Hobbies and interests come and go, fashion dictates what we do with our leisure time. Professional sports, computers and inexpensive foreign holidays all compete for our valuable free time. Kit car building is now at its peak with two excellent magazines covering the subject. Television also plays a part in promoting this healthy and useful hobby.

However, the end is in sight, only whilst Company's like Robin Hood Sports Cars keep this fascinating past time within the reach of the man in the street and campaign to keep away beaurocrats with big rolls of red tape from our tiny industry can kit car building keep on flourishing.

Remember the diffs from a Ford Sierra will run out, just like North Sea Oil. Now is the time to do what you have always dreamt of and build your own sports car!

Almost magically women have babies. From the start when choosing a partner, that instigate the exact type of child a woman produces. She then goes on to teach and steer almost single-handed her most prized possession into the exact person that she wishes.

Most women are very successful at this task and find it an extremely rewarding and fulfilling occupation. Truthfully most men play only a small part in this exercise, so as consolation and to keep them out of general mischief and at home, they have their toys to play with. The nearest thing that can closely compare with the joy and tears, the satisfaction, and the comradeship that a woman enjoys with her child, is to build a kit car. Yes his very own car, exactly as he wants. Just as the woman knows that "little Johnny/Jenny" will not become the Prime Minister, it does not stop her passing on every bit of knowledge she has.

In the same way the amateur kit car builder puts in the same effort in to his car as the high tech, highly gifted Le Mans mechanic working on a £1 million super car. Take warning if your husband wants to build a kit car, it can change your (meaning both of you) life's. It's a real interest. It is surprising when you ask people what their hobby is, the number of people who admit that they haven't really got one (you can not count watching the television or surfing on the internet). Many people read magazines, generally these are for dreamers, the material most magazines contain, unlike hard backed books, is written quickly and generally not very well researched and a bit sensational. It is easy to read but general, especially when it is laced with scantily clad ladies, a bit of a waste of time but OK if you don't mind wasting your time between being born and dying.

Do you want to be forgotten in 500 years time when one of your descendants is researching your family tree? Or do your want to be remembered as "the Bill Smith who built his own car". If it's stainless steel it is not impossible that in 500 years time some distant relative in an oxygen aided, cosmic lit domed workshop under special government license will be rebuilding an old fossil fuel burning, wheeled, Robin Hood car once built by you. Old Robin Hood's never die.

To get back to Little Johnny/Jenny, we have already established that most men contribute very little to the actual bringing up of children. Early man used to father as many as possible and then clear off as other animals do. To some, child rearing is regarded mainly as a woman's task, just imagine how fantastic it would be when he/she gets to an age when they understand and you can take then into your workshop and show off your Robin Hood and say "One day Son, all this will be yours".

When Little Johnny/Jenny is being interviewed for their first job and they ask about hobbies, if they answer with one of the usual replies, the interviewer is not very impressed (we know, we have interviewed them!) but when they bring out "the photos of the car that they have helped to build" and can talk knowledgeably about it, it really does move them one step up the ladder. Remember kit car building is character forming, it opens up the door for many other things, it makes you think, it helps you not take everything for granted, it brings you in contact with people from every walk of life, it teaches you more than you think! Now and again we find ourselves amid a fair section of people generally accustomed with engineering, business and motor activities.

Everyone seems to have some kind of degree or qualification for them to be brought together in such a group. Time and time again the achievement that has caused most interest amongst their fellows is not the doctorate qualification, not the HSE two wheeled fork lift ruck test pass but the person who has successfully built his own car.

At a time when university degrees are ten a penny, photocopy your SVA certificate (you have to hand it in) and hang it on your workshop wall for all the world to see.