A Minor Journey dot com.

Well, it seems that PyoorKate has another car. And it’s a Daf 44 with a Variomatic transmission. There’s a slight pang of jealousy there, but to be honest I’ve actually got quite good at the way I view older cars recently. While I think my mate rocks for offering a home to yet another fantastic car from the past I’ve come to realise that I haven’t got the time, money or expertise to keep a classic on the road unless it’s in really good post-restoration condition.

See, I owned the wonderful Hebe for three years and that was brilliant. I actually achieved one of my ambitions; to own a morris minor. In fact, I owned two. Letting go of Carrie, the 1.8 litre hot-rod of a traveller wasn’t too difficult. Letting go of Hebe, the car I’d spent hours working on and driving, was harder.

But I’m actually now quite glad that I don’t own her any more. She was so far gone that I’d have been ploughing hundreds, no, thousands, no, tens of thousands on her restoration. And that is a big financial burden as well as a big emotional one. I won’t lie to you. I really really want an electric morris minor. It’s a dream I will continue to have. But like some other things in life I’ve discovered that waiting sometimes does more good than jumping in. For a person whose default mode is to jump in that’s a tough realisation to come to.

Besides, owning the CityEl is fun. I can do all the maintenance myself and at last I have an owners manual!

So I’m hoping now that Kate will let me have a bit of a drive in the new car, Juggernaught. And I’ll enjoy the wonders of classic motoring by proxy, until I have the space, money and skills to have a car of my own.

P.S. This post is also so that I can check my new cross-posting feature with Livejournal. Go me.