Meet Drive it Day’s least enthusiastic participant

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Today is Drive it Day – a day with runs and rallies for classic car owners throughout the UK, all with the idea to keep those classics on the road. Remarkably, the Drive It Day’s organizers - the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs (FHBVC) - have put the spotlight on Albert Clarkson – who has to be their least enthusiastic participant ever. Clarkson, of Canvey Island, is the epitome of drive it not. He owns a Ford Capri that has covered just 582 miles since he drove (…) it out of the showroom in 1986. The majority of those miles were clocked up while driving it on and off the trailer to attend classic car shows. He told: “When I first got the car, the first new car I’ve ever bought, I thought it would have hardly any miles on it, but it had 60 miles on the clock from all the driving from the Ford car park, and onto and off the boat. I was a bit disappointed by that!” He continued: “It’s never been in the rain and it still smells inside of leather as if it were new. It’s like a nice piece of antique furniture – you can have it restored, but it’s not as good as an untouched original.”

So does he drive at all? He does. Mister Clarkson also owns a 1969 Ford Cortina 1600E, which he bought in 1970 when it was just seven months old. That car now shows some 117,000 miles on its odometer - the majority clocked up in the first 10 years. Oh – he uses that not as frequent anymore. He now has a Mk2 Escort for daily drives. We wonder how long he will manage to use that!

(Words Jeroen Booij, pictures courtesy FHBVC / Anthony Kirby) 

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