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Regrets? I've had a few...

Started by f1steveuk , Mar 12 2006 13:51

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34 replies to this topic

#1 f1steveuk

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Posted 12 March 2006 - 13:51

I suspect all of us have done some things in the past, that now, with hindsight, we regret. Today I counted the cost of being over generous!! For years under a bench I had a Speedwell head for a Mini. Lovely piece of work, which I gave away some 25 years ago. Today, I could have sold it for £500. Ooops just about covers it! I have handed out tabards from races I have attended etc etc. Now I gave the stuff away wiilingly, charity auctions etc, but sometimes you think, "bu##er, should have kept that". The head is one thing, (not because I could have sold it, but, go get another one!!), Donald Campbell's signature is another, so confess, what did you give away, just to make me feel better!!!

#2 Barry Boor

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Posted 12 March 2006 - 14:57

Not gave away in the strictest sense of the word but, before Ebay, I sold about 70-80 programmes and around 20 Autocourses (2 from 1963 then 1967-1990 - with a few missing) for a total of £1000.

#3 zakeriath

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Posted 12 March 2006 - 15:26

The nose off Hunts M26 as put through crash fencing, sold for R50.00 worth now about £3.50

Livingston first edition, but thats another issue.

#4 MCS

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Posted 12 March 2006 - 15:26

Sold all of my motor racing books - bar one (History of Brooklands) - in 1982 to John Blunsden at Connoisseur Carbooks in Chiswick...

(I didn't follow any racing from the end of 1981 until the late eighties and only follow it spasmodically now)

#5 T54

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Posted 12 March 2006 - 15:40

Financed much of my 1980's to 200's motor racing by buying and selling antique toys, books and memorabila on the side while running a legit business selling motor racing products.
The only thing I ever gave away (well, almost) is my lovely blue Porsche 550, and I regret it to this day. :cry:

But now I came to the realisation that "you can't take it with you" and will not be cremated inside a 250GT Ferrari like that woman in Texas about 30 years ago. Indeed, someone else will have the pain of rebuilding the thing after I am gone.

#6 Vicuna

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Posted 12 March 2006 - 18:36

The Lotus 22 with Eagle bodywork that was advertised in Motoring News in 1975...

#7 bobbo

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Posted 12 March 2006 - 18:54

. . . Renault R8 Gordini with a blown engine & mains because I couldn't afford the engine rebuild . . And the Leica IIIC Ball Bearing I sold for $75.00 . . .

Bobbo

#8 Ross Stonefeld

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Posted 12 March 2006 - 18:59

Ive regretted nothing in my life, so this doesnt count; but I do file it under my "i wonder if..."

In 2002 Id saved up roughly 1,000USD to do some driving with Skip Barber. I noticed just prior to the Monaco GP DC was at 20:1. Never having bet in my life, or even bothered to predict who would win a GP, I was seriously considering putting down my money on The Cubed one.

To this day I dont know why I decided to consider it that one time. But it would have paid for the entire remainder of the season.

#9 David Beard

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Posted 12 March 2006 - 18:59

Originally posted by Vicuna
The Lotus 22 with Eagle bodywork that was advertised in Motoring News in 1975...

Eagle bodywork???

More information, please! (unless it makes you more upset. of course)

#10 Twin Window

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Posted 12 March 2006 - 19:06

If only there had been a way for me to keep hold of my five precious bits of bodywork...

Posted Image

#11 ensign14

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Posted 12 March 2006 - 19:15

Someone close to where I lived when a pre-teen was offering Motor Sports from about 1950 to that date (must have been about 1984) for £30...my parents wouldn't lend me the money...I seriously considered, erm, borrowing it...but the fact that I would have needed transport to get them back kind of stymied it...

#12 Twin Window

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Posted 12 March 2006 - 19:19

When I was about the same age as you were, I was given Motor Sport from June 1957 to around 1972. Can't for the life of me remember how it came about, but luckily my folks agreed to a slight detour on a long journey and they were all collected.

#13 David Beard

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Posted 12 March 2006 - 19:45

Originally posted by Twin Window
If only there had been a way for me to keep hold of my five precious bits of bodywork...

:

Blimey, I've heard of the dog with two.....oh, never mind :drunk:

#14 Vicuna

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Posted 12 March 2006 - 19:50

Originally posted by David Beard

Eagle bodywork???

More information, please! (unless it makes you more upset. of course)

I never got to see it.

