Re: [ncdmc] Pilot car Photos

[Gary Valenziano <piason@xxxx>]

Ken and Group,

The good news is that I talked to Sascha yesterday for about an hour. He
is now in L.A. and consulting with Don, Ed and the original owner of
the car a former DMC employee who now lives in the L.A. area, assessing
the validity and the historic value if any, of his EBay purchase Vin#
BD000020 made from his home in Boston on the word of the seller and
pictures provided.

This car is believed to be one of what was about 30 cars produced by
either Lotus and/or DMC and shipped to US to be used in the emission
and track tests for the US government, of which he thinks in talking to
the former owner and DMC employee only 1 other car of this kind to his
knowledge still exists after most of the others were
disassembled(scavendged) for parts in the process of getting the car
passed. This took place before the so called Black cars where built at
the factory to train workers on the procedures of assembling the cars,
hence the name PILOT cars.
The car is in good running condition, with a few upgrades and a little
work and money to tighten up the cooling and fuel systems this car is
going to keep on going for a long time as it was cared for mechanically
pretty well by the former owner and is believed to have low miles(less
than 15,000 as I remember).
The dilemma as I see it is going to be how to proceed to restore a car
inside and out that was never intended to be sold to the public and in
my opinion, has some historical significance. And this posses the
problem that in some places the car has parts that are not conventional
DMC parts, for example the plastic expansion bottle that has cracks in
it that has to be replaced, which Steven from DMC Houston thought maybe
off a Ford Citron, do you replace it with a new aluminum one or call
Ford or the U.K. DMC club to see if they can locate an original part,
all to keep it historically correct while using it as a daily driver.
Understand this car came to the original owner with no windows or
passenger seat and I think Sascha said that even the doors were replaced
later, as the original owner decided to fix the car up to drive legally.
So Sascha doesn't know what is stock and what was added by the former
owner in his endeavor to get the car driveable. Also the car was painted
black, not because it was damaged but the owner got tired of the blotchy
look of the stainless, he said.

Sascha's plan was to leave his job and to drive his car around the
country from Pennsylvania 3000 miles to Portland for the DOA driving
tour which he did, with just a water pump going out in Chicago I might
add, where he met all the vendors. There I met him and invited him to
stay at my house as he went though the San Francisco bay area to L.A.
The bad news unfortunately is he has been here and is off on the rest of
his adventure(oh to be young again).
Then he was to go to L.A. to check out the validity of his purchase.
After staying with relatives and friends in L.A. and San Diego move on
to Colorado before winter then proceed to DMC Houston, the midwest, the
east coast, Rob at P.J. Grady than home. Although in talking to him it
sounds like he may be staying around L.A. at his uncles house and get a
job for the winter then perhaps pickup his journey sometime in the
future.
That's about all I know to the best of my recollection, you can all see
the pictures posted on the DML website photo section and make your own
opinion.
Gary V.
Vin# 5480
'81 5 speed


"Montgomery, Ken" wrote:

> Does the car run? What would we need to do to get it to one of our
> meets so
> we could all see it?
>
> Ken
>