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A particular vehicle you never quite had.
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Peter_L



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

PostPosted: Sun Dec 06, 2020 9:43 pm    Post subject: A particular vehicle you never quite had. Reply with quote

Around 1964-5 I would regularly travel some 10 miles to pick up my girlfriend from work. I had a Mini Van back then but was looking for something different.

One day a Red MGA appeared on the forecourt of a garage. I can't be 100% sure of the price (maybe £399)... I do know it ended in 99. Alas my parents didn't think it was a good idea and wouldn't help fund the purchase, the insurance was also going to be a problem... Then one day it was gone. In a way it was a slight relief.. That little garage is now a Ford dealership.
Over all the years, it is the only vehicle that I wanted but couldn't have.
... It looked a bit like this....

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Penman



Joined: 23 Nov 2007
Posts: 4750
Location: Swindon, Wilts.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 06, 2020 11:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi
I had the fantasy of making this, an MGAGTE

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peter scott



Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Posts: 7113
Location: Edinburgh

PostPosted: Mon Dec 07, 2020 12:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

When I was teenager I repaired a very large console radio (Murphy A40) for a friend of my father. He had a Jensen 541 that had been abandoned for a few years and was missing its carbs and a few other parts. I could have had it for very little money but was worried that even if I could find the missing parts I probably couldn't afford to insure it so I didn't take advantage of the opportunity but did regret it.

Peter
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Ray White



Joined: 02 Dec 2014
Posts: 6283
Location: Derby

PostPosted: Mon Dec 07, 2020 2:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

A school friend's father used to run a magnificent old MkV11 Jaguar. I remember it being green with a wonderful smelling leather interior. I was a passenger a few times and always wished I could one day own a car like it. Not long after leaving school the car became available on the grapevine.

I went to see the Mk V11 and expressed an interest in buying it but my ignorance of Jaguar models left the owner unimpressed. What had happened was that I had said I knew what the car was but the owner told me the car was not just a MkV11. Unaware at the time that there was no MkV1, I suggested exactly that!!

What the owner wanted to hear was that it was a rarer MkV11M that produced 190BHP. He felt - quite rightly - that the car should go to someone who had a better grasp of Jaguar history.

The disappointment of missing out on that particular car spurred me on to making a study of Jaguar history and in addition to buying a rare Austin Swallow (a bit smaller than the Mk V11) I became Editor of "Swallow Ramblings"; the Austin Swallow Register newsletter. As a consequence I was proud to have been made an honorary life member of the JDC.
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Keith D



Joined: 16 Oct 2008
Posts: 1127
Location: Upper Swan, Western Australia

PostPosted: Mon Dec 07, 2020 2:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

While an apprentice earning very, very little in about 1962, I saw an early MG sports cars advertised at 100 pounds at a local garage. I fretted over this car for ages. It had been fitted with a Ford engine, but in those un-educated days, I looked upon that as an advantage.

Everybody said I was mad wanting this 'old crock'. A much older family friend went out and bought a rather nasty Ford Anglia on my behalf for 15 pounds. That was the nearest I have ever been to getting an MG, a brand I have always admired. The MG sold and the Ford was a disaster. I had a hell of a job forgiving that family friend!

Keith
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roverdriver



Joined: 18 Oct 2008
Posts: 1210
Location: 100 miles from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

PostPosted: Mon Dec 07, 2020 6:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

In 1959 I was looking for an older type car, but lacked money. I heard of a 1928 Stutz (I think it was a Blackhawk) so on my trusty bike, I cycled off to see it. It was a beautiful machine, but way out of my price range- they were asking £50 for it!
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Bengt Axel



Joined: 07 Sep 2008
Posts: 267
Location: Cheshire

PostPosted: Mon Dec 07, 2020 9:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

When I was 15 (this is 1982) a friends father showed my an Isetta bubble car in the back of his garage. It has been parked up some years ago and was basically just dirty and needed a thorough recommissioning. I was in love.

It could be mine for £35, which was a tenner more than I had in the world. Enthusiastically I raced home to tell my dad (and 'borrow' a tenner), only to be told 'you are NOT bringing that bloody thing back here'.

Winding forward thirty odd years I saw the self same Isetta, now beautifully restored, up for sale. £22,995 .....
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mikeC



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

PostPosted: Mon Dec 07, 2020 9:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oh, there's been quite a few!

There was the pre-war 6C Alfa Romeo in a back-street garage in Manchester that I could have bought for £20 in 1964. In my ignorance I thought, since it wasn't an 8-cylinder car, it must be post-war and of little interest. It turned out to be an ex-Mille Miglia car which sold a few years ago for several million pounds.

Then there was the one-owner 1924 Talbot 10/23 which I so nearly bought - that was probably around 1970 - but I needed to sell a car first to afford it; I was most upset when the bank manager refused a short-term loan, The car had an NE (Manchester) registration number, and there is no trace of the car today. I have often wondered what happened to it.

