Articles by Monique Butterworth

"It’s fantastic. All my cousins own Alfas and a few people at Ten own them too. I’ve always loved them," says Everett.  "It seems I’ve been driving around for the past 15 years in a Bayswater Rental car. I’ve been away a lot and I live in the inner city so it seemed more appropriate to rent a car when I really needed one. So this is a big splurge." But there is a contradiction in his motoring life.  "I’m not a revhead. I drive like a nanna. In the Corolla rental I was always a nanna but since driving the Alfa I’ve gotten a little raunchier. I guess I’m a ‘raunchy nanna’ now. "The Alfa is definitely a head-turner. It’s amazing how your attitude changes when you’re in something nice. I’m really enjoying the experience – it’s such a smooth drive. It’s just beautiful. I drove a bunch of friends around in it last night and they were ‘ooh-ing and ahh-ing’ about it. They all loved the leather interior and that ‘new car’ smell." And it's more than just a car.  "I do a little ritual every time I get in the car. I wipe it and pray that no-one comes anywhere near me. I put the intention out there for people to keep away. I don’t want anyone coming too close to my new car." Despite his 15-year absence from ownership, Everett was behind the wheel at an early age.  "I’m originally from the country so we were all driving at 8 years old around the farm. I was living with my grandparents in Brisbane when I went for my licence. My uncle took me along to get my licence and I had to do it twice – I was shocking. I think it was just nerves. "My uncle knew the fella taking my driving test and I’m sure he had to buy him a case of beer just to make sure I got my licence I was 18."  And then came the Swede.  "My first car was a second-hand orange Volvo with tan seats. It was big-time. It was the worst car in the world. It just kept breaking down. I spent more money fixing the thing than what I paid for it. "It was a running joke in my family when I would call them at 11 or 12pm or 1 in the morning from wherever I was in Australia and they’d ask 'Where has the car broken down now?' I was constantly breaking down in the worst spots, at traffic lights coming into Sydney or on the Harbour Bridge, which I got fined for. I had the Volvo for far too long. I refused to give up easily. I thought I could fix it. "Sometimes you just need to let go. Just like a relationship, when you stop laughing, it’s time to move on. Well, I wasn’t laughing by the end of that relationship I traded the Volvo in for a Honda Prelude. I thought I was very smart in that car. But that one got stolen not long after I moved to Sydney and I didn’t have a car for many years." But rental cars didn't stop him on the road.  "I love a roadtrip. Before I bought my car, I would ‘upgrade’ the Bayswater rental to a Hertz, and I would drive back from Brisbane to Sydney at Christmas, popping in at all the great coastal towns on the way. "I’ve got a break coming up and I’d really like to drive across the Nullabor but I’m nervous taking an Alfa across the Nullabor. Friends of mine, during school days, drove across the Nullabor and cooked bacon, eggs and chickens in aluminium foil on the engine block. I hope the state of the food will be better than that if I decide to cross the Nullabor. "I don’t mind driving on my own but it would be nice to have a friend along for the ride."  And what else does he want on the road. "I am old school. I don’t own an iPod. My friends will tell you how far behind I am. I am not computer savvy at all. "I still take my CD collection on the road with me. I love a variety of music, everything from Opera to the Kings of Leon – and everything in-between."

