'My friend thought it'd change my life'

My wife once asked me: if you could have any car you want, what would it be? I said I didn't know but it would probably be green and slightly impractical and that's what I ended up with!" Steve Rooke still can't believe he's the owner of a green Maserati 3200 GT.

- JOHN EVANS

After all, it's not like he set out to have one. “I go cycling with a friend who owns a 4200 GT,” he says. “One Sunday, as we set off for another ride, he said to me: ‘I’m going to show you something that might change your life.’ We stopped outside a car dealer, Hardy’s of Hampton Court, and there was this green Maserati. I liked the look of it so back home I checked it would fit the garage and that I could insure it. And on the Monday morning, I bought it. I didn’t even drive it! At the time, my other car was a Vauxhall Zafira so I thought whatever it was like, it would be better than that.”