My car obsession

I’ve always loved cars, becoming particularly passionate about rally cars from my school friend Stephan around the age of 9; I
still draw cars exactly the same as my friend Noel taught me back then! I wanted to learn to drive as soon as I could, and on my
17th birthday, my Dad bought me a bright orange 1 litre Austin Metro!

It was awesome. Well, ok, it wasn’t. But it was my first car!! He gave me driving lessons immediately, and due to my rubbish hand
to eye (and to foot?) coordination, probably related to my lack of sports skills (at the time I was a long haired computer nerd),
it took me a good 20 hours to be able to drive to a level hopefully sufficient to pass my test. But we decided I should have a
couple of lessons professionally and take the test in the driving instructors car; unfortunately, the ‘modern’ Corsa he drove was
so different to my battered Metro – gear changes in the brand new Corsa required gentle nanometer nudges; not great swings of the
arm, and the clutch was firm with a small and delicate biting point range as opposed to the Metro’s floppy stamp & release
paddle; so I couldn’t drive the bloody thing, and ended up needing a further 20 hours before I could take my test.

Fortunately, I passed first time, and soon I was bombing around on my own and loving the freedom a car gave me.

My joy of cars continued to grow. In the last 19 years of driving, I’ve owned 20 cars – well, 24 if you count girlfriends cars
I’ve bought, plus I drove the 3 cars my dad owned over the years quite regularly. That doesn’t sound too bad, but the first 4
cars I had all lasted around 2-3 years before changing – so I’ve actually had a whopping 16 cars in the last 9 years!!

The problem has been that I couldn’t find the right car that gave me anywhere near the sheer driving pleasure and simple fun of
my fourth car – my first Mazda MX-5 (or to be technically correct, a Eunos Roadster – the Japanese import version, which is more
or less identical anyway) – and the extreme stomach sucking acceleration and glue like handling qualities of my fifth car, a
Lotus Elise – especially a ‘sensible’ alternative with more than two seats and a decent boot space!

So for the last 9 years or so, I’ve changed cars many, many times. Often having two at once; occasionally three whilst trying to
sell one or two of them – at one stage, I even had four! Bear in mind that they were very cheap and old cars. I’ve always thought
it unreasonable to purchase a new car – they are so expensive and the price drops so quickly, I’ve never found it economically
viable. Even buying a car 2 or 3 years old hasn’t appealed to me: for x pounds I can get a young but basic small hatchback; for
the same money I can buy a 15 year old sports car – I’ll take the latter please!

Hence I’ve been through many exotic albeit dated sports cars, my tastes veering more towards JDM (Japanese Domestic Market)
vehicles – think of the ‘Fast and Furious’ films and you’ll be on the right tracks. I’ve had a few more sensible cars during that
time too – although not quite as sensible as I should have had perhaps!

I then got into customising / modifying my cars – more aesthetically so than mechanically – even going as far as painting one car myself. Over the years I’ve bought so many car mods and accessories,  made many many trips to Halfords as well as making many purchases on eBay, Amazon and car websites. I don’t like to think how much money I’ve spent! Mind you, you can’t go wrong with some racing stripes for a tenner of so!

The complete story is a long one, so I will keep it as short and sweet as possible over several future posts. The ultimate
solution for me is two cars, a fun two seater, and a practical 4-5 seater with decent boot space: I’ve found one of them; and I
think I may be close to the second…
Where the  story begins: 3 cars and a bike

 

Hi everybody!

Hi everyone – well, this is my new blog, and my first post. So who am I, and what’s this all about?

I’m a 36 year old father of a beautiful 6 year old daughter and have been working in the IT industry since graduating from University in 2000. I’m open minded and outgoing, love to travel, and have been lucky to experience many different aspects of life.

The idea is to share the ‘wisdom’ I’ve learnt over the last few decades on a variety of subjects, such as Health & Fitness, Travel, the Automotive world and my obsession with cars, along with a few tips I’ve discovered in other areas, such as DIY, childcare, and to offer advice & opinions on many varying subjects, such as saving money; for example, by using the TopCashBack site I’ve literally saved myself over a thousand pounds over the last few years.

These are all my own opinions based on my personal experience and I don’t expect everyone to agree with everything I say, but hopefully you find something useful or at least mildly entertaining.

Enjoy!