Spotting what I thought to be a bargain I acquired the car in August 1994 as a road going wreck from a garage in Chelsea. It had been advertised as an uprated Jaguar with lots of potential - I should have known better but went on to do a deal and came home (just) with car . I hadn’t realised that all of the brake calipers were leaking and just made it back before the brake pedal hit the floor - better that hitting a lamppost however.

I set about rescuing the old girl from the clutches of the local breaker’s yard and went on to spend many happy (!) hours burning the midnight oil to bring her back to something approaching normality.

My wife was heard to say: ‘Has anyone seen my husband?  There is some strange bloke in the garage who spends all hours under an old car but I don’t think that’s him’.

Moving on, the previous owner had replaced the original engine with a 3.8 unit from a burnt out Jaguar S type saloon he owned and I rebuilt this in 2005 as it was showing definite signs of wear & tear, as well as burning a lot of oil due to worn pistons and bores plus the odd rattle or two.

Once you get the bug it can be difficult to stop so wire wheels quickly replaced the modest steel wheels and with spinners flashing, new red leather upholstery, repolished wood (all 27 pieces completed over one Christmas period), a new

limited slip wide rear axle, an uprated servo and beefed up front suspension soon followed plus a visit to my friendly bank manager with a plea of poverty to help keep the funds flowing.