TA 0346 (BKV 67)
It’s nice to be able to record a success! In the previous issue, Bob Lyell sent in this photo, which he had taken at Oulton Park in the late 1960s. The present owner, Keith Griffin, saw the ‘write-up’ in ‘Lost and Found’ and made contact with the Editor. Keith told me that he bought the car in 1967, but it was off the road by December 1968 as it was desperately in need of a rebuild. When purchased, the doors were kept shut with shoot bolts (otherwise they would open if the car was driven diagonally across a gutter in the road) and the bottom of the body frame finally disintegrated after some 18 months of daily use.
Bob Lyell’s photo would have been taken during 1967/68 before the car was taken off the road. During the rebuild it made an appearance as a rebuilt chassis on the Octagon Car Club’s stand at Stafford Showground in the early 1970s.
The car was finally put back on the road in 1975 and is still in regular use after some 52 years of ownership. As can be seen from the photo below it looks to be in absolutely splendid condition.
Bob and Keith have since met at a model engineering meeting near Bob’s home and it seems that both of them used to attend the ‘Noggin & Natters’ run by Harry Crutchley in Stafford in the 1970s.
TD (chassis no?) Registration mark RUB 62
Guy Parker is enquiring about this TD which his father owned from 1955 to 1957. Here’s what he said in his e-mail:
The only information Dad can remember is that it was a 1953 model which he actually bought when it was about two years old, him only being a young chap making a good saving on the price of a new one, so that would be about 1955, he bought it from an MG dealer in Bradford, (possibly Ernest Lawson Ltd at Bramley), but whoever it was they actually sourced the car from a dealer in Blackpool.
Then sadly, Mum made him sell it when I came along in 1957, he traded it in for a Ford Consul (I still have the key ring from that car) probably at Tate of Leeds New York Road.
That’s all we know I’m afraid, I’m sorry the photo is a bit faded out at the top, but the number plate and most of the car is very clear, the car was originally green.
The car is alive and well and is shown on a DVLA enquiry to be cream in colour and currently taxed.
Any ‘leads’ to the editor, please to jj(at)ttypes.org
[Please substitute @ for (at)].TC4042 (was FGD 853)
Christer Almén has owned this TC since 1973. Originally registered as FGD 853 (Glasgow) on 21st November 1947, it was exported to Sweden in late 1968. Christer has been able to trace the car’s history from 1947 to January 1961, when it lived in Berkshire, but nothing after that. Any ‘leads’ to the Editor, please.
