"a given car has been really well taken
care of, I could see leaving like you find it."
"Maybe it comes down to personal preferences. For example what would an
owner prefer to have... grungy looking carpets that are original or
replacements
that look original but aren't?
I did get a kick out of the seller's comment that it is difficult to find a
Tiger with any original paint on it. Then he goes on to say that it original
paint from the door back:-) I think he's really trying to build the car up
with his descriptions, but also being careful not to tell any pure lies
about the car. "
A recent auction featured a unrestored 1911 Oldsmobile and it sold for 1.65
million dollars. From what I read the owner plans to keep it unrestored
because there are so few original Oldsmobiles. Here is a link:
http://www.rmauctions.com/CarDetails.cfm?CarID=r150&SaleCode=HF07 The new
owner can't get far with those tires but included is a set of "priceless
original tires". All the rage in collector car auctions is the "Survivor"
car. A survivor car is untouched and unrestored. Usually the monthly
collector car magazines feature a unrestored car and the writer makes a big
deal about the original condition of the car. Most collector cars are
restored way beyond "assembly line" condition so it is rare to find one
unrestored. My preference is a car kept as original as possible or
unrestored.
MG Enthusiast magazine a couple of months ago had a interesting article about
whether competition Mini's , MG and the like were truly original cars as
advertised by the new owners. The article went on to say the various
factories that rallied and raced cars in the 60's were known to swap vin and
registration with new cars before the next event and even before letting
magazines test them. Competition departments did this to cut down on paper
work for the different events they entered. The author wrote that a car that
finished a major rally such as the Acropolis was pretty well worn out and
tired. When a magazine called to test drive the car, the competition
department would swap vin and license plates to a new car and give it to the
magazine to test. Later on, when the car ended on the market, it wasn't the
car as advertised. The author went on to state that one well known Mini went
through five bodies before sold off as a factory racer. It leaves you to
wonder about some of the factory Tigers that competed in rally after rally
back in the day. ADU311B ran five rallies and ADU 312bB the Monte Carlo
winner did three according to Mike Taylor's book. They appear to be the same
car with the same registration number in the different events but how could
they survive all those tough rallies?
Jeff
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