Hi °C | Lo °C WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR? A Mini 1000, which was British racing green in colour. I bought it when I was 16, but the car never made it on to the road because I never got it through the MOT. It was a March 1978 model, funnily enough the month of my birth. When I went to university, my parents got fed up with it and towed it from their house in Poole, Dorset.
WHAT ARE YOU DRIVING NOW?
A BMW 330d, four-door, silver. It is excellent. With 184bhp, it can give the boy racers a run for their money. But at this time of year I only use the car to drive to and from work, because we are so busy with Christmas sales. I am working 13-hour days, which means I am first into the car park and last out. It gets busy in mid-October after the school half-term and it goes mad at the beginning of December.
WHEN DID YOU PASS YOUR TEST?
I passed my test two months after I turned 17. I had learned to drive when I was 16 by driving friends' cars round car parks. By that age I was strongly into music and we used to drive to the beach and listen to the latest albums. Six years ago, I came to Northern Ireland to work for HMV when the company gave me the opportunity to work here as a trainee manager. I was happy because my partner comes from here. Now I am delighted be in charge of the biggest record store in Ireland.
CAN YOU CHANGE A CAR WHEEL?
Yes, and I had to change it about two weeks ago on the Newry to Armagh road. We had just had a meal in the Canal Court and were driving back when I got a flat in the rain and pitch dark.
WHAT IS YOUR DREAM CAR?
If someone could give me any car, I would go for the Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder soft-top. On a more emotive level, the ultimate piece of motoring history to have in your garage would be the Mini Cooper that the Northern Irish driver Paddy Hopkirk used to win the Monte Carlo rally. Since I was a child in England I have admired the way that he did something that everyone told him was not possible.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE CAR STORY?
One of the funniest was when I used to drive round the car parks in Dorset and a friend of mine mixed up the accelerator and the brake on a car belonging to another friend's parents. He drove it into a tree. We dragged the car to the nearest road and told his parents that someone had driven round the corner, hit the car and driven off. His parents were quite happy with that, but as the car was towed home the RAC man told us we were a pack of liars. His parents never found out until about three years later, on his wedding day, when his best man announced it in front of 200 people. His mum did not see the funny side.
