I was once walking along Great Marlborough Street in Soho, London, when a Silver Spirit stopped across the pavement impeded my progress.
Exercising my licence to interfere, I asked the guy what was afoot.
He said he had just reversed out of a bomb site car park, the car had stalled and would not restart.
Interestingly, it was stuck in drive because the gear change is a spindly column stalk which only works electrically.
A flat battery meant you could move the stalk all you liked but it would not change gear.
A guy in a Mercedes stopped to help.
He had some good, sturdy jump leads, which was good because many thinner ones would have just overheated - common problem when I was doing breakdowns.
He also had a battery big enough to start his Stuttgart taxi.
Next task with the Roller was to find its battery - it was in the boot under a few bits of board and several inches of Axminster.
Once connected, the big old beast fired up nicely.
It was like a waking giant, with the rear easing upwards - the rear suspension is from Citroen, as evidenced by a licence plate under the bonnet.
The owner was relieved and pleased.
He invited me to call into his sandwich bar around the corner any time, not that I ever did.
