In over 40 years of driving, I haven’t owned many cars.

Started in 1974 with a Valiant VC Regal sedan. A good car but I would advise against buying a car at night time. Turned out the paintwork wasn’t so good. This was followed by a Valiant VJ Charger 770 with the 318 V8. Everyone should have at least one V8 in their lifetime.

All of a sudden petrol became expensive. So I downsized to an orange shovel-nosed 2 door Escort RS2000. Thought I was Australia’s answer to Hannu Mikkola until I spun off the Acheron Way one sunny Saturday afternoon. Fortunately not much damage.

Next was an 85′ three-door Honda Civic. What a great little car. Owned it for over 20 years and it hardly missed a beat. When Alex and I married in 2003 we decided to become a one car family so the Civic was put out to pasture.

“I’d like to own an interesting car”, I remarked to Alex one day. At that time it could have been anything – as long as it had a bit of age and a manual gearbox. And then I saw the Bugeye in The Healey Factory showroom. Hmm. Didn’t know a lot about them but figured it could be a bit of fun.

So Maximillian (Blue Max) Sebastian (Vettel) Sprite became ours. And it has been a lot of fun. And it’s great that other people get enjoyment from the car too.

Last May [2014] Alex and I headed off in the Sprite bound for Brisbane via Griffith and Lightning Ridge. What an epic journey! Rain, more rain, no wipers, more rain, no headlights, more rain, no indicators, no starting … but a new battery solved the electrical issues. We reached Brisbane and enjoyed a few days R & R, then headed down to Warwick for the National Challenge. From there we tootled over to Ballina for a couple of days, and then worked our way home with a lap of Mount Panorama thrown in for good measure.

Where to next? Well not sure … but expecting many more interesting journeys in the Bugeye.