My major inspiration for finally building myself a fifties (style) sports racing car was watching TV celebrity chef James Martin in 'The Real Italian Job'.
For those who haven't seen it, he buys an old Maserati racer and pays the pros to restore it for him - I believe the engine rebuild alone cost £200k.
He then pays a racing driver to drive it for him and enters the classic Mille Miglia with the intention of selling the car on for a substantial profit once it finishes the race.
Half way round the first stage his rebuilt engine drops a valve, and, after an investment of just shy of a million quid, he has to withdraw from the race. By way of a 'thank you' to his driver he buys her an extremely expensive book about the racing Maseratis, where he discovers that in every race his model ever entered they failed to finish due to dropped valves...
So I thought to myself, 'I bet I could have more fun than James on a fraction of his budget'. And even though I have'nt finished my car yet, I already have.
