The story of this MGB
Why Bletchley? Well, Maxwell was standing for parliament in North Bucks on the promise of bringing employment to the area. This young employee was well paid, had a company car and enjoyed subsidised accommodation, and with not much else in Bletchley in those days to spend any money on he soon spotted the Old English White MGB fitted with a Bermuda hardtop for sale on the forecourt of the local MG dealers, Bletchley Motors. This MGB was their demonstrator model and had very low mileage and of course as a second-hand car no Purchase Tax. He had to have it. The then COE of Bletchley Motor Group was David Dunn and the sales manager Brinley Davey. When contacted David replied that “thousands of cars had been sold by his Group but recalls the MGB, however he has no further information on the car as the old archives no longer exist”. He confirmed that “their showroom and offices were in Aylesbury Street, Fenny Stratford, but they also had a petrol station and forecourt to display cars for sale in Bletchley”
Purchased in August 1966 the MGB was used by the present owner just for pleasure, the company car was the hack. He paid £700 for it including the Bermuda hardtop, compared to the £855 price of a brand new MGB, and that’s without including delivery charges, seatbelts, number plates, and the £100 hardtop.
The publishing company was callously closed down the moment Maxwell lost the seat, but the young man kept the car Maxwell had helped him buy and he moved back to work in London, meeting the young woman who was to become his wife, and both of them enjoying open top touring in this modern comfortable roadster.
The MGB had had a busy start to life, apart from touring all around southern England, including several trips to the Isle of Wight and journeys to the West Country and South Wales. During this first ownership the car was also taken on a business trip to Switzerland in 1968. Eventually the MGB started losing reliability for the daily commute, and furthermore in 1971 marriage and house purchase was looming. The MGB was going to have to go.
The prices of MGBs, note these are ex-works: delivery costs, number plates and seat belts are all extras. Yes, really!
Extract from the Sunday Times P. Olyslager Motor Manual Series, published 1967.
The MGB had had a busy start to life, apart from touring all around southern England, including several trips to the Isle of Wight and journeys to the West Country and South Wales. During this first ownership the car was also taken on a business trip to Switzerland in 1968. Eventually the MGB started losing reliability for the daily commute, and furthermore in 1971 marriage and house purchase was looming. The MGB was going to have to go.
So, in late 1971, the owner part-exchanged the MGB for a more recent Triumph Spitfire at a dealer in Ongar, Essex.
From the day the owner sold it to buy the Triumph he deeply regretted selling the MGB, and promised himself that one day he would get it back.
Significantly, the Ongar-based dealer was not prepared to pay extra for the hardtop so it was stuffed at the back of the garage and retained for nearly 50 years. Was that confidence that it would be reunited with the car one day?
Late 1971 to 21 July 1977. During this period the history of the car is not yet available and further research continues. If you know anything of interest, please contact us. Consequently the number of owners during this time is not known, but the car moved west from Essex to Somerset.
It was also at this time that the car colour changed from Old English white (OEW) possibly first to Yellow and then to Red. The earliest available documentation is an old style log-book which gives the colour as Yellow (but crossed out). Was this a colour change that was never recorded or more likely was it a confusion of the creamy colour of OEW being thought of as yellow? mycarcheck.com search states car has had three colours, but no date for when it went from white to red and whether there was a colour change between white and red.
The DVLA records start at 21 July 1977 and counts owners from that date.
21 July 1977 to 11 November 1977 the registered keeper was Keith C., CHS Auto Engineers, Somerset. Car colour has been confirmed by Keith as already being red by the time he acquired the car, despite the old style log book in his name stating yellow. Keith wrote: My memory of the car is quite sketchy; we used to buy and sell cars, also restore MGs. Your car I used as my personal transport, the car was red when I owned it; so far as I know it was never yellow I think it was an error in documentation. But whom I acquired it from or sold it to I can't remember; I know l never did any work on it apart from servicing.
11 November 1977 to 2 April 1982 the registered keeper was Leslie Alan B. resident on the Isle of Wight, where the MGB had already spent several holidays, but so far we have been unsuccessful in our attempts to contact this owner.
2 April 1982 to 18 February 1984 Reginald Ernest B. also of the Isle of Wight is recorded as the registered keeper during this period, and sadly this is another previous owner that we have so far failed to locate.
18 February 1984 to 14 July 1989 the registered keeper was Nigel Anthony B. then also living on the Isle of Wight. This owner totally restored the car, which by now was nearly 20 years old, during his ownership and a small photographic record and some invoices from the restoration have incredibly been handed down with the car ever since.
We did succeed in making contact with Nigel B. through a family member.
Primarily we had wanted to record our gratitude to Nigel B. for having saved this MGB for posterity, because it is not at all certain that OPP 199D would still be with us today if this enthusiast had not undertaken such extensive and competent work in the late 80’s. However the tone of his reply was most unexpected, disappointing and quite unlike that of all the other owners we contacted.
