They wanted to know everything about old Ireland and, of course, what he did with his time over there. He said he was in the motoring business to which one local looked at him, leaned over and said: "I guess you'd be interested in our farmer Bernie Giles then and the Duzgo he built back in the 70s. Knocked up quite a few of them he did over five years before the government stepped in."

Built by a farmer GilesfDuzgofpull the other one he thought, this was a real wind up and it wasn't even April 1! He told him he had been listening to too many myths about the Irish.

But he insisted it was all fact explaining that the car, which the farmer had built from scrap and old motorcyles, had been designed to go up hills that Land Rovers couldn't manage and climb out of the west coast's very soft and muddy soils.

It had two gearboxes, one behind the other, giving 12 forward and two reverse gears. The engine was a single or twin motorcycle unit, probably depending on local availability. The wheels were also from a motorcycle, with a new hub welded to spokes homemade from steel plate.

Knobbly mud grip motorcycle tyres provided the required traction.

A tiny two-seat body was fitted with a wee tray on the back for fencing and milking gear. Well, that's what he told my colleague, but he could see he wasn't convinced.

Not to be put off and actually quite disturbed that he had seemingly scoffed over there 'local hero' he invited him to see one the following day. How could he resist?

So he met him the next day and first off he took him just out of town to the site of an old farm barn.

Inside there was plenty of black grease and old tractors. "This is where it all happened, " he told him.

"This is where Bernie Giles developed and built the Duzgos."

There wasn't much evidence of a 'car factory', but then, of course, all this supposedly happened 30 years ago, so it hardly proved anything.

"So, where's this Duzgo?", he enquired, disbelievingly. "Do any actually still exist?"

Not to be put off he drove him to a quaint old trading store called The Bushman's Centre and introduced him to the owner. "Show him your Duzgo, he doesn't believe us", he urged him.

Off went the guy and a few moments later he was back behind the wheel of a really wacky-looking machine.

Was it a car? A jeep?

"This is the Duzgo", he told him. "Bernie built and sold 15 of them before the government made the enterprise uneconomic by adding 40 per cent purchase tax. He argued against this as they were made from secondhand parts. However, by the time this was resolved production had stopped. The market has now been taken by Quad bikes."

The yarn sounded genuine . . . and my colleague didn't have time to officially check it out . . . but there in front of him was a said 'Duzgo'. And he took a few snaps of it to show them back home. He felt a little more convinced. Mind you, just a little more.