Anderson loves eye-balling unsuspecting Melbourne drivers who are talking illegally on their mobile phones when she is in the Rush-mobile Ford Territory.She stars now as Senior Constable Shannon Henry but is best known for her work on Seven’s now-defunct drama series All Saints and for her vocal talents, after she and singing partner David Campbell went on to win 'It Takes Two' in 2007.These says she enjoys ripping through hand-brake spin turns and other stunts on Rush, but admits Melbourne's trams are still scary for a girl from the NSW country town of Kempsey."Given the nature of the action on Rush, we have a wonderful stunt co-ordinator on the show called Mitch Deans. He teaches us all our various motoring skills," Anderson says."Obviously when there are quite heavy, dangerous stunts to be done, we do have stunt drivers, but we do most of our own driving stunts. Anything from a 'hand-brakey' – that’s a technical term – where you pull the handbrake and do a 180 degree turn. I love doing those – especially on dirt roads – they are fun. I may or may not have pulled out a 'hand-brakey' on unsuspecting passengers away from the set. In a safely-controlled environment, of course. I find doing them much easier than driving on Melbourne roads with trams!""When I joined the Rush cast last year we went to an area outside of Sydney to practice our stunts, learn how to hit our marks, what speeds to come into the stunts at, that sort of thing, which was a lot of fun. While most people are heading off to work for the day, we were out there doing 'doughnuts. It was so much fun."Safety is paramount and we wouldn’t do anything unless we felt 100 per cent safe. Our stunt co-ordinator wouldn’t let us do anything if they felt it would jeopardize our lives or someone else's. Our stunt co-ordinator sits in the passenger seat for rehearsals so he knows you’re 110 per cent clear on what you’re doing. If you’re ever in doubt, we just call 'Cut'. "I have been doing a bit of motorbike riding with the stunt co-ordinators too and I am now really keen to get my motorbike licence.""For me, my scariest stunts are anything where I have to do it around trams in Melbourne. Stunts are fine – I just do not cope with trams. I am clearly a NSW girl.""On the show, we drive Ford Territorys – which are the same cars the police in Victoria actually do drive. Sometimes we get mistaken for the real police. It’s funny when we drive past people talking on their mobile phones whilst they’re driving; if you look at them, they’ll slowly drop their phone. It’s pretty funny.""My first car was an Astra which I bought after I went overseas. I bought it outright after saving all my money. I was 23.""I love road trips because I like singing in my car. I like driving solo and I just put my iPod on shuffle and see what comes up. You can always hit skip if it’s not a great song.""Any drive up the east coast of Australia is pretty special, especially up around where I live on the mid-north coast of NSW – it’s absolutely stunning. Last year I experienced quite a scary road trip. I drove to Melbourne by myself through the bushfires. That was full-on. I kept calling Vic Roads to see if I was going to get through. It was really very frightening. I don’t want to ever do that again."

But there is much more to the seven-time Logie award winner, now 57, who works tirelessly for many charities and loves Toyota cars.  "When my daughter Jess was little, I would drive across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and my philanthropic ‘character’ would always pay for myself and the car behind me. I thought it was a really lovely thing to do," she says."However, people would try to catch up to me to say ‘Thank you’ – and they would recognise me - and so many of them were booked for speeding trying to chase me! So I wasn’t really doing them any favours. There I was thinking I was doing the right thing by them."Years later, her community service work gave her a surprising payback on the road.  "I was booked for being over the limit. It was when I was working for Wesley Mission – it was a family dinner – and I did get booked," she recalls."It was interesting – I got off because of the level of community service I was doing. The magistrate was going to give me a whole lot of community service as punishment but he saw how much community service I was already doing and he decided he couldn’t give me any more."He also felt it was worse for me not to be driving and unable to do what I was doing for the community. I’ve never, ever, ever drank and driven again. I do them separately, of course, just not together."So how did she get there?  "My first car was a green Corona that my parents and Aunty Jill bought me. I was 18. I’ve been into Toyotas for a long time. I find them very economical and reliable."She also enjoys time on the road.  "I organised many memorable road trips with my ex-husband Steve Mason. The first one I did was The Peppers Trail – which was for bushfire relief. We stayed all over at Peppers Resorts – we raised $58,000."The year after that we did it for suicide prevention. We’d have entertainment every night – it was great fun.  The year after that I worked with my ex-husband – who is now with Belinda Green – and we did a road trip for Paralympians called the Desert Duel. We travel from one outback town to another. I started those, created them myself, doing all the measurements, way back with the Variety bashes with Glen-Marie Frost. I’ve seen an awful lot of Australia because of these trips."And any particular special moment?  "During the Paralympian Desert Duel, I travelled with cartoonist Warren Brown. I actually ‘flashed’ another car to distract them so they wouldn’t win. It worked – they ran off the side of the road and we continued on and won.  And Warren actually ‘etched’ that memory. It was all in the name of charity. I never took off my clothes for (television show) Number 96 but I did flash my boobs for charity. It’s the only time I’ve ever done it."Duncan's favourite roads are no surprise to anyone who likes driving.  "I love the Great Ocean Road and I love driving up to the Hunter Valley to visit my friends. I also loved driving around Margaret River. That was pretty damn special."And the accompaniment?  "I always have music in the car. I have diverse music tastes. Everything from classical to Barbra Streisand to AC/DC. It depends on my mood and time of day. There’s not a lot I don’t like.""Ronan Keating and Van Morrison are always on high rotation. I love George Michael. I love Fleetwood Mac. I’m mad about Tina Arena and Human Nature, I adore them to bits. I do like Guy Sebastian, especially his soul stuff."

