Frank Grahamn and David Knowles wrote soemthing on the mgcars.org.uk "MG Car
Company" board that bear repeating:
DAVID KNOWLES:
Speaking of 'provenance', as far as Tony Giordano's car is concerned, I think
Frank expressed it pretty well - we await hard evidence to support that car's
provenance. To date there has been a fair bit of 'conspiracy theory' and
tantalising bits and pieces, but much of the evidence is based on trying to
reinterpret individuals' fading memories of well over thirty years ago
(quoting 'he said six shells rather than five ...' and so forth). I'd love
there to be a great story here, but sadly I haven't heard it yet...
WHAT FRANK SAID:
I have some knowledge of this car and had noticed it on eBay. I was surprised
to see Derek Durst offering the car since for the past several years it has
been owned by a fellow named Tony Giordano in Westchester County, New York. I
assume that Derek is acting as a broker in this case or has just purchased
the car. Derek is no stranger to MG exotica, several years back he had BMO
541B an alloy bodied '64 LeMans MGB, the Hopkirk/Hedges car, which eventually
was sold at auction in the UK. The story I have heard and as I understand it
is that the car that Nashe-Wiseman found was broken up and all that was
obtained were a few alloy bits and some of the mechanical gear and most
importantly the log book for RMO 699F. He then built up a car using a steel
MGC shell and when finished, used the log book to obtain the registration RMO
699F for this car. At some later point the owner of the other car purported
to be RMO, Colin Pearcy would be my guess, presented evidence that this
registration should be with his car. Apparently DVL(?) that issues these
things agreed, the registration was transferred and the 'log book' that
Nashe-Wiseman had had disappeared. Tony Giordano tried very hard for several
years to establish a history for this car. There are some interesting tid
bits such as the chassis plate which looks authentic and the story of six
shells but only five accounted for. I don't think there is any doubt that the
factory competition department were not averse to swapping the identities of
cars to suit their needs, they were building race cars after all not
establishing pedigrees. Bottom line is that even if Nashe-Wiseman found the
remains of a works MGC GTS, what you are looking at now is largely a replica
with at best some original bits mixed in. It has quite a bit of patina, ie.
it's rough, which may make it easier to believe it is real. However, unless
some hard evidence turns up to support a 3rd GTS being built by the factory,
I think most people will dismiss it as a replica.
WHAT I SAID!!!!
Replica or not, it hasn't made reserve. Nobody is gonna end up owning this
car from this auction. I'm sure the reserve has been put abitiously hight.
Personally, as a replica, and a damn nice one at that, I'd put its value
around $20,000. As the real thing? The real thing isn't something you sell
on eBay, now is it? Thats where you sell used floor mats and an odd air
cleaner you happened to find in the garage. If this was an actual MGC
racer, and anyone actually believed it, it would be for sale at Coys or
Brooks or something. HOWEVER GANG... As a replica, and a damn good one,
what is it worth? I say 20k.
BTW, I have a house full of replica Hitchcock furniture, even stamped
"Hitchcock" ... nothing wrong with creating a replica, this replica furniture
has some unbelievabel craftsmanship and looks great. But wasn't sold to me
under the pretense that it was real, and I would never sell it on under the
pretense as it was real. But that doesn't stop Hitchcock from charging $750
for a single chair. That shouldn't stop someone from buying this really
awesome looking fraud and enjoying it.
John Elwood
www.mgmagnette.com
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