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When I worralad, I used to cycle home from school past the Hunt Hotel in Leighton Buzzard. It was one of the town's larger hostelries and its owner was therefore pretty well-heeled. His car, when they were first launched, was an Audi 100 "streamliner". At the time, it was the world's most aerodynamic production car and advertised its 0.32 coefficient of drag (Cd) with an etching on the rear quarter glass. It was quite something to behold and Hotel Man was the first person in town to own one. The first time I saw it, I circled it a couple of times on my bicycle to take in its startlingly smooth shape and oh-so-slippery flush glazing. Modern car design, the design of today, started right here in 1982.

In 1984 I left school and started my career. My "motivational milestones" were all about amounts of money and getting particular cars (on the company...). My first company car was a Ford Escort but I quickly argued my way out of that and into a 1980 Audi 80 in 1985. My boss ("Mr D" in my Mercedes-Benz Auto Journals) loaned my Audi 80 to another employee one weekend and the hapless chap got driven into. Of course, a dented Audi 80 wasn't very motivational anymore so I pestered for a replacement. I got - drumroll - a 2 year old Audi 100 streamliner in 1986. Less than four years had passed since my first sighting of Hotel Man's wheels. I'd gotten me an Audi 100. Woohoo!

But being a restless pain in the butt - I'm so glad I never employed me back then - my eyes were already on the next rung of the Audi ladder. The top rung. The ur quattro-engined Audi 200 Turbo. I found one at a garage between Milton Keynes and Northampton and began "case-building" in earnest. Just over a year after acquiring the 100, I'd chopped it in for a 200 Turbo. Most of my school peers were still at University and I was now smoking about in an Audi 200 Turbo (on the company) and had my trusty three litre Granada for weekends and play. I had arrived.

I loved my 200 Turbo. In its day it was a very fast car. Audi was a long way from today's shoulder-to-shoulderness with BMW and Mercedes. The 200 Turbo was a wannabe S-Class with ferocious depreciation and was, consequently, a very rare car. Nobody in their right mind would buy one new so I can only assume mine was formerly owned by "one careful Croesius". Its pace, gadgets and rarity pleased me. Its low cost to buy (about £8000 I think) pleased the beancounters who, seeing only "Audi" and "£8000" had absolutely no idea what I was buying... Something to get right up the noses of my [by now] fellow board members. 

In 1989 when I left employment to start my own company, I bought the 200 Turbo and took it with me. During my ownership, my friend Martyn had developed a soft spot for the 200 and wanted "first refusal" when I came to sell it. For some time, I thought selling it unlikely. Mr D sold me his Mercedes-Benz 500SEL a couple of years after I left his employ but that joined my "fleet" alongside my Granada and the 200 Turbo. I ran all three for a while but that restless thing I have about there being something better out there had befallen the 500SEL. I wanted the mothership, "The Addams Family dragster"... the 560SEL. 

After a year of searching I found what I was looking for, a midnight/magnolia 560SEL without ASR traction control, and bought it in 1993. I now had four cars and three spaces to park them in. Martyn got the call... Either the 200 Turbo or the 500SEL was going to have to go and I tempted Martyn with both. He had eyes for only the 200 Turbo. I think the last time I saw the 200 (and Martyn) was at my birthday party in 1996...

So... imagine my surprise when in November 2008 there was a knock at my door. There's Martyn stood there: "I've brought an old friend I thought you might like to see" he said. And lo, parked behind him in the road was the 200 Turbo! Its galvanised body is of course rot-free, Martyn has cherished the car for no less than FIFTEEN years and stood looking at its sleek shape and unique-to-200 front/rear lights and that oh-so-comfortable midnight blue velour interior it's hard to believe the car is 24 years old. 

It was so tempting to say: "Martyn... if you ever come to sell it, can I have first refusal?" Martyn's promised to come back, in daylight, sooner rather than later, for me to have a drive. It will be interesting to see how it feels after all these years!

As a footnote: I've got a 1:18 model of an Audi 200 ...the driver's name on the window is "Rohrl". 200s were raced and rallied by the likes of Carlos Sainz and Hans-Joachim Stuck. Nuff said!