|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
THIS MONTHS FEATURED CAR(S) AUGUST 2008 Mac McMahon's 1950 Riley
Here are a few pictures of my 1950 Riley drop head coupe. Five hundred were manufactured plus two prototypes. I bought the car in South Carolina from a farmer who bought it in Chico, California as part of an estate sale of farm machinery. He was interested in the farm machinery only so the car truly was stored in a barn (there are not enough barns left in the US to account for all those car for sale ads labeled “barn find”). The car was cosmetically in pretty good shape and looked pretty much the way you see it now. My money and time have gone into the mechanics; first to get the car to stop, then to stop the front end from shaking loose when I went over 30 MPH.
I don’t have the history on the car that I would like to have. I heard from the farmer that it was a derelict in the field with mushrooms coming up from the floorboards when it was discovered in the mid-1980’s and restored. It was at that time that the original inline four cylinder was removed and replaced with a Mercury Capri V6 2.8 litre (we’re still trying to pinpoint the exact date of the engine; we know it was somewhere between 1974 and 1977). The original engine came with the purchase and my mechanics at Motorhead in Fairfax, Virginia labeled it “yard art” when I asked them what it would cost to restore.
My interest in Riley’s dates from the early 1980’s when I first saw one in New Zealand when I was negotiating a bilateral aviation agreement with the New Zealand government as part of the US team. It was a saloon and the styling really knocked my socks off. Twenty years later I was at a British car show in Lewes, Delaware and one showed up. The gentleman who owned it advised me to purchase a saloon over in the UK and have it shipped over here since that would be the most economical way to acquire a Riley. Definitely do not buy one in the US and most definitely do not buy a drophead coupe or a roadster!
I exhibit the Riley (named Kelly Riley, of course) at the British Car Show in Lewes, Delaware (where I live) every year since I got her. She always wins a prize and the dash isn't even done yet.
|
||
|
|
||
|
You may view our privacy statement and disclaimer here |
||
|
©2005 British Car Club of Delaware, all rights reserved |