Had he proved more forthcoming not only could we have thanked Nigel B but might also have been able to confirm whether OEW and/or yellow was found under the red paintwork when he stripped the car to change the colour to British Racing Green (BRG). This colour change was recorded as being undertaken on 1 December 1986 and the change of colour was notified to the authorities on 10 April 1987.
Nigel B. might also have been able to enlighten us as to why an engine change was notified on the day he acquired the car, 18 February 1984. The DVLA Notification of Changes Form records under New or Replacement Engine the new number 18GB-U-H-43001. Presumably either a previous owner had neglected to record the change, or the car was purchased with the original engine in poor condition and this engine was available immediately, in stock or supplied with the car.
However the character of the reply means that sadly we might never know the answers to these questions, and we shall be unable to thank him personally for his extraordinary restoration, which saw the car remain in tip top condition through to at least 1998 and for having in all probability helped save this MGB for generations to come.
14 July 1989 to 5 March 1990 after the restoration the car was sold to registered keeper Christopher Robert William D., at that time also on the Isle of Wight.
Chris confirms the colour was Green, Chassis G/HN 3/87255, and that the Engine Number was 18GB-U-H-43001. Chris replied “I did own your car in 1989/1990 and will try to remember any detail which may assist you. I have just moved house and will search through boxes of old papers in the garage hoping to find the correct years but recall throwing away stuff before storing the rest.”
“Bought from the chap in Newport I O W who had completely renovated it from ground up to near Concours condition in British Racing Green. I used OPP for great summer days out on the island before taking it to ADT Auctions for sale. The previous owner sold OPP because of a bigger family and I sold it as I needed funds for property purchase.
All I did to OPP was, I believe, fit a set of wire wheels (not chrome).I am 95% sure I have photos of OPP and the ADT selling catalogue which I will send to you.
5 March 1990 MGB OPP 199D was put up for auction at the ADT Auction of Classic and Historic Automobile Division: Blackbushe Auction Centre, Blackwater, Surrey.
The Auctioneers praised the quality of the restoration, but rather overestimated the value of the car at between £8000 to £10000. Mr Anthony H. purchased the car for around £7500.
5 March 1990 to 2 July 1996 Registered Keeper Anthony Edward H., Hampshire. Notification of Change of ownership dated 6 March 1990 i.e. the day after the Auction. Name of the new owner and all address details were correct, however under “When was the vehicle acquired” it stated 5/12/1990 instead of 5/3/1990, a simple clerical error. Unbelievably, when the DVLA processed the change of owner and issued the Vehicle Registration Document in Anthony H’s name, instead of querying the date they modified it, but not by correcting the month, but by changing the year to 1989! That erroneous “Vehicle Acquired Date - 5/12/1989” then appears on several subsequent DVLA documents! Moral of this story, never entirely trust details shown in DVLA documents. The Vehicle Registration Document was issued on 13 March 1990.
Tony, now in New Zealand wrote “Sorry for the delay, yes I did own the MG and regret selling it, I purchased it from British car auctions in Camberley, I had gone to purchase an Austin Healey, but saw this, as it was it such good condition I could not resist it, from memory I paid 7.5 K, apart from servicing it I did nothing to it, it was garaged and never went out in the wet.
Sadly I needed some money at the time and I sold it to a friend of my fathers. Some while later, not sure how long I got word he was selling it, I made contact to buy it back again, but missed it by 1 day. I will speak with my father in the UK and find out if he has contact with the buyer I sold to.
Yes I have photographs, but need to locate them; over the Christmas break I will sort through and send. If ever you consider selling happy to ship it here to NZ !!!
I have attached as a start picture and the model my wife purchased for me after I had sold it.
During this ownership Tony H. let go of the car from 20 December 1992 to 26 May 1993, for it to be cared for by the new registered Keeper John Alan J., Slough. No mileage was added during this five month ownership and after a short sojourn in Slough Tony H. re-registered the car back into his name!
2 July 1996 to 6 June 1998 Registered Keeper Roger Ernald H., Burnham, Slough Notification dated 8 September 1997, Date vehicle acquired 2 July 1996 (more than a year earlier than the notification?) Roger has confirmed that he enjoyed using the car and very little work was required during his ownership. He wrote, we had the seats restored while in our possession, a new rev counter was fitted and two new 6-volt batteries. We would love to see photos when restored. He kindly sent several photos.
6 June 1998 to 14 October 2000 Registered Keeper Pauline Anne M., Maidstone, Kent. Another owner whom we have so far been unsuccessful in contacting.
14 October 2000 to 20 April 2015 Registered Keeper John S., Maidstone, Kent, John and Christine had many hours of enjoyable motoring in OPP 199D, but in the last few years had less opportunity to use the car. This coincided with the moment the present owner contacted John and inquired about the possibility of re-acquiring the MGB.
20 April 2015 to present. Registered Keeper: the very first private owner from 1966 to 1971 and after more than 40 years, back again with that same owner, who had always promised himself that he would get this car back one day. According to DVLA records the present owner is the 12th Keeper since July 1977!
So in reality the present owner is probably at least the 15th or 16th since the MGB was first registered in 1966 to Bletchley Motors.
Photo gallery from 1989 to 2015
