Driving Past

I’ve had several cars, most of which were Japanese and thoroughly reliable. The first that I owned was my favorite of these, a 1981 Datsun Cherry coupe which had funny little rear quarter lights that you could wind down into the bodywork and a reverse “H” gear shift. This meant that first gear was down to the left with second up and across. Reverse was straight up from first and an alarm sounded on the dash board when it was engaged. How quaint?!
I had the car for four years, serviced her once, ran her thirty thousand miles and traded her with no MOT, four bald tyres, knocking c.v. joints and more rust than you could shake a stick at.(Yes, the dealer paid me for it !)

Next I got yet another Nissan, a slightly larger, newer car, which I hated, despised even, and only kept for eleven months. I traded that and bought a nearly new Nissan Sunny, which was a fine car and served it’s purpose well, despite looking like a big red breeze block.

I was perfectly happy with the car and kept it over two years in excellent condition, but then came that fateful day when I knew that I could no longer drive something so ordinary. I always arrange a party for my friends to celebrate my birthday and this particular year Pete and Tracey turned up in something rather special. Pete had just got a new job working as a motor design engineer in Northampton and had brought a project car north, on an extended test drive to Carlisle. I had been waiting for them to arrive and was in the bathroom when I heard something coming down the drive. It seemed to be having trouble negotiating the corner of the house and so I rushed downstairs to see what all the noise was about. It was nearly dark, but I could still see a long, low, beast of a car maneuvering into the parking space next to my garage. Then the infra red sensor on the garage floodlight tripped on,... and bang!... my jaw hit the floor. There before me, bathed in 500 watts of halogen light was what I later found to be an Aston Martin DB7 Vantage Volante. (At this stage, still a secret, -under development-).

It was too much,... we went inside and had to have a drink...for medicinal purposes, of course. The car was the star attraction of the party and after I had been for a ride in it I just couldn’t get it out of my mind. It got me thinking about how I would love to have something like that sat in the garage, for me to drive, stunning from every angle, lip smackingly beautiful and pant wettingly powerful.