Well, I do, and I couldn’t think of a better title.
One day I got given a model car to play with, one of those ones that you pulled back, let go, and it’d shoot off. It was a yellow Lamborghini Diablo (I think), working scissor doors and everything, and my clearest memory of it was that the ‘cockpit’ was quite far forward, and I thought that this would mean it would oversteer going around a corner. Not the usual thing an 8 year old thinks when he’s playing with a toy car but ever since then I was interested in cars. How they go, how they look, how they smell, how they work, all that. I like old cars and new cars, fast cars and slow cars. That Lambo was my first real memory of liking cars.
My favourite cars are either British, German, or Italian. The Italians make the exotic supercars that you dream about, the sort of thing you’d go for after a lottery win. The British generally make sports cars, most of them are very simple, but very fast (Lotus, Noble, Caterham), that sort of thing. They also make Aston Martins which are arguably the most desirable cars available. The Germans make more practical cars, executive saloons, and some nice sports cars. We’ve always had BMWs (and before you think we’re rich bastards, they’ve not been brand new ones, apart from one bought in 1987). They’re very good cars and I’ll probably stick with them during my driving life. I love BMWs, especially older ones (~1983+), and you can pick up a beautiful classic BMW for less than a brand new small hatch-back. I know which one I’d rather have.
I’d been looking forward to driving for years… I can remember that every so often, usually on my birthday, my dad would say ‘in 7 years you’ll be able to drive’, ‘only 5 years until you can drive’, and I was really looking forward to it. Then, I turned 17, got some L plates for my birthday, and had lessons. It was worth the wait, I passed my theory and practical test first time, and got a car soon after; it was great to be able to go and drive about after all those years.
Being in Norfolk, there’s a lot of nice driving roads. There’s nice long dual carriageways if you want a quick (or long) blast, fast open country-ish roads, some twisty, some straight, some quieter country roads, coastal drives, forestry drives, everything… you could spend days on end driving around all the different routes. We once went right along the coast, just for fish and chips, and it was a great drive, nice and quiet, fast roads, and nice scenery. Plus, there’s plenty of country cafés and pubs, which means locally prepared meat, and local cider. Lovely, I love a nice steak and chips with a pint of local cider.
Give me an old BMW, a sunny weekend and a list of nice pubs and I’ll be happy.