The Tale of the White Queen

One of the best A's in my neighbourhood belonged to the neighbour of a work colleague an apparently pristine white 1974 1900SR with black vinyl roof of registration number UUC 397M. In October 1986 when the same car appeared for sale in the local newspaper I couldn't get over there fast enough, shortly thereafter £850 changed hands and the 'White Queen' was all mine!!!

I had some initial teething problems to overcome; intermittently the rev counter would cut out and the ignition light would come on even though the car was perfectly alright, if you touched the brake pedal at this point then all mannner of panel lights would come on! This phenomenon was traced to fuse no. 6 which powers the instruments, the fuse wire had cracked so that although the fuse looked fine at a glance, it only supplied power intermittently.

Lastly when I went to change the air filter I found to my surprising that a monogrammed handkerchief belonging to the former owner had been sucked into the air filter and was situated over the carburetor chokes, the mind boggles!

I ran the car through the winter of 1986 and the following Easter I drove the car from London to Poitiers in France for a wedding also incorporating a jaunt to Bordeaux. Fortunately the trip was uneventful, although shortly after my return the water pump needed replacement.

The 'Cruise for Charity'

Several weeks later I took part in the 'Cruise for Charity' which involved a round trip from London to John O Groats to Lands End returning to London a week and 3000 miles later.

It was fun driving in convoy with a variety of classic and custom cars; '57 Chevy, Chevy Corvair, '69 Camaro SS, '55 Ford Zephyr Six convertible, MkIII Cortina custom car 'Satisfaction', Opel GT, Hillman Imp Sport and many others.

At this time I read about the OMOC, joined immediately and went to my first meeting, there was only one other Manta A present, a bright red SR, which, if I remember rightly belonged to Phil Harrison. A photo of the 'White Queen' taken around this time has been used on the clubs A series T-shirts to this day.

The following year misfortune struck when the car was broken into whilst parked in a pub car park. Theives smashed the nearside rear window and took the radio, tearing apart the dashboard and centre console leaving it beyond repair. "No problem" I thought, there are plenty of donor vehicles in the local scrap yards.

A couple of weeks of futile searching later, I met Andy Murrel who had the parts I required (he later became the first A series Register Parts Secretary).

The car didn't require extensive renovation, being very original and with only 60k miles on the clock; I thought at the time that getting it off the road to repaint the body an change a few bits would only take a few months.

The original wings although rust free were rippled and dented, so new Opel replacement front wings were fitted, some of the tatty but servicable parts made their way onto my other Manta A, JPK 174K aka 'White knight'.

In November 1988 the 'White Queen' came off the road and was progressively stripped down, much glass and iterior trim was stripped out, the vinyl roof was removed and the trim holes plugged with a mig weld.

Eight years passed during which the other car recieved a rolling restoration and the 'White Queen' languished unused. Finally the garage that housed her suffered from terminal subsidence and had to be rebuilt. this acted as a catalyst, I had no option the time had arrived to get her started and ready to move.

The White Queen Awakes

I started the process by removing the spark plugs and injecting WD40 down the cylinder bores, this was left for a couple of weeks and the process repeated. Then by applying a socket and ratchet to the large nut securing the front pulley I was able to turn the engine over by hand, amazing after 7 years of inaction, the engine hadn't seized!

I replaced the ignition coil, which had been removed, and replaced the spark plugs, radiator and thermostat. A gallon of fuel was put in the tank and I turned the car over with the lead to the ignition coil off. I checked to see if fuel was making it through from the tank, no such luck.

Carefully a cup full of fuel was poured down the carburetor chokes into the inlet manifold, the ignition l.t. lead was replaced and I attempted to start the car. I decided to risk using an engine start aerosol, (under normal circumstances a Manta engine should never need this treatment), desperate times called for desperate measures. It turned and then fired first on two, then three and finally all four cylinders, after a couple of minutes the engine settled down to a steady and even idle, an exceptional result after years of inactivity!

A week later the car was trailered to John Sneddon's Brook Road Coachworks where over the Christmas and New Year period he resprayed the entire vehicle. In early January the windscreens and some badgework were reinstalled to make the car watertight for its return journey to Beckenham.

18 months later I got around to re-fitting the interior, trim and electrics. Finally, with great trepidation, I put it back on the road and have used it mainly for shows in the summer ever since.

It took me over ten years to put a car back on the road, that had been taken off for a winter refit that should have taken a few months.

When I started I had a full head of hair by the finish I was almost totally bald! Hmmm a bit like the portrait of Dorian Gray, but the other way round.

Don't follow my example, Mantas are to be driven, not stored unused for whole decades at a time. They can always be rebuilt once you've worn them out, it just costs money, lots of it.