£100K Garage: Paul Sutherland
Citroen DS wins instant cool points; rest of the dream fleet is similarly quirky
Previously owned (in order): "1981 BMW E21 316i (first car, back in 1993), 1973 Austin Healey Sprite, 1987 Saab 900 16V, 1990 Saab 900 Turbo, 1977 Porsche 911 2.7, 1990 Mitsubishi Shogun, 1992 BMW E30 325i Convertible, 1981 BMW E21 323i, 2002 Saab 9-5 Aero Estate, 1973 Triumph Stag, 1989 Saab 900 Turbo."
Currently owned: "1987 BMW 635CSI, 2003 Land Rover Discovery 4.6 V8, 2006 Audi A4 3.2 S Kine Avant (that's 11.3 litres and 20 cylinders, it's OK though as I currently live in Canada where petrol is about 58p a litre!)"
On the list: "As we speak I'm looking into bringing my parents' 1987 Mini over from France to Canada as a project to tinker on. It's LHD so perfect for here, and they don't want any money for it, which is even better!"
Cost: £6,250
Balance: £93,750
Why I chose it: "I'm a sucker for the sound of a great engine and regularly stumble across articles that refer to the famed 3.2 V6 in these, so I have to have one on my list, especially as I'm still an Alfa virgin. Of course I'd prefer the SportWagon, but in this colour I think the saloon looks great too. As my car history shows, I'm not one for new cars, but I'm fast approaching 40 and a car that I can use as a sensible daily that will still bring a smile to my face is not to be sniffed at. The days of leaky roofed Healeys and oversteering BMWs as my daily drivers were fun, but turning up to work feeling relaxed instead of frazzled is now more of a priority! Too hell with the fuel consumption and the other Alfa foibles.... let's just listen to that V6 sing!"
Citroen DS
Cost: £23,450
Balance: £70,300
Why I chose it: "Just look at it! This would be for taking the family out for a pub lunch at the weekend, or taking my wife out for dinner in. It's stylish beyond belief, but much more subtle than some classics of the same money. The colour is great too. It seems that these come in manual or semi-automatic. This is a manual (it has to be for a true petrolhead surely?) but I'm not sure it will be a particularly dynamic drive! I was also looking at Rover P5Bs, but there's only one on PH and it's £60K! To me the Citroen DS says 'thinking man's car', perhaps in a similar way that the old Saab 900s did. In fairness I'm not much of a thinking man, but I feel I could put an Albert Camus novel on the passenger seat, crack a pack of Gauloise cigarettes and get into character pretty easily!"
Cost: £32,995
Balance: £37,305
Why I chose it: "In a moment of madness I once bid on one of these while on my lunch break at the school I worked at. It was in the Netherlands, so clearly I hadn't been to look at it and I couldn't reach the seller to speak to them. On the plus side it looked great in the pictures! As bidding drew to a close I started to get anxious about what would happen if I won. How would I pick it up? How much would it cost to register it in the UK? What if it was a rusty as ... well, as an old VW? How could I justify it when I was already running a 30-year-old Porsche as my daily? And where on earth was I going to get £12K from? And then the auction ended, and I won. Oh dear. Mercifully (at the time anyway) the seller never did materialise and I never had to tackle any of those issues. But now I have a £100K to spend on cars I'd love one. Yes I know they're slow and as safe as driving a tin of beans, but it's the whole scene and lifestyle that comes with it that is so appealing. So when I'm not driving the Alfa to work, or the family to the pub in the Citroen, we'd use this for weekends in Devon and trips to autojumbles and the like (clearly if I have £100,000 to spend on cars I must be wealthy enough to not work and live a life of leisure!)."
Land Rover Series II
Cost:£18,995
Balance: £18,310
Why I chose it: "Because with a representative from Italy, France and Germany I needed something British in the mix too. I've recently bought my first Land Rover, albeit a more modern one for dealing with Canadian winters, but if I could I'd love to have a Series Land Rover to pootle around in. This would be for those days when it's my turn to do the shopping, or visit the DIY stores so I can just through stuff in the back. I'd love to take it off-road a bit too. Nothing too taxing, perhaps along some farm tracks, or along a deserted beach somewhere in Wales. I love the simplicity of them, and the design is great too. Plus, like three of the other four cars on my list, it's only going to go up in value, so that's a bonus!"
Cost: £14,995
Balance: £3,315
Why I chose it: "Because it looks like fun! The Austin Healey Sprite I had in my 20s was essentially the same as an MG Midget, and for two or three years I had a lot of fun in it, even with it's lowly 40-odd hp. More than trebling the power to 130hp sounds like a right old laugh, and this would be perfect for blasting around the lanes of the country retreat I plan to live in where I'll keep my new collection of cars. By adding the MG I now have a car for every occasion! The commute to work, family holidays, Sunday drives, a sort-of winter workhorse option, and B-road blaster for those solitary drives. Job done.
"As for the remaining £3,000-odd, well, that'll be for using the cars to go and sample the country's finest fayre and local ales of course! I would have to move back to England for that though!"
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Best garage ever? Thanks for the compliment - I did consider my choices carefully!
The 'reliability' or lack of for this fleet is not lost on me, but surely there'd be at least one working at any given time!!
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