This car’s first owner had a Mk 2 GTE before this example. As was often the way back then (and now), it was stolen by some feral toe-rags. So intent were the thieves on half-inching his pride and joy that they broke into his house to steal the car keys. In order to do so without being pierced by canine canines, they placated the owner’s gullible hound with some ice-cream. History does not record the flavour.

The bereft owner got in touch with his insurance company, with whom he had taken out a ‘like-for-like replacement’ insurance policy. As is often the way with the noble and respected profession of insurance, they tried to wriggle out of it. They offered him the Mk 3 or GSi model. The owner said no. He wanted a replacement Mk 2 GTE. Which was problematic, as Vauxhall had stopped making them.

Undeterred, the owner kept his righteous foot on the insurance company’s morally reprehensible neck until they succeeded in tracking down the sole example of a new Mk 2 GTE still on a dealershi...