From her seat-belt-free childhood to the drink'n'drive panel vans of friends in her teens, it’s perhaps a wonder she survived at all. But Jean, who learned to drive from her racing-car driving father, is now passing on his wisdom to her own children and marvelling at how her own driving ‘style’ has changed since hitting menopause. As the ambassador for Remifemin, a natural menopausal relief product, Jean is keen to 'come out of the menopause closet’ and admit to the world her car has air-conditioning, and she is not afraid to use it. "My Dad had a BMC dealership and he loved English cars. We always had Minis, Jaguars, Rovers, Morris and Wolseleys and - of course - they were always breaking down. We were always in different cars. Dad was always trading. Dad was also a racing car driver. He used to build his own cars and 'soup-up' his own cars. One of the first monologues I ever did was called 'Blue Vinyl' and it was about my relationship with cars. It was performed as part of a Melbourne Fringe Festival which was in a carpark." "Cars have been a strong element of my life. When I was a baby, the only thing that apparently soothed me was putting me in a blanket, bundling me into the car and driving me around Christmas Hill, near Lilydale in Victoria, where I was born. I still find cars incredibly soothing. I adore driving. As soon as I get in the car I relax immediately. My Dad taught us all how to drive like racing car drivers. We were driving from the age of 12." "By then we were living in Sorrento with lots of backroads and he would say things like 'your brakes have gone, pull up using the clutch!'. He would know our brakes could break because, being the daughter of a mechanic, our cars always had wonky brakes! I remember I lost my licence two weeks after I got it because I didn’t actually realise there were speed limits. Dad never mentioned the speed limit. I never remember clocking a speed limit. I was doing 60 miles and hour in a 35 mile zone. So I learnt the hard way. I lost my licence immediately." "Dad was a bit of a leadfoot but he was a very safe driver. When we were kids he would 'soup-up' Mini Cooper Ss and he'd do hillclimbs around Lilydale. When it was a wet track, he would put us kids in the car for weight. Those were the days when there were no seatbelts and your mother’s arm would swing out like a boom gate every time she’d brake to stop kids flying through the windscreen. We’d stand on the seat next to Mum. There’s a reason they call it a dashboard – because you kept dashing your brains on it all the time." "Mum also remembers just putting the bassinet on the back seat and every time she braked the bassinet would be upside down on the back floor. That’s how everyone got around. The roads weren’t really dressed for safety or reckless drivers. There were no barriers and signs telling you a dangerous corner was coming up. Consequently, after moving to Sorrento and spending my teens there because there was nothing to do in the winter down there, everyone used to drink and drive. That’s all we did. So we lost lots of kids." "There were also a lot of panel vans with kids all in the back, so over it would roll. My God, it was such a dangerous time. But it was also a good time because we had Drive-ins – with one driver going in and the rest of us hiding in the back of the Sandman." "My first car was a Wolseley 24-80 – it had fins. It was built like a tank but the brakes were hopeless. I remember once someone took a corner too quickly and drifted onto the wrong side of the road out near Tremarne and clipped a whole lots of cars. Bang, bang, bang – it wrote them off – but by the time it got to me in my old Wolseley, the other car was a mangled mess. I just had a little dent in the door." "I've always liked the drive between Melbourne and Sydney. I also do the F3 a lot because I married a Sydneysider and my parents live on the Central Coast in NSW. "We go up there quite regularly. My children and I have our favourite chicken shop to stop at on the way. We put Harry Potter on and off we go. I love car trips. I will happily drive – with the appropriate driver/reviver stops – for 12 hours." "Music – when the kids are in the car it’s Nova – full blast. I like to catch up with the news or 2WS FM with Amanda and Jonesy – Classic Hits. When I’m on my own I like to listen to classical music, then I can think about things to write. When we get out of radio range we’ll whack a CD on – I love talking books. The kids go a bit mad but they’ve got their own iPods. I love travelling with my kids because they’re captive. They can’t go off saying ‘Oh, I’ve just got to make a phone call’ or ‘My friend is here I’ve got to go’ so we actually have conversations – they’re forced to talk to me and listen. We also do a lot of car dancing." "The way my driving has changed over the years is once you have kids you’re much more cautious. And they grow up and they’ll tell you if you take your hand off the wheel. The whole doing the 150 hours of teaching I adored – I know a lot of people complain about it – but I absolutely loved sitting there doing that with my teenage daughter. I passed on lots of stuff my dad taught me. My teenage daughter is incredibly confident and that is really important – not over-confident, just confident, alert but not alarmed. She loves driving too." "Driving can be an absolute joy. A car is a machine taking you places in your own little bubble – it’s wonderful. I’m really relaxed about the car. People can put their feet on the seats if they want. It’s a relaxed, fun place." "The other way my driving has changed is the temperature. Now my body temperature is contributing to climate change with menopause, I’ll be in the car with the kids and I’ll ask 'Are you hot?' and they’ll say 'No mum!'. They’re constantly asking me to turn the air-conditioning down – they’re freezing. I used to battle them about turning the music down now they’re battling me about turning the air-conditioning down! I tell them to 'Get a jumper!'."

