Meet The Owner – Jamie Gray, Continual Car Collector

At the age of 34, Jamie Gray has already owned 62 cars. 31 years earlier, a doubtless well-meaning family member gave him a Hot Wheels toy, which started Jamie on his motoring journey. Many of us have similar experiences with Dinky, Corgi, Burago, and Polistil models.

Jamie’s first car was a Fiat Seicento, and he went on to own eight Ford Focus Mk. Is, a Ford Explorer, a Mazda Demio, a Hyundai Atoz and a Mazda MX5 Mk. I – amongst many others. There was also a Mk.4 Fiesta 5-door with a 1.7 ‘racing’ Puma engine placed into the bay - “what a lethal little car! I always had so much fun with it, and the brakes were always glowing”. Another memorable vehicle was a 1992 CB9-series Honda Accord, for in Jamie’s words, it was most impressive:

I bought the Honda from Kernow in Cornwall and drove it back to Southampton the next day. It was the opening of Diddly Squat farm, so I thought, why not take the Accord? I drove there and back, and the week afterwards I thought I would treat the Honda to a service...

It was then that Jamie discovered that, despite the Accord running so well, the air box was filled with nuts.

This experience did not deter Jamie from Japanese saloons, as he went on to buy a very rare V10-series Toyota Camry:

I just scored lucky!  10 minutes after reading the advertisement on a Saturday night, I convinced the owner that I would make the 3-hour 30-minute journey to look the Camry over on a Monday after my eight-hour night shift to make sure that all was okay. I got there, and 10 minutes later I had the keys and the logbook, and a 3-hour 30-minute drive home with a smile on my face! I had to go and get the Toyota on the following Wednesday with my dad and a rented low-loader.

Sadly, he recently parted with it, as:

The Camry was my favourite ever car to own, but it was always a worry if someone hit her or the windscreen smashed, etc. I also had the itch to modify something, and with the head gasket going, that was the tipping point for me to move her on. Another problem was that I had nowhere to properly store her. So, I sold her to a Toyota enthusiast who is going to restore her and give her the nudge she needs to shine bright again.

Naturally, Jamie sought another interesting Japanese saloon, and he found one of the very few surviving Mazda 626 Celebrations.

One night, I was on the sofa watching YouTube and looking, as you do, for old tat and there she was - listed 18 minutes ago from a guy in Lancing. A few words later, I was down there the next day to go and pick up my new purchase with a friend to bring her home, but while on the way home, the clutch slipped in 5th gear.

Happily. and is now back on the road, ready to enjoy some shows.So that 1998, Mazda 626 is not lonely, Jamie also has a “2.7 Mercedes engine Grand Cherokee”.

Plus, “I now have my dream forever car – a 1999 200SX S14a, but my next dream will definitely be a GX70 Mk.2 wagon”.

As with so many enthusiasts, his car journey has had its fair share of tribulations (although this is the first time this writer has heard of a Honda Accord engine stuffed with nuts), but Jamie would not change one moment.

As Jamie puts it:

It was a lethal choice to play with cars rather than Action Man or football, and it certainly would have helped the bank balance! But I would not have changed it for the world - the experiences with every car that I have owned, you could not get anywhere else.

Absolutely!