The first ride in a car was with my pal in his father's Lea-Francis 14hp Four-Light Saloon click here in 1956. It was massive and I felt like a V.I.P. and started waving to all and sundry!

I remember my pal's father, he was the local bank manager, was not amused by all this as it attracted too much attention and he was quite a private sort of person. I also remember him telling me that the car was solidly built and didn't have a chassis, it had two railway lines instead as it was so heavy and robust - I believed him for years!!

First car I was driven in was a 1956-57 split screen Morris Minor owned by my uncle, but it only got driven in the dry.

Every year in November it was put in the garage and stripped down and he cleaned that bloody thing and resprayed it and it didn't come out till after the snow had gone.

So if I was at his house even in the summer when it rained I had to catch the bus home which took about 1 hour as I had to catch a bus then a tram or walk which took about the same time.

Chronus;I seem to remember that it was fairly luxurious?The uncle that owned it had a chain of petrol stations in my home town,therefore he could afford luxury.