A classic car spontaneously exploded in the middle of a residential area.

The Ford Cortina 1600A burst into flames as its owner Mark Clayton pulled up next to a home in Eaton Gardens in Hove this afternoon.

Seeing smoke coming from the engine, the mobile hairdresser swung the car into a layby on the corner of Denmark Villas and Cromwell Road and leapt out of the vehicle.

He then had to stand and watch as his pride and joy was destroyed by flames shooting 3ft into the air.

Petrol poured from the vehicle and ignited, coming dangerously close to another car parked nearby. But firefighters arrived and after a short battle were able to control the fire before it spread. Dozens of people gathered to watch the blaze.

Mr Clayton, 44, from Varnden Park estate off London Road, Brighton, said: "As I went down the road, smoke started coming out. I quickly turned down into a layby and I got out of the car. Somebody very kindly phoned the fire brigade.

"I am rather upset, as you can imagine. Anybody would be.

"I want to remember it as it was."

The Cortina was made in 1971, one of the last of a line begun in 1968. Even at the time there were not that many on the road.

Mr Clayton, who also owns a Riley Kestrel 1300 and a Vanden Plas Princess 1300, has no idea why the fire started.

He has owned the Cortina since February, 2005. He recently had to switch to leaded petrol because four-star is impossible to find, but has conscientiously been using an additive and has the car serviced regularly.

He said: "It is a mystery as to why it caught fire. I check the anti-freeze and oil every single day. I have had to have quite a few new batteries in that car. As to why that is, I don't know. It goes to Rottingdean every week."

He said he keeps cars as a hobby instead of "drinking, smoking and socialising".

He said: "It is quite an expensive hobby. All three of my cars are maintained regularly. Older cars are like older people - they're always in for something."

The fire was captured on film by Mark Easen, who was in his girlfriend Beatrice Pinson's flat in Denmark Villas.

Mr Easen, 48, a self-employed motor engineer, said: "It was about 6ft behind a red Peugeot 205 and the fuel was running along the road from the fuel line. If the fire department hadn't put it out, it certainly could have spread quite badly. It took quite a while to put it out."

Mr Easen heard two explosions, which he said were probably the tyres bursting.

The former owner of a Ford Cortina 1600, he said the fire was likely to have been caused by a leak in the fuel system ignited by a stray ignition spark or heat from the exhaust.