This site has been designed under Microsoft Windows NT 4 / Internet Explorer 4.0, and (as of 27 July 1999) has also been tested for compatability with Netscape Navigator 4. Best results will be obtained with the following settings: - 1024x768 screen resolution, small fonts, 16,777,216 colours; having said that, higher or lower screen resolutions should still produce acceptable results. I cannot vouch for how the site will look (and possibly operate) under alternative browsers or operating systems.

Good question! At the end of March 1999, I found myself with personal access to the Internet for the first time thanks to a new modem-equipped notebook PC provided by the company I work for. With a couple of days to spare over the Easter break, I was surfing around when I chanced upon a GeoCities icon inviting me to design my own web site. And why not? - all I needed was a theme.

I've always been interested in cars, particularly Italian ones, so the theme really suggested itself. Judging by the vast number of other car-based personal sites I've stumbled upon, there is a great deal of interest in sites of this kind.

Once I'd built the GeoCities site, I became frustrated with the obtrusive advertising banners which were part and parcel of their ability to provide the web space free to users. I then discovered that my UUNET e-mail account included 15Mb of DialSpace web capacity, with no irritating banners. The following two weeks saw me transfer my GeoCities site to DialSpace, giving it a thorough re-design at the same time.

The site was launched in its current form on Thursday, 29 April 1999.

I have aimed to impose a consistent look and feel across the site. In particular, the context-sensitive link bar at the top of each page (apart from the home page) should ensure that you can always navigate the site in a logical manner.

The main pages have been designed to fit within one screen (assuming a 1024x768 screen resolution), in order to reduce the need for scrolling.

I have largely avoided using background images as they take time to load, and can serve to obscure text. I have also avoided using background colours as the way they are rendered is dependent on the specification of the viewing PC.

Links to external sites will always open in a new browser window. This is to allow you to return to my site simply by closing the new window when you have finished browsing the linked site, rather than having to hit the "Back" button a dozen times. Links within my site all open within the current browser window.

I have decided not use frames on this site, on the grounds that not all browsers support them and that many users find them irritating. As I develop the site in the future, I may decide to include a user-selectable option to surf a frames-based version.

This site has been coded with reference to the HTML 4.0 standard, and uses an external cascading style sheet to control the deployment of text and links. Most pages have been written directly in HTML code using Microsoft Notepad, although I have used a home-grown VisualBasic program, dVb WebWriter, to perform such tasks as converting MS Access tables into the format used on this site. As a newcomer to all this, I have found the O'Reilly manual, Dynamic HTML: The Complete Reference, to be an invaluable source of information.

Most images on this site have been scanned from the original photographs using a Umax Astra 1220P scanner. More recently, I have acquired a Kodak DC200 digital camera, so most new images will be captured in this way (see my A-class page for sample digital images).

Sorry if that sounds a bit pretentious, but I couldn't think what else to call it.

However, having made the effort to get this site up and running, I do not intend to neglect it. I will aim to update the site at least once a week, and will be adding new items to the "links" pages as and when I discover worthy sites. Please e-mail me if you want your site included, or if you want to recommend someone else's.

I also have a fairly large collection of motoring books, magazines and brochures, and I will be posting details of those relevant to the cars featured in due course. I've already done this for my X1/9-related books.

I will also be experimenting with new HTML and JavaScript techniques as my knowledge of these languages grows.

The home page will always report the date of the last update.

This site is hosted by the UUNET DialSpace service, which provides 15Mb of web space to subscribers to the dial.pipex e-mail service.

The text-based visit counter which appears on my home page was sourced from DialSpace's Workshop area, and has been set not to increment when the home page is arrived at from within my site.

The logo which appears at the top of this page (and others within my site) is based on my initials: DVB. To my mind it resembles an owl, inferring wisdom, but so far I've had a hard job convincing anyone else of this!

At least it serves a purpose - clicking on my logo on any page other than this one gives you instant access to this page!

All text and the majority of images which appear on this site are copyright © D V Berridge, 1999.

The animated flags were obtained from the FG&A (Free Graphics & Animations) site.

Some photographs and logos have been lifted from the web sites of motor clubs or manufacturers; where this is the case, the copyright in such images is vested in the organisation concerned, and the original site can be visited by clicking on the image in question. I would appreciate the same approach being taken should anyone see fit to lift an image from this site.

The URL of this site is: www.dberridge.dial.pipex.com/

I also have a V3 virtual URL - drive.to/declan - which points to this site.

If you have any comments, or a similar site which I might like to visit, why not sign my guestbook? Or you can take a look at other people's entries first.

This is a UK web site, run from my home in west London.