Practically Classics Forum

This was sent to me on e-mail recently - the following text isn't mine, but I assume it to be accurate.

****************************************

How about this for a record and a great advert for British engineered cars of a bygone era.

Amazing that the car and the owner lasted so long!....

This man owned & drove the same car for 82 YEARS.

Can you imagine even having the same car for 82 years? (Yes, I can actually!)

Mr. Allen Swift (Springfield, MA) received this 1928 Rolls-Royce Piccadilly-P1 Roadster from his father, brand new - as a graduation gift in 1928.

He drove it up until his death last year ... at the age of 102.

He was the oldest living owner of a car that was purchased new.

It was donated to a Springfield museum after his death. (So is his name Monty Burns??)

It has 1,070,000 miles on it, still runs like a Swiss watch, dead silent at any speed and is in perfect cosmetic condition. (82 years). That's approximately 13,048 miles per year (1087 per month)...

That's British engineering of a bygone era. I don't think they make them like this any more

Just thought you'd like to see it.

That is a very heart warming story, reminds me of my old dentist who retired about five years ago, the last time I saw him I asked what he intended doing with his new found freedom and other than the usual things he said he was going to embark on several car restoration projects, turns out he never sold any of the cars he has owned(other than two that were written off) I thought at the time what a lovely thought.

PS you clearly have to much time on your hands today Rick

Great story and a man after my own heart.


The late Doc Taylor had the Caesar Special for years (I'm not sure if he built it whilst a medical student) and he used to tow it behind an old 3 Litre Bentley.



I also met a man in the South Wales Classic Car Club, Pencoed show (2011), who has owned this Riley since it was only months old.



What is quite staggering is that when we got talking, we came to talk about registration numbers and he mentioned seeing a “Bristol engined sports car” with the number PUB (I think he said 3), many years before, just outside the village of Edwardsville, on what was then the A470. He mentioned talking to the owner of the car and I knew that it had to be my father’s old Frazer Nash, when it had PUB 2 on it. The Frazer Nash has increased vastly more, in value, than the Riley, since 1960 but is the sort of car that you would now (And for many years really) need to be able to afford not to sell!!!!



As for me, I have owned the Midget since I was nineteen and since it was five years old, so hopefully I will be a contender one day but I’m prepared to wait (I only wish I could take it with me or better still not have to go). I’ve nothing against older people (Old age beats dying young) but it’s got to be nicer looking forward than looking back, knowing that the egg timer must be getting low. When my late grandfather reached ninety, he said that it didn’t seem long looking back, which was quite a sobering thought and just over twenty years on, it seems like far less than two decades (Or as Trigger said “I wouldn’t go that far but it’s a long time” ).

Luxobarge wrote:

he's quite a small fella,isn't he?

sierra3dr wrote:.....he's quite a small fella,isn't he?

No, he's far away.