However, adding to the hole in the ozone layer is allowed through the overuse of hair spray, as Vanessa prepares to be the hostess with the mostess at the Mardi Gras festival Drag Races next Friday from 5pm at Bondi Beach. "We rope off a competition field area and it's a faux sporting event/drag queen event. Drag queens can show off their glamour and their physical prowess. It's a spectacle,'' Wagner says. ``We'll be taking points off for those wearing flat shoes. We'll be rewarding those brave enough to wear stilettos in the sand.'' Punters can expect anything from the clutch bag discus to the three-heeled race to competitive feminine posing. "I find the clutch bag discus riveting.  Sometimes it's the way some of the girls prepare which is the most exciting part. Sometimes the chuck or the throw can be a letdown, especially if the faux Chanel handbag straps snap. "The three-heeled race has probably got the most drama. If the girls lose their rhythm it's catastrophic. The whole event is heaven.''  Her beloved VW bug Stella took her to many a Drag Race event. She reminisces fondly about her VW, which sadly, is no longer with us. "When I was young I was quite fascinated by cars. Between glamorous performances and housewife duties such as baking cupcakes, I was quite fond of Wheels magazine,'' Wagner says.  "I loved the racy colours and shapes of the cars back in the '70s." "I purchased Stella in 1999 when I was in the midst of a big stage production for the Mardi Gras festival back then called Vanessa Wagner's History Of Dance. It was my chance to explore 50 million years of dance history in 75 minutes. I needed a car to run around in and pick up props and costumes.  I bought Stella second-hand from some fellow in Castle Hill. I paid $2800 -- which was a fortune back then." "Stella was a lovely white 1972 VW. She was fat with the original hubcaps, which I was very fond of. Stella's inaugural road trip for me was from inner-city Sydney to Ballina and Byron Bay. I was following a mate who was in his 1976 white Kombi called Kimba.  Kimba and Stella did the Pacific Highway together and it was a most joyous experience.  "It was a glamorous coincidence that I shared the same initials as my car. I've always loved the shape of a VW bug, they're a classic, beautiful vehicle. Even though some of my mechanics would grumble `Hitler's curse' under their breath -- that was just water off a duck's back for me." "She was a fabulous car -- and almost a 4WD. I live near the beach and Stella could crawl over a little bit of sand.  There was never any embarrassing breakdowns in Stella except when I was picking a DJ friend up from Coolangatta for one of my parties. We were racing back down the Pacific Highway to Byron Bay and she did blow a hole in her left, front stocking!" "At 100km/h that was quite frightening. She didn't panic -- we managed to pull over on to the shoulder but my DJ friend was a little worse for wear, a little bit frightened. I had complete faith in Stella.  I haven't rolled her but I've been told from some well-informed people that during WWII, if those old Bugs ever rolled, you could roll them back on to their wheels easily because of the shape of their roof. Fortunately I never got into that conundrum." "I had no major incidents with Stella, she was a very trustworthy car. She never made me cross and never got angry when a dog peed on her."  "Stella went to her graveyard in a place called Stokers Siding, a very glamorous spot in the Northern Rivers region. Poor Stella was getting a bit of car cancer - she had some rust and it would've cost a lot of money to look after her. It was cheaper to put her down. I didn't have to get Nembutal from Mexico - it was all done above board and within Australian law.''

