My history of classic car ownership up to 2002 includes a Ford Consul, a Ford Popular, a Ford Cortina 2000E, several Volvo 240s (Saloons & Estates), a Volvo 122S, a Volkswagon Variant Fastback, a Mini Mayfair and a Minivan.

In 2002 my Father’s ’94 Automatic Mini Sprite, with just 10,000 miles on, broke down, one of the diff pins (part of the auto gear box) had sheared and ripped into the gearbox casing, rather than have it repaired at the £3,000.00 plus quoted at the time, he decided to invest in a new car and I got the Sprite.

I put a second hand auto box in it to get it on the road, later fixing the original with a 4 pin diff, my wife used ‘Maggot’ as it affectionately became known, on a daily basis, I painted the roof and the door mirrors white and added bonnet stripes.

Then we really got the ‘bug’ and spent a fortune on all sorts of accessories, I decided I wanted to do one for myself and bought a Mayfair, but while I was restoring it I had a bit of a bump in Maggot!

The only thing I could do was to finish restoring the Mayfair, which was completed on 13th November 2003, to be given to my wife, Tracey, for her birthday.

Not being Tracey’s colour choice, she decided to personalise it, and ‘Eddie the Mini’ was born!

And so was the Mini obsession, since then I’ve acquired numerous Minis, of all my collection my pride & joy would have to be my Rover Mini Cooper 35th Anniversary LE, with just 3,500 miles and 1 previous owner.