Here's another belated report...
On Sunday 26 July 1992 the family visited the Shoreline Antique Auto
Show at Durham, Connecticut.
All kinds of vehicles were there of all vintages, including "monster
trucks", fire-engines, etc. Mostly Detroit Iron though, but with
roughly 20 to 25 British Steel. Supposedly a total of 600 vehicles.
My main interest, of course, were the British Cars. There were MGBs,
MGAs, Triumphs, Jaguars, a couple of Austin Healeys, a couple of Rolls
Royces, one Bentley and one Jensen Healey.
One MGA, was a cream coloured 1962 MkII twin-cam with red interior.
I checked out the owners name and was pleasantly surprised to discover
it was a co-worker's husband's car. She has told me a few months ago
that her husband had one, but this was the first time I had ever seen it.
Neither person was around, so I didn't get a chance to ask if I could
sit in it or anything. Darn it! A beautiful car.
The Jensen Healey (forget the year, 74?) was orange-red with a black
interior. This one had a "for sale" sign on it. Asking $5100. I looked
the car over. It was very nice, in very good condition. There was one
small spot on the rear wing where the paint was beginning to bubble though.
No biggie. It also had a nice set of wheels and tyres giving the car an
impression that it could go fast(!). I saw a picture of the car in the local
trader this week, so if anyone is interested, I can look up the ad again.
Everyone was crowding around two beautiful Jags though... a jade green
XK150 and a white (1966 I think) 3.8 Litre MkII. I got talking with
one chap who I at first thought was the XK150 owner (looked rich enough :-)
But he was just admiring the car. Together we got chatting with the real
owner who was wearing a black t-shirt with the Jaguar logo on it. It turns
out that if the right buyer came along he'd let the car go for $86,000.
Even after all the hours he's put into it an enjoyed the car, he says.
The white MkII was the next car over and I got chatting with its owner and
another bloke who also owns a MkII. The two owners were comparing notes,
so I was listening in on a lot of technical stuff (yikes!). They were
explaining what a nice car it was to work on and how Jaguar had designed
it very well. I heard a couple of stories about how fast they could go too!
The owner of the show car related what condition his car was when he bought
it. The interior was completely tatty since the car had been sitting a while
and had been a home for some mice... he claimed there was several inches of
dirt in the car (at some time the car had probably sunk in some mud while
sitting in a field somewhere). I assumed the exterior was in pretty poor
shape too. But what I was looking at before me was virtually a new-looking
car. He'd done a fantastic restoration. As it turns out, he would probably
sell the car too if the right buyer came along (me, me, me!!!) Well we
discussed prices about unrestored cars and cars in his condition (I obviously
couldn't _really_ afford his car, wimper...) I guessed "at least $20,000"
for his, and he kind of agreed, thinking along the lines of "$25,000 or more"
Anyway, I eventually left after hand-shakes. The MkII owner said he was
going to "British On The Green", the car show in Granby, Connecticut on
30 August 1992. So I might go see him and his car again.
I _almost_ bought myself a car at the show. A Ferrari Berlinetta! Yes,
I even knocked the guy down to half his asking price... well, actually,
it was his idea of an offer. It was a nice green metallic colour with
spoke wheels. Well, I thought about it, but in the end I decided not
to part with my $15... oops, did I forget to mention it was an old Matchbox
car? Silly me :-)
Yes, at these shows I love to go around the flea markets looking for those
old Matchbox cars... the ones I threw away as a kid. I never had the
Ferrari though. Also I wasn't sure of its worth... I still haven't looked
up the value. Some other of the guy's stuff was over-priced, so we suspected
his half-price offer brought the car down closer to its actual value. So
in the end I didn't trust him and the car was probably worth much less.
Still looking for that old Matchbox MGA I lost a couple of decades and more
ago. I also had an MG 'T' series (C, D or F, I forget now) ...
Cheers!
Garry Archer Esq. archer@hsi.com
3M Health Information Systems, Wallingford, Connecticut, U.S.A.
"An Englishman never enjoys himself, except for a noble purpose." - A.P.Herbert
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