IN THIS FEATURE First memories 'Can you ring back in the Autumn?' History lesson A proud history of car-making

All this kind of thing makes ownership of British cars and bikes very personal. It gives a great sense of satisfaction of getting it to run and operate. I think the things the English do best are engines and chassis. They seem to do very well at small production and not so well at mass production.

Cars of the Twenties and Thirties are my favourites and my all-time favourites are the WO Bentleys. I have four of them. Although they were beautifully made, I am not much of a fan of Mercedes of the same era. They always seemed a bit evil and imposing... possibly because of the political history.

Recently I have been sent some wonderfully expensive books which show Mercedes of that time with white circles painted on the side. I thought that was a bit odd so I looked at some older books I have and saw the same photos with the same cars, not carrying white circles but swastikas!

In my mind I always picture my Bentleys fleeing Nazis in Mercedes. The Bentleys have orphans in the back and they're outrunning the Germans... There's that Battle of Britain sort of thing. It's extremely appealing. I like that idea of a nation of scrappy amateurs fighting that monolithic machine.