A gentleman in his 70s phoned me one day and asked me if I wanted to buy his classic car, a Gordon Keeble. Like most people, I had never heard of the car, so I looked it up. It came from that tradition where Italian design met North American V8 power. A fibreglass body over a chassis with a Corvette powertrain. As no one in North America knew what the car was, I sold it to one of my regular buyers in the Netherlands who had a terrible time trying to re-sell it. I see that restored ones are now being sold for $150,000 CDN, I sold that one for $17,000 CDN.
Here’s a pic of the car:
My associate saw an ad in the Autotrader magazine for a car that had been abandoned in the driveway of a property somewhere close to Milton, Ontario. The story behind the vehicle was that the owner had gone to Europe and died while he was over there and the family just wanted it sold. They were asking $1,500.00. I was persuaded to buy it and unfortunately it cost another $6,000.00 to get it roadworthy. This vehicle turned out to be a Russian built GAZ Chaika 14. The production of this car came to an end when Gorbachev canceled it. The car was built solely for the members of the Politburo and was not sold to the general public. We rented the car to be in the first version of the movie “Red”. It plays a big part towards the end where they hold a conference of the agents. While the car was involved in filming, we were contacted by someone in the Czech Republic who wanted to buy it and we shipped it to them after the movie wrapped. We sold it for $12,000.00 CDN. The most recent example that we could find had an asking price of 38,000 Euros. The example that we had was terribly underpowered with a Ford 5 L V8. The turning circle was enormous.
LIPSTICK ON A PIG
Avoiding Life’s Lemons
Lipstick on a Pig features excerpts from the vast library of Maurice Bramhall’s experiences.
