GT

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Re: GT

Postby Colin » Tue Sep 03, 2013 8:24 pm

Viva GT - REA 1F

I went to see this car when it was for sale back in February. The then owner, Mr Ken Davies of Solihull, had genuinely owned and cherished the car since 1972 having bought it when he was in his mid twenties. Ken, the second owner, is now a gentleman in his sixties.

Ken was still in possession of the original green log book showing the car having been registered on June 21st 1968, making it a fairly early Mark 1 GT. He had many MOT certificates and some subsequent log books showing his continued ownership and verifying the car's 63,000 genuine miles. The car had only covered around 2000 miles in the last twenty five years and was still running it's original 1975cc engine.

Many years ago Ken had the car fitted with a desirable overdrive (very desirable on a Mark 1 Viva GT!) and a Weber twin choke carb.The car had recently been fitted with a full stainless steel twin exhaust system. During the seventies Ken fitted the Cosmic alloys. He still had the original steel rims but sadly not the full width pressed alloy wheel embellishers the car would have had from new. Ken said he couldn't remember the car ever having had these. He took me for a short drive and the car ran very smoothly and was quite quick with good oil pressure.

In February Ken was asking £8950. Expensive. I soul searched the question of whether a genuine low mileage, two owner provenance GT with some desirable features was worth £6950 plus the £2000 valuation for it's 'cherished' but original and therefore non-negotiable registration number... Sadly, I was out of touch with GT prices.

The car had been resprayed at least once in it's original Monaco White and the bonnet and wing shuts had been refinished in gloss rather than the correct matt or satin black paint. At some time during the seventies Ken had also had the front and rear valances and sills finished in matt black, not to my taste, but the sills appeared solid. There was a lot of thick black underseal beneath the car so it was hard to tell whether the sill seams were original or not, and there were some small welded patches to the sills and boot floor, also covered in thick black paint.

During the 1980s Ken had replaced the front inner and outer wings. These were still very good. The wings had been bolted on. For some reason Ken had also bolted on the O/S inner wing! Ken had also fitted homemade aluminium splash guards to prevent mud accumulating under the wings. Correct OE metal splash guards were present behind the wheel arches.The underside of the bonnet and inside the boot was covered in thick black paint. The interior was correct and original but showing it's age. I'm sure it had an FD VX4/90 steering wheel.

I made Ken what I thought was a genuinely realistic and fair offer of £7000. He turned me down. I then called him a couple of weeks later with a higher offer and, guess what? The current owner had come along and bought it! I know I'm betraying the new owner's confidence but Ken told me he paid the asking price... I'm still a little bit heart broken... But then my old GT came up for sale a few weeks later and so I bought that back.. again! Ken allowed me to photograph REA 1F as it was in February, which shows that the new owner has carried out some excellent sympathetic restoration. Here's also an old picture of my car (unfortunately my new pictures have too many pixels to upload to the site).

Best wishes,

Colin
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Colin
Brabham Viva
Brabham Viva
 
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