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One successful motor trader has opened up his car collection for the benefit of his home town.JOHN EVANS meets him

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So, you want to start a car museum. You will need some cars and a place to put them. You will also need deep pockets. Above all, you will need a vision and a cast-iron determination to achieve your goal. In short, you will need to be like Pat Hawkins. The 62-year-old has a light in his eyes that not even a brush with death could extinguish.

It was six years ago. He had been rushed to hospital, suffering a rare heart condition.

At the last moment, a specialist from Chicago agreed to operate. A few weeks later, as his strength returned, Hawkins vowed to give back to his home town of Taunton. He had just the idea...

Since he was a boy, Hawkins had dreamed of owning his own garage, and by the age of 11 he had bought and sold his first car. At 15, Hawkins was apprenticed to a British Leyland dealer as a mechanic, and in the evenings he carried on trading. Three years later, Hawkins began dealing full time. By 21, he had bought the first of many garages.