Thanks Guys
Much work has gone behind the scenes to acquire the car... some of which was quite cloak and dagger... hush hush stuff. The main thing has probably come to be my rep as the owners or dealers tend to increase the price to inordinate level even if I have just passed through.
The owner of a Karachi Alfa GTV asked for 2.5 million from me ... for a car with no engine...... Stark raving mad.... and that I am not although the women of the family think that I am...
OK so here goes ... I first saw the car in 1976-77. during my days in Govt college I used to always take the family 76 corolla out for a drive in the evening 5-6 pm after studying in the afternoon.... have a blast and then come an dstudy some more. I still remember a white car with that grill coming at speed turning form the main boulevard onto Jail road. There a blonde lady driving it with two ladies sitting on the read seat back/ boot and a male passenger. I still remember the exhaust sound. I only saw it a couple of times after that and also at a distance. Always thought it was a Giulietta spider.
The lady was French and from what I can gather she was married to a local industrialist... nice guy.... born into money... no fault of his own... had a beautiful house in Gulberg with French windows and no wall... just a tall see through hedge and creepers.
We grew up and moved away and then came back from abroad and almost forgot about the car. But as the story goes the lady died a few years later ??? mid 80s??? and the gent just parked the car under a tree and forgot about it... finally it ended up in his garage also with french windows and there it stayed for the last 20 years. He got remarried but didnt really drive the car again. There it stayed and mice made a home in it and water seeped into the footwells and especially in to teh rear seat area....w hich rusted through
Now fast forward many years and the gent got cancer and died and the car stayed in the garage. I made the mistake of asking one of his relatives through a friend afetr a discreet period of a couple of years. Unfortunately the person asked had her parents die a few months prior as well and she was and is in a phase where she opens the parents house and cries her heart out every day and then locks it up and goes to her own home. She messed it all up by making me seem like a tomb robber and called me one too.
I thought well... this deal is truly stuffed and beat a hasty retreat... but kept on hoping ... and then Mohsin mentioned the car. after another 3 years...I got galvanised but did not show my face as it may have been taken the wrong way. All I wanted to do was to restore the car to what JM and his first wife would have wanted the car to be like and then to drive it... fast.
I disappeared from the forum as all day was spent hoping and yes.... plotting the next move. There were many false starts but eventually. The asking price was raised at the last moment which necessitated taking on my friend Tariq ( other car BMW 330 Ci) and a major racia with me in medschool...and now a Professor of Paeds surgery...as a partner in this project. But that will just mean the car will be driven more... all year around in fact.
As Waleed puts it ... the detailed story is worthy of a Tom Cotter book chapter... people you should read Cobra in the Barn and the Hemi in the barn. This car is truly a barn find.
The wheels are jammed... the pipes are corroded, the floor is rusted through and the engine well... I dont know... the aluminium intake just snapped off where the water jacket starts. ... had just corroded through...But doable and definitely doable. 3-4 months unlike other cars which are 2 year jobs.
By the way I hope teh Datsun Z will be ready for the road trip to I'bad. pics soon
