Husband Mark Rabbidge bought her what he described as “a funky old Volvo” for her birthday, but he narrowly escaped serious injury when it burst into flames the day after it was registered.

Mark was driving the light green 1989 Volvo station wagon along the Princes Highway through Jerrawangala on Thursday morning when he noticed a puff of smoke coming from behind the dashboard.

“It smelt like electrical wiring,” he said.

He realised there was a clearing beside the road about a kilometre ahead, and set his mind to reaching it, even as smoke started to fill the car and he had to wind down the windows and even open a door to breathe.

As soon as he pulled over in the clearing and got out of the car it burst into flames that reached four to five metres in height, and could have easily ignited surrounding trees had he been anywhere else but a cleared picnic area.

“As I got out, away she went,” Mark said while watching Rural Fire Service volunteers from Basin View hosing what was left of the car.

Mark bought the car several months ago and had been fixing it up ahead of registering it on Wednesday.

At the time it caught alight he was taking it to a friend’s workshop in Wandandian so it could be polished, ahead of giving it to Pam for her birthday on Saturday.

Ironically Pam’s partner in her surf school, Roz Johnston, lost her well-known VW beetle when it caught fire while being driven through Mollymook in March.

The story of that fire is here: Iconic car up in flames

Following the earlier car fire Mark convinced Pam to abandon her old VW she drove and loved, because it was always smoking and leaking oil and, Mark said, was a fire risk.

“I got her this funky old Volvo instead, because they’re supposed to be incredibly safe and reliable, but now it’s caught fire she’ll probably want to drive a boring Commodore or Toyota like everyone else,” he lamented.

While shocked by the fire, “I’m glad it happened to me, not Pam and (their daughter) Isobel,” Mark said.

“The worst thing is the car was going really well,” he added.

“I was driving along this morning thinking ‘How good’s this thing’.

“The other worst part of this is now I have to find Pam another birthday present,” Mark laughed.