There's more to Victor Costello than international rugby. The Ireland and Leinster wing forward tells Kieran Fagan about another burning passion, his three1980s Beemers
When I was growing up and sitting in my Dad's passenger seat, watching cars go by, it could have started then. I remember in the 1980s being in the traffic in Blackrock and seeing Bono driving - I think it was a 1960s Jag - and it started me thinking seriously, why is he driving that old junker? I mean why didn't he have a brand new top of the range whatever? Now I understand.
I think I was always interested in cars. We lived in Stepaside, Co Dublin, when I was growing up and Bill Cullen, the Renault importer, lived nearby. He and his partner, Jackie, had cool cars, and her son Gary is my best friend.
I used to spend my Sundays drooling over Bill's cars, the 1980s turbos he had in his garage. Bill had a Renault Alpina GTA V6, a very fast sports car. And Jackie had a Renault 5 turbo and a 21 turbo after that. Gary and I used to take them for spins sometimes - we had great fun.
Nowadays I see the 1980s cars, the cars I aspired to then, and I can pick them up at reasonable prices. They have lots of character and lots of toys, cars with real grunt to them.
Most cars today look much the same but these 1980s cars have bucket seats, all the toys, you can have real fun with them. Yes, we'd all like to have the new Porsche 911, but it's mad money.
My M5 (a 1986 BMW M5 sport) is a completely standard car, yet it has 300 horsepower. It was top of the range in its day, all the electrics, air-conditioning. They wouldn't make a car like that today - fuel consumption would rule it out for one thing.
It's just a hobby for me. My friends slag me about it because I've a huge amount of useless information about cars. They think I'm mad to spend Sundays charging around with jump leads, petrol cans, battery rechargers, but they don't know the satisfaction.
I don't have enough time now but I like to restore them, and I'll have more time for that in the future. They're not valuable to anyone except me.
I can buy them now at very reasonable money, do a bit of work on them and it's a very satisfying. It's not as if I race them, I just like to maintain them to their original condition.
The 3-series (a 1982 BMW 3-series) I bought for £400 five years ago and I've been doing it up ever since. The other are a 1986 BMW M5 sport version and a 1985 BMW 635.
Barry Whelan (specialist mechanic in Dublin's South Circular Road) looks after the engines and so on. But replacing body parts, panels etc, I do all that.
In summer time it's great to take off an old part, it might be only a grille, or I clean up a headlight fitting and I stand back and I look at it - it's like a new car. Maybe it's something nobody else would see, but I see it. That's it. Magic.