History of 7/F/354

[alfa-chris]

Dear PHers,

from time to time I am trying to find out some more about the history of my 1961 Grantura. A few days ago I wrote an email to the TVR Car Club UK and the answer was that my car has once been to South Africa!

The VIN is 7/F/354 and the UK Registration was 6129RO. As far as I found out via the web, this registration must have been issued between 1962 and 1964, see list below (wikipedia)

1 IA to 9999 IA (Jan 1958 – Jun 1960);
301 DZ to 9999 DZ (Jun 1960 – Sep 1962);
1 KZ to 9999 KZ (Sep 1962 – Jun 1964);
501 RZ to 9999 RZ (Jun 1964 – Jan 1966).


So, what I know so far about my Grantura:

- built in 1961 (delivered to South Africa??)
- Original Color BRG (according to the TVRCC UK; although I only found burgundy red and some kind of orange underneath the white paint)
- registered in the UK somewhere between 1962 and 1964
- Bought from behind a Bicycle-Shop in Tunbridge Wells (UK) by M Williams in the late 1970s
- restored and resprayed to white by M Williams in the late 1970s in the UK
- sold within the UK in the early 1980s
- sold to the Netherlands in the late 1980s (running bad, car broke down on the ferry)
- sold to Germany (not running)
- sold to me (far from running)

-somewhere in it´s history, the engine has been upgraded to a 120E6015 Cortina GT engine.

Owners as far as I know:

B Durio, Constantia Kloof, South Africa - Year ???
M Williams, Kent, England - late 1970s until 1983
B Hales-Dutton, SEVENOAKS, England - ca 1983 until 1988
Peter Ecury, Netherlands - ca 1988
J Wohnseifer, Cologne, Germany - ca 1988 until 2009
C Haas (me), since 2009

Does anyone of you have any kind of information about the history of this car? Every little piece of information might be helpful to find out more about the original specs and the history of this car. Every help is very much appreciated.

Thank you very much
Chris

[davepen]

alfa-chris said:

see list below (wikipedia)
501 RZ to 9999 RZ (Jun 1964 – Jan 1966).
Chris

I think you are misunderstanding UK number plates. The letters refer to a place of issue, a bit like the letters at the begining of a German plate, however it wasn't logical and any letter pair could be allocated to a county. The numbers, and changes of order, then ran independantly in each county (or registration district). Actually anything with I or Z was typically issued in Ireland (North or South), so those dates refer to Irish plates. Wiki for Ballymena

http://www.numberplates.com/private-plates-issued/... gives nnnnRO as a 1961 series from Herts (Luton).
A 1964 plate in the UK would have been ARO 123B. The B showing the year, the RO the place.

Edit to add: To show that different styles were available in 1961, my brothers old 2a was something like 264TMB which is Cheshire 1961.

Edited by davepen on Friday 24th May 09:55

[Thurner Fan]

I can't really add much to what you already know Chris. My notes for your car merely confirm the Hales-Dutton and Johannes Wohnseifer ownership.

But, it may be of use to you to know that I believe the record in the online Grantura Registry for 7/B/354 may be slightly incorrect. My records, compiled from data in the TVC Car Club magazines back in the days where they listed registrations and chassis numbers, indicate that this car was actually 7/B/359.

TF

[alfa-chris]

Thanks Dave for the correction on british numberplates. I absolutely had no idea there was something like a structure behind these numbers and didn´t recognise I was going wrong with the wiki-list. Thank you very much for the link!

The Registration seems to be from Feb. 1961. So she must have been off to South Africa some years later. Anyone any idea how to find out when and why? Whitepage don´t give any information on a family called Durio in South Africa.

@TF, when I registered in the Grantuea Register, I was asked if my Chassis Number was misspelled, because there already was a 354. Thanks for the information, that probably the other 354 was misspelled.

Still searching for more history and hints. The car must have been burgundy or another dark red when new.

[FlipFlopGriff]

B Durio is the first owner. May be a co-incidence but Bernard Durio owned a Griff for a a long time and now has a Tamora (I think) so could be the same person.
Not sure if he's on PH or the TVRCC site but someone must have contact details as he may be able to fill in some gaps. I would guess he is from the SE somewhere.
FFG

[alfa-chris]

FlipFlopGriff said:

B Durio is the first owner. May be a co-incidence but Bernard Durio owned a Griff for a a long time and now has a Tamora (I think) so could be the same person.

Thank you very much FFG! Will try to contact him and find out if he is the first owner of my car.

If someone who knows him reads this, it would be great if you could send me an email or forward this thread to him.

Cheers
Chris

[FlipFlopGriff]

alfa-chris said:

Thank you very much FFG! Will try to contact him and find out if he is the first owner of my car.

If someone who knows him reads this, it would be great if you could send me an email or forward this thread to him.

Cheers
Chris

Chris,
Did you get any contact details for Bernard?
Are you a TVRCC member? - If so Ali in the office should be able to help.
FFG