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| Notes for Hewett Clive Carey | ||||||||||||||
| Article in the Daily Telegraph - 26 Mar 1998. "Hewett Carey's Triumph 2000 Roadster was his pride and joy - his first and last car. For 45 years from the day he bought it in 1949 until the last time he parked it in his garage, Mr Carey kept a record of what happened to the open-top car. He noted everything, each of the 134,000 miles driven and every gallon put in the tank. The 600 pages of notebooks he left when he died include such typically rivetting entries as 'January 4, 1956: To the Standard Motor Company, Standard Road, 4 miles" "On March 2 1956 Mr Carey, an electrician from Radway, Warwickshire, recorded: 'Speedometer cable renewed. Dipping mechanism adjusted and clock oiled. To Hanwell: 1 mile. Speedometer reads: 8485." His first notebook covered nearly 10 years, and at the end he wrote: '45,235 miles travelled. 2009 gallons of petrol. Average 22 and a half miles per gallon, approx." "Mr Carey was determined not to keep this information to himself either, sending the Triumph Owners Club excrutiatingly detailed accounts of his holidays at home and abroad." "Mr Carey bought the convertible on October 4, 1949 for œ1,000 17s 1d, using the proceeds of an insurance policy. Before he died at the age of 92, he gave the car, a two-door gunmetal grey model, to Geoffrey Lampitt, an old friend. Mr Lampitt is now selling the car, complete with Mr Carey's copious notes, the original logbook, his driving licence, and every single tax disc since 1949" "There are petrol rationing coupons, every MOT certificate, letters to the Triumph Owners Club, and even pamphlets about the cars he rejected in favour of the Roadster". "One letter berating Mr Carey's local garage reads: 'I write to enquire whether in fact the car really had been washed, for the four mudguards and tyres have not been touched, nor any of the undersides. Yours Faithfully." "Mr. Lampitt said that Mr Carey, whom he had known for 35 years, was obsessive. 'It was the only car he ever had,' he said. 'It was his pride and joy. He made notes about everything in his life. When he got up in the morning he used to fill his diary in with what he did, first thing, then he would do it again at lunchtime, and again when he went to bed 'If he had used the telephone he would put down who had phoned him or who he had phoned, and what they talked about.' 'So if the car went anywhere he would write down exactly where, and how many gallons of petrol he had put in it'. "The car, the same model as that driven by the actor Jim Nettles in the television series Bergerac, is estimated to fetch between œ10,000 and œ15,000 in a Sotheby's car auction on Monday" The car sold for œ17,000. Mr Lampitt says it could not have gone to a more deserving owner, who three or four times a year takes the car back to visit Mr Lampitt at Radway. | ||||||||||||||
| Last Modified 6 Jun 2003 | Created 10 Mar 2005 by Paul Dobree - Carey |