Lost and Found

We start off with a ‘found’. An early issue of TTT 2 (Issue 5) featured TB0613 (GGO 173) which was owned by Derek Waters in the 1960s. Derek had been unable to find the car’s whereabouts until Tim Bloomfield from Lake Charles, Louisiana contacted the Editor. The photos below show the car at Marlow in Buckinghamshire in the 1960s and more recently in downtown Lake Charles.

Tim has owned the car for 46 years during which time it has resided with him in Florida, Shreveport Louisiana, Philadelphia (beautiful countryside near Philly) Tulsa OK, and back to Lake Charles where he plans to retire. Tim doesn’t think that the car will ever retire!

MG 4950 (TA0352)

John Masters from Wichita, Kansas recently contacted me with an update of previous ownership of his car. The son of a previous owner, Victor Maskell, now 89 years old and residing in S. E. England saw the article ‘A Tale of Two Ts’ in Issue 15 of TTT 2 and it brought back memories of the car for Victor who owned it in the mid 1950s. Victor’s son e-mailed several period photos of the TA including one taken in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Victor and his wife toured Europe in the car, visiting France, Switzerland and Italy.

John is still hopeful of tracing the full history of his car. Prior to the TA being in Dallas, Texas in 1970 he had no ownership record, except for a Mr D Gouldon in Cheshire with no dates of ownership. There is no indication as to whether Mr Gouldon owned the car before or after Mr Maskell.

TA0352 parked in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa in the 1950s.

Ed’s Note: Mention of MG 4950 reminds me that three TAs bear sequential MG registration marks as follows:

MG 4950 TA0352
MG 4951 TA0609
MG 4952 TA0355

TA0609 has just surfaced, having spent the best part of 25 years in ‘hibernation’. TA0355 is of course the TA Airline Coupe currently in Australia.

Found and ‘Lost’!

Nick Hayes e-mailed me this old photo, taken at a small car sales business which used to operate out of an old fish shed in Newlyn, Penzance, Cornwall.

The TC in the foreground is Nick’s TC which appeared on the front cover of Issue 25. At the time the photo was taken the car bore the registration mark KPJ 244. If you recall, Nick sold the car to a friend and subsequently re-purchased it, but when he did, it had been re-registered MG 7357.

The red TD is (by the process of elimination) CCB 347. A Blackburn, Lancashire registration, it is currently taxed until 1st February 2015. I don’t know the chassis number, but it is a fairly early TD (date of first registration 9th March 1950).

The black TD (MKF 723) isn’t on the DVLA’s records so might have been scrapped, exported, or be in a barn somewhere. It’s a Liverpool registration which was issued from 1951 onwards.

‘Lost’ but now Found!

Geoff Southern, a former owner of TC9996 (LTC 385) from 1962 to 1965, e-mailed me a while back asking if we knew the whereabouts of his old TC. I knew that it is still around but I did not know the owner. With the help of Stewart Penfound of the ‘T’ Register we managed to put Geoff in touch with Martin Lowe, the current owner.

In a note to Martin, Geoff said:

“I have always regretted selling it all those years ago, only to replace it with a TR2.
I used it to commute from Liverpool to London before the M1/M6 link was built and it was always reliable (except for the lack of new tyres at the time, hence many punctures)”.

In response, Martin said:

“I purchased this vehicle in a completely dismantled state in 1981. After a complete rebuild the MG was back on the road in the autumn 1982. 

Last year I embarked on its second major rebuild which is now nearly complete”.

TC9996 in the early 1960s – I doubt if that Vauxhall Victor is still around!

TC6397 (CST 787) – Where are you?

TC1397 (was KPJ 244, now MG 7357) and TC6397 (CST 787) at Silverstone in 1970.

CST 787 was owned by Bob and Margaret Skempton who bought it in 1967. Bob purchased it from its first owner, Mrs Podmore of Humberstone, Leicester for £140 – he knew the car well because Mrs P used to bring the car into the garage where Bob used to work in Leicester. Bob sold the car to a dealer friend, Roland Duce in the early 1970s.

CST 787 may well have had a few owners since but it would be nice to find the present one.

1951 TD – KZ 6545

Des Johnston from Northern Ireland sent me this photo of a ’51 TD which he restored in the late 1960s. The photo was taken in the summer of 1969.

Des sold the car to a friend who sold it to Marguiles of London. Apparently, the TD featured on a BBC2 Arts programme about the Irish poet Louis McNeice. Des wonders where it is now.

TC1066 (HSM 666)

Len Goff owned this car from 1956 to 1958. Pictured, testing the badge bar is his late wife Christine.

Tuned to stage 2 this TC had 16” rears, fitted radio, auxiliary lamps and flashing indicators. Seems all too good a car to have been scrapped but apparently that was its fate – unless anybody knows anything to the contrary.

The engine (XPAG 1710) is reported to be fitted now to TC3097.