That is exactly where Salvatore Coco began and he has his share of breakdown stories. He loves classic cars, which is appropriate for an actor who is stepping back in time for the third series of Underbelly. This time Coco is Hammer, an enforcer with plenty of muscle, in 'The Golden Mile'. He describes the role, which sees him as a mate of Kings Cross identity John Ibraham, as "an awesome experience"."I am a bit of a car buff. I’ve always liked cars since I was a young boy. The first car I bought was a red Volkswagen Beetle when I was 19. Hasn’t everyone had one of those? It gave me more problems than anything but I was young and enjoyed tinkering and fixing things. Now I drive a silver BMW E30 – it’s an old car, a 1989 model. I’ve had it for 10 years. They’ll be a collector’s item, it’s a classic car. That particular model is one of the best BMWs – I believe. It’s one of those cars that just loves the road. I drive a lot between Sydney and Canberra and it absolutely loves it.""I’m pretty strict when it comes to people getting in my car. I don’t like people mucking around because the leather seats are the original seats. No one plays around in the back seat – and I won’t be playing around back there either.""I’ve got a lot of ‘breakdown’ stories to tell of late. In the last two years I’ve broken down at least five times. Recently, coming back from Canberra, I had forgotten to change the timing belt on the motor and I blew the head. So that cost me a lot of money and a two-night stay in Goulburn. One thing goes wrong and the whole car shuts down. I’ve got a list as long as my arm about breakdowns.""When I first bought my Volkswagen, I was working as a pizza delivery driver for Dominos. I was running late for work and the car just stopped. So I opened up the back of the Volkswagen to have a look at the engine and there was one wire from the coil to the engine which had burnt out. I was standing there trying to figure out what I could replace it with and I got an idea. I pulled a wire from one of the speakers, attached it and it worked. I didn’t even have a pair of pliers, I had to do it with my teeth. So I left it on there and drove around with one speaker working.""I once bought a new motorbike and the guy assured me it was all ready to go. It was beautiful. My friends and I decided to go for a cruise to the Central Coast. I got five minutes from home and it just stopped in the tunnel that goes onto the Anzac Bridge in Sydney. No matter what I did I couldn’t get it going. So I ring the bloke I bought it from and I took it back to the workshop. The fuse right up under the chassis had blown which tripped the fan, the fan overheated and blew the engine. All because of one silly, faulty fuse. Lucky it was still under warranty.""Sydney to Canberra is a great drive but I also love the drive from Sydney to Batemans Bay and Sydney to Yamba. That’s a very good drive.""If I make a few million dollars the first thing I’ll buy is a Ford Falcon XY GTHO Phase III. If I end up in some huge Hollywood blockbuster – I’ll buy two of them. I love Classics. I really, really love Classics."

“My favourite road trip was when I was twelve years old. My Mum had a Renault 5 – it was a tiny beige box. We were crazy to go on the road with that but we went from Brittany to Marseille which is about a 13 hour drive. My sister and I were in the back. It was full summer and so hot! We stopped every hour to get something. It was the longest journey ever. I thought we were never going to get there. When I first arrived in Australia, I lived in Melbourne. I decided to jump on a bus to go to Sydney. That was another 12 hours! And when I got to Sydney, I fell in love. So I got back on the bus to Melbourne, to pack my stuff. And then I got back on the bus a third time to come back to Sydney. The only good thing about it was it was only $50 bucks each way. But I would never do that again. I don’t know how to drive a car but I have a baby-blue and white Vespa. I don’t want to kill myself so 60km/h is great. More than 20km/h out of Sydney, I’m a bit afraid to go. The petrol tank might empty itself and I get stuck in the middle of nowhere. My Vespa is for the city only. I listen to music when I ride my Vespa. Something funky so I can tap along on the peddle. I’m a big fan of music. First thing in the morning, it puts me in a good mood on the way to work.  My Vespa takes me anywhere. I can park it anywhere. It costs me $8 in petrol per week and the insurance is something stupid like $400 per year. It’s very convenient. I’ve never learnt to drive a car because I left France when I was 17 to go to London. Having a car in London is a bit silly, the public transport is so fantastic, so from 17-26 I still didn’t learn to drive. Then I came to Sydney, so from 26 to 36 I still don’t have a car! So that’s the reason why I don’t drive. And now I think it’s too late. You need to do something silly like 150 hours of lessons to get my Ps – you know, when can I do that? To be honest, I would love to get my licence. Maybe I should go to Thailand and buy a fake one! I would love to have a car, be free and take my kids away on the weekends.   So I’m thinking of getting a chauffeur. That would be nice. In the meantime, I take plenty of cabs. Fifty percent of taxi drivers drive me nuts. They never know where they are going. If they do know where they are going, they always take the long way ‘round. When you don’t look they press another button and it’s always three or four dollars more on the fare. They smell! They either smell of cigarette smoke – which is disgusting. Or they have no idea about their B.O. problem! And that is also why I’ve got a Vespa! Because I don’t want to go in cabs anymore!”

