The Club received the following email looking for help from our members, if anyone can help or feels they have any information that might be of interest contact Jon on the number below.

Hello

I could do with your help.

My name is Jon O'Rourke, I am, in my spare time, a journalist (ex BBC Northern Ireland, Radio Ulster), and I currently work in the Media and Public Relations field. But my first love is cars.

I have been playing with the idea of writing a book about local car owners and their cars. But I am not talking about normal run of the mill stuff. I am trying to research and discover as many very rare, very special, home made, frightengly fast, terribly ugly, very old and very odd cars that are dotted around the island of Ireland as possible, and write about them, their owners, and how they ended up in Ireland, north or south.

I am not talking about your modern Ferraris and Porsches (though racing examples would be good) and I am not talking about the odd Mk 1 Cortina rusting in a shed. What I mean are the sort of cars that are DRIVEN, by their owners. Have a special place in their owner's hearts for whatever reason. Old racers, hillclimbers, American muscle, european vintage, cars with a story behind them, or owners with a story. Odd things (you know of the Delorean painted red?).

This all started a few years ago when I was blown away one Friday afternoon by the site of a candy red Corvette Stingray that had PACE CAR written along the side. It blew past me while I was sitting in a traffic jam from hell and I just thought "There's more where that came from". In a country full of mundane Tdi euro-boxes, sometimes it is nice for a car enthusiast to see something really special. It is the special stuff I am after.

You may feel a little apprehensive about this "out of the blue" unknown person asking for across to your members' cars, and you are right to be so. If it helps, go to the BBC Northern Ireland News website and search for Jon O'Rourke. Two articles should come up, "Dreaming of the Chequered flag", about a day I spent at Brands Hatch, and an article about Eddie Ervine leaving F1. If you need further convincing I can give you the details of a few referees that can vouch for me.

This is all in very early stages, but I have contact numbers for someone who has some American metal that I am keen to include- to at least get me started anyway.

If you think you know someone who may want to contribute, please give me a call. 07927 627 949. Anytime.

Kind regards.

Jon O'Rourke.