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It's never easy to admit we're wrong. Yet after decades of filling his bestselling novels with evocative descriptions of his favourite vehicles, moonlighting for motoring mags and cramming his garage with a connoisseur's car collection, author Iain Banks recently decided to sell up, renounce his wicked carbon-emitting ways and go green.
In perhaps one of the most startling literary handbrake turns since Jaws creator Peter Benchley became one of the world's foremost shark conservation campaigners, Banks abruptly sold off his £150,000 fleet, bought a hybrid and began issuing dire warnings about the fate of the planet.
In the space of just two depreciation-heavy days, the author of The Wasp Factory, The Crow Road and Dead Air offloaded his burgundy Porsche 911 Turbo, green Porsche Boxster S, black BMW M5 and his daily drive, a chipped diesel Land Rover Discovery with a beefed-up turbo.
'In a way they were all favourites,' he says. 'That collection was the pinnacle, basically. Though for all-round ability the M5 stood out. It was just a brilliant car. Nothing that fast should have been so comfortable and usable. The Defender had more character than you could shake a ladder frame chassis at and the 911 Turbo... well, it's a bleedin' icon, innit?'
A collection of that calibre suggests a healthy appetite for speed. Is he quite handy behind the wheel? 'Like most people - well, most men - I'm probably not quite as good a driver as I think I am,' he confesses. 'I rolled a 911 once, on the A86, in very heavy rain. Entirely my own fault.'
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