30 cars - 50 years

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Poor Deanna coughed and spluttered her way through our ownership and into old age as a result of my 3 year old son shovelling dust into the petrol tank following theft of the petrol cap. I stripped the carburettor countless times and had the tank cleaned, but every few weeks the car would cough to a standstill, ready to have the float chamber drained and the jets and filters cleared yet one more time.

Oddly enough, our Mini never suffered the wet-weather weakness of many of its fellow models (and also the 1100-1300 range), often seen stationary at the side of the road whenever rain fell in excess of a light drizzle.

We have run a wide variety of motors since that time in 1962, but few have brought the hairy incidents or happy memories which these first ventures into the world of wheels created for us.

Devilish Digits
In the ensuing 40 years, only one car plate will remain forever branded into my memory. This was YAK 666L, a 1972 Audi 100 LS which left a frightening trail of death, misadventure and sheer tragedy in its five year life and left me with an awed respect of the ‘Devil's Number‘, 666.

I purchased it in 1975 from the estate of the original owner, a very successful businessman, who died suddenly from heart attack. Whilst in my ownership and on holiday in France I fell victim to that hated French rule of the road ‘Priorite en Droit‘, subsequently abolished.

The Audi was put into a garage in Le Touquet for temporary repairs, sufficient to get us back home. When put into a Leeds bodyshop for repair, the engineer pointed out a 9" gash on the inside of the front offside tyre, with the inner tube bulging out, in which condition I had driven the family almost 400 miles back to Yorkshire.

But YAK 666L hadn't finished yet. I sold it to a US airman stationed at Harrogate. A few months later whilst on a family outing with his wife, children and parents the car was involved in a horrific collision in which all the occupants died or suffered appalling injuries. Very sobering.

Today, we run a Ford Focus purchased new almost three years ago and it is perhaps a sad comment on the times that even now I simply cannot recall the singularly unmemorable computerised jumble of letters allegedly identifying our car. Now, if it was GR 4 or PTY 750 or MTN 22 . . . that would make a very different story.

Vernon Wood

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