It was advertised as having been used in 'Grand Prix' and, as I said, was a Lotus 22 - I'm pretty sure from a distance of 30 plus years.

It was somewhere in the Midlands I think but that now really pushing it.

I don't even know if Eagles featured in 'Grand Prix'/

Keir or Macca will know...

#15 MCS

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Posted 12 March 2006 - 19:52

Originally posted by Twin Window
When I was about the same age as you were, I was given Motor Sport from June 1957 to around 1972. Can't for the life of me remember how it came about, but luckily my folks agreed to a slight detour on a long journey and they were all collected.

This is getting worse. I got copies from the mid to late sixties, but got rid of them when my collections of Autosport, Motoring News and Competition Car started to grow.

Did I sell them? No. I threw them in the bin... :rolleyes:

#16 Twin Window

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Posted 12 March 2006 - 19:57

Originally posted by David Beard

Blimey, I've heard of the dog with two.....oh, never mind

Not sure what you mean, David! The pic is of when I delivered them to the buyer and the last I ever saw of them, so I'm not looking all that happy...

#17 f1steveuk

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Posted 12 March 2006 - 20:34

Originally posted by bobbo
. . . Renault R8 Gordini with a blown engine & mains because I couldn't afford the engine rebuild . . And the Leica IIIC Ball Bearing I sold for $75.00 . . .

Bobbo

Oh dear!! , that would mean I have to include my Fiat Abarth "500". Put a valve clean through a piston, thought it had had it, sold it cheap, then saw it being driven around less than a month later. I hink I might regret starting this thread! Kept my complete set of GP International, but it wasn't mean that got rid of all my other magazines. Ex wives, bless 'em!

#18 Vitesse2

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Posted 12 March 2006 - 21:45

Originally posted by MCS

This is getting worse. I got copies from the mid to late sixties, but got rid of them when my collections of Autosport, Motoring News and Competition Car started to grow.

Did I sell them? No. I threw them in the bin...

Gave away about six years of Motor Sports from 1970-75.

Threw away a complete run of Motoring News for the same period! That was on my parents' insistence as we were moving: "You'll never look at them again and they'll never be worth anything ...." :

I have now replaced the Motor Sports and possess a complete run since October 1949 (missing December 1949!) :clap:

#19 petefenelon

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Posted 12 March 2006 - 21:49

Not buying "The Certain Sound" for a fiver.

Giving away my copy of DCN '66-'85 to an ex-girlfriend (she wasn't ex at the time) when '66-'91 came out.

#20 Twin Window

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Posted 12 March 2006 - 22:23

Originally posted by Vitesse2

That was on my parents' insistence as we were moving: "You'll never look at them again and they'll never be worth anything ...."

And they were right! I've never really understood why Motor Sport has no value, but it doesn't. MN is easier to understand, but I'm glad I've got qiuite a few of early '70s ones in the attic.

#21 David Beard

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Posted 12 March 2006 - 22:37

I bought Motoring News every week from around 1963, until they changed the name a year or two ago. (from that point on it no longer appeared on the shelf from which I snatched it...so it lost me as a reader). I loved MN back then...my susbstitute for the excessive weekly cost of Autosport.

I regret now that I always threw away MN a week or two after I bought it, mainly because I retained every copy of Motor Sport.

I would love to have back the ones I bought in the 60s and 70s

#22 vivafroilan!

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Posted 12 March 2006 - 22:38

A perfect copy of At Speed, gift from my parents when it first came out, lost with the rest of my luggage on a cross-country bus trip...

#23 ensign14

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Posted 12 March 2006 - 22:43

Originally posted by Twin Window
And they were right! I've never really understood why Motor Sport has no value, but it doesn't. MN is easier to understand, but I'm glad I've got qiuite a few of early '70s ones in the attic.

Magazine prices are generally depressed, you can pick up entire years of Autosport for £20-30. Compare that to books for the same period that have a lot less information. I live in fear that prices will scream upwards before I get a chance to move somewhere big enough to house a good load...

#24 Twin Window

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Posted 12 March 2006 - 23:36

Originally posted by David Beard

I would love to have back the ones I bought in the 60s and 70s

Ever tried eBay? For example, this bloke has another 25 on top of those five...

(Did you see my earlier post?)

#25 Wolf

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Posted 13 March 2006 - 10:21

Vicuna- there was Eagle-Climax in 'Grand Prix', but it looked real- it had the funny looking rear bodywork.

