It’s been an interesting ride.
It started with seeing a freshly restored 1973 Fjord Blue CSi with a light tan interior and falling in love back in February.
The car was already sold ($170K!).
Found my way to this forum.
@Jimmi reached out and suggested I connect with @HB Chris and @sfdon.
Both gentlemen were incredibly kind, gracious and generous with their time.
Jim Lewis has become a good E9 friend.
His Turkis is incredible!!
I flew out to LAX to meet Chris Macha and planned to see Don, but my pup became ill and I didn’t get up to see SFODon.
Scouring the internet I stumbled upon a video featuring a Ceylon Gold CSL from an auction in the UK.
I was captivated by this color on the E9.
Discovered that very few are to be found in the states and I was likely searching for a needle in a haystack.
Challenge accepted.
I came foolishly close to buying a RHD CSL from the UK. Talked off that ledge by the previously mentioned experts; though, someday, when I sell my business, I may just pursue one anyway.
Got frustrated by dead ends on the Ceylon hunt and found a lovely 1972 CSA like the Fjord Blue and tan combo I had first seen in person.
It was only two hours away and my wife doesn’t like manuals so, I thought, Why not?
At the time I joked that a Ceylon would pop up only after I bought a different color.
Bought the car and had the undercarriage dry ice blasted and the eight year old paint corrected.
It’s like a new car now.
Sure enough, my prediction was right.
A Ceylon popped up on my Instagram feed.
The Ceylon was just that of a guy taking pics at a car show in Escondido, California and sharing to Instagram.
Not an ad for a car for sale.
Luckily, the owner chimed in and said Thank You to the photographer.
I now had a name!
I sent him a message on IG.
No response.
Found him on LinkedIn and sent a message.
No response.
Found an email associated with him.
It bounced.
Stalked him using ChatGPT and discovered his fabulous 1962 Jaguar had taken third at the La Jolla Concours.
Found the SoCal Jaguar Club and reached out to the membership chairman who forwarded my email to the owner.
He responds.
Bingo!
But, he really wasn’t planning to sell.
However, as they say, everything is for sale.
The car had sold once on BaT and RNM on the latest try.
Some gold wheels probably hurt the auction the most, from what the experts tell me.
And, some folks hate the color.
Not all of us are blessed with good taste.
I now had two listings to scan to really get a sense of the car.
The gold wheels were replaced with Alpina style.
The owner and I spoke several times.
Great guy who took wonderful care of the car.
Exactly the kind of seller one wants when buying.
He started at the “I don’t want to sell it” price.
To be expected.
Chris Macha was kind enough to meet the owner and go over the car for me.
Not a full-fledged PPI, but an important threshold to get Chris’ approval.
It passed with flying (gold) colors.
Then I spoke with Carl Nelson who services the car. He told me it’s one of the very best he works on.
About this time the recent Turkis was on BaT and the Ceylon owner thought he’d like to try to buy that as his next E9.
With the clock ticking on the Turkis sale we quickly arrived at what I feel was a fair price for both of us.
Admittedly, I was in a weakened negotiating position as it was clear I was hell bent on finding the proverbial needle in the haystack.
C’est la vie
He wouldn’t pursue the Turkis unless the sale was concluded before the auction ended.
The clock was ticking.
I wired the money, sight unseen, because my dog just had surgery and needed 24 hour care for a while.
Something I vowed I’d never do.
Yikes!
Huw Holwill, the seller, wished to keep the air dam.
I’m too old and not cool enough for an air dam, so we had La Jolla Independent remove it.
The car was picked up up two days ago and should arrive next week.
So, now, I have two E9s.
My wife wants to give the blue one a try.
If she doesn’t love it, I’ll be selling that one.
I’m headed to Monterey next week.
My luck, the car will arrive while I’m gone.
Hopefully, in the same condition as delivered by Huw.
It’s the first time I’ve ventured outside of American cars.
My first encounters with E9s, Porsches and MBs were when I was stationed in Germany with the Army long ago as they whizzed by my lowly $600 Opel Rekord that flunked inspection due to rust.
I could only dream of owning a true piece of German engineering back then.
Mission Accomplished (50 years later).
Many thanks for all the help from this unique E9 community.
Special thanks to Huw Holwill, a true gentleman and a pleasure to deal with.
