In a message dated 8/28/05 6:26:00 PM, owner-healeys-digest@autox.team.net
writes:
> The buyer took the seller to court, saying the car was no longer what he
> thought he had bought- "Old Number One". The judge, after lengthy
> deliberation, ruled that the car was indeed original, declaring that only
> that
> one particular car could have traced that one unique path through history-
> ie: the frame was replaced after a documented crash in a race in 1934,
then
> this happened, then that, etc.etc.
>
I've had many conversations about this topic with specialists in the
top-flight marques. According to Terry Larson, who has been for many years the
keeper
of the C-type and D-type Jaguar register, the standard for what is genuine is
exactly as the judge noted. To be considered the "real" car, a car with a
specific serial number must have an unbroken, full-documented ownership
history
associated with that serial number from the day it left the factory to the
present. There is no consideration for which parts or how much of the car has
been
replaced, just that the present owner can show an unbroken ownership history
so that there is no challenge from any other owner for that car's serial
number. In fact, even the serial number plate itself may be a reproduction.
Of course, there is some importance to whether the car bears more than a
passing resemblance to the way it left the factory, or at least the way it
looked
at some significant point in its history, but basically a "genuine" car of
historic interest consists only of an unbroken history of a particular hole in
space and time.
Speaking as a professional appraiser, it's my experience that in the case of
Healeys, which were manufactured in their tens of thousands and frequently got
significant repairs and replacements of parts when they were new, the
question of what is a genuine car is of almost no significance in its value.
What
matters most is that the car be registered -- so that it can be licensed and
driven on the road -- how good the workmanship is on the restoration, if the
car
has been restored, the current condition of the car (there's very little
evidence that originality of pars, per se, matters very much in a valuation if
the
car is in poor condition) and generally, how accurately it represents
historical production specifications.
Cheers
Gary Anderson
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