Quote:
I've not seen the deleted post, but cannot be as generous as some of you chaps have been.
A man's car is to do with as he pleases, we can just watch. Whilst I was on the FB group, I feared for this car's future and offered several times to buy it, sight unseen. I did not mention price, happy for the owner to dictate, and that was whether it eventually transpired to be a Broadspeed prepared road car, or not. I would have happily given him £2k for it in the state he found it without him having to lift a finger.
I then watched as the owner stripped it of its assets, proudly selling the webers to a cortina owner for a stated £450 and then trying to get a pair of standard carbs for next to nothing to just bolt on in their place, despite my advice the engine would then need setting up again. He has effected repairs that in my opinion will simply need redoing, though admittedly they did get it an MoT, and then he has removed the suspension replacing it with unknown second hand items from an 1850. He cut a hole in the bonnet claiming it was rusty, yet the pictures don't show this and I've never seen a dolomite bonnet rust in the middle first. With the weather we've had since, I wonder what has managed to blow down the open inlet tracts where the manifold once sat through the stylish bonnet vent. He now advertises the car expecting us to believe the carbs have been stolen stating 'just bolt a pair on and drive it away'!!
Meanwhile, he scrapped what appeared to be a viable 1850 and goodness knows what happened to the tidy 1500 he had; he claimed it was sold...
So I have to disagree, his contribution, whilst greater than 'hampster's' has been to date, it has not exactly been a positive one in my humble opinion.
Wasn't aware of any of this TBH - My comment was based on a rude post by Hamster
As the most recent owner, I'll debunk a few myths which will hopefully set people straight and give them an informed opinion as to whether they want to buy it
As far as I am aware, this NOT A BROADSPEED ENGINE OR PREPARED ENGINE OR CAR FOR THAT MATTER. The guy who I bought it off told me that they had done the work on the engine so it was as close as possible to one of the Broadspeed Sprints (a replica if you like) The Broadspeed and ST badging are just exactly that, ie put on by the previous owner, not by Broadspeed or ST.
When I had the car, it would have in no way passed an MOT. Both sills needed replacing, and there was a large hole in the boot floor. In addition it needed a new drivers wing and a rear door, as well as tidying up in the usual places (rear arches, windscreen base) It also had a ding on the nose, and there was rot in the middle of the bonnet (unusual, but I would guess it was a missed bit of bare metal between the underframe and the skin when it was resprayed) Miles obviously decided to put that ugly scoop on rather than go down the relatively simple route of getting a new bonnet.
Having said all that, this car is in no way a scrapper - The engine is sweet (although a touch "tappety") and I can vouch for the stated BHP figures (albeit with the Webers on) The interior is good, and the rest of the panels were pretty sound. If he has managed to repair it to get an MOT, then all well and good - particularly if he has put a new wing on rather than just filled the rot - although I can't obviously comment on the longevity/quality of the repairs and nor can I vouch for the integrity of the MOT tester.
Difficult I know to put a value on things but with all the above in mind would I pay £1500 for it? Possibly. (Especially with that engine) - Although I would want to know what else has been plundered from it (vented discs, Spax shocks etc) What would a comparable £1500 Sprint look like (I can't remember them going for that price range - they all seem to be minters or resto projects at the moment.) Would I go crazy and spend over £2000 hoping it is a Broadspeed prepped engine - In light of the above posts, definitely not...
I had hoped this car would find a good home, and still do. I wish I could have done the work myself but I have the proverbial too many projects, a young family, not enough time or money and a Mrs who was insisting I purge my fleet.
TBH I wish I had offerred it openly on this forum (Alan if you had offerred me £2000 for it I would have probably thrown in sleeping with you as well for good measure
) I did offer it privately to some on the forum (including MadMart - but alas he is all Dolomited-out at the moment) however, I didn't get any take up, so I sold it to Miles, knowing that as Alan says above, we can only watch what a new owner does. If I am honest, when I first read Alan's post I feared that it had been stripped and broken - so in a way I am relieved it has been MOT'd and sold so that someone else give it the attention it deserves - This is still a unique car (Broadspeed or not)