In the autumn of 2009, 6 months into driving her, the MR2 tried to kill me.

Several times.

In the wet, she was a devil. If you lost grip, she was very unpredictable and hard to control. I was now driving 110 miles to Chester/North Wales regularly, and I felt like I was going to die soon, and at the tender age of 31 and recently single again, decided I wanted to live a little longer.

I traded her in for a 2003 Honda Civic Type-R in red (believe it was around £7500 and they gave me £3500 for the MR2). Now, I’ve never been keen on red cars, but in this sporty guise with white alloys, it worked. This was a pretty damn awesome car. The 2 litre VTEC engine felt more powerful than the 197bhp official figure; whether the aftermarket huge and noisy exhaust (sounded amazing through tunnels – Annie loved this at the age of 3 and STILL asks me why I got rid of the “noisy red car” now at the age of 6) helped I don’t know, or whether it was just that VTEC surge – you got a lovely kick in the back at high revs, similar to the Elise. I loved the power, and the comfort and colour of the interior with the red stitching and white dials was lovely.

However, she was a pig to park. The turning circle was pathetic, the steering incredibly heavy, and visibility was awful – where I was stopping overnight a few nights a week in Chester I had to parallel park her in tiny spaces with high curbs, and I made a right mess of the alloys. The constant noise of the exhaust gave me a headache on the regular 2 hour journey.

Overall though, I was still enjoying the Type-R at this point but I was missing the ‘feel of the wind in my hair’ (theoretically – I have no hair) that I got from a convertible. It was the summer of 2009 and I needed that sunshine back in my life…

I remembered how much I’d enjoyed my MX-5, but I still needed a sensible family car. I checked and realised I could get an MX-5 for around £1500 but wasn’t sure how I’d be able to insure both… however, my friend Stan at work has a car obsession worse than me and owns multiple cars, and he was able to recommend a few insurance companies that specialised in multi-car insurance (before it was a common thing). Next thing you know, I’d bought ‘Maggy 2‘ – another Eunos Roadster AKA Jap Import Mazda MX-5 in black with BBS alloys – great. This was a 1.8 as opposed to my previous 1.6 but they are slightly heavier and less torquey; I couldn’t really tell the difference to be honest – I just loved its nippy smallness and having the roof down gave me an enormous sense of freedom. You couldn’t help but smile driving this car.

I’d had enough of the Type-R by January 2011 – 18 months ownership not being a bad effort though with the cars I’d owned recently! I’d also wanted a Porsche Boxster for many years (had test drove a few before buying the Elise) and realised that they’d come down significantly in price over the years. I didn’t really want to get rid of the MX-5, but having two 2-seater cars wasn’t practical. However, I’d managed to get a very good ‘cherished’ car insurance on the MX-5 and checking around the insurance realised I could get a third cheap ‘practical’ car, at least in the short term…

So I could have 3 cars! A Porsche Boxster, an MX-5, and a cheap hatchback – why not?!?

I test drove both a 2001 Toyota Celica 1.8 VVTI (140bhp) and a 2003 Hyundai Coupe 2.0 (S3 – I’d owned an S1 before). I much prefered the former, and purchased one for £2000. Ok, it’s a small coupe, rather than a more practical hatchback, but it had a decent hatchback style boot anyway, and back seats, so met my needs! It felt a bit ‘basic’ in some ways but was very chuckable and enjoyable to drive; had a happy pull to it and a great character.

I managed to get £6000 in a private sale of the Type-R and then found a year 2000 2.5l Silver Boxster in London that I liked the look of for the same price, and went down on the train and purchased it and drove back in her (Polly).

I was disappointed. I’d drove both the 3.2 and 2.5’s before and had enjoyed both, but it had been a newer 2.5, and I think this one was just a little old/worn out – it just didn’t feel very quick at all. It was also rather dull inside with grey leather seats that were surprisingly uncomfortable. It felt significantly slower than the Type-R. Technically, it was slightly more powerful (204bhp vs 197bhp) although a tiny bit heavier; pretty much the same power per weight ratio – but the ‘flat’ power delivery (as opposed to the Type-R’s ‘snappy’ VTEC) and the ‘civilised’ ride just meant it was no fun!

Plus driving a Porsche means that everything thinks you’re a twat. Nobody would let me in at junctions. I lived in fear of my car being keyed.

Every time I stepped out of the Porsche I had a gloomy expression; I got in the MX-5 and started to grin like a village idiot – a quarter of the price, 2/3s of the power, but 10 times the fun factor.

3 months later, the Porsche was sold.

Next part of the story: The power years