It’s been a long 18 months since Daphne – my faithful 1956 Renault Dauphine – broke down while on the way back home from work. It was devastating, depressing, and also confusing.

I think the devastating and depressing parts are obvious – never fun when your classic stops working. She’s like a member of the family, and it felt as though I let her down, somehow. I guess it maybe a thing with owners of vintage (Ed: do you mean old?) cars.

The confusing part was the cause of the breakdown. Having previously owned a 6V 1963 Volkswagen Beetle – her name was Roxanne because she didn’t put her red lights on – and she was constantly giving me similar issues to what Daphne was doing. And Daphne is also a 6V car.

I checked the distributor cap and it seemed fine. When the fine mechanic from TCS came by, he also said it was fine. We checked everything else (Ed: do you mean HE checked everything else?) and it all worked. And yes, because of past experiences, I also filled up the fuel tank, just in case.

I was towed home and Daphne sat there in my drive, idle. Forlorn. It was sad. I even tried to fire her up occasionally – it didn’t work.

The, I did what anyone else would – I hit the web. I searched high and wide, in the depths of the net, through mountains of useless drivel, and copious sites in French (Ed: bit obvious – it is a French car, duh). I also found some sites that, well, laid bare other things (apparently, Daphne is a preferred porn star name).

Then I gave up.

Daphne sat there, now wrapped up in layers and layers of covers to protect against the elements, jacked up to keep away from the snow to avoid rust issues.

When spring finally arrived, I opened her boot again (the engine is at the back) and went back to the distributor. And there it was, right in front of my face – the problem was that the top contact had come undone, and it was sitting there on the side.

My mechanic tried to find the part with no success, so we once again towed Daphne home. And again, I hit the net. The difference this time was that I actually knew what I was looking for – and I also found that a 1956 Dauphine distributor cap is special and very hard to find.

I did, eventually, in the States of all places.

The part arrived in November 2017 and I installed it. Finally. Drum roll… I turned the key, and it didn’t work. Repeated attempts bore the same result. No, no, no, no.

The covers went back on and Daphne settled down for winter.

Come March, the sun reappeared and I had a renewed vigour to get Daphne on the road. The battery was charged, tank filled (actually, it was full since it hadn’t moved for a long time), distributor removed and refitted. All was set, and I turned the key… nothing. Again… nothing, Again… still nothing. A fourth time… nope. Then, on the fifth attempt, there was what sounded like a fumbled attempt at firing up. I turned the key again and Daphne finally started up. I hadn’t heard her purr for such a long time. But she still had to visit the mechanic.

He is actually a race driver cum mechanic, and man did he work his magic. When I collected Daphne, she is amazing. Now, she’s roaring again and man it feels great. Finally, back on the road again.