I'm just a working stiff, like most people, but I can afford to collect an old British gun or two. If I had a bit more money, I'd probably get a few Morgans, (at least one JAP engined 3-wheeler) and Jaguars, but if I was one of the co-founders of Google, I'd be getting a Spitfire. And not just any Spitfire, but an early Griffon engined hotrod built by Historic Flying Ltd. Those guys put them together like they just rolled off the factory floor in 1941, ready to turn back the hun.
One of the planes they just recently finished was an early 1940 built Spit whose pilot lasted just 55 minutes into his war till he was shot down over Calais and captured. The plane languished there, a backdrop to German picture takers, till it was buried by sand and surf. It popped back up in the 80's, and before the Duxford boys got to it, it was ripped apart by souvenir hunters, with at least 3 of the guns ripped out of the wings. There is a great article on this plane and it's history on the Telegraph, including a video of it up and flying. There is also a short history of the company on UK Warbirds.
Historic Flying has several spits for sale right now, and (at probably 1.25 million apiece) will deliver it and set it up, get it certified, and even get you trained to fly it. If you keep it in the UK, you can even get them to take care of it for you. If only I owned Google....