And then there was the 1931 Talbot 75, a model I had long-lusted after. At least that one had a sort-of happy ending, since my father bought it with the promise that I could take it over when I had finished the then-current restoration that I was working on. Then marriage and house purchase intervened, my father died, and my mother finished his restoration before selling the car. I did, at least, get to drive it on several occasions:



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Ray White



Joined: 02 Dec 2014
Posts: 6283
Location: Derby

PostPosted: Mon Dec 07, 2020 10:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bengt Axel wrote:
When I was 15 (this is 1982) a friends father showed my an Isetta bubble car in the back of his garage. It has been parked up some years ago and was basically just dirty and needed a thorough recommissioning. I was in love.

It could be mine for £35, which was a tenner more than I had in the world. Enthusiastically I raced home to tell my dad (and 'borrow' a tenner), only to be told 'you are NOT bringing that bloody thing back here'.

Winding forward thirty odd years I saw the self same Isetta, now beautifully restored, up for sale. £22,995 .....


I know how you felt at not getting that Isetta.! My Dad's response was very similar but he relented having previously refused to entertain a ford Pop on his drive. At least the bubble car could be hidden away and was, he assumed, safer than the motorbike I would otherwise have bought.

I bought the Isetta for £25 and eventually sold it for £75 which at the time I thought was a good deal. I wish I had been able to keep it - if only as an investment!

(Although not in Mike's league!!!)^^^
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Rick
Site Admin


Joined: 27 Apr 2005
Posts: 22429
Location: UK

PostPosted: Mon Dec 07, 2020 11:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I always regret not making enquiries about a very dusty Messerschmitt four-wheeler (I think) that I stumbled across in the dark corner of a hangar in the early 1980s. Although I imagine it would have cost a few bob even then.

I'm surprised MikeC can sleep at night Smile

RJ
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petelang



Joined: 21 May 2009
Posts: 442
Location: Nottingham

PostPosted: Mon Dec 07, 2020 1:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

As an apprentice, I was tasked one day to do some repairs to a plain white Triumph Stag that was in a most deplorable state. The paint had gone dull, a big dent in the offside door, dents all over, bits of chrome trim missing and the interior stank with wet carpets and a very unloved appearance yet it was only about 4 years old.
I was smitten by the lovely V8 burble and seriously desired one of these but they were all well above my pay grade at the time.
I approached the owner when he came to collect it and made a cheeky offer but was turned down flat as he had just acquired it to do up.
Forty five years later I still haven't got one but...maybe one day.
Peter
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Ray White



Joined: 02 Dec 2014
Posts: 6283
Location: Derby

PostPosted: Mon Dec 07, 2020 2:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

petelang wrote:
As an apprentice, I was tasked one day to do some repairs to a plain white Triumph Stag that was in a most deplorable state. The paint had gone dull, a big dent in the offside door, dents all over, bits of chrome trim missing and the interior stank with wet carpets and a very unloved appearance yet it was only about 4 years old.
I was smitten by the lovely V8 burble and seriously desired one of these but they were all well above my pay grade at the time.
I approached the owner when he came to collect it and made a cheeky offer but was turned down flat as he had just acquired it to do up.
Forty five years later I still haven't got one but...maybe one day.
Peter


Hi Peter. I know someone who has a magenta Triumph Stag that hasn't been used in years. I can make enquiries if you like?
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V8 Nutter



Joined: 27 Aug 2012
Posts: 587

PostPosted: Mon Dec 07, 2020 3:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

When I was 17 a friend had a 1937 Ford V8 Club Cabriolet, with a broken half shaft. He was trying to sell it for £10, he couldn't afford to get it fixed. I found someone with a half shaft for £2. 10 shillings. I went to buy the car but it had just been sold for £9 to a dealer/scrap man. I went to try and buy it again and it had been sold again for £11. A couple of years later the same dealer had a 1953 Cadillac convertible that was badly knocked about but a good runner. He wanted £125 for it, but I couldn't afford that, I heard later It had originally belonged to Diana Dors. Only recently I was talking to the dealers Great Grandson and he confirmed. Yes, it had belonged to Diana Dors! What would that be worth now?
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mikeC



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

PostPosted: Mon Dec 07, 2020 4:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote



This one?
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in the garage: 1938 Talbot Ten Airline
Recently departed: 1953 Lancia Appia, 1931 Austin Seven, 1967 Singer Chamois, 1914 Saxon, 1930 Morris Cowley, 1936 BSA Scout, 1958 Lancia Appia coupe, 1922 Star 11.9 ... the list goes on!
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Ray White



Joined: 02 Dec 2014
Posts: 6283
Location: Derby

PostPosted: Mon Dec 07, 2020 4:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You beat me to it, Mike!

Diana had moved on from Yank Tanks and drove about in a Rolls Royce Corniche ( with the top down, of course!) by the time I moved to Sunningdale.
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