Vin 2325 - A Brief History

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Vin 2325 - A Brief History

Postby Thunderchild » Fri May 09, 2014 9:52 pm

I thought it was about time I posted something about #2325 in here. A July '81 car with a black interior and manual transmission, I really don't know much about it before it reached our shores. What I do know is that it was sold by Superior Pontiac of San Antonio, TX and that by 1983 it was in the hands of Lone Star Liquidators in Houston.

After that it resurfaced in a classified ad in the June 1989 issue of Classic and Sportscar magazine, by which time it had been painted black and was being sold by Ted Vernon Collection in Miami for $10,500. I contacted Ted a while back and he told me honestly "When they were painted that usually meant they had been wrecked and repaired. It was cheaper to paint them than buy the body panels and do it right. We never fixed any cars. It's not what we do."

The man who bought it was Johnathan Marland and it arrived in Felixstowe in '89 where the paintwork was descibed as "very poor" which probably contributed to him having the car repainted silver.

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He spent a lot of money on the car but ultimately, after the DVLA refused to let him register it with the number plate it's wearing in the photo (as he had failed to put it on retention) the car was left in a barn for a decade without ever being registered in the UK. Jason Welling bought the car in 2002, put it back on the road and in 2006 he had the car returned to bare stainless. That story can be found here: http://www.pjgrady.co.uk//GenericConten ... orean.html

I first saw the car in Wells in 2006 but it was February 2007 before I bought her. I've always tried not to be shy about using her and as a result she has seen race tracks, snow and the occassional AA lorry. She has also appeared in magazines, video games and on TV, somewhere along the way i've also tried little by little to make repairs and improvements but I guess that never ends.

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Donington 2007...

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Providing sound recordings for "Driver: San Francisco" in 2011

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Charity Track Day at Snetterton 2012

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Chris Bale
Norwich, Norfolk
VIN# 2325
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Re: Vin 2325 - A Brief History

Postby Dangermouse » Fri May 09, 2014 10:17 pm

Great story Chris.
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vin 2743
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Vin 2743 – Black, Auto, non-lowered, non-Spaxed, non-carbed, non-turbo’d, non-de-catted, just as Neal drove it on the boat in August ‘81
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Re: Vin 2325 - A Brief History

Postby mec » Fri May 09, 2014 11:08 pm

very good indeed :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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Re: Vin 2325 - A Brief History

Postby jerzybondov » Sat May 10, 2014 12:01 am

Nice read, didn't know any of this!

How many laps did your brakes hold up for on track? Reckon mine would do two corners...
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Re: Vin 2325 - A Brief History

Postby Dan 6511 » Sat May 10, 2014 12:06 am

Interesting read, I had no idea your car was painted once.

I remember my brakes being non existent on the nurburgring, and the discs were blue when we had finished the lap!
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Re: Vin 2325 - A Brief History

Postby Thunderchild » Sat May 10, 2014 1:51 am

Brakes held up ok if I recall but we were limited to short stints and only on the smaller circuit so we weren't hitting big speeds. There were lots of classics out and the only one I remember with brake issues was this guy who was on track in a '68 Mercury Cougar XR-7. Lovely car though.

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Re: Vin 2325 - A Brief History

Postby Dangermouse » Sat May 10, 2014 3:48 am

Any pics of it painted black?
Dermot
vin 2743
Ex-Dunmurry-ite,
but now nr. Atlanta GA
US o'A

Vin 2743 – Black, Auto, non-lowered, non-Spaxed, non-carbed, non-turbo’d, non-de-catted, just as Neal drove it on the boat in August ‘81
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Re: Vin 2325 - A Brief History

Postby Admin-bloke » Sat May 10, 2014 9:23 am

Hi Chris, it's ages since I last saw you. For some reason I remember Richard and I fixing a wire for you for the ottersrat to get your fans working. I also seem to remember your car missing the diodes in the relay box that would cause your Air conditioning compressor not to work. I can't remember if I've put my pants on this morning though. ... Must be my age :(
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Re: Vin 2325 - A Brief History

Postby Thunderchild » Sat May 10, 2014 9:38 am

Yeah, thanks for all your help. It's been too long.

Unfortunately I have very few pictures of the car painted, and all when it was silver.

Based on what Ted Vernon told me it sounds like it was only just painted before it came over to the UK . If the paintwork was as poor as the shipping papers say then I guess the new owner wasn't keen to take a lot of photos. I did contact him at the same time as Ted to see if he could add anything, I discovered that he's now a member of the House of Lords but he could not tell me much more about the car.

When Jason owned it it was still painted but he returned the louvres, mirrors, grill etc to their regular colour...
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I do have several photos of the paint removal. As the PJ Grady site says, several of the panels including the original gas flap hood could not be saved.
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Re: Vin 2325 - A Brief History

Postby Domi » Sat May 10, 2014 12:43 pm

Interesting story about your car.
Did you find some pictures when it was painted black?
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