Post by tinawalker on Sept 21, 2006 10:57:56 GMT 1
Hi everyone. I would like to ask if any of our members have any idea of where my 1957 Vanguard 3 spent its mis-spent youth! From the build records I have gathered the date of it's birth and where it was despatched to - i.e. 'Lambs Ltd' of Southend road in Essex, which is now aparently under the M11 motorway, so I doubt if any records remain from there as to where it went next. There is a problem with identification here though, as I was told when I bought it from a certain "gentleman" classic car dealer in Birmingham, who must have been related to the proverbial "Arfur Daley", (the dodgy dealer of TV fame), that the car had "spent about 25-30 years in a museum in Cornwall". The modern logsheet from the DVLA states that it was "First registered in the UK in 1995"- the year it was sold at Auction in St Austel, ( and said to "have been in a derelict state" - acording to the V3 club -who aparently had some dealings with whoever it was that boiught it).
The numberplate -2637HK, is indeed an Essex number plate. Could this have been the cars original number re-instated, or just a totally fortuitus issue of a "spare" number from the DVLA stock of un-issued ones, and not the original one? The car is black and with its' original trim, but there is some indications that it might have been a police car somtime in its' life (despite a club member who has not seen it, saying it could not have been)! The Devon and Cornwall police though did use black Vanguard 3s. What I am trying to do is to trace some, or any of it's history, as it will be 50 years old by next years national rally, where it will I hope be in attendance here. I have spent a small fortune on it during the last 5 years, but would like to find out what it did in it's (mis-spent) youth, before that.
Does anyone in the club remember it from anywhere? Why was it retired to a museum? Does anyone still happen to have the original logbook for it salted away somewhere, if they or their father/relative had owned it? Did any of you ever drive this car? Do you know of anyone who did? Do you have any photographs of it in your albums? Was it ever registered as a club members car in the past? It feels a bit like having been a orphan thrown out into the world with no idea where it came from before. Can anyone help in any way at all please? Reply here. Tina Walker,- Cambridge
Thanks Pete, Although the number may (or may not) be the original, as it was already in a Cornish Museum from about 1965-70 ish till 1995, so the number would have not been current then. Even if it was the one on this car when new, I agree it could have been the original number, apart from the current log sheet saying that it - to quote the DVLA - the car "was first registered in the UK in 1995". I tried the DVLA website but got nowhere with that. Tina