February
What do you do when a customer asks you to come and crew his 44ft yacht for a fortnight in the Caribbean? Answer, cancel everything and go – which I did via a couple of nights with an old friend who now lives in Barbados, and then on to St Lucia. The yacht is a 44ft Feeling and so three men in a boat prepare to sail south to the British Virgin Islands. Unfortunately, as I board for the first time, a guardrail stanchion breaks (!) and I plunge back onto the quayside. In the process, I sustain a nasty gash to my arm and my lovely new digital camera finds the gap between the deck and the quay! I was therefore ‘hors de combat’ for three days as we sail south through some of the most beautiful waters in the world. We watch some of the filming of The Pirates of the Caribbean and have a fabulous afternoon’s snorkelling in the British Virgin Islands before turning north again. A large storm brews up near South America and heads north and, sure enough two days later, the storm catches up with us and as we round the rocky headland of St Vincent. A really severe gust rips the main sheet in two, a very dramatic experience. Overall though, the whole trip is a great success. I find my small forward cabin a bit restrictive, so I spend the second week sleeping on deck under an awning. This is a wonderful experience, going to sleep with the barmy air of the Caribbean around me, and the sea lapping against the side. Two weeks passes very quickly and I return to England all too soon.

April
This is the first year that I personally exhibit one of my SS100s at Essen, the largest classic car show in Germany. There is a contingent of small British car manufacturers taking a large collective stand in Hall 2 and I am pleased to join them. There are 110,000 visitors over four days - a lot of people, and my German linguistic skill is thirty words total. The response is excellent though and I get one order confirmed at the show and another comes in just after Easter.

June
Prescott Hill Climb Jaguar Drivers Club. Once again I am invited by the E type register to join the fun and games. I drive Ken Allen’s car, which we have recently serviced and he joins us at the event with twelve other Suffolk SS100 owners. This is a delightful opportunity to say hello to customers who have built their own cars, some of whom will already have met me here in previous years when they were potential customers.

October
Jason Len invites me to join his XK’s Unlimited open weekend at San Lois Obispo, CA and to drive his recently completed Suffolk SS100 in a local rally. On the Saturday night he throws a party at the Cliffs Hotel and on Sunday afternoon the JCNA have their meeting and Concours competition on his property at Corbett Canyon. His SS100 is beautifully built and features the Borg Warner T5, five speed gearbox. I am very impressed by the crispness of the gear change and the ratios suit the car perfectly. After the weekend, I drive my little rental car to Hemet, east of the vast conurbation of Los Angeles. Nestling in orange groves, Mike Rion is building another Suffolk SS100. Mike is also keen on TV. I know that everything is big in America, but I think a 5ft TV screen is the biggest I have ever seen. Mike has restored many cars in the past and is looking forward to completing his SS100. After I leave Mike I head back to the UK.

November
In July, I had delivered an almost new Suffolk SS100 to a customer living in the South of France. At that time, he had said if I ever wanted to borrow it I was just to call him. A potential customer living in Italy has invited me to share his trade stand at a car show in Padova. This is my opportunity to explore the Italian market. I manage to collect the car from France without difficulty but enormous traffic jams around Nice delay my journey considerably. The Italian roads, however, are principally autostradas and I manage to make up the time driving very fast via Brescia, Verona and Vicenza. Fortunately, I arrive in Padova just in time to get the car set up on the stand for the weekend show. The show gives me an excellent opportunity to make contact with a new audience and overall interest in the car is good. I also get a visit from two of my other European customers. However, for the majority of Italians, the concept of self-building an SS100 seems to be alien, or maybe it is simply that their minds are full only of Alfa Romeos and Fiats. One visitor tells me he was overtaken on the autostrada by an SS100 the day before doing at least ‘160kph’ – I wonder whom that could have been? The car performs perfectly on the drive back to Cannes and I return it to its owner on Monday and then catch the night flight back to the UK. Hectic but fun.