“When I got my provisional licence aged 17 I was really into motorbikes so I bought one, but the helmet flattened my hair and cramped my style,” he recalls. “It was in the 1980s when big hair was all the rage, with bands like Kajagoogoo and all that. Having big hair was important, so I sold my bike and  bought a car.”

Not that Neil, of Oakenshaw, didn’t like cars - he was mad about them. “When I was about ten I had a poster of a Porsche 911 on my bedroom wall,” he says, “It was red, with my name on the number plate - I can’t remember whether I wrote it on or not. I really wanted a car like that.”

The first car he bought was a red VW Beetle. “I might have bought a Mini, but I’m 6ft 4 ins tall and it was too small. I can still remember the registration number - I can’t remember my wife’s birthday but I still remember that,” he laughs. “It was GWE 944N’.

He spotted the Beetle in AutoTrader magazine. “I remember getting up at 5.30am and going to the newsagents to get it before all the car dealers came to get a copy. I went to have a look and, although I wanted a red Porsche like the one on my poster, the VW was the same colour - guards red - and the registration plate contained the numbers 944 which is a type of Porsche.”

He also points out that Porsche company founder Ferdinand Porsche designed the VW Beetle.

Neil really wanted a head rest but the car didn’t have one. “So I bought a cover for a car seat with a head rest, and stuffed the head rest portion with newspaper.”

In those days Beetles were cheap, and Neil capitalised on that. “At one time I owned about five and used to have one number plate that I alternated between them - I would drive whichever one would start that day.”

Once they were past their prime he would strip the cars down, "I would keep parts in my bedroom and sell the rest for scrap. I remember driving one beetle along the M62 to the scrap dealer, having removed various parts - there was no windscreen, bumpers, lights or seats - I was sitting on an orange crate.”

In 1988 Neil, then an art student, bought a 1974 VW campervan. He would pick his friends up in it to drive them to college in Batley. “I charged them 25p a journey which paid for the fuel and upkeep of the vehicle. Sometimes there would be eight or nine people in the van - they would use the built-in grill to make toast or bacon sandwiches as I drove along.

With no heater it frosted up inside in winter. “I drove with a hot water bottle on my knee and held it against the windscreen at traffic lights to thaw a patch so I could see out.”

When Neil set up an advertising and design agency, Worthington Brown in 1990, the campervan didn’t give the right image. “In advertising image is everything. When I visited clients I had to park it round the corner and pretend to get in a different car when I left.”

He paid £250 for the van and sold it for £1,000. “Back then I thought I had hit the jackpot, but now it would be worth about £30,000. The Beetles I sold for £50 for scrap would now make around £5,000 each.”

As his business flourished, Neil moved into a different world of motoring. “I tended to have a lot of convertibles. My first convertible was a Honda CRX – in design and  advertising you had to have a Honda CRX- it the the car to be seen in during the early 1990’s. I had BMWs, Mercedes and when I was 30 I treated myself to a new Porsche Boxster.

When children came along a Mercedes estate was a more practical choice for Neil and wife Nicola.

Neil has gone on to own a variety of Land Rovers, the Defender being his favourite. “For the past 20 years I have owned Defenders,” he says. “I am currently having one restored that dates from 1968 and have just taken delivery of a brand new 2020 defender which is a fantastic towing car as I travel over 25,000 miles a year collecting and  delivering caravans across the country."

He loves classic cars. “I have a 1977 MG in white, which I would like to take to shows one day along with my  restored Series 3 Landrover and collection of David Brown vintage tractors’’

Neil’s early affection for campervans never left him. In 2013 he set up Volksleisure, through which he designs luxurious VW campervans.  “They are very high-end. I wanted to beat the VW California – classed as the pinnacle of campervans.”

Built to order, with bespoke specifications, the award-winning campervans are bought by clients across the UK. They can also be hired for holidays, including long weekends.

Neil runs the company, based in Low Moor, in tandem with his other business commitments including a caravan dealership selling new and used Freedom caravans which weigh just 750Kg and are towable by virtually any car.

As for his old poster of the Porsche 911 - he still has it. “I am sure I have still go it somewhere - I don’t throw anything away.”

And did he ever get one? “On my 50th birthday, I bought a white convertible from FA Roper, the local garage in Wyke. It was a present to myself. Now that I have one  I can go to being happy with shepherd’s pie and slippers.”

Although there is one more motoring dream Neil would like to fulfil - he would love to find his original red  VW Beetle. “It is still registered and is out there somewhere. I would love to restore it - that would be my dream car.”

*volkseisure.com