Fellow Spridgeteers,
A bit about my car... Well, I purchased it at a warehouse auction. It
had been in storage for the past 10 years. The last time it was
started/driven was when it was to be auctioned off in '94. The fellow
(an attorney in Guam) paid the back fees so it didn't go up for sale.
I almost missed it all together. Here's why. My son... the one that
has designed a fuel injection system for Spridgets (BEEFI for BugEye
Electronic Fuel Injection) was told by his neighbor that he was holding
an auction and there was some kind of sports car to be sold off. He
thought it was a Triumph.
It was coming up on Easter weekend and Saturday, the day of the auction,
I was on my way to pick my son up as I headed over the mountains to
spend time with the family. As I drove past where the auction was to
take place, I spotted what I thought was the car that was to be
auctioned, a TR7. I told my so that I'd seen it and there was no need
stopping since we knew what it was. We had not interest in one of
"those" things; why waste our time.
Well, we did stop by on our way out of town, just to "check it out".
Guess what... it turns out the car was a TR8, not a TR7 like I "assumed"
it was... I mean after all, when was the last time you heard of an 8
being auctioned off, right. Well, needless to say we waited around for
the sale. It was to be the very last thing auctioned off so we knew we
were in for a wait.
Since we had ample time to take a closer look, we scrutinized that
sucker! What we saw, we liked. No rust anywhere, even the battery box
was in good condition. Good soft top (it's a DHC). Paint was good and
only a couple door dings. Tires were virtually brand new... but, they
were M & S's (it snows a lot here). All the wheels were straight
including the spare, not even so much as a scratch on any of them. Oil
looked/smelled good, coolant in the radiator. Everything looked
fantastic. This was too good to be true. A chance to buy an original
TR8...and hopefully at an affordable price!
The Auctioneer was asking for bids when someone yelled out $500. Very
quickly the bids went up from there. Wasn't too long before the bidding
slowed down. A number of bidders dropped out and it was down to myself
and two others. With the final blow of the hammer, I was the (proud?!?)
owner of a "Midas Gold" (GCC paint code) 1980 TR8 with 57,734 miles.
Dustin, my son, and I are two very happy LBC owners at this point. Oh
yeah, I forgot to tell you... I paid One thousand, Two hundred and Fifty
dollars. Yep, you read correctly, $1250.00 American dollars.. For once
in my life "I" got the good deal.
WFO Herb
Keep the sticky side down!
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