Other VAs associated with me (click photos to enlarge)

VA 2421 Tourer, Engine #2684
SVW Register states that it left the factory as a Tourer on 13 April 1939.
This is a spare engine purchased from a wrecker (1960's) by the owner in Micheldean (found this out 21/3/2010). Now in the spares inventory.

VA 1002 Saloon, Engine #1254
SVW Register states that it left the factory as a Saloon on 17 November 1939.

My owner purchased the rusted heap of body parts, chassis and whatever was left from a well known MG dealer near London who told him the car was driven there in the mid 1960's. It was located up a lane in a forest near Gatwick Airport on 17th October 1982 and recovered on 20th November 1982. One find, deeply buried amongst the soil and leaves, was an exhaust manifold - a good spare.

The engine is (naturally) seized but has many parts and no doubt if needed, could be reinstated. Thin oil mix has been left in the cylinders for 27 years ! Gearbox is still attached. Currently allocated to the spares inventory.

Getting the chassis off the forest floor was a misison hence the hiab lift at the back of the truck, a good mate of my owner (pictured in his younger years) helped and the truck was backed under the chassis and it was all carefully lifted up.

The photo (with my wheels on) shows lots of parts, eg engine, axles, shocks etc. Body parts eg bonnet and guards were traded for other items from SVW Parts.

Of note is that the chassis front cross member now resides in a chassis of another VA DHC located in Christchurch, NZ. The rest of the saloon chassis was too rusty to restore (at the time...).

Reg BPM 59, Tourer (Chassis/Engine number unknown)

SVW Register states that it left the factory as a Saloon in March 1939, chassis number is probably close to VA 2412 above.

BPM 59 was originally black and registered as a private 12 horsepower MG touring car registered to the Chief Constable, Constable Offices, Lewes on 24 March 1939. Kithead Trust confirms the car was last on the road in 1971 and its current status is unknown to the SVW Register. A photo of BPM 59 is in Andrea Green's book "MGs on Patrol".

(I have checked the registers of vehicles licensed by East Sussex County Council and BPM 59 has a ref of VEH 4/10).
When purchased by the owner in Micheldean (when he was a lot younger - a teenager), BPM 59 was white. He and his brother painted it red and sold it to purchase me (DLJ 917)!

There is a note on back of one white photo "VA 1967 Before" and then another of it painted red and "VA 1967" on the back of another photo. All photos appear from the same processing Kodak run of October 1967.

The house in the photos was in Epping (I now have all the details off the blog site). The young lads are brothers and one of them now lives in Micheldean....all the dots now connect...and where my 'modern story starts' with my NZ owner as the next car they purchased was me!