By 1984 the boys seldom wanted to travel with us anyway so we returned to the fold by buying a SE6a, this time an automatic. This remained our only car for a further four years and took us on many trips including to the south of France for a holiday. Changing circumstances then meant replacing it with another ordinary family car. At the same time, however, we bought a 1970 SE5 in a very sorry state and I spent the next couple of years rebuilding it. It was eventually resprayed in its original silver colour and looked superb.

In 1990 I decided to have a go at competing with the car in the RSSOC’s sprint and hillclimb championship. After a few events Jaki decided “if you can’t beat them, join them” and from then we competed together at many venues around the country. Sadly, at one event, I managed to lose a major argument with a tree resulting in the need to be AA relayed home!

Following the crash we decided to continue competing in a more suitable car and so, in 1993, Jaki bought a 3l V6 Coupe (SE4a). This was reasonably standard when we bought it but was progressively modified during our ownership. The engine finally produced over 200bhp and the car sat several inches nearer to the road.

In the meanwhile the SE5 was rebuilt to a standard good enough to be featured in national magazine articles and win prizes at club concours events.

We then had two weekend toys but decided to buy an SE6b as an every day car. So we were back to Scimitars as our only mode of car transport. At about the same time, 1995, our son Damon bought a 1971 SE5 from a friend of ours. This proved to be a good reliable run-around but eventually became a little neglected and moved on to a new home in 2001.

In 1998 I realised a dream and acquired a 1964 Sabre Six restoration project. At this time we owned four Scimitars (including Damon’s) as well as the Sabre 6. They each played a different role for us: the Coupe was our competition car, the SE5, owned for 10 years, was used for shows and showing off (!), Damon’s SE5 was his only car, the SE6b was our practical every day car and the Sabre satisfied the mechanic and restorer in us! However I soon realised that running so many cars meant that we could not spend sufficient time on any one of them. We also had a need to return to four-door motoring. A thinning out process was therefore undertaken resulting in the silver SE5 and the SE6b going to new homes.

In August 2002 we decided we needed a Scimitar to attend the various non competition club (RSSOC) events. The Coupe was unsuited to this and the Sabre was still 4 years into its 2 year restoration! So, when a fellow noggin member decided to sell his second SE6a we bought it and it then performed as an every day car alongside our practical four door eurobox.

In August 2003 we added to our fleet again with a 1963 Sabre Six, this time an almost completed restoration project.

In the spring of 2004 we parted company with the SE6a on the basis that the Sabre Six would be the car that we used for non competition club events.

March 2007, and with some sadness, another cull! We had not competed with the yellow competition Coupe for two years and concluded that our sprinting and hillclimbing days were behind us. Lee, a friend from our local RSSOC noggin, had expressed an interest in the car about a year earlier. We agreed a price and he is now the proud owner. Lee plans to compete with the car and use it for track days. We have had 14 years of enjoyment from this car and hope that Lee enjoys it as much.

Several months prior to this another RSSOC member, Ted, expressed an interest in buying a Sabre Six to compete in historic rallies. Bizarrely within a week of selling the Coupe Ted bought our Sabre Six restoration car DWD.