Buckley’s market matters
Several people asked me about the Fiat 130 Coupé in Historics’ sale that was allegedly one of my old cars. I didn’t recognise the number or the silver paint, but it must have been the low-mileage car I bought from its first lady owner 20 years ago – complete with protective plastic still on the door cards.
The history on that car was epic: bought new from Tony Brooks Fiat (she chopped in a Flavia Coupé), it came with a selection of ’70s sunglasses in the glovebox, the correct self-tuning radio/cassette player and perfect velour trim – now the 130 Holy Grail. Yet somehow it never ran wonderfully, despite being treated to new cams at one stage. Racing an XR2 down the M1 didn’t do the head gaskets much good, and it eventually went to a pal with a matching 130 saloon.
I sold my SL320 into the trade and I’m now running the Mercedes 300TE and P38 Range Rover as daily transport, while steeling myself not to go over to Yattendon Garage in Berkshire where there’s a Jaguar MKX that needs rescuing.
I was also offered a Lancia Beta Spider the other day, a project car that had been off the road for 30 years but was dry-stored and solid. It might appear in the shed at some point, but it reminded me of the one that turned up at Ashton Technical College in the early 1980s. I was doing a Motor Vehicle Engineering City & Guilds, and as part of the practical coursework we had a miserable selection of wrecks to work on that would now be semidesirable, including a Triumph 2.5PI and a Ford Executive. The tutors included a Mr Smith, who sported a bald head and a Pilgrim Fathers type beard and, though a man of few words, was not short on wit.
“Why have you given me an ‘E,’ sir?” asked one lad. “Cos there’s no effin’ Fs,” came the response.
One day, a ripple of excitement ran through our workshop when a local lady donated a beige Lancia Beta Spider. It can’t have been much more than five years old and was pretty tidy – so good, in fact, that our other tutor, who was younger and looked a bit like Noel Edmonds, immediately commandeered it for himself, to replace his rusty yellow GT6. To be honest, I’d have done the same.