This mostly happened and mostly as described.....
I'd had a successful year at work and been given a bonus. This was the first time I'd had such a reward and it seemed like a wonderful surprise (later the yearly bonus became part of the work culture and you almost expected it as part of your compensation) so I was pleased and proud.
It was such a special thing that I didn't think it was right to treat it as normal and put it away as savings. A bonus should be just that, something that allows you to do something out of the ordinary.
I'd been fancying the idea of getting a classic car as a weekend hobby and fun machine but couldn't decide what to get. I liked the idea of a traditional British sports car like an Austin Healey 3000 or Triumph TR5 or 6 but I knew good ones might be out of my price bracket and fixxer-uppers would sit on the drive for years while I tried to do the work.
Still, it was a good dream. The bonus wasn't enough to get the car itself so to help me decide I decided to spend the cash on membership of a Classic Car Club which had recently opened in the city. The deal was that for your membership fee and annual payment, you got a number of points which you could cash in for a day or a weekend of one of the stable of cars they had.
The cars were loosely classified as "Tools" or "Toys", the tools being the serious motors like the Porsche 928 or the Ferrari 308 and the toys being the playthings, like the Alfa Romeo GT Junior or the "Frogeye" Sprite. Of course, there was always some discussion as to which category a particular car fell in. Was an AC Cobra Replica a tool or a toy? Was a Porsche 944 a serious motor or a plaything? It didn't really matter, as long as you appreciated the car for what it was, didn't expect it to behave like a modern car and used it for some kind of appropriate purpose. I took a "Morse" Jaguar Mk 2 to take my daughter and her schoolfriends to a prestigious function in the City for example - a touch of luxury and class.
Christine egged me on in deciding to join the club, as a bit of fun, as a departure from normal boring life and a chance to experience some of the things I'd only talked about before.
The first car I cashed some points in for was a LHD 1967 Ford Mustang 350 coupe. Not the Shelby variant, just a regular 4.7 litre V8 (289 Cu In) engine with 4 speed manual gears. It's worth saying that none of the Club's cars were concours; they were all working examples and had been driven quite hard. This Mustang was no exception. Compared to any modern car (even in 1995), it was basic in instrumentation, creature comforts and technology. Air conditioning? Open the window! Stereo system? Just listen to the engine, you'll hear nothing over that! ABS? Don't be silly, just be thankful you've got any brakes at all.