(This is why we do it!)
After a posting with the Foreign Office and the EU lasting three years I was wistful for all things British and my imminent return to the UK and the Ministry of Justice meant that I had to buy ‘sensible’ transport in the shape the now almost ubiquitous SUV but, more pleasantly, it also afforded me the opportunity to indulge myself somewhat.
Now indulgence can take many forms. For some people it’s a quality Swiss watch or two, for some its foreign travel or a full wine cellar. For me, indulgence has always been connected with shooting and with cars and bikes.
I have owned all sorts of cars and bikes over the years and yet in the back of my mind I always hankered after a very British TVRS3 that I didn’t buy all the way back in 1993.
At the time I took what I thought was the sensible decision and I bought a Porsche. The guards red and linen leather Porsche was a fine tool for the job that it was intended for. It was moderately quick. It was efficient. It was ergonomic. But it was also Teutonic, sterile and soulless. I always missed the opportunity to buy that S3 and so In the summer of 2017 and anticipating my return to Blighty, I decided to right a longstanding wrong and to buy a TVR. After some deliberation I decided that I wanted a Speed Six engine and after more deliberation and discussion I decided that the ‘better mannered’ Tamora might suit my needs.
….The hunt was on.
Buying a second hand car is at best a fraught experience. One rarely knows what lurks beneath the recently buffed paintwork or the similarly glossy description. We do tend to buy with our eyes and of course this can be a tricky business- especially with a TVR.
The best advice I could give to anyone would be to get an engineer’s report before buying any car. Test drive it. Mull it over. Haggle. ….I did none of this.
In November of 2017 I spotted the ‘ideal’ car for me. A low mileage 2002 Tamora in Halcyon Atlantis with a triple F engine upgrade courtesy of Racing Green.
It was advertised with the quirkily named Shmoo Automotive and I called one of the partners, Ed Gibson, to discuss the car.
After a very pleasant conversation Ed apologetically explained that I was third in the queue for this car. Hopes dashed I went back to searching for the ‘right’ vehicle and although Ed had taken my number, he didn’t call back.
Hopes were raised a couple of days later. Ed called and told me that the person he had expected would bid on the car had not materialised. There were only two of us in the hunt.
He told me that given the chap was also deliberating the car, and that I couldn’t come to see the it, he could only really secure it for me if I put down a deposit…. on a car I had never seen!
Now this was a risk. It was not really logical and somewhat against the advice I would give to anyone else. So of course, I put a rather large deposit on the car.
A few days later saw me travel down to pick up a car I had never seen, much less driven.
In the interim Ed had sent me a wealth of information on the car, including a few videos showing the vehicle going through its MOT and being prepared for sale, nevertheless I had a twinge of trepidation as I stood waiting for Ed at the local rail station where he had kindly offered to pick me up.
I had no need to be concerned.
The car was ‘almost’ exactly as Ed had described. I say almost exactly because in my opinion he had been a little too critical in terms of his description. I didn’t even test drive the car before I transferred the cash to Ed and then set off back home returning the car to Lancashire, only about 20 miles from where it was originally built.
Before I set off, Ed was careful to point out that he has just found a fault he had not previously disclosed. The near side electric wing mirror was not working. Ed pointed this out to me and undertook to pay for its repair if this was needed (given that it may just be a loose connection).
Since buying the car I have been I regular contact with Ed- his after sales service is outstanding. After the car had its winter rest I found out that it had an inoperative clutch. This turned out to require a new master and slave cylinder. A slave cylinder had previously been fitted by Racing Green in the October, they they kindly agreed to pay for the new part, but the master cylinder was not their issue.
Ed Gibson paid half of the cost without my asking him to do so. The work was carried out at X-Works, the TVR specialists near my home in Lancashire and they commented on the condition of the car saying that the chassis was one of the best they had ever seen. After carrying out a complete check on the car they could find nothing requiring any work. The car really was exactly as described by Ed. Furthermore, my friend, Richard Sails, national chair of the TVR car club commented that he thought that the price I had paid for the car represented ‘very good value’.
So, would I recommend buying a car without ever having seen it, much less driving it? No, of course I wouldn’t. Never in a million years. Never, unless Ed was selling it. In that case I would be confident that the car being described was the true to the description. I’ve no doubt that the next time I’m in the market for a car Ed’s number will be the first I will call.
Greg Riley-Smith