A few years ago, when my Mum was dying, I went into my Porsche dealer and told him the thought of losing her made me want to go for that dream car while I still had my health.


He said that unfortunately, it was something they heard all the time. Porsche, it seems, is one the places people go when calamity reminds them you only live once.


Sh¬t, as we know, happens. You just hope there are some years in which to enjoy your car. (Is it this forum where new car owners are often congratulated with the instruction to 'enjoy in good health"?)


And it would be ironic if that sh¬t were to happen while you were driving your dream car.



But that is what happened to me, while I was driving the 991 last week.



I was cruising along with the top down in central London, with no real care in the world.



Sure, there's always that nagging doubt about unresolved high blood pressure, cholesterol and the other woes of middle age.


But basically I was okay.....


Then it happens. Out of nowhere.


I swig some Highland Spring from my little bottle - always have water close to hand. that's Page One, right? - and turn happily onto Berkeley Square...


...and an electric TINGLE goes up and down my back. Both sides.


I think I'm imagining it. I have a fertile imagination.


But it's real. Not so much a tingle now as a tightening up and down the back, almost like I'm being hugged. Not lightly hugged. Clenched tight.


I have this thing on my Samsung phone, where you hit the power button three times and it calls your friends/family to tell them you're in trouble. Do I use it, now?


But what is this? Obviously not a heart attack. That would be more front than back, right? But a definite, and powerful, sensation.


It's not going away, and it's like nothing I've ever felt before.


Except maybe when you adjust the bolsters on your sports seats. Like that.


Then I see my bottle of Highland Spring has wedged itself between the door and the seat buttons, and is pushing on them. Causing the seat sides to push in on me.


I live to drive another day.