Photo: Charterhouse Auctioneers and Valuers
Out of sight, out of mind. This seems to have been the case with a considerably rare MG MGA Roadster discovered in a barn, where it’d spent the past 20 years covered in all types of garbage.
We all love a happy-ending story, and a good barn find. This is neither of these, but it could be both – with the right type of new owner, with the right kind of drive, and an adequately-sized wallet.
Auctioneers from the Charterhouse auction house were called in to settle the affairs of a person who had deceased. In a barn near Shaftesbury, in Dorset, they found a 1960 MG A Roadster, also known as an MG MGA. Some 100,000 units of this roadster were made between 1955 and 1962, the majority of which were exported overseas. Its relative rarity helps to compensate for the dire state in which this one was found.
This one is the 1600 model, produced in 31,501 examples between 1959 and 1960.
Clearly, this example has seen better days, to put it mildly. Charterhouse believes it was used and loved by three owners from the same family, having been bought new. It was then put into storage and forgotten for more than two decades, during which time it was buried under a mountain of garbage. When it was uncovered, it was almost completely hidden from sight under a pile of rubbish, with the auctioneers noting that the extraction job, which would have usually taken two days, became a ten-day rescue operation.
Some documentation has also been uncovered at the site, including a mention of a partial restoration in the ‘80s before it was put into storage. The restoration was halted before the engine was rebuilt, and this could explain why the car was never taken out after this.
“The car would seem to have been bodily restored, and then wheeled back into the garage for work to the engine, and perhaps it all got too much or life got in the way, and there it stayed, unfinished,” Richard Bromell of Charterhouse says.
In April this year, the A Roadster will be crossing the auction block as-is, with a price estimate between £8,000 and £15,000, roughly $11,124 and $20,859 at today’s exchange rate. The auctioneers note that this project is a daunting one for whoever will undertake it, but there’s a silver lining, in addition to the joy of bringing a classic back to life: when restored, the MGA could be worth as much as £44,000 ($61,186).
“With the engine reassembled, it would make a nice Sunday driver, the perfect car to pop out in the morning and pick up the papers, eggs and bacon, and it would get plenty of attention along the way,” Bromell assures.
Auctioneers from the Charterhouse auction house were called in to settle the affairs of a person who had deceased. In a barn near Shaftesbury, in Dorset, they found a 1960 MG A Roadster, also known as an MG MGA. Some 100,000 units of this roadster were made between 1955 and 1962, the majority of which were exported overseas. Its relative rarity helps to compensate for the dire state in which this one was found.
This one is the 1600 model, produced in 31,501 examples between 1959 and 1960.
Clearly, this example has seen better days, to put it mildly. Charterhouse believes it was used and loved by three owners from the same family, having been bought new. It was then put into storage and forgotten for more than two decades, during which time it was buried under a mountain of garbage. When it was uncovered, it was almost completely hidden from sight under a pile of rubbish, with the auctioneers noting that the extraction job, which would have usually taken two days, became a ten-day rescue operation.
Some documentation has also been uncovered at the site, including a mention of a partial restoration in the ‘80s before it was put into storage. The restoration was halted before the engine was rebuilt, and this could explain why the car was never taken out after this.
“The car would seem to have been bodily restored, and then wheeled back into the garage for work to the engine, and perhaps it all got too much or life got in the way, and there it stayed, unfinished,” Richard Bromell of Charterhouse says.
In April this year, the A Roadster will be crossing the auction block as-is, with a price estimate between £8,000 and £15,000, roughly $11,124 and $20,859 at today’s exchange rate. The auctioneers note that this project is a daunting one for whoever will undertake it, but there’s a silver lining, in addition to the joy of bringing a classic back to life: when restored, the MGA could be worth as much as £44,000 ($61,186).
“With the engine reassembled, it would make a nice Sunday driver, the perfect car to pop out in the morning and pick up the papers, eggs and bacon, and it would get plenty of attention along the way,” Bromell assures.
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