The one that got away.

Was there a time in your past when you had the oppurtunity to buy a classic car and for what ever reason passed it up, only to rue the day years later?

What was the car and why didn't you buy it?

A DBS V8, the original twin headlamp version in BRG and in really good condition. My job had just been made redundant, so I had a bit of cash to burn! It was advertised in the Classic Car mags with a well-known classic car dealer (so well known that I have forgotten the name!). I hummed and hahhed over it and eventually showed the advert to my wife, and she said, rather surprisingly, 'go for it'. I immediately rang up but the dealer laughed and said, 'it's gone, I could have sold it 10 times over'. The moral is that if you see a classic for sale that you want, and have the funds, don't hesitate!

Slightly different league, but a 1971 Sunbeam Rapier H120, the fastback one with the Holbay engine.

An old boy down the road had cherished it and polished it, and ultimately the inevitable happened - the car outlasted him.

I mulled and urred about what time I ought to let elapse before I approached his widow about it, until the day finally came that I decided I ought to see if she would consider selling it on.

I was a day too late - someone else had knocked on the door and got it for a bargain price.... to use on a banger racing track.

A real shame that one Tim; a pretty rare sight these days!

Only just slightly off topic; in the early 70's, our neighbours Dad swapped his DB2 (I think) for a three wheeler thingy, maybe a Berkeley. Oh, how we laughed....

Only just slightly off topic; in the early 70's, our neighbours Dad swapped his DB2 (I think) for a three wheeler thingy, maybe a Berkeley. Oh, how we laughed....
OMG, what an idiot! :rofl:

Tim, my Dad had a Sunbeam Rapier in the early '70s, when we lived in singapore. I have no idea what model it was, but it looked a bit like a sleek 2 door Hillman Minx.

There haven't been any replies to this thread since I used "sleek" and "Hillman Minx" in the same sentence. Did i throw you all off with that one? :)

I once saw a Ford Fairlane for £50 at the side of the road in Walworth, As I was at work (driving my truck) I couldn't take it there and then and needed to go and draw the money out of the bank. I went back that lunch time and it was sold. I don't think it was a particularly classic car then, or even now but I just fell in love with the shape and wanted it :(

The one that got away..... My dad sold his Jensen Interceptor (Mk III, British Racing Green with white leather interior) JUST as I was starting to take driving lessons :( :(

He never confirmed if the two were related.

Going back even further, or is it farther? I had an Austin pedal car in the late 50s/early 60s (anyone remember those) and my dad did a lovely spray job on it and then sold it, I never forgave him :( :(

How about the one you owned and traded away (or wrecked) never thinking how valuable or just "nice to have" the would be today.

In my case:

1. 1957 Austin-Healy 100-6
2. 1962 Austin Cooper (998cc, road & race, see avatar - photo from OCT 1962)
3. 1961 Bug(Frog)eye Sprite race car
4. 1963 Lotus 7 (BMC-A engine, road & race)
5. 1962 Sunbeam Alpine
6. 1965 MG 1100 sedan
7. 1967 Triumph Spitfire
8. 1969 FIAT 124 coupé
9. 1984 ALFA-Romeo GTV-6

:Shrug: :hair: :banghead: :rant:

The one that got away..... My dad sold his Jensen Interceptor (Mk III, British Racing Green with white leather interior) JUST as I was starting to take driving lessons :( :(

That's just too cruel!

My Dad had an XY Fairmont GS done up as a very good replica of an XY GT, fitted with a Phase 3 engine. :) I was only 19 at the time and he never let me drive it by myself. ;) He had many cars in his lifetime and that is the one that i miss.

Auster 7 Ulster complete with boat tail back end and fish tail exhaust.

Purchased for £45 sold for £50. In retrospect the worst thing, I ever did but back in the 60s they were just "old bangers".

Hindsight is a wonderful thing though isn't it. If only we knew then what we know now!

