My first car - Singer Nine Le Mans - Stan Wilkins

As a teenager growing up in West Bromwich, Stan Wilkins was making a name for himself as a promising drummer with several dance bands, performing hundreds of shows round the West Midlands.

However, he thought he'd be able to get even more work if he had a car. So in March, 1940, at the age of 18, he acquired one - and not just any car either. Stan bought himself a Singer Nine Le Mans - a stylish open top motor which would have been considered a rival for MG in its day.

The Le Mans was a mid-1930s, four-seater model capable of reaching speeds of 70mph - but more importantly he could fit his drums inside.

It would have really cut a dash in the wartime Black Country - and perhaps it was too flash for the policeman who pulled him over in Brierley Hill in 1941 for having no lights at night and speeding.

"I was a bit of a rebel when I was younger," recalls Stan.

His brush with the law ended with a summons to appear in court, but he met a trumpeter friend on the way to his hearing and they adjourned to a local hostelry.

"I was a bit merry by the time my case was called and I don't think they liked it because they fined me £2 - a pound for each offence - which was nearly a week's wages in those days."

However, his court appearance did have a sobering effect on Stan because he has only been stopped once since then in seventy years of motoring - for speeding on the Bewdley Bypass.

At the time he bought his first car, Stan, who was then living in Price Street, West Bromwich, supplemented his drumming income with a series of part-time jobs.

He was a chauffeur for local estate agents and recalls driving along Birmingham Road in West Bromwich which used to be called the 'Monkey Run' because of the young people parading along.

The Le Mans lasted only a few months before he traded it in for another Singer, exactly the same but younger.

He was then called up and spent the next three and a half years in India with the RAF - "It took me three months to get there by ship - and three days to get back by plane".

By the time he was called up he was already married, at the age of 20, to his beloved wife, Joan Geddes. They remained together until her death six years ago.

After the war Stan returned to the West Midlands, gave his drum kit to a nephew, who went on to enjoy success with the Ivy League group, and joined the GlynWed conglomerate - working his way up to manage one of the first main frame computer systems in the area in the early 1980s.

Stan, of Holly Hedge Road, is president of West Bromwich History Society and - at the age of 88 - still likes driving his BMW 5 Series, though he no longer uses it at night.

His current car is far smoother and more luxurious than the vehicles in which he learned to drive.

"They were pretty basic in those days. There was no heater, no radio, you had to use a starter handle and the tyres had inner tubes."

But he feels the costs of driving were lower in those days.

"You could buy six gallons of petrol for a pound, a shilling and sixpence and insurance was less than £5 for a year."

They've gone up a lot since then. . .