On Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:49:39 -0000, "Alistair Ross"
wrote:

While chatting at work (we are all petrol-heads) someone asked, "when did
the classic car bug bite". For me it was when invited to a relations wedding
(nightmare for a young lad) the best man took pity...Drove me back to the
reception in his 1932 MG J2......I was hooked, still am!!


I've grown up with them. Ever since I was a nipper, my Dad owned
Classic Daimlers, in fact he remembers having to fit curtains into the
back of his 1954 Daimler Conquest because my Mother needed to
breastfeed me in the back on the long journeys and she was NOT going
to have lorry drivers seeing her doing it. That was in 1979.

By the age of 4-5 I was to be found at weekends helping my Dad with
repairing/servicing the cars - he had some 6 Daimlers at that time,
including a one-off special developed for ITN as an outside camera
broadcast vehicle, it looked like a Morris Traveller only about twice
the size. If I was ever missing from home when not at school, my
parents would go 3 doors down the road to my Grandads house/yard,
where he ran a car repair business. Or more than likely ring them up
and tell me to come home. At the age of 10 I remember assisting my Dad
welding a car floor, and being required to run backwards and forwards
to the kitchen with milk bottles full of water to put out the carpet
which had caught fire.

By the age of 17 I was learning to drive, and on passing my test
couldnt wait to take one of the Conquests out for a drive. Owning a
rather decrepit Vauxhall Nova at that time meant that I had plenty of
opportunity. If ever the Nova wouldn't start I could simply jump intot
the Conquest knowing that it would never let me down. By that time I
was also responsible for much of the maintenance, my father being too
busy working in the City to do the jobs himself.

At 19 I defied my Dad and bought without his permission my first
classic car, a 1965 Series 2 Landrover, the start of my bug for
classic landrovers. A situation that has been repeated on two futher
occasions with the dicktat "No more landrovers" being ignored. Now he
doesnt bother saying no, just swears when I turn up with another car.
The landrover bug continues unabated to this day, 12 years later,
although any classic car will grab my attention, particularly if I see
it being used activly. I hate to see classics sitting in garages for
364 days of the year.

The current fleet between me and my father consists of a S2 Bentley, 3
Series2/3 landrovers, 2 Classic Range Rovers and 5 Vauxhall Senators.
The Daimlers having sadly been disposed of a few years ago. However
there are enough car parts around here to build at least a couple more
vehicles.

Alex