Get a load of these classics
IN 1975 the bosses at British ritish Leyland gave the go-ahead ead for the production of a limimited edition MGB sports car to celebrate the 50th anniverniversary of the famous marque. Brilliant idea. There was just st one little problem. Believe it or not they got the date wrong. MG’s true 50th anniversary had already passed (unmarked) two years earlier. Oops! Worse things happen at sea, as they say, and worse things certainly happened at British Leyland.
Anyway, 750 of the anniversary MGB GTs were made: They were British racing green, with gold stripes, black and gold V8 wheels, tinted windows, plus 50th anniversary wing badges and dashboard mounted plaques inscribed with the limited edition number of the car and the name of the first owner. As it happens, we know the history of the anniversary car that we will be putting under the hammer in an auction on Tuesday (19th) but that dashboard plaque provides useful confirmation that it is number 155 of the 750 limited edition and that it went to Ann Pascall.
By all accounts, Ann did not much like it and she sold it on to a relative – Dr Graham Parry, who was a popular general practitioner in Market Rasen for three decades and indeed the Market Rasen Racecourse doctor for many years. Following Dr Parry’s death last autumn, we have been advising the executors of his estate and the decision has been taken to let the now rare MGB go.
It is thought that only about 300 of the anniversary edition cars survive and, despite the rather inauspicious beginning, it is today rather prized by classic MG collectors.
It goes into the auction with a pre-sale estimate of £4,000-£5,000.
The auction also includes another classic owned by Dr Parry – the vintage tractor that he used around the paddocks and stables at his home, the historic Old Watermill at Middle Rasen.
The tractor is a 1954, Massey Ferguson, one of the ‘Little Grey Fergies’ that revolutionised farming after the war.
The doctor never viewed it as a ‘collectable classic’ but like so many of these machines it just kept going over the years, so he saw no need to change it. It is a collectable now and it has a front loader, which makes it something of a rarity. Elsewhere, the auction catalogue includes two sports car restoration projects, the last disposals following the closure of a Lincolnshire company that specialised in the repair and restoration of classic Triumphs.
The vehicles are a 1959 Triumph TR3A (161 PO) and a Triumph TR3 (YKN 270). They are both being sold without reserve. Tuesday’s sale is a Collective Auction and it has some high value entries on the industrial side including some excellent office furniture and equipment that is being sold on the instruction of CRG Insolvency and Recovery, the practitioners handling the insolvency of Manatec, a Grimsbybased training company that went into administration last month. That part of the auction also includes a fleet of electric forklift trucks and factory waggons that has been sent for disposal by a retained client, a major international engineering company. And the saleroom is currently graced with some very posh jackets and other items of clothing that are being sold off on behalf of the administrator handling the affairs of a collapsed Mayfair-based manufacturer of luxury tailoring. The auction extends to 211 lots. Viewing on Monday (January 18th) 10am-4pm is by advance appointment (01724-334411) and in compliance with the Covid regulations.
The auction catalogue is available at www.eddisonscjm.com. The online auction is scheduled to end at 1pm on Tuesday afternoon.