Car fondly remembered

Laurie Le Grice has caught up with his long lost love - a 1971 Alfa Romeo GT junior.

The 96-year-old Kamo resident owned the ‘‘lovely little thing’’ from 1980 to 1986. It is currently owned by Kapiti Coast man John Wilson, who attended the Alfa Romeo Owners Club AGM in the Bay of Islands on October 14 to 16.

He decided on his travels north, he would call in and meet the man he’s been communicating with and show him what the car looks like now.

Le Grice, a former school headmaster, says it never gave him any trouble when he owned it, apart from being tricky to tune. His son Bob, who inherited his father’s love of cars, says he remembers the car.

‘‘Dad and Mum drove around the South Island in it.’’

Wilson bought the car in 2010 as a parts car.

‘‘I’ve got a track car the same. When it arrived down to Lower Hutt the guy at the garage where I was storing it rang me and said ‘it’s too good to pull apart’.’’

Before buying the car Wilson had an ownership report done and one of the names on the list was Le Grice’s.

He found some contact details for a man he hoped was the right Laurie Le Grice and wrote him a letter.

‘‘We’ve had a nice little contact over the years. It’s very nice to have the contact and the history.’’

It’s taken five years for Wilson to get the car into shape.

‘‘I stripped it right down. I had it painted, then I didn’t do much with it for a couple of years.

‘‘He [Laurie] was the real motivation. I put in a lot of effort in the past six months to get to the state it is now.

‘‘It’s better than it was before,’’ Le Grice says of its makeover.