Life On Cars is two years old

PERHAPS it was watching the caravan get torn to shreds. Or the moment I managed to max Toyota's IQ on the high speed bowl at Millbrook. Was it watching my MGB GT fire up for the first time? Or discovering that a Peugeot cabriolet is faster between Settle and Carlisle than the Settle to Carlisle Railway is?

It's hard to choose what my favourite moment from viewing the motoring world through the lens that is Life On Cars, which is two years old today, actually is. But what I can say is that it's been an absolute blast, and I'm amazed that a blog that crossed over into print in The Champion almost by accident is still going strong.

Last year I celebrated the first anniversary by launching the inagural issue of the Life On Cars Magazine, and while the new one's still a couple of weeks away, I can reveal that it's a special edition given over entirely to the Ormskirk Motorfest, which revs up on August 28. There's also the small matter of the Woodvale Rally next weekend (August 6 and 7) which as usual will be getting the full Life On Cars treatment, so there's plenty happening to keep petrolheads for miles around entertained.

What I've prepared this year is a sort of Life On Cars in pictures; what you see above are just 50 out of the hundreds of images I've accumulated on my motoring adventures, which show you a snapshot of some of my favourite stories from the past two years.

It really is hard to say which of the many motoring moments in the past two years has been my favourite, but I feel incredibly lucky not only to have experienced them, but also to be able to write about them and share them with people who share my passion for the world of motoring.

I will, for instance, never forget winding along a twisty Welsh road in an MX-5 and discovering the revelation that was its steering and handling (I still want one to this day), or being blasted down the West Lancashire backroads in a brace of E-Types (ditto). Then there's discovering those glorious ribbons of tarmac that remind you why driving is brilliant; Buttertubs Pass, Cat and Fiddle, Great Orme. Nor is it every day you get to dirt race an old Jag. The list goes on.

What started as just as a blog is also bigger that I imagined it ever would be; along with weekly updates in The Champion, a series of six newspapers read by 140,000 people, there's also been the magazines, the radio shows and the regular influx of road tests.

I am a journalist first and a car nut second, but by far and away this is the bit I love writing about most of all, and I'd like to thank everyone who's taken even the mildest interest in Life On Cars for your support. Hopefully you've enjoyed it... and there's plenty more to come.

Here's to another year...