Me and my 60th Birthday present.
A Formula First drive

I had a Dream…….

I had a dream... as long ago as 1959 /60 of building my own car.   A car, that I would know every nut and bolt, and one where no job was too large or beyond my capabilities. At the time I was in the RAF and newly married so it wasn’t a practical proposition but I enjoyed looking at the brochures for kit cars based around the Ford Anglia 100E /105E and the like, enthusing over the sales blurb which said how easy it was to build.  I achieved this ambition in 1989, building a Westfield SEiW with my son in law.
 

The RAF equipped me with practical and basic engineering skills and I have used these throughout my life, at work and at home with DIY projects. My interest in cars must be in the genes; my father was a motor mechanic before and during W.W.II. But I had no real interest until I had learned to drive and had my own car. Then it was a case of necessity, learning by reading and doing, since I couldn’t afford to have the car garage serviced. Out of this, and a trip to Silverstone in 1958/9, came an interest in Motor Racing.

In 1962 I bought a Mini, which became our regular transport for the next 7 years. During that time the Mini acquired twin SU Carburettor's, free flow manifold and straight through exhaust. The head was skimmed and polished to increase the compression ratio. In 1965 we took the Mini to Malaysia with us. When we returned in 1968 we sold it to a local Chinese. Owning the Mini was great fun. It is the only one of our cars my wife shed a tear over as we parted with it.
 

 I served 22 years in the RAF, as an Airborne Radar Technician and Teacher. On leaving the RAF, I became a Computer Hardware Instructor with Digital Equipment Co. Ltd. I worked for Digital for 14 years ending up as a training manager. During that time I was responsible for the introduction of computer based training, the forerunner of today's, multimedia training.  Taking voluntary redundancy in 1992, I formed my own company,  Now, 12 years later I am  retired, but still working, part time, as IT manager for the local Doctor's Surgery.

The Westfield is now sold to make way for the new project and I am excited at taking a step back to my boyhood days to build and own a Jaguar XK120 replica.