Classic cars always have fascinated me and from the day I started working a great deal of my money was invested in restoration of the low budget rustbuckets I could afford in those days.

My first car was a 1978 Chrysler Avenger 1600 GLS which I took over from my father in 1989. In fact the Avenger was a normal family saloon but they weren't sold in huge numbers and therefore I could really stand out between the Fords and Opels of my friends.  

The Avenger wasn't really a bad car and I will always remember it for the romantic hours I spent in it with Astrid.... BUT eventually rust had eaten away some very essential parts of the car and I could barely hold a screwdriver so that meant the end of the Avenger.

On to the next one then, a 1977 Triumph Dolomite 1850HL, an absolute beauty with it's wooden dash and luxurious interiour. That car taught me a lot!! Swapping engines isn't really that hard! Eventually the Dolomite was reasonably reliable and  we had some wonderfull holidays in Germany and Denmark.   

After a year of hard work on the Dolomite I wanted something else and we purchased a 1988 Rover 216 Vitesse. This car had an absolute brilliant close ratio gearbox and was a nice example of badge-engineering. Standing at a distance you really couldn't tell wether it was a Honda or a Rover

In those days Astrid managed to get her drivers license and naturally she wanted a car of her own. It just had to be a Mini, what else? So we settled for a 1984 Mayfair with a very nice and luxurious interiour. The Mini turned out to be a very reliable car and offered a lot of fun to drive until (again) rust and several mechanical failures occured. Installing another engine / gearbox put the Mini back on the road for a short time but eventually the doors nearly fell out and it had to go. The Mini was sold for a box of chocolate and a good bottle of Scottish single malt.

By this time we really enjoyed classic cars and looked for something really nice. From a good friend we bought a 1969 Triumph  Herald 13/60. The car was completely ripped apart but a friend promised to help us out with the welding and the paintjob.

We have restored the Herald during a total period of 7 years. See the 'before' and 'after' pics below taken over the period 1993 - 2000.

The first encounter......ouch!	Years later!	Driving topdown in January is no problem!!	British Race Festival 1999 at the Zandvoort racetrack.	One more time at Zandvoort.

Before the Herald was finished I was offered a 1976 MG BGT. It was a very nice example with (unfortunately) the rubber bumpers in stead of the nicer chrome ones. 

We've used the GT for several years without major problems. But after Rick was born in 1996 the GT turned out to be a little unpractical. Besides that I started with a new job and, despite all my protests, I had to drive an ...                     Opel Vectra !

So the MG was eventually sold but fortunately we still had the Herald which we used a lot during summers.  But after a few years the Herald proved to be somewhat limited in terms of power, comfort and space. The 1300cc engine had to work really hard on the holiday trips to the UK, France, Belgium and Switzerland.In other words: we had to look for something else. Have a look at the "la Passione" page.

Let's jump forward in time a bit to first half of 2006. Astrids VW Polo, 16 years by now, had seen it's best time and we needed something else. But what!?! After endless discussions abut VW Polo's & Lupo's, Peugeot 106 & 206, Ford Ka tec. Astrid still did not know what she wanted. Her new wheels had to be different and tough. Eventually I persuaded her to testdrive a Jeep Wrangler but didn't really expect that it was a car that was very easy to handle for Astrid. I was stunned when she didn't want to get out of the car anymore.

We have had this car for more than 4 years but in April 2010 it had to go to make place for something more practical and less costly. This time it didn't take much time to agree on a specific type of car. Curious?! Please check here.