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Editor's welcome - November 2005

Welcome to the November 2005 edition of Classic Car Times.

For the second time this year I’m embarrassed to have to apologise for not producing an update to the site last month. I have however come up with a couple of original excuses this time.

Firstly, I’ve been having technical difficulties with accessing the Internet making updating the site almost impossible. This also means that I’ve not been responding to emails so an additional apology to anyone who has emailed me but not had a reply. Anyway, the man from BT has now sorted it all and hopefully normal service can now be resumed.

My second excuse is that I’ve been otherwise distracted by a few things which even prevented me from attending the NEC earlier in the month. Some of the distractions have been on the domestic front and I won’t bore you with the detail of those, but the main one is more interesting.

If you read the last update then you may remember that I recently tried out an E-type 2+2 and, as we’re approaching pantomime season, I can only describe it as fitting perfectly like Cinderella’s slipper. So the search started and after a couple of false starts, I’ve managed get one!

You don’t need a crystal ball to predict that it will probably become a regular site on these pages over the coming months and probably years, so I won’t be saying too much about it here and now.

What I will say however is that in some respects it’s not what I was expecting to get. What I was definitely looking for was a condition 2 Series 1 2+2 without a sunroof. Ideally it would be 1967 manual in an elegant colour such as a dark blue.

What I’ve ended up with is a fairly non-original converted US import in primrose which requires quite a lot of work to drag it up to condition 2. The engine is from a 420 and the auto box has been replaced with a manual. The LHD to RHD conversion whilst perfectly usable requires finishing cosmetically.

You could be forgiven for thinking that I’ve ended up settling for the first car I saw, but despite everything I’ve said, I think it has the makings of becoming everything I want and the price reflected its condition and lack of originality.

I’m not the sort of person who is going to be obsessive about originality. I know it will be worth less when I come to sell it if it doesn’t have the original engine but then the purchase price reflected that. What it does have going for it is that it’s a 1967 Series 1 2+2 without a sunroof. These are all features it would be impossible to change on any other car – everything else can be sorted though I must admit that I’m warming to the primrose.

Anyway, I’ve already said more than I meant to. As ever, I hope you enjoy the site this month.

    John Cooper
    Editor

editor@classiccartimes.co.uk