IN THIS FEATURE Car gangs Yank tanks Favourite 'Vettes

In my high school days it was the Ford club and the Chevy club. Rival gangs. Like Manchester United and Liverpool. In those days Ford seemed to be struggling while General Motors had 75 percent of the American market. But when I was a kid my father's friend owned a Ford dealership, and we had access to all the cool stuff; the Falcons, the Sprints, the Mustangs. I also worked at a Ford dealership in high school. So consequently, when you're a kid those loyalties you make are hard to break.

The rivalry was no more intense than when Ford and GM would race. It's the classic American story: Carol Shelby being the outsider who beat the Corvettes and the Corvette Grand Sports with the Ford 289 Cobra. It seemed very romantic to me that just one guy using a Ford engine could go on to do what he did.

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So I just never really paid a lot of attention to Corvettes. Then in the mid '80s, the fourth-generation 'Vette Z15 came out with a new suspension package, and suddenly it could go around corners. Even so, I wasn't moved enough to get one.

In fact, I got my first Corvette almost by accident. I drove the Monte Carlo pace car at Indianapolis. GM was pleased with the publicity and said "we want to give you one of those" and I said, "Oh. That Corvette over there looks pretty good." So they gave me the Corvette. It was a 1999 C5 - just a regular one.

1973 Stingray one of the more curvaceous 'Vettes

Then the ZO6 came out and I did some more work for Chevrolet. They asked me how much money I wanted, but I said "I don't want any money. I'd rather have something shiny than something green." So they built me just about the ultimate ZO6 Corvette with 514bhp, a unique front and rear, different suspension, carbonfibre pieces, and Brembo brakes. And the computer is tuned to this motor. Sometimes when you chip a modern American car, you lose your anti-lock brakes or other safety measures. Not on my 'Vette.