The Leigh company Racetech, founded in 1995, supplies the cruisers on Southend seafront with many of their gadgets and go-faster stripes.

It also provides some of the more sophisticated mechanical and restoration work for those who don't want to do it themselves.

Few of the seafront cruisers, though, are likely to be aware of the tale of horrific tragedy and renewed life that lies behind the recent purchase of the firm.

On November 1 2003, Michael Schulz's shattered body was pulled out from a scene of road carnage.

Initially he was thought to be dead. Four occupants of the vehicles died.

Painstaking medical care and his own determination to live and make a new life for himself saw him through.

Like some of the cars he restores, he was given a new lease of life.

Although Michael himself is still reluctant to talk about the crash, his wife Carly recalls the full story. Carly watched over her husband in the months following the crash that almost killed him, and saw the process as he healed and changed.

"I think that being so close to death made him more focused than before. He determined to do something with his life," she said.

Michael, now 27, won substantial compensation for the accident. He used the money to buy into the life he'd always wanted - running his own business, and working with cruising cars.

Carly said: "Cars had always been Michael's hobby.

"He used to enjoy doing them up, and he'd take them out cruising on Southend seafront on Saturday nights.

"He was already familiar with Racetech, and knew the owner, Michael.

"But I don't think he would ever, in his wildest dreams, have imagined actually being in a position to own a firm like Racetech."

Now the dream has turned real, Michael and Carly have a whole range of plans for Racetech, based in London Road, Leigh, opposite Stafford's hairdressers.

Racetech's own cars will be more on display and the company will have a higher profile at shows and trade fairs. And they'll have another interest as well - passing on road safety tips to younger drivers.

Before the crash that changed his life, cruising cars were Michael's passion, but not his livelihood. He had a day job as a railway maintenance worker.

Carly worked and still works in the City, for the Royal Bank of Scotland.

She was at work, not long after the birth of their first child, when she received a message that Michael had been involved in a fatal crash.

He had been in a railway van with workmates. In a country lane outside Tilbury the van hit another vehicle head-on.

"Michael was sitting in the front, strapped in," said Carly. "But one of his friends in the rear seat didn't have his seat belt on.

"He was killed. His body was thrown forward and hit Michael."

Michael's injuries included a broken neck, a severely damaged back, a broken leg, a broken shoulder and lacerations across his entire face. "He was just lucky to survive," says Carly.

Survive he did, although he was declared unfit to work in his old job. "It gave him the incentive to run his own business, and the money to do it," Carly said.

Two years later, the couple are set to embark on a new life.

"It was a grim experience at the time, yes, grim," Carly said.

"But you never quite know where things are going to take you.

"Without that crash we'd never have been in the position we are now, with a business of our own."