Kieran Turner's photos with the keyword: rover 800

Yowch. And this is after I'd "reset" the bonnet with a sledgehammer. Caused by the bonnet being forced open by a freak gust of wind while high, high up on a bridge over the River Clyde. It's also possible that the safety catch (the second-level of bonnet securing) had failed, though it was hard to tell after the poor thing had been yanked open. It took me quite a few slow-motion microseconds to appreciate that I had just hit... my own car. Initially, the HUGE thump (I was doing 70 mph or so) made me think I'd hit maybe a deer (not an unlikely event out there) or even that another car had flipped across from the other carriageway.

"Boat", being the marvellously floaty, surprisingly fast Rover 825SD. At Telehouse, (one of the) hubs of the UK internet. A car that very much fits in around '80s London buildings!

The little green car appeared to have crashed into the (my) Landie but the owner left no contact details — just left the car! Shortly after that, the Landie was stolen from this very spot, a private road just off Rosebery Street in Aberdeen. If you ever see the Landie, registration N577NFH, and with distinctive white steel wheels and " www.aidconvoy.net " on the side, please let me know. Me, or your local police.

Taken by Toby – with whom it was wonderful to catch up – just before he's off again. I'd just taken the pic of him with the first vehicle he'd ever driven on a motorway, so he decided we should complete the set of "boys and their vehicles" pictures! Not one of my usual older-than-me cars, but it's been an interesting experiment. This is my second "disposable car". It cost me £200, has cost little more since (although I invested in a brake caliper and a new set of nice wheels and tyres, which keep it straight, literally - it used to have three different sizes!) — and for that, it's been with me, almost trouble-free, since February 2006! And the disposable part? Well, when it finally gives up and becomes uneconomic to repair, it's no great financial hit. But actually I'm really into keeping old cars alive, since (a) they're nostalgic — not that this one is old enough to be so. But also (b) because it saves the energy which goes into producing new ones or even recycling the old components. There's also the fact that at such low purchase prices, it's ultra-cheap motoring, if you choose well and are a little bit lucky. This (diesel) car is so economical I can get from Edinburgh to London at high speed for £40, even with passengers and luggage. And that's after it's done 180,000 miles. It's basically the same engine as my Landie (which I don't drive on the road in the UK) but in an aerodynamic, lighter body. It's even got Recaros! ;)

Poor old "Boat" had been a really excellent car. The Rover 825SD has a turbo-diesel engine as used in the Range Rover Turbo D, but here in a lighter, more aerodynamic two-wheel drive body — so this car really flew yet was economical with it. I have to admit, it did take a while to get used to the super-damped power steering, but I did, and enjoyed it while being held in place in excellent leather Recaros. Then a wheel fell off. Yeah, of course. We never did work out why — none of the components showed any obvious signs of failure, and it was just that the drive-shaft had popped out, at both ends!

Sadly I no longer have the leather Recaros nor the corpse of Matt the badger, stuffed and mounted.