It started with seeing a freshly restored 1973 Fjord Blue CSi with a light tan interior and falling in love back in February.
The car was already sold ($170K!).
Found my way to this forum.
@Jimmi reached out and suggested I connect with @HB Chris and @sfdon.
Both gentlemen were incredibly kind, gracious and generous with their time.
Jim Lewis has become a good E9 friend.
His Turkis is incredible!!
I flew out to LAX to meet Chris Macha and planned to see Don, but my pup became ill and I didn’t get up to see SFODon.
Scouring the internet I stumbled upon a video featuring a Ceylon Gold CSL from an auction in the UK.
I was captivated by this color on the E9.
Discovered that very few are to be found in the states and I was likely searching for a needle in a haystack.
Challenge accepted.
I came foolishly close to buying a RHD CSL from the UK. Talked off that ledge by the previously mentioned experts; though, someday, when I sell my business, I may just pursue one anyway.
Got frustrated by dead ends on the Ceylon hunt and found a lovely 1972 CSA like the Fjord Blue and tan combo I had first seen in person.
It was only two hours away and my wife doesn’t like manuals so, I thought, Why not?
At the time I joked that a Ceylon would pop up only after I bought a different color.
Bought the car and had the undercarriage dry ice blasted and the eight year old paint corrected.
It’s like a new car now.
Sure enough, my prediction was right.
A Ceylon popped up on my Instagram feed.
The Ceylon was just that of a guy taking pics at a car show in Escondido, California and sharing to Instagram.
Not an ad for a car for sale.
Luckily, the owner chimed in and said Thank You to the photographer.
I now had a name!
I sent him a message on IG.
No response.
Found him on LinkedIn and sent a message.
No response.
Found an email associated with him.
It bounced.
Stalked him using ChatGPT and discovered his fabulous 1962 Jaguar had taken third at the La Jolla Concours.
Found the SoCal Jaguar Club and reached out to the membership chairman who forwarded my email to the owner.
He responds.
Bingo!
But, he really wasn’t planning to sell.
However, as they say, everything is for sale.
The car had sold once on BaT and RNM on the latest try.
Some gold wheels probably hurt the auction the most, from what the experts tell me.
And, some folks hate the color.
Not all of us are blessed with good taste.
I now had two listings to scan to really get a sense of the car.
The gold wheels were replaced with Alpina style.
The owner and I spoke several times.
Great guy who took wonderful care of the car.
Exactly the kind of seller one wants when buying.
He started at the “I don’t want to sell it” price.
To be expected.
Chris Macha was kind enough to meet the owner and go over the car for me.
Not a full-fledged PPI, but an important threshold to get Chris’ approval.
It passed with flying (gold) colors.
Then I spoke with Carl Nelson who services the car. He told me it’s one of the very best he works on.
About this time the recent Turkis was on BaT and the Ceylon owner thought he’d like to try to buy that as his next E9.
With the clock ticking on the Turkis sale we quickly arrived at what I feel was a fair price for both of us.
Admittedly, I was in a weakened negotiating position as it was clear I was hell bent on finding the proverbial needle in the haystack.
C’est la vie
He wouldn’t pursue the Turkis unless the sale was concluded before the auction ended.
The clock was ticking.
I wired the money, sight unseen, because my dog just had surgery and needed 24 hour care for a while.
Something I vowed I’d never do.
Yikes!
Huw Holwill, the seller, wished to keep the air dam.
I’m too old and not cool enough for an air dam, so we had La Jolla Independent remove it.
The car was picked up up two days ago and should arrive next week.
So, now, I have two E9s.
My wife wants to give the blue one a try.
If she doesn’t love it, I’ll be selling that one.
I’m headed to Monterey next week.
My luck, the car will arrive while I’m gone.
Hopefully, in the same condition as delivered by Huw.
It’s the first time I’ve ventured outside of American cars.
My first encounters with E9s, Porsches and MBs were when I was stationed in Germany with the Army long ago as they whizzed by my lowly $600 Opel Rekord that flunked inspection due to rust.
I could only dream of owning a true piece of German engineering back then.
Mission Accomplished (50 years later).
Many thanks for all the help from this unique E9 community.
Special thanks to Huw Holwill, a true gentleman and a pleasure to deal with.
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