As one of Australia's biggest country music stars, with another fresh batch of golden guitars from this year's Country Music Awards in Tamworth, he spends a lot of time travelling.  That's one of the reasons he is keen on cars and, as he faces the Planet Country Australia Tour which kicks off in Tasmania this month and finishes in Mudgee in Australia, is happy to talk about his passion — including a long-time love for Toyota four-wheel drives.“My very first car was an olive green Austin 1800 Mark II. I was 17 and it cost me $600 – I saved up for it and I paid cash. I thought I was the king of the world. It had really comfortable seats – the back seats were really comfortable, but I wasn’t able to put them to any good use. I was a late bloomer in that regard. I loved that car but it broke down all the time. I remember calling my dad on several occasions – ‘Dad I’m stuck! Can you help me?’ I remember one night I was coming back from a gig, I was the resident performer at the Greenmount Resort at Tweed Heads, I was coming home in the rain and she just conked out. Everything fogged up and she stopped. I wasn’t really a tinkerer – I had a tool box in the back and I would change the odd spark plug but that was about it. I went from that to a little red Cortina TE – which the back seat of that was more successful. That was a beauty but my real love and appreciation for motoring began when I started driving a LandCruiser.  My first Land Cruiser was a 1996 80 Series. I was coming through the Gold Coast hinterland and there were storms about and there was flooding – I had to cross a creek near Canungra and I got halfway through the creek and she stopped. I started to contemplate certain parts of my life and questioned aspects of my own intelligence. The flood waters were swirling by the old 'Cruiser, but I cranked her over and the big old turbodiesel kicked in and I drove straight out of it. She didn’t let me down. I don’t think I will ever sell that vehicle. She’s done over a quarter of a million kilometres. She’s like a member of my family. It would be a sacrilege to sell her. I love her.  Slim Dusty used to drive a 'Cruiser as well and he would often comment to me that he would set off from the east coast of Australia and cross the breadth of the nation and the only thing that would stop the 'Cruiser was the Indian Ocean. One of the most embarrassing moments of my life happened in a motor vehicle.  It was early '90s – my second record ‘Three Chain Road’ had just come out – I was recording a song for drought relief called ‘Save the Land’. Trisha Yearwood was in town – she wasn’t married to Garth Brooks at that time – and I asked her if she would sing with me on this fund-raising song. She said she would love to help out. One minute we were doing The Midday Show and the next we were in a studio in Kings Cross recording this song together – it was an amazing day.  At the end of the session I offered Trisha and her publicist a lift back to their hotel. She accepted. So we went and got into this Commodore I was driving at the time. I was backing out of the studio carpark and I clipped the side of the Commodore against this big metal post and it peeled open the Commodore like a sardine can. It rolled it back and I didn’t realised it had happened and I’ve got Trisha Yearwood in the car!  So we got out of the car and looked at the damage and Trisha said “You know Lee, we might just take a cab.” It was dreadfully embarrassing. One of the greatest road trips I’ve ever taken was in my 78-series LandCruiser ute. I often joked to people if it was a woman I’d marry her. I was so in love with that vehicle.  I had an Engel fridge in the back it was set up for anything in the outback. I went out on a song writing trip out past Charleville, We pushed on over to Innamincka and camped on the banks of Cooper Creek and then headed up to Birdsville. I pretty much wrote an entire album – Electric Rodeo. Not long after that my wife gave birth to our second son Rock – and we all couldn’t fit in the vehicle anymore so I had to sell it.  The only time my lips have quivered and tears welled was when I sold the vehicle and this young bloke from Kilcoy drove it out of my driveway and out of my life.

