Adrian Donovan has 5 HPD, the white (in 1958) car that Romolo Tavoni drove while at the TT Garage. There are some pics of his car and a scan of the original log book plus a few comments on my Mike Hawthorn site - when we learned of it, it was too late to include it in Golden Boy unfortunately. It's shown below when on show at the Golden Boy book launch:

5 HPD - still with original log book - manufactured in white and driven by Romolo Tavoni while he was at the TT in 1958
Recently, someone has come forward (Bob) who owns a body that appears to be another RHD car and he believes it could be one of the TT Garage ones (although a photo I have of the other car that Mike was photographed with at the 1958 Motor Show shows that it was a dark colour originally). So the question is, what exactly is this car?
I have put the photos below plus comments from Adrian and from Bob, the owner of the other body. Any information as to what this car might be and its origins are very welcome. A clue may be the number '488' that is stamped on the bonnet if anyone has data that can place this.
Adrian Donovan who owns the only known surviving ex TT Garage car says:
"There was always some doubt about how many RHDs were built, but what does seem fairly certain is that only the two were sold in the UK - both by the TT Garage.
"As you know, mine is the one survivor and the other was converted in to a Testa Rossa replica - I suppose the body in the photos could have come from that?
"There are a number of other coupes that were apparently made in RHD for Sweden or Australia but it seems unlikely that one of those bodies would have made the way back here - especially in that condition! The body number is a clue worth following up."
Bob says:
"You can see the white paint work which was the original colour, also there is a foot rest on the right hand side were the clutch pedal is. The holes in the body for the steering wheel are on the right hand side. The only number I can find on this is on the bonnet '488', and if you look at the wipers, they are on the right side too. So it was definitely a right hand drive Pinin Farina Coupe so any thing you can come up with would be of great interest. If there were only two built then this was one of them."

Thanks in advance.
Edited by tonyb, 29 March 2010 - 22:15.