First production midas found in barn

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Re: First production midas found in barn

Postby Stuart » Sun Feb 12, 2017 2:17 pm

Only 1,800 miles each way for me. ...
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Re: First production midas found in barn

Postby original midas » Tue Apr 25, 2017 8:10 am

Just to put the record straight.

The first Midas to come out of the moulds was purchased by myself, fitted with a modified 1275 S motor, registered to my address in Newtown, Powys.
It cost £1200.00, I paid harold for the car whilst it was still curing,collected it a few weeks later, he consequently attempted to dissuade me from taking delivery in order to raise the sale price.
The company secretary was Brenda Maylan, when the company moved south she went with him.
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Re: First production midas found in barn

Postby Stuart » Tue Apr 25, 2017 9:10 am

original midas wrote:Just to put the record straight.

The first Midas to come out of the moulds was purchased by myself, fitted with a modified 1275 S motor, registered to my address in Newtown, Powys.
It cost £1200.00, I paid harold for the car whilst it was still curing,collected it a few weeks later, he consequently attempted to dissuade me from taking delivery in order to raise the sale price.
The company secretary was Brenda Maylan, when the company moved south she went with him.


Very interesting thank you, so was your car one of the cars mentioned in this thread or one that was sold prior to Harold getting the Midas chassis plates sorted out?
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Re: First production midas found in barn

Postby original midas » Tue Apr 25, 2017 11:25 am

I was not aware of any issues with mounting plates ! so must conclude that any issues had been dealt with prior to purchase, it was definately the first production car sold.
I visited the premises in Oldham in order to assess the quality of the build and ended up buying "Number1".
I only had the car for two weeks and let someone else drive it, the result was a two month stay in Oswestry Hospital with a face looking like a railway map due to all the stitches, broken nose, ribs and right arm.
The crash happened at Abermule, the car left the road at speed and dropped 12ft into a field then rolled several times.
I did many miles up and down to the Scottish Borders and being young and foolish never missed any chance to put the more well known marques into my rear view mirror, I recall one such "road race" with a 3.0ltr Capri, he caught up with me when I stopped for fuel and flatly refused to believe it had a mini engine under the bonnet ( I never let him see it).
When I contacted harold he was very interested in the fact that the car had withstood such heavy damage without actually breaking up, I think he used the information in the sales pitch ?.
I cannot recall the Reg No nor where the car went but Dyfed Powys Police will have a record of all the details as they attended.
It was after sunset and when I entered the public house in Abermule dripping with blood I will never forget the look on everyones face.
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Re: First production midas found in barn

Postby Stuart » Tue Apr 25, 2017 11:42 am

original midas wrote:I was not aware of any issues with mounting plates !


Sorry I should rephrase that to a more suitable "Did your car have a chassis plate and can you remember the number?"

It looks like your car is one mentioned in this thread then. Yours was D10000 then?

I drove my first Midas in exactly the same manner as you, luckily I never had any serious mishaps, got a bit sideways under braking a couple of times and got shunted up the back by a Mini with big Cibie Osars on the front, which got flattened on my bumper.

from page 2 of the thread

ACourtney wrote:That clears that up. It looks like the chassis numbers were issued in the order in which they were moulded, which makes good sense.
Mark's car was then the third production car out of the mould, but clearly the first customer car to be collected and also the first production car to be registered.
Evidently Mr Smith of Hendon didn't hang about putting the car together and on to the road.

Just to put that in order:

JLY 862V - Chassis D10002 Registered on 01-09-1979

JEH 448V - Chassis D10000 Registered on 01-10-1979

FNT 349V - Chassis D10001 Registered on 15-11-79

What is great about this story is that the first three production cars still exist and are in the hands of enthusiasts. Perhaps, we can tempt Margo to bring his car over from Tallinn to get all three cars together for a meet up at some point in the future.
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Re: First production midas found in barn

Postby original midas » Tue Apr 25, 2017 5:34 pm

I should add that the car was repaired and sold in 1980 when I moved to Stoke on Trent, it is probably out there and may be one of those mentioned on here it was not recorded as damaged, fibreglass is very simple to repair and retains its structural integrity if done correctly.
I cannot remember the reg....38 years ago ! but it would not be possible to register it with the DVLA without a vin plate.
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Re: First production midas found in barn

Postby benofbrum » Tue Apr 25, 2017 6:15 pm

[quote="original midas"]I should add that the car was repaired and sold in 1980 when I moved to Stoke on Trent, it is probably out there and may be one of those mentioned on here it was not recorded as damaged, fibreglass is very simple to repair and retains its structural integrity if done correctly.
I cannot remember the reg....38 years ago ! but it would not be possible to register it with the DVLA without a vin plate.[/quote
What colour was the car? D010000 is at this moment living in Birmingham. It was white gel coat and has since been repainted white.
It was first registered on 1st Nov. 1979 I have not noticed any signs of fibreglass repair.
The car has had 11 previous keepers, one of whom was my (now ex) wife who owned for a couple of years in the 1980's, having bought it off another Birmingham resident.
Hopefully the car will be at Stoneleigh, probably on the Sunday. I will use the Excelsior on Monday.
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Re: First production midas found in barn

Postby original midas » Tue Apr 25, 2017 8:58 pm

The gelcoat was white, the damage was to both A posts but they did not break.
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Re: First production midas found in barn

Postby original midas » Tue Apr 25, 2017 9:46 pm

One thing I do remember is that the 3 branch exhaust burnt the bulkhead so I had to fit a fireproof barrier between them, that should still be evident ?..

A 1275 cooper S engine, (which I built and fitted to it) with an EN40B crankshaft is worth a sizeable amount today ?
The camshaft was an 88G229.
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