#26 Macca

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Posted 13 March 2006 - 13:12

The real Eagle-Climax was seen in the aerial shots of the real Belgian GP.......and there were glimpses of the fake Eagle-Weslake at Monaco:

and being passed by Sarti at Monza. In the Jim Russell biography there is a photo of a fake being painted in his workshop.

The fakes had a streamlined tail like the Climax-powered car - a drawing in Autocar in 1967 seems to show that the real Weslake cars were intended to have full bodywork.

Paul M

#27 Vicuna

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Posted 13 March 2006 - 17:28

See I knew you'd know Macca..

Wolf - I guess I just going to have to watch it again.

#28 Wolf

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Posted 13 March 2006 - 17:54

Macca, I think Monza had a lot of Eagle shots (everybody seemed to be passing and lapping Dan, left, right and centre), but I don't recall them having nose so much 'off the mark'. I could check it up, but could it be the Monza car was real Eagle?

#29 Macca

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Posted 13 March 2006 - 20:28

I'm afraid we're slipping OT here, guys.................but since you ask:

Posted Image

'Eagle' battling with BRMs in early stages at Monza

Posted Image

'Eagle' being passed by Sarti.

So that's a fake one; and the 'Eagle' at Monaco (there's a post somewhere with a picture of Francoise Hardy sitting in it) had a white noseband which made it look worse. I can't find my Jim Russell biog at the moment, but none of the other photos I've seen show the 'Eagle' from the front.

Anyway, I wish I could have bought the fake Eagle, or any of the film cars.......or indeed any 1960s F1 car.

My regret was missing a copy of Massini's 'Ferrari 250LM' which was only £20 when I was flat broke.............

Paul M

#30 HistoricMustang

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Posted 13 March 2006 - 20:55

The proudest thing I gave away is my third place medallion from Watkins Glen which is in my fathers :cool:

suit pocket in his grave.

He really enjoyed me having joy.

No regrets on this one.

Henry

#31 Lotus23

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Posted 13 March 2006 - 23:49

No major regrets, but I have pondered the occasional "what if" on these two:

-- sold my 1963 Lotus23 (SN 23-S-28) in early 1967 for US$3000.

-- sold my 1965 289 AC Cobra (SN CSX 2331) in 1978 for US$25,000.

Both seemed like decent prices at the time; hindsight is always 20/20.

I suspect the Lotus is now an example of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, but the Cobra is alive and well and living in California.

#32 coldplugs

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Posted 14 March 2006 - 02:37

Lots of car related regrets. Probably the worst was our OSCA 750 (Ser # 757) that had body damage from an accident. We had a lot going on at the time and my father wanted me to either do something with the remains, essentially a rolling chassis, or get rid of it because he wanted the space.

I planned and dreamed too long without committing. One day he cut up the frame, threw everything in his pickup, and took it to the dump. I still have the serial # plate and tonneau cover but that's all.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

#33 Option1

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Posted 14 March 2006 - 04:02

Originally posted by Twin Window
If only there had been a way for me to keep hold of my five precious bits of bodywork...

:

I hope the racewear bloke at least gave you a shirt with sleeves for 'em.;)

My main regret is not having been to more race meetings, especially when I was younger.

Neil

#34 TooTall

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Posted 14 March 2006 - 04:41

My biggest regret isn't for something I've sold (even though there are a few!) but for something I didn't buy. About 1977 I saw the Kas Kastner/Pete Brock Triumph TR250K that ran at Sebring 1968 for sale at a swap meet for $6500. I actually had more than that in the bank at the time but had no place to keep the car. I talked to Kas Kastner a few years ago and told him the story. He said that by that time he would have taken almost any resonable offer on the car. It's now in the Hart family collection in Washington state.

Cheers,
Kurt

#35 ensign14

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Posted 14 March 2006 - 10:02

Originally posted by Lotus23
No major regrets, but I have pondered the occasional "what if" on these two:

-- sold my 1963 Lotus23 (SN 23-S-28) in early 1967 for US$3000.

-- sold my 1965 289 AC Cobra (SN CSX 2331) in 1978 for US$25,000.

Both seemed like decent prices at the time; hindsight is always 20/20.

There was a quote from a Denise McCluggage book, perhaps about her:

"Denise, if you'd've kept all your cars, you'd've been a multi-millionaire!"

"No, if I'd've been a multi-millionaire, I'd've kept all my cars."