2021-01-30 17:58:05 | pauls writes:

Car was at auction in 2020
themarket.co.uk/listings/austin-healey/1004-bn1/eaa663ce-fc87-4fd1-aad7-edf70de4 ...

Auction description:
Location: Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Odometer Reading: 63432
Chassis Number: BN1/156140
Engine: 2600
Gearbox: Manual 3 speed plus 2 overdrive gears
Color: Oxford Blue/White
Interior: Black
It’s incredibly rare to have such a detailed provenance of a vehicle, but ownership of this car was held within the same group of friends from 1972 until only last year. ‘I had it for 30 years alone,’ says former owner Nigel. ‘Prior to that it was in the care of my good friend Paul Bennett, and then another friend AJ Pope who I bought it from.’

Pope intended to restore the car but with his Triumph TR4 taking up all of his time, it would be Nigel who took up the reins. ‘He’d only started work on the steering and front suspension by that point, but I moved it to a large barn adjacent to my house and work started.’

The comprehensive bare-metal restoration process took quite some time as life got in the way, but it was eventually completed in the late Nineties. ‘By that time we had a holiday home in South West France and it lived there until 2019, we had perfect weather and roads for the car.’

There are a good number of invoices in the history file (see photo gallery below), both from the time of the restoration itself and of subsequent work that Nigel carried out. He was good enough to compile a summary list of all parts fitted. Restoration work apart, most recent big bills include: a new windscreen frame (£600); a fresh petrol tank (£274.95); carburettor refurbishment (£337.52); and fitment of a full stainless steel exhaust system (£263.94).

‘I always brought the car back to Britain on a trailer for any work or maintenance required,’ explained Nigel. Last year the car was sold to our vendor.

The vendor says it still drives superbly and that he has had this car fully recommissioned, serviced and tuned: “The overdrive has been restored, it has had safety harnesses fitted and had a full brake overhaul (with new brake shoes, new drum cylinders where required and a new master cylinder).

The reason he is selling this car is to move to an even rarer Le Mans spec. BN /1.