1985 - have Ford Escort van, will travel

This is me, aged 18, all quiffed up, in flying jacket and boots, and seated in my beloved '77 Ford Escort van, all 1300cc of it, and with dark blue 'Starsky and Hutch' go faster stripe along the flanks. I loved it - it was practical for putting guitars and amps in the back, and could also accomodate a few friends, or ladies (yes, sometimes..) in the boarded-out back. I've always liked the practicality of vans (still have one now, a VW LT), though they attracted the attention of the police, and I'd be regularly pulled over in the mean streets of North London by the fuzz for a search in the back. I was working in Holloway, North London, had a few quid in my pocket, had just met the girl of my dreams, and life was good and carefree. I was about to join a band and make a record a few months down the line too, so realised a few passions and ambitions.

The van was pretty reliable, and I drove it to Holland and back without problems, though some junkie tried to nick the cassette player out of it while it was parked up in Amsterdam (I was more worried about the AC/DC album inside it though). I remember replacing the McPherson front suspension strut in the street on it the day before the MOT with the help of my mate Allen (whose dad was a semi-pro banger racer) having found one in a scrapyard in the day when you could wander freely amongst the cars piled six or seven high, and use your own tools to get what parts you needed. It wouldn't start easily in the damp, though luckily I lived on a hill. I eventually sold the van for 200 quid, which is what I paid for it, and went on to a much more exotic '67 Triumph Vitesse Mk2 convertible, which was also a bit of a rustbucket.

A DVLA vehicle enquiry tells me that the van came to the end of its registered life in the summer of 1988. Probably just rusted away. Good times.