my old 408 FPF 678 B

[geo]

I often wonder what happened to the 408 I owned many years ago. I saw it from time to time rather posher than when it was in my hands, but last time I came across it — more than a decade ago — it was looking rather sad and unkempt.

There was some rumour that it had been exported to the Antipodes, but does anyone know any more about this car?

George

[Nick Challacombe]

Sorry George cannot be of much help, the chassis lists produced by the club I do not think have been updated since 1994!
Then it was "Brown" engine number 949 23228C and residing in England.
Nick

[Geoff Dowdle]

George,

408/7043 was sold to Perth/Australia c2007 .
A repair/restoration was started but never completed.
In 2015 it was sold at auction to a new owner in South Australia but I have not heard it is back on the road yet.
See attached photos c2015 or earlier

Geoff

[geo]

Geoff,

It looks as if the rumour that it had gone to Australia was correct and thanks for confirming this.

Its Brown colour is not the cream over chocolate it was in my ownership (GWR colours) that was done by the previous owner.

I was going to say that from your photographs, it seems that the cills that were replaced during the time I had it have not survived well, but thinking about this again, these photographs are circa 30-odd years later and the original cills did not last that long either!

I really enjoyed driving this car across Dartmoor where I lived at the time, but one local farmer complained that when I was emerging from T junctions it blocked his LandRover's road on the steep downhill.

I hope the owner in South Australia gets as much pleasure out of FPF 678 B as I did.

Many thanks for this information, I shall no longer keep an eye open for it turning up at a UK auction.

Perhaps my question and your reply could be moved to the 8-cylinder thread as a new owner is more likely to see it there?

George