When I was 16 I saw a pair of MGBs for sale in the local trader for $1000 (it was in Florida), but they didn't quite look right, having a bump in the bonnet... A trip up to the book store enlightened me to the MGC, at the time a rough one was worth $6,000. By the time I got back home and phoned the guy they had gone. Rats!!! I have since made it my mission to become a proper car geek so that I don't miss out on stuff like that again!

An original Audi Quattro. When I worked in Wolfsburg in the early 80's some of the original factory cars were being sold off and I had a contact on the inside. I just couldn't quite afford it - the Taxman cometh:Shrug:

My old man had a Ford prefect E93A (puddlejumper) reg no NKP 1 and took it to the scrap yard with a knackard diff ! He also took a Ford V8 Pilot woody (it was rare even then ) to the same yard in the mid 60s. I have had about 6 Anglia vans in my time, I saw one advertised in a classic mag for 3k , but do people actually buy them for that money ? I gave a Lotus Cortina away to George Polley so he could use the engine in a rally car. Hindsight ha !

Series 1½ E-type. I was selling my second modsports Sprite in the late 1970s because I was moving home, and the chap who bought it wanted to trade his E-type against it. It had just had a bare-metal respray and had been selected for him by Basil Dagge. If I remember I could have picked it up for around £2,000, but would have had nowhere to keep it :doh:

Ford Falcon XB GT coupe - a friend of my dad had one since new, the car was in immaculate condition, slightly modified motor, a reasonably small mileage too. It had been offered to my Dad a couple of times, now at the time values for such a car were ~$20k, then $25k, and was out of my reach although no price had been mentioned from memory. I then heard that another friend of dad's had bought it for $13k. The car now would probably be worth $30-40k.

Hi Alan, a friend of mine in the UK has an original Quattro, I saw it for the first time when I was over this xmas.
He has had it 11 years and it was an ex Keith Garages demo and then owned by the MD until my friend bought it.
Its in pearl white and in very good nick....but I think he's keeping it...unless a lot of bucks are on offer I imagine...a lot of bucks !

Well you can can still get decent quattros for £6-8K, if you know where to look (note the small q!). The quattro owners club is a good place to start (and the "quattro workshop" near Lutterworth). They are not as expensive to run as some mags make out. I have an MB engined model, bought for £7.5K about 10 years ago when it was probably worth £10K. I have since put 70k miles on it and although its starting to look its age, it is probably still worth £6.5K. This was a car that I promised myself and I did not miss out on! (sorry to change the thread, slightly!). One of the good things about quattros is that most people below the age of about 35 would rather have an Imprezza as they never saw Mikkola and co rally the original, thus keeping prices down. Still a fantastic car, though.

I used to have to go into R&D at VW Wolfsburg quite often (early 1980') and there would be a book in reception where staff and customers could buy company cars that the factory had finished with. This is where the Quattros were and they were pretty cheap, less than about £4000 and not very old, but mucked about with a bit. If you were quick you could pick up a bargain, but I just didn't have the cash at the time.

Mind you there ere other things that they didn't sell, twin engined Scirrocos and Golfs etc. They were wierd!

Sold my Elva MK6 Climax 1100 in 69 with trailer and quite a few engine spares and 2nd set of wheels with rain tires for $3000.00. Value today probably $65000.00.:Shrug:

I did the double in 1983.

I saw an Aston Martin DB6 Superleggera at a garage called the 'motorspot' which used to exist at North Kilworth in Leics. Me and my newly wedded wife looked and looked at it, but decided if we stretched to it, £6,000 we could afford it, but what about the insurance and the running costs.

As it was, I bowed to my better halfs fiscal superiority and didn't buy it.

We then bought an........MG Metro for £5,750. Saved myself £250 quid!

Sound decision there then.........

I worked on a friend of my Fathers for several years to let me have the three wheeler Morgan he had under a tarp....no luck :-(