Alan,
Yes, you have been off the line for a while.
To some of us in San Diego, the "Mystery Machine" posted by Tim was not a
mystery at all. Bob Palmer immediately identified it as B.9470374 (a black
dash car), belonging to Shon Sloat of Vista. Bob Willis took pictures of the
car at British Car Days 1991. It has Porsche flairs, custom "Cobra" vents in
the fenders, Webbers on a 289HP which is lowered and set back, a 5-speed,
Ford rear end, Granada rear discs, etc., etc. When first completed it was
black, but now it is Porsche red. Andy Heaton did most of the work. In the
past few years, the car has been extensively advertised for sale, but without
any takers. I talked to Shon the other night on the phone, and he still has
the car, which is healthy and gets driven from time to time.
I'm not sure what car you have in mind when you refer to a "slant nose" Tiger
sometimes seen around San Diego, unless it is the red one belonging to Gert
Lundgren. The whole nose on that one tips up like an XKE. That is because
the car was horribly wrecked many years ago, and after Gert decided the front
end couldn't be saved, he put on the tilt-nose fiberglass piece instead. He
used to manufacture and sell those noses for Sunbeams. This car is chassis
no. B.382100327, and I remember when it originally belonged Wayne Ezell, a
charter member of our old Tiger Team San Diego back in the early seventies.
It was a gorgeous BRG MK II at that time.
I also remember Keith Ballard's car when Lou Anderson had Andy Heaton fix it
all up as a nice stocker. He drove it to Colorado to a Tiger convention that
year before it was purchased by a party in L.A. But that owner sold the car
because he had a bad back and couldn't drive it, so it came back to San Diego
to an exotic car dealer. They let a shop boy drive it for a parts delivery
or something, and that's when it got wrecked. It had been "fixed" by the
time Keith bought it, and he has been "unfixing" it ever since.
Then there was the time when your car was for sale in boxes for $1700 at a
body shop in Escondido. It was light blue then, just before Fred Hefty
bought it. Of course he sold it to the Navy helo pilot who sold you the car,
so finally, it now has a good home!
Like I always say, "The cars never change, only the owners do."
Dick
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