The UK Healey Centre  

We made lots of mistakes with the MGB' he says, 'The door shut lines weren't right and we kept getting comments about the paint. We rebuilt it twice before it was how we wanted it.'

By 1990 it had won the MG Owners Club Master Class. Then came the Benson and Hedges National

To this end he built a new garage, split into two sections: the 'clean' area has room for four cars, even with bench, dehumidifier, central heating boiler and radiators. Behind that is the workshop area, where the dirty work is done. The building fills the entire back garden.

The first Healey was a 100/6, bought as a basket case even before the MG had been completed and restored by early 1989. Then came the 3000 MkIII, which Derek rebuilt while also collecting parts for what would be his ultimate Healey, a 100. But before that a 100 was needed for practice - it arrived in early 1994.

Once complete each car was sold, except for the 3000. Derek has kept this Healey and drives ir around 5000 miles a year.

Then came the 100 that would change the concours world's perception of perfection. Derek bought it for £7500 from Stevensons Garage in Leicester, a specialist in importing Healeys. Since then he has spent a further £20,000.

'It was a californian import,' says Derek, 'but it had been cannibalised for parts so there was lots missing. The reason I bought it was that all the panels were original and salvageable. For the standard we were going for, reproduction parts wouldn't have been good enough.'