Darren Stone's 1948 RMA.
My brother and I purchased
the car in 1987 in original condition but with a recently rebuilt engine.
Since then I have bought out his half interest, redone the wheels, tyres, water
pump & a little R & R on the front brakes, but nothing else. Four years
ago my wife & I used it in our wedding, but now it sits awaiting its turn
in the garage for a total restoration.
A few points of interest: the car is LHD, but with no heater, which,
according to some of the books I have, mark it as an early '48, of which
they also say none went to export. One other oddity is a long-term RM owner
remarked that he had never seen another RM that you could crank out both
sides of the windscreen.
I received a stack of paperwork with the car, the earliest of which is a
receipt dated August 18th 1954, when a gentleman named Robert Bangs (of
Oregon City, Oregon) purchased the car from the British Automobile Centre
LTD. of Victoria B.C. for $1207.50. I have arranged the receipts and
correspondences from Mr. Bangs in chronological order, which paint a
colorful picture of the 10+ years the car spent in Oregon. From here the
car went to Mr. Stan Huntley (of Faspec fame) in Portland for a short time,
then migrated to the (San Francisco) Bay area. It traded hands a few more times when my
brother found the car listed in a Auto trader newspaper. We drove it and
bought it on the spot!
My current goal is to have it completely restored for my 10 year wedding
anniversary!