Sigmund Freud stated that significant evenls in the first five years of life leave an indelible ai mark on the later development of the individual. A dose, warm and continuous relationship which Joseph Muscat had with a Vauxhall pedal car - his pride and joy in those formative    Car yearn- led to a life long fascination and involvement with vintage and classic cars. This early attraction was consolidated by an upbringing in a family where old cars dominated the scene.

Joseph Zerafa has the two main ingredients which every good restorer needs: patience and a passion for cars.......

“I fell in love with the 1932 sliding head Morris Minor”

In life, it is said that to fully benefit from one´s hobby, one should indulge in a pastime that is totally unrelated to one´s full time job. Judge Michael Mallia , who has recently retired from the bench after serving almost thirty years first as magistrate and then later as judge, has followed that maxim to the letter.  

A self taught enthusiast in the technical side of the four wheeler, he had no family member to look up to in that direction. “Even my father Paul came quite late in life to acquiring a driving license and subsequently a car”, Judge Mallia starts out. “However, one of the thrills of my childhood growing up in a residence in Merchants Street, Valletta, was to go up on the roof and watch naval vessels and air force planes.  The sheer pleasure derived from watching their movements stirred in me a technical thirst and inquisitiveness about how machines worked, and I started buying related literature like Hayes manuals and the Road Tests of the Motor Magazine”.  

It is late at night and the committee has been meeting for more than three hours. Significant parts of the agenda have not yet been dealt with, as the members had struck a reef on a moot point from which they have been unable to disengage. For a while, direction cannot be charted. Eleven men of different ages, personalities and backgrounds are not exactly the easiest motley crew to reach consensus with. Unruffled, the chairperson comes up with another practical proposal. Jovial but firm, he cajoles, negotiates, enlightens, listens, and sums up. Following more discussion, agreement is finally reached, and within a short time the monthly meeting comes to a successful end, with the captain steering the ship safely to port.