The month of May is upon us and with it should arrive the great British summertime… eventually. As I sit here in lovely Leicestershire, rain from the north is chilling the air. It’s still woollies weather. But that doesn’t mean […]

‘My eyes adored you, but I never laid a hand on you…’ went the words of the Frankie Valli easy-listening trans-Atlantic monster hit of early 1975 and that was how I felt on seeing some of the amazing cars that […]

A little bird has informed me that the supply of oil to blenders of the stuff is currently compromised, possibly due to heavy demand in other parts of the world, but largely down to the global pandemic. The reason for […]

In my musings, it is only right and proper that I include a few of the cars which I have owned that haven’t exactly been the most glorious moments of my driving career. There is a neat grouping of these, […]

Learning to drive can happen on many levels. My first insights into the art perhaps came when my folks started buying me those fabulous ‘Matchbox’ cardboard, ‘glue and play’ roadways, with realistic details printed onto them, such as dotted lines […]

As oft mentioned in these tales, I was a foster kid for five days out of seven. Within my birth family I was an only child. Actually, that’s not entirely true, as the main candidate for being my father had […]

Every person who takes up a profession takes their first steps into it, often unconsciously, acquiring the first nugget of information that will likely last a lifetime… “Two sugars in mine and one in his. Now watch that carpet disnae […]

You may or may not know that I, in similar fashion to many children, had two homes throughout my childhood and adolescence.  The reason for my dwelling duo being that, weekdays, I was a privately fostered child and at the […]

Often, I hear tales from folks of cars they admired, even coveted from a distance as they were growing up. Not cars owned by their own parents, but those belonging to other people, perhaps in which, sometimes, an occasional lift […]

I was a foster child. I saw my birth mum, June, at weekends but spent my weekdays with a foster family. Before the age of nine months, I stayed with a family named ‘Jones’, but their neighbours had ‘began talking’ […]

Uncle Derek and Auntie Jean. During my childhood, mum had one surviving brother, Derek. He was older than her by nearly twelve years and had served as a captain in WWII, escaping from Dunkirk amongst other events, although he said […]

I wouldn’t be who I am now without that Vauxhall Chevette. In December 1975 my life changed completely.  The cause? A brand-new Vauxhall Chevette. You see, my mum who was born with achondroplasia, once upon a time more commonly known […]

Vehicles I have owned: 6 - 1955 Land Rover Series I, SWB 86”. My original, 80” Land Rover Series One had been troublesome for some time, and such is the way of these things, a classified advertisement had caught my […]

Vehicles I have owned: 5 – 1968 Daimler Fleetline CRG6LX / Northern Counties, registration number XDH518G. As far back as I can remember, I’ve loved buses. According to my foster sister and brother, my first two words were ‘bus’ and […]

4: 1950 Land Rover, Series I, 80”, Registration number- LTJ 714 And so it came to pass that I became a Land Rover owner, for the very first time. It was also my first non-Ford car, breaking a family tradition […]

Vehicles I have owned.3: 1979, Ford Fiesta 1.1L , registration number YOK80T. This particular vehicle’s appearance here  as ‘owned’ by me, is perhaps something of a falsehood, as I never paid a penny for it. The car was in fact […]

Vehicles I have owned: 2 – 1960 Ford Anglia 105E, registration number 803 BOL. Following on from my Honda C50 and its engine donation to a go-kart, my mind firmly favoured four wheels over two, and though I was still […]

Vehicles I Have Owned 1: 1966 Honda C50, registration number GON 86D. Many thirteen years olds want nothing more than to be able to control a motor vehicle, especially one powered by an internal combustion engine, with gears, mechanical noises […]

Nowadays new year occurs twice a year. Not so very long ago, okay 1998, it happened only once, in September. Before that, until 1997, it occurred once a year, in August, but it hasn’t occurred on 1st January since 1967. […]

I should have noticed the warning signs, as I perused the eBay listings, via cathode ray on the dial-up internet computer in my pub office, back the early 2000s. Austin Gipsy, 1964, some history, ex-Chipperfield’s Circus...... I was smitten; being […]

Wow, here we are again, with only a few days to go until gentlemen up and down the nation wake to the reality that only one shopping day remains before Christmas, that this is it and that the current gift […]

Us classic nuts spend hours pouring over paintwork, surveying steel and caressing chrome, which is all well and good, but it overlooks the material that, in many cases, is sandwiched between adjoining components. That material goes by the name of […]

Recently a post made by me, on one of my social media platforms generated quite a few negative responses. The post stated the fact that my daily driver is a SsangYong Musso, a great vehicle, which suits my requirements exactly. […]

Often, when I’m out and about in my 1929 Austin 12, folks ask me if it’s my next project. Now this is understandable, seeing as there’s rust on the wings, the roof has faded in the sun and the interior […]

Lockdown can be a troubling time for many, but those of us with classic motor vehicles can bring a little sparkle to folks out and about on essential business.The method is simple; by making our own essential journeys using our […]

Over the past couple of decades, it has become something of a norm to finance the purchase of cars and bikes using a loan. I’m talking about ordinary, everyday cars and bikes, driven by folks with ordinary, everyday jobs and […]

Throughout Europe, debates rage regarding increasing ethanol content in petrol and how it affects our classic vehicles. What is certain is that we enthusiastic users of ancient cars and bikes must now be more vigilant regarding the effects of ethanol […]

One requirement that all cars and bikes have in common is that for lubrication. Whether it be engine, motor, transmission, hubs, or some tiny dangly bit that touches the nadger arm whenever the doodah lever is pulled.Regarding motor vehicles generally, […]

It ain’t grim up North n’more. A new ‘North Star’ is lighting the way this week. Manor Park Classics has begun its ascent into the hearts and minds of classic car and bike enthusiasts across the northwest of England and […]