By Thom Kennedy

Published at 11:44, Friday, 15 August 2008

YOU might see Craig Levens driving around Whitehaven in his £300 Ford Fiesta and think nothing of it.

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But Craig leads a secret double life – his other car is a souped-up, award-winning Subaru Impreza, worth more than £100,000.

The 27-year-old Sellafield worker bought the Impreza in Carlisle for £18,000 in 2005.

Now, three years and six figures-worth of modifications have left him with a bright orange mean machine.

He said: “I always had a bit of a thing for cars, but it got out of hand about a year ago, when I got it painted.

“It was black to start with, but the paint wasn’t in good condition, so my girlfriend Louise suggested I paint it orange from something we had seen in a magazine, and it spiralled from there.

“Louise loves it, she comes to all the shows and helps clean the car.

“She has been like a pillar, there have been some highs and lows. Not everything goes to plan.”

Almost every panel on the 450 horse power car has been replaced, with a full interior re-trim.

Only a select group of five people have been allowed to modify the car, with most of the work carried out by his friend Luke Massey, who runs Plush Automotive, a company in Leicestershire.

But plenty of other people have an opinion about it.

Because you will certainly hear him coming.

Among the modifications to the car, Craig has had 12 speakers fitted, leaving him with a sound system matched by only four other cars in the UK.

His labour of love has won him countless awards, the latest of which he picked up at Brands Hatch race circuit in Kent last Sunday, August 10.

But none of Craig’s awards will ever come from winning a race.

He said: “It is an extremely quick car, but it’s not for that sort of thing.

“It’s that low I wouldn’t want to take it on a race track anyway.

“If anything were to happen to it, it would break my heart.”

TKennedy@cngroup.co.uk

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk