My first car was a Clipper Blue Morris minor 1000 4-door.

My mother inherited a small sum of money and decided to buy a car for us to learn to drive on. I was 18, my sister was almost 20, I had an elder brother (23) and a younger brother (16). The first Minor she bought was a right mongrel, recently sprayed navy blue over what turned out to be rust it only lasted a couple of weeks. The Clipper Blue came one of my father's customers and was much more solid. We called it "Blue Streak GT", which was not based on any enhanced performance. I modified the dashboard with rocker switches and warning lights.

Out of the five children, I was the first to actually take my driving test, passing it after just 6 lessons and within the 6-month period of my first Provisional licence. Took my test in November on the first wet day for a month, my tester had a great big Gannex raincoat (like Harold Wilson) and somewhat overlapped his seat, so I changed gear with his knee a couple of times; perhaps that's why I passed!

My sister took her test next, and then my elder brother, but not before he had jumped forward whilst attempting a hill start and struck a Ford Cortina MkI turning across him and driven by an off duty Policemen. Only scratches but the copper squealed like a stuck pig. I never believed that big brother actually passed his test, and I still want to see the pass note !

Little brother had his first lesson on his birthday, January 17th, took and passed his test on March 17th and wrote the Minor off on April 17th. Came down a hill in the Peak District too fast, and braked until they didn't work any more. He stopped the car by hitting a tree, choosing this instead of a bus shelter because there were people waiting for a bus.

At about this time I had my first drive in the family car. A C-Reg Almond Green Austin 1800. Lovely car, except quite different from the Moggy. The difference became clear when I tried to turn into a side street, and the Landcrab did not answer the helm in the same way as the Minor. That resulted in severe 'understeer', if I can call it that at 20mph, and the mounting of the far pavement and damage to a tyre; could have been worse.

But I did learn to drive the 1800, including a fabulous winter drive to collect elder brother from University at Keele, going over the tops near Buxton in severe winter weather where everything looked like chandeliers as an inch of ice was wrapped around the twigs on trees, the power lines, telephone lines, the lot. I learned to cope with that blasted umbrella handbrake by holding the car on the foot brake, and using the choke to boost the revs for a hill start because I didn't have a spare foot to press the throttle initially.

The 1800 gave way to ADO 14, the original Austin Maxi 1500. I loved that, overhead cam engine, 5-speed gearbox; what more could you want, oh you want a list ! Mum didn't like it, and she persuaded Dad to take it back to where he got it, and come away with a Triumph 2000 which she did love. I remember the day that the Maxi was released from our ownership, because it had a full tank of 5-star fuel in it, and I was told to drain this out and put it in the only container we could find; the VW Beetle. 5-star to a Beetle was like rocket fuel !

Meanwhile my mother's father had died, and we acquired his 1960 Volkwagen Beetle still with only 29,000miles after 10years. This was a 6-volt 30bhp Beetle still with flapping indicators though these had been replaced by flashing lamps in the same orifices. Since the Minor had been murdered against the scenery of Derbyshire, the Beetle became my main drive. Clocked up 50,000 miles in that, and the only problem it gave was wet weather starting. The end of the Beetle is a sad tale of having the wrong friends and of them taking money for maintenance that they did badly; it went to auction.

The Triumph 2000 got tired, and somehow we decided to buy our first brand new car, an Austin 1300GT. Almost a four-door Mini Cooper, the 1300GT was quite an interesting drive, but not when the recurrent disc problem kicked in. I think the brakes were over-servoed, and somehow the discs got warped; we had the discs planed under warranty in the first year, but they wouldn't do it again in the second year.

The 1300 GT only lasted 2 years before we took it to a newly opened Volkwagen dealer. We traded the '4-door Cooper' in for a very basic MkI Golf 1100 2-door. It was our second VW although the Beetle was about to be disposed of us so we only had two VeeDubs concurrently for a couple of weeks. The Golf was a revelation, and I never noticed any performance deficit to the 1300GT, possibly because I could trust the handling of the Golf and after the braking problems of the 1300GT I never trusted that again.

There was only one way to drive the Golf, flat out and steer. I had many memorable drives in this car over 5 years. However, all was not rosey, and our new VW dealer had not tightened the head bolts correctly at the 600mile service, and after that the head was damaged. We used a lot of oil, and the oil leaked onto and eventually destroyed the alternator, all at our expense. The Golf also rusted itself to death, in spite of having been Ziebarted from new, and after 5years the rusty heap had to go.

In it's place we bought a 950cc second-hand Peugeot 104 4-door. That tiny car had no pretentions at all, and yet it just took everything that was thrown at it. Well everything except rain. Wouldn't start if water came within ten feet of it. We heard that the 104 was written off not long after we disposed of it, poor little car.

