Intro + Show Us Your Car

My ex-works Evo 2 037 (owned and actively used for 18+ years) and S2 Montecarlo spider (ex-South Africa, now registered TOI5771). Couldn't make the 50th at Bicester sadly but grateful to Darren for taking the Monte to join such a wonderful group.

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I finally took the plunge with this one… not much known about the history other than it was first registered in South Africa, January 1981. It arrived in the UK some forty-two years later being registered but not used.

Bodywork is in pretty good condition and some initial work has been carried out on the basics (belts, fluids, filters, brakes) to give me some confidence in the mechanicals. More work planned and some tidying up of the interior & exterior trim but right now I’m using it whenever I can in order to get to know it better.

It’s 2023 and having been looking at getting a Montecarlo for a while, we were now booked to go on the 2025 Torino 50th anniversary trip so it seemed only appropriate to have a suitable car to go in.  Montecarlo #5778 (or RHD Spider build number 157 from the headlight panel) was previously sold as an eBay project in 2021 having been garaged since 2004 as an incomplete restoration.

Now back on the road, it was up for auction with Mathewsons, so with rose-tinted glasses firmly on (or should that be rosso-tinted?) we gave it a viewing and concluded it was worth a punt despite Dave commenting that the tick-over didn’t sound quite like he thought it should 😐

Except for a recent respray, it was otherwise original albeit with 15” compomotives.  But it’s a fine line between originality and reliability, so the decaying radiator, ominous engine oil leak and mouse…