ANTHONY Field spends up to seven months of every year on the road.  When he pulls on the blue skivvy as the Blue Wiggle, he becomes an international celebrity with the world's weenie-boppers.So it's no surprise his favourite drive is the run home from Sydney airport to his wife, Miki, and their three children, Lucia, 5, Maria, 3 and Antonio, 18 months.  But Field, 45, is taking on even more work and now hosts Channel 7's RSPCA Animal Rescue, a documentary series that follows the tough cases the RSPCA inspectors and veterinary staff face every day.He says he is tired of being a passenger in the Big Red Car and jokes if money were no object, he'd buy it, pimp it up and charge Murray Cook (red Wiggle), Jeff Fatt (purple Wiggle) and Sam Moran (yellow Wiggle) to ride in it.What was your first car?A 1973 yellow Volkswagen Kombi. I bought it from my dad for $900 in 1981. It was a great car. I would sleep in it after big Cockroaches gigs. We took the seat out and I practically lived in it. I had it for three or four years until the accelerator cable broke. I figured it was getting a bit rusty and it was time to move on.What do you drive now?Ironically, I have a Volkswagen sponsorship now and I have a black EOS convertible.  We also have a family car, a Chrysler 300C sedan.Do you have a favourite drive and who would you take?I am away six to seven months of the year so my favourite drive is the one from Kingsford Smith Airport in Sydney to home with my wife Miki.How far would you drive in a year?Only about 8000km, but my frequent-flyer points are phenomenal.Do you have a favourite motoring memory?I have driven in the celebrity race at the Australian Grand Prix and the greatest thing about that was meeting some really great people and becoming friends. I was always down the bottom end of the pack so I don't think I'll be chasing a career in motorsport.What would you buy if money were no object?I would buy one of the most famous cars in Australia. I've been a passenger too long. I would buy the Big Red Car. I'd pimp it up and charge the other guys to ride in it.What music is playing in your car?Carlos Gardel. He's Argentinean and he was the king of tango.How much is too much for a new car?It's what you can afford, but petrol is going to cost the most, so you have to keep in mind how much it is going to guzzle. It's up to each person what they can afford.What should be done to make driving safer?The steps are already there with random breath testing, speed monitoring and ensuring people wear seatbelts -- that's all you can really do.Are you sponsored by a car company?Yes, Volkswagen. Miki loves it. I hardly get to drive the car.

TELEVISION is a very busy world for Simon Reeve. He is a sports and news presenter for Sunrise, hosts the kids quiz show It's Academic, warbled his way through celebrity singing contest It Takes Two and was a gymnastics commentator at the Beijing Olympics. As the host of the new police reality show The Force: Behind the Line, Reeve has heard plenty of crash horror stories.But it is one of his own, during a road trip in Africa, that remains the most vivid. Still, Reeve is a car enthusiast who dreams about owning a 1955 Ford Thunderbird convertible.What was your first car? An 1968 XT Falcon. Dad had always had Fords, going back to a gorgeous old Zephyr when I was a baby, then a couple of XPs. The XT was my pride and joy until a bloke ran fair into the back of me on the Kwinana Freeway in Perth. Alas, she was never the same again.What do you drive now? A 2004 BMW 320i. Do you have a favourite drive and who would you take? Busselton to Esperance, around the southwest coast of WA. My company would be the family -- wife Linda and two kids -- and the kids would have to sign a no-whingeing clause.How far would you drive in an average year? About 20,000km. Do you have a favourite motoring memory? Driving in Botswana on the edge of the Moremi National Park and getting horribly bogged in lion and hyena country. Linda and I had our two-year-old daughter with us and we'd run out of water. A half-hour slog of digging and panic between Linda and I finally got our old LandCruiser clear as a blistering October sun went down. I think we'd convinced ourselves it might be our last sunset.  A great relationship moment.What would you buy if money were no object? Nothing too extravagant, just a 1955 T-Bird convertible. I think it's shape and somehow its sense of optimism and fun make it the perfect car of any era. I know I'd look like a right wanker driving one around now, but I'd blissfully take the barbs. What music is playing in your car? There are two tracks that get high rotation: Mio Amore by The Flamingos and Easy to be Hard by Three Dog Night. Go figure.How much is too much for a new car? The way it's headed, I think the Flintstones got it right.What should be done to make driving safer? A heavy emphasis on driver education as an integral part of the school curriculum, visits by road-accident victims, and a comprehensive approach to this area of education from age 15. So many episodes of The Force feature booze, speed and young blokes who, like young blokes everywhere, think they are 10 feet tall and bulletproof.Are you sponsored by a car company? No, but I'm cheap, easy and shameless. All offers welcome.The Force: Behind the Line, Channel 7 Mondays at 8pm.