Lost and Found

Peter Wilgoss is hoping that someone out there might have some information which would lead to him being reunited with his TC (pictured above). The photo of Peter and his TC was taken around 1965 when he lived in Perivale, West London. Un- fortunately, the chassis number cannot be recalled to memory. If you can help, Peter would like to hear from you peterwilgoss.mg(at)gmail.com please substitute @ for (at).

Peter Warne has managed to research much useful history of his TB (TB0493), registration mark EWK 447, but has so far drawn a blank from the time it was exported new to Denmark with a KPH speedometer until it was registered again in the UK on 15^th December 1988 and was given the age-related registration mark EWK 447 (a Coventry number, first issued in July 1939).

It is possible that the car came back to the UK well before the date it was registered here; a possible clue being that it was allocated ‘T’ Register number 117 dating back to 1961, but any further details have been lost in the mists of time.

From the date of its re-registration in late 1988 there are various MoT Certificates from garages in Milton Keynes/Burton on Trent/Uttoxeter, the last one in Milton Common in April 1999.

Owned briefly by the late Peter Gregory, it was sold by him to Howard Harman in July 1999, who fully restored the car to a high standard, including a new body.

Purchased by John Garden through Barry Walker in January 2011, it was flown to Calgary, Alberta, where it only covered 15 road miles in four years and was flown back from Calgary to Heathrow in January 2016, having been bought by Peter Warne the month before.

It has since been fitted with a supercharger by Steve Baker and set up on a rolling road, it has recorded 80 BHP at the flywheel.

Peter is keen to fill in the gaps of his car’s history, so if you think you can help, please e-mail him at jpswarne(at)hotmail.com please substitute @ for (at).

TC2045 (was in Texas – now in Belgium)

Dirk Meersschaert from Belgium contacted me a few weeks ago to enlist my help in contacting the previous owner of his TC. As with some technical queries I receive, which I cannot answer myself, I generally know “a man who can”. So it was with Dirk’s request. He had experienced some difficulty in contacting William E Mott III in Dallas, Texas (the previous owner), so who better to ask than a fellow Texan! By a stroke of luck, Bob Lines had just e-mailed an advert for the sale of his TD so I asked him to facilitate contact between current owner and previous owner. Bob Duly obliged and contact has now been made.

Dirk sent me a couple of photos of his car and it is so nice that I’m going to show another one. Both photos were taken whilst on a historic rally accompanied by his wife in west Flanders near Ypres.

TC1988 (GDF 939)

Towards the end of summer 2016 (seems a long time ago now!) Charlie Makin contacted me about a TC owned by his father, Michael. At the time, Michael had just died and Charlie was going through some old photos for his father’s memorial service. He came across a 1950s photo of Charlie’s TC with the registration mark GDF 939 and wondered if I had any information about the car. As I recognised the registration mark straight away, being the car belonging to TTT 2 printed copy subscriber Chris Tordoff, I was able to bring both parties together.

In the period photo shown above, Michael is in the driving seat and Charlie’s grandmother is standing by the bonnet.

According to Charlie, Michael owned the car from the early/mid 50s ’till early ’60s and loved it. He drove to Italy in the TC with his wife for their honeymoon in 1957 (flying from Lydd and driving through the Alps.) He ‘blamed’ Charlie’s birth in 1960 as the reason he had to sell it! He later owned an MGBGT, as did Charlie and his brother, so the marque is clearly in the Makin family DNA.

The intention was always to try to find the car (or another T-series) for Michael’s 90th birthday, which would have been this January, but it didn’t materialise; yet unbeknown to the family, Michael’s old TC was located just a few miles from where he lived!

Chris Tordoff has owned TC1988 for over 47 years, having acquired it in 1969. Chris has done much research on past ownership, but through the contact with Charlie Makin he has been able to fill part of a large gap in its early history. Before the contact with Charlie, Chris was able to ascertain that his Gloucestershire County Council registered TC was first owned by a Mr & Mrs Brill from Tilehurst, Reading (why they should have bought a new car from a garage in Gloucestershire remains something of a mystery). The car then passd into the ownership of one Alan Grant Narracott of Stevenage in October 1965 and Chris has details of two subsequent owners, up to the time when he acquired the car.

Now, rebuilt from the chassis up by Chris soon after its purchase, it ought to be good for another 47 years!