[ MONTH IN CARS ] Barn finds
Fifties sportster is just one of many classic treasures discovered in a Stirling trove
The car pictured in the main image is a 1953 Allard Palm Beach MkI, one of around 80 made between 1952 and ’56, as Allard developed a more affordable model with Ford Zephyr or Consul engines. It emerged from storage in Stirling, central Scotland, where it has lain since the Seventies. The car is being offered for sale by the late owner’s son, Campbell McCutcheon, who tells the story.
‘In 1973 my mum was in hospital, and my great aunt was staying and looking after the five children. My dad didn’t like her cooking, so he went out to the pub for a pie and pint and met someone who told him about a vintage car in a scrapyard in Alloa, near Stirling. This turned out to be an Austin Seven. My dad said to the scrapyard owner that that wasn’t what he was looking for – he was hoping it was a Fifties sports car like an Allard. Of course, the scrap dealer said he had one of those too… and my dad bought it for £50.
‘The first my mum knew of it was when she came home from hospital and it was on the driveway. Over the Seventies it was dismantled and restoration started but my dad stopped work on it and decided to wait till he retired, slowly collecting some parts. Retirement came but he died shortly afterwards, and my mum couldn’t let the car go. Now is the time, though.’
Rescuing unusual cars is in the blood. As part of the operation to clear the garages at his mother’s house, Campbell is also extracting an ex-race Berkeley B95 from 1959, an NSU Prinz single-seater special and a Rollo Croftmaster tractor, all once co-owned with his late father. At his own home in the north of Scotland.
Campbell has a Messerschmitt, a trio of Bonds, a 1932 Raleigh 7 trials special, a 1957 Slough-built 2CV and also a 1935 Hillman Minx racing car. ‘The van pictured is a 125cc Mochet Camionette, made by the same company that invented the recumbent bicycle, from 1958. It’s done 3700km from new,’ says Campbell. ‘These are all staying, but the Allard must go.’
Interested parties can contact the magazine at classic.cars@bauermedia.co.uk and enquiries will be forwarded on.
Dutch barn Eighties turbocharged Esprit a survivor from the Grunge era
This 1983 Esprit Turbo must hold some kind of record for the most lichen supported by one Lotus. It’s been parked in an open-sided barn in rural Wiltshire since the mid-Nineties, but surprisingly, the car’s long-term keeper had performed some early-onset restoration work after he bought it in 1990.
Whatever this amounted to, the car is now in need of extensive recommissioning and the deepest of deep cleans, though the snowy bulges of the interior hide look as fresh as a daisy when compared to the exterior.
The car will be auctioned on 26 March at the Haynes Motor Museum near Sparkford in Somerset. Charterhouse’s Richard Bromwell explains the circumstances of the car’s layup. ‘The owner, a gamekeeper, finished the restoration and then became more interested in training dogs, so he put it in the Dutch barn next to the dog kennels and it hasn’t moved since.
In 40-odd years, I don’t think I’ve seen patina quite like it! I put one foot in a badger set when looking round the car, and nearly broke my leg.’
The turbo Esprit saved both the model and probably the company itself, in shock after Colin Chapman’s death in 1982. A good Esprit Turbo should be worth £25k-£30k or more, and it will be interesting to see if the novelty of sorting out the grubbiest example in the country puts bids beyond the £10k estimate.
Diesel Alvis TA21 prototype survives in Cornwall
Did Alvis miss a chance to produce the first upmarket diesel saloon? According to David Culshaw’s book, Alvis Three-Litre in Detail, this 1952 TA21 was sold without an engine to Arthur Freeman-Sanders of Penzance, Cornwall, a notable expert on diesel combustion. He created a six-cylinder engine of 2780cc, which he fitted to this particular car.
What happened next is not well established. Did Freeman-Sanders try to interest Alvis in the design? Stories that survive with the car say he drove it on a long tour around the UK to show what it could do – and even that Alvis had originally commissioned the build. Eventually, the car was sold to a Mr Lister and in the late-Eighties willed to garage owner Ronnie Dustow, of West Cornwall, who kept it in dry storage and ran it only occasionally, repainting it at one point. Now he too has passed away, and his son Ian has been trying to find a new home for the car.
‘Another Freeman-Sanders diesel engine is with it, as well as a petrol one and a spare gearbox, and it’s still only done 15,000 miles,’ he says. ‘I don’t ever remember riding in it, but maybe I did when I was very small. My siblings and I want to see the car saved.’
Happily, though, the future of this unique footnote to Alvis history now looks secure; it has been acquired for preservation by an enthusiastic American couple.
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