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CCH277T's History

According to the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust CCH277T was born on the 5th of December 1978. The certificate they have supplied me with (excellent value at £33) states the car was built (at Abingdon) between the 4-5th of December 1978, it would have been road tested (all MG's were road tested) on either the 6th or 7th of December as it was then delivered to the dealership (Appleyards Ltd, Bradford, which is still there and now a Jaguar dealership) on the 8th of December 1978. The chassis and engine numbers match those currently with the car so it is still using it's original engine, abet reconditioned by Ivor Searle.

CCH277T was originally manufactured as a right hand drive, home market car, Inca yellow is indeed it's original colour and it had the silver/grey deck chair striped seats. Factory fitted equipment comprised of R.O.-style wheels and overdrive, there is no mention of the Webasto sun roof that it is currently fitted with, a fact backed up by photographic evidence of the car before the restoration.

Interestingly despite the fact the car was supplied to a dealership in Bradford the car was first registered in Derby, Peter Loweth, the fourth owner noted the car had spent its early life in the Nottingham area. I haven't been able, as yet, to find out why that was. It's possible it was delivered to Bradford and then the dealer shipped the car to another branch at Derby themselves and it was registered there. Another possibility was that although the car was purchased at Bradford the first owner lived in Derby, or the Nottingham area. A bit more digging required on that one. CCH277T became road legal on the 14th of February 1979 (how sweet, Valentines Day) in the Derby/Nottingham area.

I am currently the eighth owner of CCH, as yet I haven't been able to discover who the first three were yet. From August 1987 until August 1993 the car was owned by a Peter Loweth in the Oxon area. I have a letter from Mr Loweth stating he had the car routinely serviced apart from having the car stored from July 1988 until April 1989. The car had approx 48,000 miles on the clock when Mr Loweth bought it and approx 70,000 when he sold it.

 During his time with the car Peter had the following done:

New clutch and the rear dampers replaced.

New sills both sides including castle sections.

A new front wing on the drivers side.

And the head gasket replaced twice.

There then appears to be a gap (most probably as the car was with the motor trade) from August 1993 until until February 1994 when the car was purchased by Stephen Reed, in the Newbury area. Mr Reed purchased the car from Hartley Court Commercial Services Ltd for princely sum of £1800.00. It was Mr Reed who was responsible for, and carried out, CCH's restoration. Subsequent to the cars restoration Mr Reed entered the car in many MGOC events, winning at least six times and being well placed in many others.

Stephen Reed, the original restorer of CCH kept the trophies he won with CCH after he sold the car. When I made contact with Stephen he told me he still had them and asked if I'd like them, is the Pope Catholic?!!! I nearly bit his arm off! As you can see Stephen kept to his word and sent them to me, they now have pride of place in the display cabinet above a black CB V8, a MGC GT and a RB GT, shame it's not Inca Yellow :o) I particularly like the tankard as it carries CCH's registration number on it.

From the paperwork I have it appears that Mr Reed sold the car in 2003 where it passed into the ownership of James Pearson in the Inverkeithing area of Scotland. I have no idea how CCH ended up in Scotland but it didn't stay there very long. Although Mr Pearson bought the car in March 2003 he had it for just three months, until June 2003, when it returned to the south of England and into the care of Stephen Abrahams in the Harrow area of Greater London. I'd be interested to find out how it ended up in Scotland and why it came back after such a short time.

23/05/06 - History Update: I now know how and why CCH ended up in Scotland. A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to make contact with Stephen Reed, the restorer of CCH. We had a very interesting hour long chat about the car and have kept in email contact since. Stephen was able to fill in a lot of the gaps in my knowledge of the car and tell me what he did to it and how much it cost! In 2000 Stephen was looking to sell CCH to finance the restoration of a Triumph Stag. (See advert below, kindly supplied by Richard White)

The advert above was placed in "Enjoying MG", the MG Owners Club members magazine. Unfortunately Stephen was unable to sell the car at that time. (The photo definitely doesn't do it justice!) So, some time later, Stephen sold the car to a friend, James Pearson, who was more into Rolls Royce's than MG's. Three months later James part exchanged the car (in Scotland) for a Rolls Royce at a dealership up there. They didn't really know what to do with it so it was packed onto a low loader and shipped back to another of their dealerships in London. When it got here the dealership in London didn't know what to do with it either! They got in touch with Nigel at Former Glory and asked if he was interested in the car. Needless to say Nigel knew what he was looking at and immediately took it off their hands. Nigel sold the car to Stephen Abrahams, who sold it back to him two years later when he emigrated, which is where I came in.....

Stephen kept the car until November 2005 (Stephen seems to be a popular name with owners of CCH, in the eight owners three have had that name, including me!) when he sold it to Nigel at Former Glory, Nigel had had the car for a very short time when I saw it as I put the deposit on it in November 2005, finally collecting the car on the 14th January 2006.

I can now account for five of CCH's eight owners (although any additional information is always welcome) and I would dearly love to fill in the missing part of CCH's early career, so if you owned the car, or knew who did, you can contact me via email at faasig@msn.com or via my mobile which is: 07860 228194.

Rostyle wheels, as they are commonly known, are actually the R.O. Style wheels, so named after their designer and manufacturer Rubery Owen Ltd, a Black Country firm that grew from small beginnings in the late nineteenth century to become a major manufacturing company in the twentieth century and one of the largest privately owned engineering groups in Britain in the 1960s with 14,000 employees. Back to the paragraph.

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