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 - the time had
come.
In November 98 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 leads on 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 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 clean and polish 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 featured marque 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. As I
read, it became clear that 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 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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