THOUGH SCHOOL, ACADEMIA and conventional studying weren’t my forte, I was lucky-enough to grow up in the countryside where the emphasis seems to be on fixing, well, all kinds of stuff. My parents saw I was interested in this, so when their old car failed the MoT badly, they gave it to me, aged 11 . The proviso was that they would insure me when I was 17 ; and so began the long road of realising something was broken, how it was broken, how to fix it and then, once the first, second and often third attempt had failed, how to fix it successfully.
Hours of my life were spent in the shed. There was no Jedi master to help me, just a smattering of old tools, added to every birthday and Christmas. Terry, who ran an old L and Rover garage in a barn behind, was also really patient by putting up with a kid hanging around asking questions – all the time…
Gradually I learned about torque settings, how an engine worked, how to weld and, quite quickly, how to modify. This was before the internet brought us all instant ans
