The cull starts here
Founding editor of this magazine, Robert Coucher, has always maintained that you should own just one classic car. More than one, he says, is too much of a drain on time and resources. While I still struggle with the concept of having just
classic, recent events have made me consider that two may be the optimum number.
The recent and tragically unexpected deaths of motor sport commentator Henry Hope-Frost (47) and
chief sub-editor David Evans (56) have hit me hard. I can’t claim to have known either especially well, but the historic car community is a close-knit one and it’s always a shock to lose a fellow comrade-in-arms. It’s caused me to think carefully about how I want to spend whatever years are left to me.
What I’m pretty sure is that I don’t want to spend them lying under a rusty car to weld it up. So, much to my own surprise, I decided to sell my 1989 press launch ‘G-WAC’ Discovery (above). Nicknamed G-WACs after their distinctive factory-issued registrations, the handful of survivors are now keenly sought after; even so, I was surprised how much interest there was when I announced on Facebook my decision to sell.
Within 24 hours, a friend and serial Land Rover collector, John Davies, had made me a very generous offer that I was pleased to accept, not least because I know that John will give G510 WAC the fastidious restoration she deserves. We both hope that she will be finished in time for the 30th anniversary celebrations of the Discovery in October 2019.
Another of my projects has also gone to an equally good home. Last year I rescued a 1989 Discovery (below) from a breaker’s yard, where it had ended up after being discovered in the outbuilding of a house by the property’s new owners. A very early production V8, it looked awful but turned out to be remarkably sound. This one has been sent by its new owner for restoration in Portugal, and will return in concours condition – again, I hope, in time for the 30th anniversary.
The plan is that I will cut back to just the Series I 107in Land Rover and the 1966 Mustang, which should complement each other nicely. Talking of which, I promised last month to tell you more about the Mustang but I’ll have to put that off until the next issue. Maybe the roads will be free of salt by then, too.