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A particular vehicle you never quite had.
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MVPeters



Joined: 28 Aug 2008
Posts: 822
Location: Northern MA, USA

PostPosted: Wed Dec 09, 2020 1:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

[quote="Rick"]
Ray White wrote:
..... One day I'll follow it up, although I doubt I could afford it!!! ..... RJ


Judging by the previous comments, I wouldn't wait too long!
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Ray White



Joined: 02 Dec 2014
Posts: 6286
Location: Derby

PostPosted: Wed Dec 09, 2020 1:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well Rick; there's no time like the present. I would be interested if only to see if it might be a new discovery.

I doubt the owner has any idea of it's value. Wink
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Ellis



Joined: 07 Mar 2011
Posts: 1382
Location: Betws y Coed, North Wales

PostPosted: Fri Dec 18, 2020 12:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

This is a subject that makes me kick myself and I have done so for the last forty years.

I bought a low mileage one lady owner 1976Triumph Stag in the January of 1980 at an absurdly low price and thought I had done quite well for myself. After all nobody really wanted Stags at the time.

In April of 1980 my cousin moved house from the North Wales coast (Penrhyn Bay) to Mold in North East Wales. Her husband worked for a high street bank and advancement and promotion meant frequent moves, a job necessity.

My mother and I went to visit the family after the move and I noticed something in an independent petrol station which warranted investigation.
My cousin's husband was out socialising with his new colleagues when we arrived and despite an invitation to join him I was more interested in what I had seen earlier.

I filled up my daily Clubman estate, paid and asked if I could have a look at what I had seen earlier. The proprietor was obliging and handed me the keys. He was not a car dealer in the known sense but a mechanic who owned the filling staion and accompanying repair facility.

The car was a 1972 "L" registration white Ford Escort RS1600 (a Mark One) with 52k on the odometer. It was the basic model - steel wheels, standard RS front wings, rubber flooring but in good seven and a half year old used condition. The owner asked me if I would like a drive as we had struck something of a rapport and he was a friendly guy.
I had driven an Escort Twin Cam before and that was not a pleasant experience - coughing carbs, rough drive with an engine which really only "pulled" after 3000 rpm. The RS 1600 was completely different with a linear power delivery and very rewarding if a little noisy.

The owner explaned that he had bought it from Quicks Ford in Chester in January 1973 as an employee at the time. Quicks had registered two Escorts in September 1972 to follow the 1972 RAC rally in which Quicks had an advertising interest and this was one of them.

How much was I offered the RS for? The asking price was £895 and without a part exchange £850. I had the available money and even my mother told me to buy it. Having recently bought the Stag I hummed and bothered for days. The owner even phoned me and offered to deliver it with a full tank of petrol and 28 days warranty.

I needed my head examining because the next one I was offered was a local car with extended wings ex competition example in 1983 and so "messed about" with that it was not a feasible buy despite the allure of the registratio number - 1082 K.

Who wants to be second to kick my backside? I was the first but form a queue fellow forumeers......
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1964 Jaguar Mark 2 3.4 litre
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Last edited by Ellis on Fri Dec 18, 2020 12:33 am; edited 2 times in total
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lowdrag



Joined: 10 Apr 2009
Posts: 1585
Location: Le Mans

PostPosted: Fri Dec 18, 2020 6:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

We all have cars that we wish we had owned, and I wonder if the reality would be as good as the imagination. Some things are better in in one's dreams sometimes. But one dream that recurs is being taken one day to a small back street garage in Nuneaton. We went in my MK VIII, and I was introduced to the owner. Inside was a usual garage - ramp, cars being serviced, all as one would expect. Except there was a car in the corner covered over. It was one of the six or seven Daytona convertibles! A door opened to another part of the garage and there were cars one could only imagine, including a DB4 Zagato, the DB3S that twice came second at Le Mans, aqnd Dick Seaman's Type 35 Bugatti. 38 cars in all. I got to drive the DB3S one day and played tunes on the side exhaust up and down the A5. A car that touched the soul, always way beyond my pay grade, but at least I have the memory.
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Ellis



Joined: 07 Mar 2011
Posts: 1382
Location: Betws y Coed, North Wales

PostPosted: Fri Dec 18, 2020 8:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Interesting Lowdrag but I have a rather more prosaic recollection.

In March 1985 my neighbour had tired of his 1976 Aston Martin V8 after only a year of ownership and wanted to return to a Bentley T series or Rolls Royce equivalent and eventually bought one of the last Series One Silver Shadows.

He disliked the big bumpered Series Twos.

He offered me his silver coloured example Aston for £3500 and even took me for a tempting drive. What struck me then was how big a car it was with poor outward visibility particularly to the rear but because the Aston was automatic it really did not appeal to me.

Mind you, £3500 was a sizeable sum of money in 1985 even if the registration number SVN 52 was included.
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1964 Jaguar Mark 2 3.4 litre
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Peter_L



Joined: 10 Apr 2008
Posts: 2680
Location: New Brunswick. Canada.

