1997: Hyundai Accent, 32nd

“I suppose we could call this my lastever works drive. David Whitehead called me out of the blue and asked if I would be prepared to drive a showroom class car to help try to get the Koreans interested in rallying. The thinking was that we could generate a bit of publicity. I thought the car was going to have a bit of work done, I thought it might be something like a proper rally car. It wasn’t. It was a standard car that couldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding!

“Rob [Arthur, co-driver] and I were a bit surprised when we tested the thing before the start, but we said we’d give it a go. With the typical RAC conditions being pretty wet and muddy, we were actually able to set some half-decent times. I think we beat Robbie [Head] on one stage. He was in his Renault Megane, but he just couldn’t get the power down – I didn’t have any of those problems: I didn’t have any power and we only had these really narrow tyres on.

“We made it to the finish second in class, but ultimately the thing was a success because it did help get Hyundai interested and, of course, Alister drove for the team for a few years after that.

“Following that, I’ve been down for historic cars mainly – and I’m certainly looking forward to being back in the Magnum this weekend.

“If this had been my top 11 moments – and there could have been a good few more – then 2003 would have been in there. John Lloyd loaned me his Group A Subaru Impreza 555 for the event. Pauline Gullick co-drove for me and we had a great run, finishing 17th overall and second privateer. I really enjoyed that, it was fantastic to get out there and drive a car which had played such a big part in our lives again.

“Great car, fantastic noise and incredible memories. All of them.”