Rescue alert ! Black turbo auto ? R8 ?
Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2022 6:27 pm
I'm guessing a lot of members have seen the black turbo auto that popped up on ebay last week having been off the road about 10 years. The 56k on the clock looks to be genuine from the MoT history. It was in Essex, so Al and I went to have a look this afternoon, made an offer and bought it.
Al has been having problems with cramp after long journeys in the manual cars so he has been saying for some time he needs to have at least one 480 auto. Jeff has one tucked away in store but so much else to do, it won't be available for quite some time. We had planned to make this a personal rescue and have the work done by our repairman, but he is always very busy so I wasn't looking forward to asking him if he would take it on (and the bill would have been horrendous). I was really pleased to get a message from Jeff, saying that he'd be happy to do it for us if we could take R5 for a while - no-one has expressed any interest in it and there is lots to do on it. Thankfully the auto is (we think) in better condition - there is a fair bit of rust on the outer arches but inside feels quite solid both sides. The boot has little rust apart from in the tool well - I gave the biggest scab a good scrape and poke with a thumb nail and it felt solid so I'm hoping it's surface. Lacquer peel is pretty bad, same as R5 so perhaps the early black ones suffer from that.
The car belonged to an elderly couple, the husband hadn't been well for around 10 years but he didn't want to part with it so the car was left on the drive until he died last November. The chap we bought it from knew the couple and is a car enthusiast (gorgeous supercharged XJR in the garage, along with his wife's early MX5) He bought the 480 partly to help the widow out and partly thinking he might restore it for his wife who is a fan of pop-ups. However, he is running a digger hire business and not yet at the end of the house renovation he is doing, then he will be building himself a retirement bungalow on part of the extensive grounds and selling the house so he is not exactly time rich. When he first bought the 480 he tried to jump start it but it wouldn't fire up although the engine turned ok. He assumed it needed fuel and a good clean out but postponed it until better weather. Recently he opened the bonnet and found some dodgy wiring so replaced the worst of it, but when he put a battery on it again, smoke started coming out under the dash so he rapidly disconnected it and decided it needed more work than he had time for.
Sadly, this means Al will have to part with Eva. She is also low mileage, much the same as the auto, had a turbo rebuild when we first bought her, always looked after by our pedantic garageman (if it's not perfect it just wont do) and had a very expensive respray/underside treatment over the winter so we will be asking top dollar for her. I don't anticipate parting with her much before the end of the summer but if you might be interested just bear it in mind.
Meanwhile - hopefully one more turbo snatched from the jaws of death !
Al has been having problems with cramp after long journeys in the manual cars so he has been saying for some time he needs to have at least one 480 auto. Jeff has one tucked away in store but so much else to do, it won't be available for quite some time. We had planned to make this a personal rescue and have the work done by our repairman, but he is always very busy so I wasn't looking forward to asking him if he would take it on (and the bill would have been horrendous). I was really pleased to get a message from Jeff, saying that he'd be happy to do it for us if we could take R5 for a while - no-one has expressed any interest in it and there is lots to do on it. Thankfully the auto is (we think) in better condition - there is a fair bit of rust on the outer arches but inside feels quite solid both sides. The boot has little rust apart from in the tool well - I gave the biggest scab a good scrape and poke with a thumb nail and it felt solid so I'm hoping it's surface. Lacquer peel is pretty bad, same as R5 so perhaps the early black ones suffer from that.
The car belonged to an elderly couple, the husband hadn't been well for around 10 years but he didn't want to part with it so the car was left on the drive until he died last November. The chap we bought it from knew the couple and is a car enthusiast (gorgeous supercharged XJR in the garage, along with his wife's early MX5) He bought the 480 partly to help the widow out and partly thinking he might restore it for his wife who is a fan of pop-ups. However, he is running a digger hire business and not yet at the end of the house renovation he is doing, then he will be building himself a retirement bungalow on part of the extensive grounds and selling the house so he is not exactly time rich. When he first bought the 480 he tried to jump start it but it wouldn't fire up although the engine turned ok. He assumed it needed fuel and a good clean out but postponed it until better weather. Recently he opened the bonnet and found some dodgy wiring so replaced the worst of it, but when he put a battery on it again, smoke started coming out under the dash so he rapidly disconnected it and decided it needed more work than he had time for.
Sadly, this means Al will have to part with Eva. She is also low mileage, much the same as the auto, had a turbo rebuild when we first bought her, always looked after by our pedantic garageman (if it's not perfect it just wont do) and had a very expensive respray/underside treatment over the winter so we will be asking top dollar for her. I don't anticipate parting with her much before the end of the summer but if you might be interested just bear it in mind.
Meanwhile - hopefully one more turbo snatched from the jaws of death !