By now many of you will know that I've now got another FE. Like that common saying, "Blue FEs... why stop at one?" the stable has grown now to include a single-tone blue FE Special as a mate to my old Blue and White modified.
Here's a pic of the new car on its first Club Event:
You'll also find a collection of photos of the car
here.
A bit of history. This is an early 1956 FE, done in single-tone Elk Blue. It was bought at auction in 1985 from a deceased estate in Tasmania (where the car had been purchased new) by a young and keen Rod Sharman, now a Melbourne resident and member of the Vic Club. An expected 6 month quick hit resto turned into 8 years of work, resulting in the car you see today. When Rod bought it the car had 48,000 miles on it, and the interior was in good order despite having been used to cart hay
He discovered the original deposit and purchase receipts in the glove-box when he got it home. It now has 54,000 miles on it, 700 of those added in the last fortnight. Dad and I flew down to Melbourne, bought it and drove it back, and estimate that was the longest trip it's probably ever done! 600 miles would be about 3 laps of Tasmania
, and Rod told us the furthest he ever drove it was from Melbourne to Bright and back. But she never skipped a beat, and required very little work to pass rego inspection in NSW. She's on Historic Rego here, which means I can't drive it whenever I want to - which at the moment is every time I walk out to the garage! - but the Nationals will be here in a couple of weeks, so I'll get a lot of time behind the wheel then.
Thanks to everyone who assisted me to locate the right car, gave me their opinions of it to make the decision to travel all that way "just on spec" that much easier.
Thanks also to those who were "in the know" and kept quiet so I could spring the secret on everyone at the Club Run on Sunday. The looks on the faces were absolutely priceless.
cheers
RET
