all the ‘mod cons’.

He then upgraded to a 1993 Ford Mondeo 2L (L259MUD – ‘Muddy’) which was a very nice car to drive and felt very quick; I remember driving to Scotland in it and being surprised to note I was doing 90mph when I’d only thought I was doing 60; it was very smooth.

I had the Metro still when I started University in ’97 but quickly upgraded to a white 1986 Vauxhall Astra 1.3L (D635UFE). I recall it costing about 7 or 8 hundred pounds. This had considerably more ‘oomph’ than the Metro and I started to drive a little more like a teenager (I’d been a very slow, cautious driver before) but it’s handling was, erm, pretty poor to be honest. The suspension was far too soft and coming down the back roads to East Leake enroute to Loughborough Uni could be a bit hairy; she’d ‘wallow’ about going over hills and I had a few scary moments in her where I thought I’d end up in a field. Fortunately, I didn’t. Unlike my Uni mate John who seemed quite proud that he’d rolled his 205!

After finishing Uni and starting my first proper job in the autumn of 2000 I was able to buy something a little better; a 1993 Peugeot 306 1.6L (L505VAG) for £3500. I say better… it wasn’t. I spent £1000 in the first year replacing what Peugeot Wollaton said were ‘essential parts’ (think I was conned) and another £1000 the next year and I think about the same again when the timing belt went and smashed the engine to smithereens. After 3 years I decided to get rid; the radiator decided to leak on the day of sale so my sale price dropped from the originally agreed £1800 to £1500.

Around 2002 I also got my first motorbike. I was planning on moving to Beeston, and knew the traffic would be awful getting to work. My Dad had got into bikes in the last few years too so I’d started to have an interest… and realised that they’d be great for cutting through rush hour car queues.

I did the half a day (back then) CBT test and bought a Honda NSR125. It was a bizarre combination of black, pink and green with turquoise wheels! It had some body panels missing so a bronze frame was partially visible – strange, yet cool, and the cheapest 125 I could find at £950 (larger bikes were much cheaper oddly).

I hadn’t realised that it was the fastest 125 you could buy! I recall accelerating once from 50 thinking I was going up to 70 and it had passed 90 already… most 125s of the time struggled to reach 70.

Unfortunately, it had been severely tinkered with, and had an air filter from a Aprilla that had had several holes drilled in it, and it kept cutting out. I had a few more problems and my Dad recommended a 4 stroke rather than a 2 stroke; I managed to sell it back to the same company for £750 and I forked out about £1200 for a dark blue Yamaha SR125.

This was more a of a classical bike, with shiny chrome – but rather dull – it struggled to get over 60mph. But it was still very handy for morning rush hour traffic.

The fun didn’t begin until 2003 and a love affair started that is still going strong 11 years on.

Next part of the story: The love affair begins