[ MONTH IN CARS ] Barn finds
Pair of Fifties Bristol 400s stored for over four decades have now been rescued
Garage-stored 400 is running and looking for a new owner
Steve Gray of Brooklands Cars Ltd received a call about two long-stored Bristol cars, one worth saving and one probably not. ‘If you want the good one, take the rough one too’, went the message. Suitably equipped, Steve and his team went off to meet the son-in-law of the original owner of the cars.
‘These were a pair of Bristol 400s from about 1950. They’d been bought together in the late Seventies or early Eighties, when the green car was still a running machine. Apparently, the chap who bought them took the second car for spares and just left it outside. That’s a shame as it seems this car may well have been the Vienna Motor Show car from when the 400 was in production.’
Garage car is more complete Engine checked and now runs
The first production Bristol, the 400 was heavily based on the BMW 326 chassis, and used an improved 328 engine, with the camshaft in the block but secondary pushrods reaching to the other side of the cylinder head, allowing angled valves and advantages of a twin overhead-cam format. This provided 80bhp and proved tuneable, later fitted in other sporting cars such as the AC Ace. Like many cars of the era, the Bristol 400 still relied on a separate steel chassis and an ash frame to support the bodywork, both of which corroded extensively.
Spares car may be Vienna Motor Show machine
‘The car fell to bits as we tried to move it,’ says Steve. ‘But it will provide spares for other cars. The green 400 tucked away in the garage was in far better condition.
Life outside has not been kind
The owner was disappointed to find rust in the boot floor soon after he bought it, so he laid the car up intending to fix it, but never did get round to it. Since that time, the rear wings have disappeared but otherwise the car was stored well – it was up on axle stands and hasn’t suffered. We took it back to Brooklands and after we’d done some work to the carburettor and a general check over of the engine, it’s now running again. We’ll be looking for a new owner to take it on.’
Bristols unused for more than 40 years
True barn find Bentley
Bentley Park Ward out of 56 year storage
This 1936 Bentley 4¼-litre Park Ward saloon has been off the road since 1969 – as witnessed by the tax disc on the windscreen – and it looks every inch the long-stored barn find. And that’s just what it was when the car’s most recent owner acquired it in 2011, since when it has received much mechanical work to render it driveable. It hasn’t, however returned to use, because illness now forces a much-regretted sale. This creates something of an interesting quandary for the next owner, as Ian Johnstone of the Real Car Company, which is offering the Bentley for sale, describes.
Engine is still the original factory unit
‘I don’t think the owner had it in mind to do much more to the appearance, and as such the car is an unusual survivor from the Sixties, when 30-year-old Derby Bentleys were still in use in quite shabby condition. This one has more holes than a colander but it could be used, as is, with a few more rolls of duct tape here and there. It would make an extreme “oily rag” car on the outside, while the interior is in quite decent shape. Or it could even be restored or indeed rebodied. Mechanically, it’s now in better condition than plenty of other cars this age that look immaculate.’
‘Decent shape’ interior has survived well
The car – with chassis number B153HM – is reported as running well, with ‘fresh’ wheels and recent tyres, a partial rewiring, and springs that ‘have been attended to’. The engine is still the original factory unit, and it still has its twin ignition coils, two-piece starting handle and a Dunlop jack. Also included with the car is a history file that includes invoices, a summary of the work done and the parts supplied, and a logbook from the Sixties.
One-owner Rover V8’s condition helps impressive price
Genuine one-owner Rover survivor with only 47,00 miles
True single-ownership cars from the Seventies are becoming more and more unusual, so this dusty 47,000-mile British survivor caught the eye at Manor Park Classics’ sale on Saturday 15 February. Little was sadly offered in the way of history, other than the car falling out of use in 2007 due to bereavement rather than any breakdown or other incident.
Four-speed manual ’box is unusual find
The V8-engined Rover is thought to have spent its whole life in Cheshire with the same one owner. It was bought new on 17 June 1975 from Royles, the Rover dealer in Altrincham, finished in Teal Blue with a black vinyl roof. It still has a ‘remarkably clean and tidy’ black velour box-pleat interior, complete with the original radio. Being an 3500S, it’s equipped with a four-speed manual gearbox rather than the much more usual BorgWarner automatic. Described as ‘requiring paintwork’, but otherwise ‘quite straight’, it looked entirely and enticingly original and was offered at no reserve with an old service book and a few elderly MoT certificates.
Structure found to be solid
Bidders who bothered to peer under the car and inspect the Rover’s structure found it to be remarkably solid. This helped it make an impressive sale price of £6210 – such was the true magic of a one-owner barn find and a manual gearbox, versus a less-sound automatic example in the very same sale that sold at £1610. Described as a ‘project’, the almond-coloured car – also from 1975, and set at no reserve – had a tan leather interior and no paperwork.
Rover ‘quite straight’
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