An American's 'love' for 1,000 cars

Updated


57-year-old US citizen Edward Smith lives with his cars and calls it love. He refers to them as his 'girlfriends' and shows less fidelity than is customary in normal affairs of the heart. His current passing fancy is a white VW Beetle called Vanilla. Smith recently revealed his fetish in a TV documentary. He goes so far as to claim having had 'sex' with 1,000 vehicular partners. The dear chap insists that he is not mentally disturbed and has no intention of desisting from his private passion: "Perhaps I'm a bit of an extreme case, but when I see the Herbie movies or Knight Rider where cars are portrayed as loveable creatures, I think that's great. I'm a romantic sort of guy. I write poetry about cars, sing to them and talk to them just like I would with a girlfriend."

He first fell in love at the age of 13 when his head was turned by a Corvette Stingray: he goes so far as to call it a 'sexual relationship'...whatever that's supposed to mean. Meanwhile, Vanilla has to share his affections with the rest of his harem. One of his most enduring affairs has been with a 1973 Opel GT which he calls 'Cinnamon' and a buxom 17-year-old Ford Ranger Splash who answers to the name 'Ginger'. He is not choosy about age or sex. The entire story was screened on 28th May on British TV (Channel Five). The programme title was 'My Car is my Lover', which automatically qualified it for a late-night viewing slot.

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