PostPosted: Fri Dec 18, 2020 3:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Good to see you posting again Ellis. Take care.... Smile
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Minxy



Joined: 22 Sep 2010
Posts: 272
Location: West Northants

PostPosted: Fri Dec 18, 2020 5:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Before I purchased the Lanchester I was in talks with a guy to buy a Talbot 80 problem was the car was practically on the north coast of Scotland so viewing it would have been a two day trip. A member on here, Colwyn 500, had a look at it on my behalf and I was confident to make the purchase but could not agree a low enough price to cover any shocks when it arrived and the transport costs. Still wish I had committed.
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Sid



Joined: 20 Sep 2017
Posts: 76
Location: From whence cometh the mighty Lagonda

PostPosted: Fri Dec 18, 2020 10:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote


I was outbid for this one at the Brooklands auction last year. It was a one owner, fabulous condition AND it had a Middlesex registration.
Bah!
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lowdrag



Joined: 10 Apr 2009
Posts: 1585
Location: Le Mans

PostPosted: Sat Dec 19, 2020 3:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

In the mid 1990's I found the fourth E-type roadster in a back street garage in St Helens. On one side the body shell, new sills fitted, and in primer, no bonnet, the engine and gearbox rebuilt in 1974 and just sitting there for more than 20 years, and the rest of the car in tea chests. I spent two years discussing the car and trying to buy it so it could be saved. It was truly important being Lofty England's demonstrator at launch. But the price went up, and we discussed, and in the end I bit the bullet and sent a cheque for the sum we had agreed on. He sent it back saying he'd changed his mind. I bitterly regret that I was unable to purchase it. He sold it in the end and it now belongs to a very wealthy man who spent a fortune restoring it.
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Peter_L



Joined: 10 Apr 2008
Posts: 2680
Location: New Brunswick. Canada.

PostPosted: Sun Feb 14, 2021 10:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I was looking for a particular photo today and came across this.

Back in 2005, I was working at the New Car Compound in Winnipeg MB. This vehicle had been used as a general yard vehicle for many years until being banned by the "Elf n say Fee" people. I enquired about buying it but was thwarted by unbelievable, but maybe not, bureaucracy. Nobody knew who it actually belonged to. Neither CN or CPR, who shared the compound knew if it was theirs. The unloading company had used it, but didn't know who it belonged to. Hence no one was prepared to sell it or even value it.

I left their employ in 2013. Maybe it will show up on Google Earth ... ?

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consul 57



Joined: 09 Nov 2017
Posts: 482
Location: somerset

PostPosted: Tue Feb 16, 2021 10:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Peter_L wrote:
I was looking for a particular photo today and came across this.

Back in 2005, I was working at the New Car Compound in Winnipeg MB. This vehicle had been used as a general yard vehicle for many years until being banned by the "Elf n say Fee" people. I enquired about buying it but was thwarted by unbelievable, but maybe not, bureaucracy. Nobody knew who it actually belonged to. Neither CN or CPR, who shared the compound knew if it was theirs. The unloading company had used it, but didn't know who it belonged to. Hence no one was prepared to sell it or even value it.

I left their employ in 2013. Maybe it will show up on Google Earth ... ?



nice canadian cmp no13 cab 15cwt converted into a crane, nice, quite a few over here in the uk
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Peter_L



Joined: 10 Apr 2008
Posts: 2680
Location: New Brunswick. Canada.

PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2021 2:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi Consul....... As a postwar UK baby I grew up surrounded by ex military vehicles in various guises. You may have seen images, on here, of my father's 1/4 ton "Tilleys". They were quite prolific back then, many coming via Donington.



Below: Courtesy of 1943 British propaganda film. "Millions Like Us"


Via this web page. "Melbourne Corner
http://www.silhouet.com/motorsport/tracks/doningto.html
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lowdrag



Joined: 10 Apr 2009
Posts: 1585
Location: Le Mans

PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2021 5:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

In the 1960's, a friend's Dad was a farmer, and in the barn was a Riley Pathfinder. I was too young to drive, and even now I don't know why the car made such an impression on me. I don't think I have ever seen another. Is my memory playing tricks, or was the gear change on the right of the driver's seat?
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mikeC



Joined: 31 Jul 2009
Posts: 1771
Location: Market Warsop, Nottinghamshire

PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2021 9:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, lowdrag, the Pathfinder had a right-hand gear-change; even more remarkable, a left-hand-drive Pathfinder was recently up for sale, and that had a left-hand gearchange!
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peter scott



Joined: 18 Dec 2007
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Location: Edinburgh

PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2021 10:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The right hand gear change was good if you want a bench front seat and it was also great for going up your trouser leg as you entered the car.

I always thought that the right hand handbrake on Rootes car was nice because you could engage first gear simultaneously with releasing the brake and get away quicker from the lights.

Peter
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