IN THIS COLUMN The wonder years "There's a hole in my muffler!" Car cum home Memories with Mavis

I found it in a used-car paper. It was a '55 Buick Roadmaster Hardtop and it cost me $350. I did end up sleeping in it a couple of nights, too. That story became part of my comedy routine.

It might have been my first love but I had been swayed by newer and prettier models. It's a problem in Hollywood. And so the Roadmaster went to the back of the line. By the time I had a house and had got married, the Buick got relegated to the driveway.

I wasn't the only man to fall for that car, though. Mike Neesmith from The Monkees saw my comedy routine and found out about the Buick. He wanted it for a video but wanted it painted yellow and black. Originally it was white and black. We moved house in 1986 but the car didn't come with us. I parked it in my mother-in-law's driveway... It just sat there idle for 16 years until a couple of years ago. It was in a bit of state, the tyres were flat and a few notes from people offering to buy it were stuck on the windscreen. I finally realised - you know, like men do - that I needed to go back to my first love.

Just some of Jay's Duesenberg collection

Me and the boys in my garage took a look at the Buick and realised, a bit like the Six Million Dollar Man, that we could rebuild it - stronger, faster, better. We fitted Corvette suspension, steering box and disc brakes and Koni shocks. We cut the front end off at the firewall and fitted a new subframe to mount a 572 cu in big block Chevy engine from the General Motors Performance Parts range... plus a few other bits!

It now pumps out 620hp and 630lb ft of torque. It's hilarious. She'll do the 1/4 mile in the high 11's and at over 125mph. Road & Track magazine brought a Ferrari 360 down and I said let's run it against the Buick. They laughed. But the Buick held its own.