Me, an Aston Martin Vanquish Volante, a submarine, a corpse and a pub.

Don't forget your temporary association with a certain Super Snipe.

I guess my summer time DD 1996 Jaguar XJS conv. makes me one too.
Imagine that. I wrench on a Ford built race car and a Jaguar(built during Fords British phase)summer fun car.
Sort of a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde deal it seems.

I'll sort you out, man, with some good stuff. None of this Colombian or Afghan rubbish, this is straight from the fields of Cowley, Oxfordshire; 1100cc of pure carb-fed O-series Metro. Just try it. Your true friends will understand, when you're homeless and begging for food outside the Supermarket, long after the dream has rusted away, they'll look and say "See him sat in a puddle of his own piss? He had it all. He had a Metro. He could handle Crack, meth, even the occasional Morris Marina, but when he got hooked on Metro he burned out. Don't make eye contact with him, he'll only ask you for money"

I understand.   I have owned a Triumph TR4 since 1967.   In 1977 I took it off the road
to do a 100% body-off restoration.   The pieces have been sitting in my garage ever since.
The body, with all the major metalwork done, is hanging from the rafters.   The chassis
is on stands below it, the transmission on the floor, and the engine on a stand.   Dusty.

My friends(?) have offered to buy it and save me from this, but I cannot bring myself to
let go.   Someday, I tell them, I will complete the restoration and once again drive it.
My wife rolls her eyes, saying that in 25 years of marriage, she has never seen it in
anything but its present condition.   But I will, I swear it!   Yet it sits, gathering dust.
British iron is truly an addiction.   Once it takes hold, your life changes.

It's not a City, is it?  I'm used to the good stuff, man, Vanden Plas or better.  Can you score me a Tickford?  Just one?  It doesn't have to run or anything....

I bought a disassembled '59 Ford Skyliner in the late 1980s.  I still own it.  It is still a disassembled '59 Ford Skyliner.  Sigh.

I had heard the story of Major Martin before but not some of the details.  Thank you.

Speaking of TR4's, an original owner of a 64 was steered to me recently to see if I was interested in getting it going.  She has not driven it in 20+ years but it's in very, very good original condition.  Always garaged, no rust anywhere.  She can't decide if she wants to drive it or sell it.  I told her I'd get it going and then she can decide.  Hell, I may buy it.

In high school one of the cars that I bought/drove/sold was an Austin America.  My first British car.  That's why I HAD to race Spank's.  Some time after that I had a twincam Europa.  Loved the car, couldn't afford the parts (pre-Internet, dealer was the only source of many parts).  After that, 3 TR6's, 1 TR4, 1 TR4a, still have a TR250.  Then there's the Lemons Imp, SD1 and XJ12.  As a backup parts car I bought a 96 XJ12 but it was a bit too nice so that's my DD.  I have been keeping my eye out for a DB7, they seem to be falling to earth in price so I may pluck one off the ground.

Ouch, that hurts!   Just because I spent several weekends at auto swap meets, wearing a
sandwich board pleading for Girling type 17 calipers for my Super Snipe.   The pain only
ended (or perhaps was just starting) when I discovered that the early 1970s Mercedes 250
used calipers identical to them.   I just had to sleeve the mounting holes a tiny bit to account
for the difference between metric and imperial bolts, and have metric-to-imperial hoses made.

Yes, I know that Triumph used special bolts (metric body with imperial threads) on the TR6 to
solve this very problem, but I wasn't willing to pay $10 each for them at Moss.