How it all began

A few years ago, like every 18 years old, I began to seriously think about what type of car would be suitable as a first motor.After a few wanderings (I even considered a Suzuki Samurai) I firmly set my sights on a classic british sportscar. What more could a youngster want ? Cheap to buy , ideal to pull birds, a fair amount of street cred, or so I thought...

I rapidly found a car that fitted the bill: a 76' MGB GT resplendent in its glacier white livery, with low mileage and the benefit of a full "expertise"(equivalent to the british Mot test but much stricter) for a very reasonable price.

After a quick trip to the bank the car was mine.I didn't realise then, that my buy would change the motoring landscape of my area forever...

The reactions at my High school were mixed,some of the guys took it for some kind of small Porsche while others,GTI fanatics usually, looked at it with a heavy dose of disdain.

One day, after a very boring(they always are,aren't they?) physic lesson, a schoolmate asked me for a lift home."No problem"I said.

Once in the car, I slowly put my leather driving gloves on, discreetly inserted a "The Avengers"soundtrack tape in the cassette player, and headed for my favourite country road.Needless to say I drove like mad,concealing my poor driving skills behind an heavy dose of the MG's caracteristic roarty engine noise. He was hooked...

My pal, who wasn't the least bit interested in cars, now had to have an MGB.He rapidly took his driving test and bought the green 71'GT you can see,plateless,in the picture gallery.

Then it was Alan's turn to get his BGT,which he rapidly traded for his beautiful CGT.Then another friend of ours brought a roadster from Florida.

We spent many evenings looking at each other's car, talking about the merits of each version, dreaming about V8 conversions.

Many other adventures were yet to come, but we knew deep inside that we had all made a first step into automotive greatness.

Alexandre Humberset