Previously, this picture was never to be seen, being such a sorry sight. I finally got over the tragedy and allowed it to be shown here, but only many months after launching this website. Back in the autumn of 1999 I went to visit my friend a few miles up the road from my home in Salford, but there was no space remaining on which to park on the shared drive outside, so I had to leave the car in the side street. Upon leaving her house at about 1am, I found my car completely trashed in the dark around the corner. As with pretty much anywhere else in Salford - close neighbour to car crime capital of the UK, Manchester - there is nowhere safe to leave your car at any time of day, and particularly not at this spot. Initially we were puzzled as to what had happened to it, because the whole of just one side was totally smashed up. The window and wing mirror were broken, the driver's side was covered in petrol which was leaking all over the road, and there were dents all over, including on the main frame and guttering above the driver's door.

The man from the recovery service recognised the symptoms quickly, claiming that it was another case of kids tipping the whole car on its side. Apparently, they were known for doing it with Citroën 2CVs as well. If you knew the kind of scum living around these parts then nothing would surprise you. It also appeared, however, that they'd struggled to either get the car going or to get the battery out. The terminals had been disconnected, and it was clear that somebody had crawled through the broken window and been inside the car, as a couple of my things were missing. They had most probably wanted to get it started and go joyriding, but been unable to get the engine going (not surprising as the R4's basic design acts like a handy automatic immobiliser to most people who struggle to understand its gears, bonnet release, choke and steering wheel lock). Ultimately, they may have tipped the car over in order to try and force the bonnet open. The only surprise was that they'd bothered to tip it back upright again.

Remarkably, despite all the leaked petrol, dents, broken glass inside and general trauma the car had suffered, it started up and I was able to at least drive it around to where it should have been parked originally outside my friend's house, where it can be seen in the picture above. I took this photo the following day, and was able to drive it a couple of miles home later on. I scrubbed all the petrol stains off, purchased a new window and wing mirror, and had a new rear shock absorber fitted. The car was in an awful state but it's a great credit to the R4 that I still drove it for a further six months following. How many other cars could survive all that damage and still tick along perfectly?

I was fighting a losing battle with it, however, and at the next MOT I was told the rear chassis had rotted so badly that it would cost several hundred pounds to fix, and even then - by fixing a bar of some sort for the axle to hold onto - it would only be a temporary solution. Short of major investment and a massive restoration there was no hope for Angelica. There were also many areas of bodywork getting in a very bad state. Despite her good looks in previous photos when I first got hold of her, the man I exchanged her with for my new Renault 4 looked over Angel and was astonished that I'd been driving her at all. The rot was shocking; the worst he'd seen. I knew that it was virtually undriveable anyway, because when going over a bump and making a crunching, heavy knocking sound, I thought it was about to fall to bits at any moment. You can even hear such a noise on the 'old git' sound effect elsewhere on this site, which was recorded shortly before the car was put to rest.

The guy who exchanged Angel for my new car in 2000 also discovered some awful repairs that had been done previously. Supposed 'quality welding' which had been performed at great expense during one of my earlier MOTs was, in his opinion, dreadful. Also, some parts of the car had been filled with polystyrene underneath and then painted over, which I'd never known. Sadly, the last pictures I took of Angelica, which were really wonderful, including the one of her next to my new R4 when I exchanged the two, were on my cursed, blasted camera film which failed to automatically wind on, and hence never developed, so this is the last tragic image of her. The guy who took her on did consider restoring her, along with the many other bits of cars he had sitting around his yard, but was forced to abandon almost all of them later on and Angel went to scrap, along with a red R4F6 van which he also owned. So now you know the full story, save for one thing: when I drove the virtual deathtrap on its last journey I still went at 70mph on the motorway; a sort of last supper for the car. Angel had a determined spirit to the end!