I was somewhat reluctant to send a bio, but I do have sort of an interesting
story to tell. Here goes:
My name is Jack Radley, I am 42, married, 4 kids, partner in a Cincinnati,
OH CPA firm, etc., etc. I first became interested in TR6's when, as a
teenager, my next door neighbor bought one. I can't remember what year it
was, but it was definitely a nice car. The TR6 left its mark on me.
My daily driver is a Chevy Suburban which I park every day (more like dock)
in a downtown parking garage. While visiting a client, I was admiring his
brand new BMW 328 convertible. It dawned on me that a 328c of my own would
alleviate my driving woes on weekends and nice days during the warm months.
After pricing the BMW I wanted at about $45K, it occurred to me that a TR6
might be a better fit. Years earlier, I had told a client/friend who is a
6-Pack surrogate buyer that someday I might go after a TR6 - well, the time
had come.
In November 1998 I began my search. I found one car in the paper and a
couple of more cars on the Internet. I then ran my own ad "TR6 wanted" in
the Cincinnati paper. I looked at about a dozen cars in all. I saw the
good the bad and the ugly. I came real close to two of the first ten cars.
The ultra clean one of the two turned out to be a deceiver and the second
one was just not what I was looking for (it was far from original with
webers, modified exhaust, racing seatbelts, electronic ignition, electric
fan, etc). Not that the second of the two wasn't a nice car - it just had
too many gizmos - too far from original - just not what I wanted. I'll call
this second car (#10) - "Mr. Sellers" car.
Knowing that between a lack of skill on my part and an aversion to pouring
money into a basket case, after the first ten, I gave up. I told my friend,
in front of the mechanic we were having look at the cars, that I had had
enough and wanted to give up on the TR6 idea. It was a fun search, but I
was worn out and couldn't take any more.
Two days later, the mechanic called my friend with two more cars (#11 and
#12) that we needed to see. The first one was a very nice frame off
restoration, but the car still needed an interior, a top installation, some
electrical bugs worked out, and a tune up - still not what I was looking
for. The second car (#12) is now my car.
I picked up my car (#12) on December 19, 1998. The car had been given a
clean bill of health by the mechanics, with the exception of concern over
old rubber parts, etc. The car is a 76 TR6, Pimento/Black #CF57991U. When I
picked it up the original mileage was 6,057. The car was in excellent shape
and 100% original. I have since restuffed the seats, replaced just about
everything rubber (mechanical) on it (except for the 23yr old redlines which
I only put on for shows), tuned (as the list already knows if you read the
carb posts), and generally cleaned and polished it on an ongoing basis. The
car won second place at the Carrolton Ky Scottish Weekend car show behind a
spotlessly restored TR7 (6,7,8 grouped together?) and won first place in the
judged competition at the Cincinnati British Car Day. The car now has about
8,500 miles on it, is a blast to drive, and has fulfilled its role of
getting me out of my Suburban on weekends.
Now for the interesting part of my story:
When reading the Spring 1999 6-Pack magazine, the article "How not to sell
your TR6" caught my eye. I read with great interest as the author discussed
his travails in selling his car. My interest piqued when, two thirds of the
way through the article, I started to recognize two of the characters. You
see, I was "Mr. Interested Buyer" and my friend, the 6-Pack surrogate buyer,
was "Mr. Expert" and the car in the article was good old #10. I'm not sure
how good Mr. Seller's facts were in the article, and he may suffer from
multiple personalities, but I saw him at the Cincinnati British Car Day and
he has since traded his shotgun for a baby stroller. Meanwhile, I have no
doubt that I made the right decision.
And now, you know the rest of the story..........
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