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The story when I first came in contact with the seller and finally imported the Vitesse to Norway

The classified was printed in the June issue (2005) of The Courier, and the seller - David Christe – called me at 7pm on June 1’st – the publication date. The only thing he said was “I’ve got your car, and you can have it if you want”. I started for sure to ask about rust and conditions etc., and he replied that it is very good – and he could imagine (from the words in the classifieds) that it was just what I was looking for, not concourse but A1 / A1+. As en extra bonus - for me - the Vitesse was Signal Red, which comply my very primary wish. In September 2005 I took a flight to Newcastle in the early morning, and David picked me up at the airport, and we drove to Hexham where he is living. When I saw the Vitesse, and briefly inspected it I was quite sure that finally here is my car; “I have found it” – and it will just a matter of time before it will be in my garage. Further inspection – underneath, under the carpets, boot etc. – pretty much confirmed the first impression. After a while, Barbara – his wife – had a nice lunch ready. This was done pretty fast as I was quite impatient to get on the road with the Vitesse before I had to reach the afternoon flight back.

The Vitesse drove and reacted very nicely when we went across the lovely Northumberland hills. Then - after an hour or so - the engine starts to seriously misfire etc. Immediately only one thing came into our minds: CRISIS!!!! Calming down we figured out that the engine was running on only 5 cylinders. This could be serious, however most likely it would be an issue connected to the ignition system and probably easy to repair. Well back to Davids house I was still very convinced that this was my car, and we agreed that I will buy it if he sort out and repaired the engine problems.

After a while he sorted out and fixed the problem; and yes it was quite serious as one of the valves was broken. Anyway that was repaired, and probably well done as the engine has been very smooth and strong as long as I have owned the Vitesse…..!!

The fall went, and both David and I were quite busy. Finding a suitable date for actually bringing the Vitesse to Norway ended up to be not straightforward – however we finally decided to arrange it the weekend between 9’th – 11’th December (2005). In the afternoon December 9’th I went aboard the ferry from Bergen to Newcastle – a 24h journey to UK. Again David picked be up at the harbour in Newcastle. We had been talking so much at phone between June and December that we actually felt we knew each other, so before going to his house we went to a couple of pubs and also had a dinner at a nice Indian restaurant. A very friendly gesture and such hospitality is quite promising when purchasing a used car.

Back to his house I just briefly looked at the Vitesse, and could just see that everything seemed to be well prepared. As the Vitesse was originally LHD, the dash and facia was well backed. The same was various extra parts, including an extra gearbox with OD.

David and I are still in contact which I highly appreciate. I visited him fall 2007 when I also picked up various parts with Andy at Sport Cars Supply in Newcastle.

Below is some pictures of my first trip to inspect the Vitesse and when I decided to go for it.