It's a little sports car that has packed in a lot. Dennis Tobin's 1969 MGB has sped around racetracks, worked for a living, carted the family around and introduced a legion of people to the joys of historic race cars.
And it's still going strong, with Dennis taking it for another spin this month: to the Wakefield Park circuit near Goulburn, NSW, which will mark its 25th birthday on November 16 and 17 with a special weekend of racing featuring cars that have raced there over the years.
The 73-year-old from Newcastle, who has owned the car since his mid-20s, can hardly wait. Not least because together with his MGB and best mates Guy "Pogo" Thomson, 73, and Barry Bates, 80, he was there the day the track opened in 1994.
Not that he raced it that day. Sharing cars is something they have always done (more on that later) and Guy took the wheel of the MGB while Pogo and Barry did their laps in a 1958 Lotus 15 owned by Barry.
He has built up a tremendous affection for the track over the years.
"It's what we call a Micky Mouse circuit," Dennis said. "It's not all that long. It's a circuit that spectators can view and see all of, which makes it rather unique. It's got a fair amount of rise and fall - it goes up hill and down dale, which I like in a circuit. And it's got an interesting array of corners.
"It's not an easy circuit to get around but once you've figured it out, it's a challenge that's well with the effort. You get a reasonably high speed down the main straight."
Pogo also has happy memories of Wakefield Park.
"It was just fabulous to have a club circuit that was built by people who were interested in historic motor racing, who thought the way were, which was preserving historic cars and racing them," he said.
"It was small, you could see it all from any one position, everything was nice and compact, the facilities were excellent - right from the start they had a good pit area.
"It's still our go-to track. We get down there every few months."
For its fans, a major attraction is the camaraderie.
"I guess the heyday was when we all used to camp there," Dennis said. "It was such an incredible atmosphere on a Saturday night - so good and friendly."
Often his whole family would make the trip down from Newcastle in the MGB.
"It was the family runaround. I used to take the wife and two girls and the dog everywhere in it. The youngest daughter used to sit between her mother's legs on the floor. My oldest, Lisa, used to sit between the two seats on the transmission hump. The dog used to sit in the back underneath the roll bar, protesting madly because he felt he should have been in a seat."
His mate Pogo said that often at race meetings, Dennis would unload the family, pull the windscreen off, change the exhaust system, put the race wheels on, hit the track, then pack everyone up and drive home again.
Dennis said the MGB, which also served as the "shop ute" at his former panelbeating business, has clocked up an amazing amount of race miles.
"This is because every time it was entered, it was double entered. It was always someone myself and someone else driving it, or Lisa and someone else driving it."
Pogo says sharing is a big part of the sport. "Dennis had started so many people in historic motor sport in his cars [he also has a much-loved Sunbeam Alpine] - over 30-odd drivers have driven them.
"One day down there people's cars were breaking down and he'd say, 'Have a drive of the Alpine,' and in the end I think it was driven in every event on the day!"
As Dennis returns to race the MGB again this month, Guy will take starter's orders in a 1962 Tornado Talisman and Barry in a 1964 Thompson Sports. Lisa Tobin-Smith, who inherited her dad's love of the sport, will go around in a 1935 Henry VIII Ford V8 Special.
As the drivers get on a bit - most who will compete are over the age of 60 - things might be a little slower than the lightning speeds of younger days. "I still think I'm going flat out but I've eased right up," Pogo says with a wry chuckle.
Lisa, president of Golden Era Auto Racing, a midweek classic motorsport club based at Wakefield Park, said the circuit came about after two blokes, Paul Samuels and John Carter, sat down over a bottle of red in 1990 and said "we should build a racetrack".
"I can't tell how many million times people have said something like that but these two actually did it," she said.
She said both knew Amaroo Park and Oran Park were on the way out and Eastern Creek was too big for the kind of motorsport they envisioned.
So they got to work. Amazingly, by 1992 they had found the site; in 1993, the first sod was turned; and in 1994 the track officially opened - the event that will be celebrated later this month.
Lisa said that in the quarter century since its inception. Wakefield Park has almost always been solidly booked.
"It was built with historic racing in mind but they do all sorts of things: driving training, from learners to police; car launches; test drives; corporate events; joy rides - there's not much that doesn't happen there," she said.
Lisa said the anniversary celebration is not just about cars and drivers "but people like the flaggies, pit crews, marshalls, spectators, volunteers, ambos... everybody who makes an event happen".
"While Paul and John sold the circuit after seven years, their legacy endures through the fact that Wakefield survives and thrives," she said.
Wakefield Park went on to host events like the national Super Touring Championship, the Supercars Development Series, and rounds of the PROCAR series, including the Nation's Cup, a category that was, in essence, the predecessor to the Australian GT Championship, featuring brands including Porsche, Ferrari and Lamborghini.
Plus there were Shannons Nationals and endurance races such as the Wakefield 300 and even the Australian 24 Hours of Lemons, a two-day marathon for cars worth no more than $1000.
Big names to have raced there include Jim Richards, Peter Brock, Mark Winterbottom, Paul Morris and two-time Australian Superbike champion and local hero Troy Herfoss.
Glory days indeed, with many more to come. For details on Wakefield Park's 25th anniversary race meeting click HERE.