CCT back to business!!

Unfortunately some unfortunate events in my personal life kept me away from this blog for a couple of months but this time gave me a chance to collect a lot of material for future posts. Let's get back to business by taking a look at a couple of interesting cars capable of being "future regrets".

My first choice would be an old passion of mine and in my opinion one of the cars that still awaits the respect it fully deserves, especially here in the UK. This Lancia Beta Montecarlo  is advertised also on ebay for £1200 and no reserve. It sure needs some works to get back on the road, but it seems quite solid in the pictures and it would definitely be worth a trip. If you are not familiar with the gifted and troubled mid engined Beta Montecarlo take a look at this website.

The second eye catcher on ebay lately has been this Berkeley T60. I've asked my dear friend Ray Bell (from the Berkeley's Club) for a quick description and evaluation. "Berkeley produced about 4200 cars altogether, from 1956 until 1961, when the company went out of business.

The T60, launched in August 1959 sold more than any of the other models - altogether around 1800 were made. The design was derived from the earlier 4 wheeled 'Sports 328', using the same 328cc Excelsior twin 2 stroke engine, with a 4 speed gearbox driving the front wheels. Much of its popularity was due to the fact that a three wheeler could be driven on a motorcycle licence provided that the reverse gear was blanked off. 

Increasingly these ground-breaking cars are seen as classics worthy of restoration, and this T60, fitted with a comparatively rare hardtop, looks like a good specimen of a standard T60.

Typically a well restored T60 will fetch £3,000 - £3,500. "

At the moment 17 bids are fetching £2,800 but are not crossing the reserve price yet. My bet is that the car  will get closer to £4.000 than £3.500 but I have a feeling it will not be enough for the reserve. 

I will definitely keep an eye on this auction, the ingredients are the ones for a complete oddball. The seller doesn't know how to spell and anyway doesn't seem to know the correct name of it. It is in fact a Jensen GT (as it says on the bumper) and not a Jenson Healy or a Jensen Healey, the connection with Healey ended in 1975. The description and pictures would keep me away from it but 15 bids certainly show a lot of interest for this attractive shooting brake. Only 473 were ever made and under the bonnet there should be a 1.973cc Lotus twin-cam,  but with perfect examples being evaluated around £6.000 I would say that this is a far cry from a wise investment. 15 bids, £460 so far, 4 days and no reserve make for an interesting auction to keep an eye on, thou.

Jensen Interceptor, Reborn and Future Regret

Looks like Browns Lane in Coventry is going to host again history of English motor culture or at least another attempt.

CPP, a British specialist automotive group, has been appointed by Jensen’s owners, Healey Sports Cars Switzerland Ltd, to engineer, develop and build the all new Interceptor. The car will apparently be a full aluminium body and will presented officially in late 2012. The first customers thou can't expect to park it in their driveway before 2014, any many things can change by then.

The first images are at least encouraging, the "forte" of the lines seems to be updated but preserved and seems to be more than the usual "lower the car and put 21" low profile rims on it", even if they actually put 21" rims on it. The legend of the Interceptor tell also stories of dreadful fuel consumption dictated by the scary 6.2 and 7.2 V8 and this is a detail that I see less and less appropriate in a world where hybrid racers are about to approach the 24h of Le Mans.

The intriguing aspect is that a brand new aluminium chassis is a perfect chance to solve the "barge like" handling of the original car, another legendary aspect of this British icon.

This isn't the first attempt to update the Jensen, the Interceptor R hit the market few years ago, but the asking price puts the car in a closed niche of enthusiasts with more money than sense, really. The old shell is completely stripped and rebuilt, engine, suspensions, brakes and transmission updated to what seems a corvette swap. The result is far from being a track day car or a performance GT and only love could make you ignore the much better cars available for a fraction of the price.

So while waiting for the end of 2012 to have a clearer idea of what will truly be on offer, the best way to go seems looking for a real deal and try to stay away from money pits projects.

A quick search brought me this example for sale in Cheshire. The sentence "body needs attention" sounds alarming but the price tag of "£4.000 or sensible offers" sounds reasonable enough to be worth a visit in person. It seems material for a Future Regret.

Sure is a far cry from the most desirable "FF" with its first time full 4WD ever seen on a production car, anti lock brakes and traction control. Only 320 of these were ever built and I haven't seen one of those for sale at reasonable price for years.