Discussion
Jonny TVR said:
Thats incredibly interesting thank you and I didn't fully appreciate all of that. I knew a little but very interesting thank you for taking the time. I'm at Emblem on Monday to pick up my testarossa and drop off the Cobra for a spanner check.
Funny how i can retain so much useless information always car related but can't remember anything important like birthdays and anniversaries I'm dropping off a friends Aston Oscar India off to Aston Martin Services at Ferndown on Monday morning,
Shame we are on a tight schedule otherwise would love to come over to Emblem and say hello,
They built my 308 engine to race spec some years ago , when they where in Blandford ,
From memory i think the mechanic who put it together was Nigel but he's probably long retired by now ,
,
ratrod 2 said:
Jonny TVR said:
This may or may not be of some interest to you being a Cobra owner but will try not to bore you to much ,Back in the day i would buy my Ferrari's from Maranello's when owned privately by Colonel Ronnie Hoare who
more or less started Maranello's as a hobby and somewhere to maintain his Ferrari race cars having his main income from his Ford
dealership F English in Bournemouth along with a small showroom close to the main Bournemouth shopping centre and parks
for selling a few more exotic cars , my dad bought a Aston Martin DB 4 from them for the princely sum of £1,495 so going back a while
Maranello's was very much run as a family business with 9 to 5 hours apart from every third Saterday a salesman would have to work from 9 - 12 ,
On the death of the Colonel the business was sold to Inchcape and wasn't long before the orginal staff were replaced by a different generation
of salesman , My friend who was one of the longest standing salesman there was told he had to work a alternate 7 day week which he
replied we sell Ferrari's not Fords and refused to work on any Sunday as they were now working a full Saterday instead of the previous
9 - 12 hours and resigned ,not too long after he was followed by the rest of the original staff along with the sales manager Mark Konig
who drove for Ferrari at Le Mans and Sebring and also manufactured his own racing car named the Nomad BRM ,
My friend after doing a spell with Aston and Bristol Cars managed to get offered the position of sales manager
with Brian Angliss selling the MK 1V Autocraft Cobra ,My friend invited me to the factory which was at Brooklands ,
On my arrival i was greeted with rows and rows of completed Cobra's ,this was the early days when made with alloy bodies and fitted with the 302 Ford
V8 's before they resorted later to carbonfibre bodywork with the Lotus V8 .
Can't exactly remember the exact dates but i think there must have been some sort of recession going on at the time and although
i was told the cars were sold and awaiting collection with some being exported he said it with a wink because that what he had been told to say
to the customers ,If they showed some serious interest they would get a call from my friend to say they had a cancelled order and could take delivery
immediately and avoid the imaginary waiting list ,
My friend now in his late 70's has his own business selling Bristol cars in the west country and we still stay in touch .
Another one of my useless bits of information ,
:Edited by ratrod 2 on Wednesday 19th June 00:51
Fessia fancier said:
Just to say nice post Rat Rod (and the Cobra looks great)
Thank you, Got a bit carried away as usual , there's a fine dividing line between boring the ass
off everyone with things that are of interest to yourself and maybe not to others ,
Dare say many of the younger generation would have switched off after the first sentence as way before
their time,
ratrod 2 said:
Thank you, Got a bit carried away as usual , there's a fine dividing line between boring the ass
off everyone with things that are of interest to yourself and maybe not to others ,
Dare say many of the younger generation would have switched off after the first sentence as way before
their time,
Just came to post some encouragement ratrod. I find your old anecdotes wonderful and almost read them in sepia! Please don’t feel you are boring anyone as they are great to read and interesting too. off everyone with things that are of interest to yourself and maybe not to others ,
Dare say many of the younger generation would have switched off after the first sentence as way before
their time,
As a regular to lyndhurst in my youth to drool whilst my mum used to visit the butchers opposite this brought back some memories.
Shnozz said:
ratrod 2 said:
Thank you, Got a bit carried away as usual , there's a fine dividing line between boring the ass
off everyone with things that are of interest to yourself and maybe not to others ,
Dare say many of the younger generation would have switched off after the first sentence as way before
their time,
Just came to post some encouragement ratrod. I find your old anecdotes wonderful and almost read them in sepia! Please don’t feel you are boring anyone as they are great to read and interesting too. off everyone with things that are of interest to yourself and maybe not to others ,
Dare say many of the younger generation would have switched off after the first sentence as way before
their time,
As a regular to lyndhurst in my youth to drool whilst my mum used to visit the butchers opposite this brought back some memories.
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