What a day, where do I start...

To my immense relief, everything went according to plan but not without a lot of stress! Cash handed over, documents in return; the car wears a private plate but it's been transferred off, so it should be D488 PHG. The Autocar magazine featured car from May '87.

The car was bought from the factory by Barry Zee; he was a race team manager/driver and subsequently raced/managed Tuscans. There's a youtube clip of Steve Cole driving (well... not actually driving!) one of his cars. Zee was a property developer and ran into cash flow problems, the guy I bought the car off basically took it as collateral for a loan so wasn't too interested in the car itself, hence the lay up. Apparently there were three wedges involved in the deal; a supercharged 350 (with the supercharger poking through the bonnet, flared body and Lamborghini rear end (don't shoot the messenger, it sounds far fetched to me too!)); and the press car 450SE (in red, 600 miles on it apparently - again don't shoot the messenger!). The supercharged car went back to Zee, not sure about the 450. The SEAC was on the road for a while, then laid up; then recommisioned when last taxed (1995); scared the owner s**tless in an incident on the A127 involving high speed and has been laid up since. It was re-MOTed in 2005 for the number plate transfer and appears to have been outside since. Two independent people have said it was running fine when it was laid up; the (now ex!) owner has insisted it will be easy to get going again...

The car was near West Horndon close to the A127 in Essex; I live in Billericay and work in Dagenham (Ford R+D); I like to drive across country rather than use the M25 and on one of my meanders along tiny roads I came across this...



It's a yard used by a car dealer and usually the car was blocked in and hidden by other cars; I was lucky one day to spot it when the rest of the yard was clear.

Finding the owner was surprisingly quite easy; persuading him to sell wasn't. He didn't need the money and knew he was sitting on a unique and very special car. Hence the stressful time for me!

Today... took two hiab drivers quite a while to extract it...








And bring it to my place...




Now I have a much better idea of what I'm up against; I have about 250 photos of the thing!! I feel lots of posting coming on...

Fantastic!

What state is the body in?

Funstic!

Good to see it on its way to a brighter future too.


(Why dont you get yourself a photobucket account, they are free and you can then upload everything and let us all have a browse rather than the few choice nuggets that are making me itch for another project!)

Stu

ETA, just seen you have a thumbsnap account, D'oh

Dry sump, rose joints and f**kin' spotless chassis!!!!!



Rose joints on the rear too...

Mirror finish on the chassis tubes;

Toothed belt drive to dry sump pump;

Poly-V belt water pump/alternator drive (as the race car?)

This story should be in classic car or something like that what a great find hope its on the road and looking its best in no time!!!! good luck

Dix

Im with Carob, you have found a great car to breath lift back into it.
Well done Hatter is securing the car.
Im sure all the stress you have gone through sofar will be worth it in the end.
As like every one else im looking forward to reading your reports on how you are getting on with it.

Cambelt

Well done mate..you must be chuffed to bits..A proper result with the chassis..Whatever you spend in time and money on it will almost certainly be well worth it..What a find..You lucky devil..

I remember the Barry Zee car with the rear body mods. Looked more like a Testarossa than a Lambo. I thought it was a 390SE in green, but the rear arch extensions were extreeeeeemmeeee to say the very least.

What Dave said!
Perhaps a trip out one weekend soon?



Stu