[Treeve]

when it comes to 'non-car folk', I normally use a phrase along the lines of:

"I'm obsessive about cars, I can find things to love and things to hate in every single make and model. I think about cars every day, and so far have found that every area of engineering that I have been taught or learnt can be applied to different parts of cars. This means that even for car enthusiasts, conversations about cars with me are incredibly boring, so please for your own sanity, can we talk about something else?"

Normally does the trick! People then normally only approach my insanity for small doses (like they ask which bit am I trying to fix on just one of my cars this week - not any other car, or for any other time period!).

Treeve