RICHARD PORTER

How do car collectors manage? Porter's struggling to cope with just four vehicles

- 

ONE OF THE GREAT CLICHÉS OF CAR WRITING is 'all the car you'll ever need', the answer to which is usually a Golf GTI. This is probably right, at least until you need to move a small wardrobe and it becomes a Range Rover, though this argument collapses like malfunctioning air suspension when you're invited to a trackday at Cadwell Park. In truth, there's no one car that can do everything, which is why, as a car person, you might be tempted to own more than one car. The question is, how many cars do you need? Or, to put it another way, how many cars is too many cars?

If you're my friend and Smith and Sniff podcasting partner, Jonny Smith, the answer is yet to be found but has easily crested double digits, may well start with a 2 or even a 3, and includes a 1960s Chevy Impala that he's owned for 20 years and never once driven on account of an ongoing restoration that may redefine science's understanding of infinity. Let's also discount my mate John who, last I asked, was unable to remember how many often-rotten cars he owns, though his best guess ended, worryingly, with 'and a half'. Perhaps our inspiration here should be evo co-founder Harry Metcalfe and his ever-changing platter of delights, which always seems to be a source of relaxed joy. And this puzzles me.