IV. I'm sitting now...

...around the block in our Deux Chevaux, Dos Caballos, or the rather prosaic 2cv, depending on your language preference! Her name is Françoise so I go always with the French appellation, and although she has an Edinburgh registration number, her number plates are done in the old French style of tall silver figures on a black background. She is seeing the light of day for the first time in ten years having been safeguarded in a parking and uninsured while we've been away so much, but I have just found a way to insure her again keeping her British plates and today she is off to the garage for a service and preparation for her local MOT revision.

I can't tell you the pleasure it was when she started first time (the engine has been turned over weekly by a neighbour) and settled into that unmistakeable throbbing/warbling tick over...think half a Porsche and you've got it! And, indeed, the two horizontally opposed cylinders which fire at the same time in the air cooled engine are exactly half the number of, and work on the same principle as, the original air cooled flat-four 'boxer' Porsche engine; the term 'boxer' being used because the cylinders fired against each other like boxers touching gloves before a fight...the Alfa Romeo Alfasud had a similar set up and I used to drive my Mum's a lot!

But that pleasure was nothing to hearing the whine of the gearbox in first gear as she took off in her own manner from the lights and the looks, rubber necks, waves, thumbs up, beaming smiles and toots as I drove around the block to the garage with the sun roof back, side windows hinged up and my right elbow out. Who needs to go on reality TV to have their fifteen minutes of fame!

PS
The garage have just phoned to say they've received four offers to buy her and everyone is going into their workshop to see her!