Mark Grinnall

From V8-engined Trumph TR7s via the three-wheeled Grinnall Scorpion to being an official dealer for Indian motorcycles-and there might be another surprise in store yet

- Richard Heseltine

Five minutes into the interview and one thing is clear: you would grow old waiting for Mark Grinnall to sing his own praises. A man who has achieved much on two, three and four wheels, he is pathologically averse to the limelight, openly wondering if anyone will want to read about him. He also hates having his photograph taken, that much is clear. His discomfort is writ large. After a lot of ribbing, Grinnall reaches a strained détente with the snapper - a mate of long standing before finally relaxing his shoulders and unclenching his jaw.

It is this lack of the Big I Am that makes you instantly warm to the Worcestershire man who is clearly happier lost in pencil-chewing contemplation than in playing the frontman. 'You could say that I am out of my comfort zone,' he offers somewhat redundantly before turning his attention to discussing how this farmer's son made the transition from junior motocross ace to car builder. That, and marque founder, trike magnate and most recently cocreator of dealer/biker destination Midwest Moto, alongside his wife Sonia.

'It started with motorcycles,' he says. 'I was fortunate enough to grow up on a farm, and my first two-wheeled means of transportation was a 49cc "twist and go" Raleigh Runabout. I graduated to a proper motorcycle after my dad delivered some potatoes to a fruit-and-veg shop. There in the basement was a James Commodore 250 and I think he paid a fiver for it. I ragged that thing around the fields. I never cleaned the air cleaner, I put whatever kind of petrol and oil I could find in it, but somehow it kept going for two years.