It was its lesser known, but just as dangerous relative, the 'Corollavirus'.

Back in the 80s I was infected with the Corollavirus in the form of a KE10 Toyota Corolla.

By the end of its life it was so unhealthy a wrecker initially refused it to take it.

It was only when I practically begged did he give me $30 which covered the cost of the trailer hire to tow it there.

Like the coronavirus, the Corollavirus was very contagious.

Apparently when I embellished stories of a 1980s hoon life, our 18-year-old son took it to heart and announced his plan, for his first car, he wanted an early 80s Corolla.

I thought this was great news and immediately shared the dream, researching grandma cars far and wide.

I was imagining a road trip with him to Sydney or somewhere to bring home a pristine example.

In discovering these old cars were still around the $5000 mark, I didn't factor in it was $4900 more than Dan was prepared to spend.

He nodded noncommittally through our discussions, and came home instead with a KE70 Corolla which had been converted to a drift car, and then kind of converted back.

However, having lost everything safe or nice along the way and still just as dangerous now as it was on the track.

Dan was offended when I said it looked like a dog had taken a dump in our driveway, but he loved it and asked to borrow a camera and tripod for some night photos.

I gave him a brief tutorial of long shutter speed and aperture. How to focus in the dark, and showed the effect of the light panels on the car or on a background, and what to expect when walking along with them during a long exposure.

He grasped the theory quickly and off he went into the night with some mates.

A day or two later he eagerly showed me the results and he'd done a great job. Here was the old car in an abandoned factory somewhere, lit very creatively.

Two days after that his Facebook profile changed to a photo from this night, a back on view of the Corolla, with a back on view of himself standing on the boot - butt naked.

He didn't show me that one!

Fortunately for the sanity of his parents the Corolla was broken down more than it ran and it left his life not a moment too soon.

After the Corollavirus, I was infected with coronavirus in the form of a bright orange Toyota Corona RT104.

After the timing chain broke one evening on the Hume Highway near Seymour, we thought we were getting the same old 18R replacement motor, what we didn't know was the mechanic imported engines from Japan.

This turned the old car from a bomb into a missile, suddenly it was a go anywhere car, and anywhere it went.

On one of its more memorable trips to the Eyre Peninsula we inched it along a four wheel drive track to Memory Cove for a few days with a photographer friend.

We thought we were landscape and wildlife photographers Ken Duncan and Steve Parish, but in reality, just Phil and Mark, enthusiastically throwing away our Kodachrome at the rate of a dollar a click, and that's in 1990s prices.

We were up early one morning for a sunrise in the sand dunes near Sceale Bay to find an unusual low cloud rapidly evaporating.

I snapped this quick frame and the following year it featured in the Bureau of Meteorology calendar.

The coronavirus vaccine came in the form of a canary issued by a highway patrolman who didn't like the loose front mudguard, as it was too much like hard work to get a full roadworthy, that was the end of that.

I reckon it's still running around somewhere, recycled as a Hyundai.