Man travels 500 miles to replace trashed classic car

However, after parking it outside his home it was "completely wrecked" and written off

A man who bought a classic car for his 66th birthday and saw it trashed and written off outside his home has made a round trip of almost 500 miles (800km) to replace it.

Stephen Meeson, from Bolton, bought a black 1977 Corvette Stingray T-top in August 2024 and went "crazy" over it.

However, about four weeks ago, the car was "completely wrecked" leaving him heartbroken and his search for a replacement brought him to Aldborough, Norfolk.

He told BBC Radio Norfolk's breakfast show: "I lost it completely, I was absolutely sobbing on the drive, it was terrible, it was really, really bad, so we had to replace it as soon as we could."

Mr Meeson's previous car, before it got written off

Mr Meeson said he had longed for a Stingray since he was 17 years old and he called the series "a great, true, muscle car... it turns heads and attracts people wherever we go".

Stephen Meeson travelled from Bolton to Aldborough in the hope of replacing his "dream car"

About four weeks ago Mr Meeson had parked the rare car outside his home to move another car and within hours, someone had run into its front and "completely wrecked it".

"[I] just went looking all over the place online for various cars and there are a few around but they are very few and far between and as soon as I saw a photograph of this one I thought this has to be ours," he said.

"That was it. We were just in love with it straight away."

So, a week ago, his search brought him to Aldborough, near Cromer, about 250 miles (390 km) from his home and took him almost six hours by the train.

He said the cost of the new car was covered by the insurance payout for his trashed vehicle.

He said it was "fantastic" to be able to drive home in his new green version, even though Greater Manchester's reputation for wet weather did not disappoint.

"Four and a half hours non-stop... [I] had the roof off down all the way, even as it was going dark at night," he said.

"As I got off the motorway and got up to my road... it started raining."