![\"Ivan](\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/app\/uploads\/2022\/09\/ivan-1-800x415.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAs we walk into the workshop, he’s in the back, filing what appears to be a large block of aluminium. Its nondescript blocky origins have been carefully whittled away though, and now it’s a sort of cone, if you will. Each push and slide of the file is delivered with an expert touch, in that fashion that just leaves you thinking ‘yeah, this fella knows what he’s doing’. We look around the rest of the workshop, neat and organised, with a place for everything, and everything in its place, it generates a pang of jealousy from within. We’d kill for such a workshop. It all belongs to the man on wielding file, Ivan Dutton, and as soon as he talks, the pang of jealousy fades. This is Ivan’s shed, his little hub of mechanical bliss, and he’s earned it. Ivan’s in his ’80s now, but it seems nobody has told him. Good.<\/p>\n
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That block of metal, he giddily tells us, is for his incredibly rare, custom-bodied 1920s Salmson trials car. He’s made this part from scratch, and what it does is relocate the gear shifter back about a foot. “When you’re doing trials, you need the shifter to be right there.”\u00a0<\/em>Explains Ivan. He’s giddy as he test fits it, and checks the movement of the linkage he’s created. He goes on to tell us how excited he is to get this car out on the trials. He’s designed it and built the body so there is more weight at the back, so better traction. It’s been built to compete. And compete it will. Ivan is not your typical pensioner. In fact, Ivan is not your typical anything. Instead, he’s a walking inspiration, an overall-clad mass of energy, enthusiasm and passion. Ivan is, in the best possible way, something else. Perhaps proof that classic cars are the key to eternal youth. They certainly seem to be doing the trick for him.<\/p>\n