With our trip to the Isle of Man approaching, I had to decide what to drive round the track — and I kept thinking: "this might be my only shot at it… make it count." Nothing already in the stable was quite right for the job.

Then, at a JDC event in Cosford, I stumbled across a convertible F-Type in black with 'burnt orange' accents, and found myself picturing owning one. My friend Andy caught the look on my face: "I can see you in this, Dave — you'll have one of these soon." A couple of weeks trawling YouTube and AutoTrader later, I'd found a low-mileage, one-owner AWD 380PS Coupé in Firenze Red.