Motoring: My worst car; I got over-confident and overtook one car too many...
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Your support makes all the difference.To this day I can still clearly remember the expression on the bloke's face when I overtook him on the highway as my engine exploded. Yes, that 1959 Morris Minor was easily the worst car I ever bought.
It all started when I was a teenager travelling around the northern island of New Zealand with my girlfriend. I pulled up on a garage forecourt for some gas in my 1954 Morris Minor van. The attendant look at my fat tyres and said: "Nice wheels, want a look at mine?"
He had a Minor which had been completely overhauled in the interests of speed. It would get to 60mph in some absurdly small amount of time. I had to have it.
For the first 150 miles it was great. It sounded like a low flying jet, the central speedometer would wind around past 90mph and bounce off the needle. The petrol gauge would go in the opposite direction. I suppose I got over-confident and overtook one car too many. Mid-manoeuvre my Minor blew up.
The breakdown happened on the Kai Koura Coast. Help took three days to arrive. We had to camp next to the dead Minor, eating tinned salmon, which didn't do much for our relationship.
Scott Chisholm can be heard every weekday between 9am and 12pm on Talk Radio. He also anchors Channel 5's early news programme.
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