My dad, thank heavens, had long stopped driving, leaving the wheels and gears to my mother who drove with great gusto; so much so she got her first speeding ticket when almost 80. It was mum who decided that we must have a Vauxhall Astra, and she drove a hard bargain to get a 6-month old Astra 5-door with a high spec. That car was kept for 13years, and after Mum's Alzheimers was starting to become apparent. When the village garage took it away for MOT, dad told them to fail it and not to bring it back; they used it as a garage hack for a couple of years.

My own car ownership was not exactly very inspiring. Friends had ruined my Beetle and it had to go to auction. After some time without my own car, but loving the use of the new Golf instead, it was time to get my own. I bought a Mini pickup from an advert in a Cornish weekly paper, but I bought a pup. That Mini was waiting to fail its MOT and I was foolish enough to own it whilst it waited. Of course I wish that I still had the pickup, it was an experience to drive and now rare.

This wasn't the last Mini that I owned, and somehow I ended up buying an early Mini with a starter button on the floor. This had been re-engined with an Austin 1100 unit, and re-grilled using an upside down Austin 1100 grille. Someone had sprayed it metallic light green with chocolate highlights sprayed onto all the seams. For my sins I repainted it by hand, first in Blue and White to match my Rally Driver friend who had an Austin Cooper, and both cars now said "Soggi Potti Rally Team" on their roof (don't ask!). Later I repainted it again in dark charcoal grey with red stripes, which I tried to register with DVLA as "a storm at sunset".

More interesting, however, was that I had the engine bored out to 1160cc, twin carbs fitted with a high lift cam. Went like stink, but was still on standard wheels and drummed all around. I can't remember what happened to it, but the MOT inspector would have had to be very short-sighted to have kept that on the road.

But I'm jumping ahead, because after the Mini pickup came a Triumph 1300 TC. That was the essence of the Triumph 2000 that my mum had so loved. Except it wasn't. The "friend" that sold it to me, never quite finished putting the engine together, and never actually finished on several occasions. It burnt oil faster than that bloody BP well in the Gulf of Mexico, which said "friend" tried to blame on me driving it too fast.

I agreed to having the engine rebuilt, but not by him, and the garage was fortunately very friendly to me and revealed the tricks he had worked on my engine. It got put back together properly and I ran it in carefully for 1000miles. Then it ended upside down facing the wrong way on a Cornish lane one lunch time. It had to be dragged down the road on its roof because there wasn't space to right it where it fell. I sold the wreck to someone who repaired it, except that the roof was one inch lower on one side, and then three months later they blew that rebuilt engine up.

The tuned Mini took over from the Triumph 1300 Tc and when that left my ownership a period of months without my own car followed. I knew my own car buying skills were well flawed, and also that I chose my friends badly. But you can't choose your relatives, and it was brother-in-law who persuaded me to buy a ten year old Morris Minor Traveller 1098 in 1979. The car was obviously tired, and I quickly decided to give it a Gold Seal (remember them ?) engine and gearbox, replace some suspension components, and have surgery on the timberwork. If that sounds extravagant, I got my money's worth, 5years and more than 50,000miles out of them.

I took the Minor off the road for a few weeks whilst it was re-engineered and chanced upon a Morris Minor van for £150 which I was assured was tatty to look at but mechanically sound. They were kind of correct, because it drove very well, but then I discovered that under the 8 sheets of carpet beneath my feet there was only road ! But in 5 weeks my Traveller was back with me, and I flogged the van still with 3months MOT for £125.

The Traveller got purchased by my sister, her third Morris Minor, and drove it up to her in Sussex, suffering its only break down when a brand new coil gave up. A few years later I drove it back to Cornwall when she decided to up-sticks and settle in Cornwall. But that's jumping ahead again, and I sold the Minor to my sister in order to fund a University Degree at Coventry University. I didn't have another car for 5 years.

Eventually I returned to live in Cornwall, and when I was offered a ten year old Golf MkI 1500, I jumped at it. This 1979 Golf had 90,000miles on the clock, and the purchase price was reduced from £500 to £400 because I was a colleague. I was also told that the clutch would need replacing and that it would cost £100 to do; well the clutch lasted 13months and cost £120. That Golf was truly amazing, and was a good match for Escort XR3 and the like; you never had to slow down you just steered.

It even survived being hit head on by a Jap 4x4 at admittedly low speed, and the insurance company ended up paying £1200 to repair a £400 car. Did 50,000 miles in that Golf, and even took it to Yorkshire when I went to do my Masters, but it never left Yorkshire. During the last year hardly any of the doors could be opened because of rust, the windows could not be opened, and the petrol tank leaked fuel. It got driven to the scrapyard and crushed in front of me on my birthday! People are very cruel

I existed then for 9years without my own car, only getting my name back on a registration document in 2002 when a new job required me to have a car to get to work. Peugeot 206 was followed by Peugeot 207 and now Peugeot 207 SW; next year the 208 may have my name on it.