Driver of vintage car travels across Britain to track down previous owners

04 August 2023 , 20:44

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Carl and Seeta with last-known owner, Rupert Bevan (Image: Carl Slater / SWNS)

The owner of a vintage car decided to hit the road in a bid to reunite the vehicle with its former owners.

Carl Slater, 53, used the log book of the 1933 Austin saloon to find them. And after a year of planning, Carl and his wife Seeta, 47, set off to find where Elizabeth Morris first bought the car in 1933. She died aged 69 in 1943, but the pair visited her cottage, in Oswestry, Shrops, and met mechanic Brian Denny.

He serviced the car in 1953 at E.J. Gittins garage – which is now a Vauxhall showroom. Carl and Seeta also travelled to nearby Ty-Drawn Farm, where the late brothers Frederick and John Wright would drive the Austin to a market to sell eggs.

Rupert Bevan at the wheel of the car (Carl Slater / SWNS)

Finally they visited the last-known owner, Rupert Bevan, who bought the car in 1968. Driving instructor Carl, from Radcliffe, Gtr Manchester, said: “He told us stories of mechanical mishaps and his tangle with a cattle truck while running an errand for his mother, who we then went to meet. I’ll never forget the surprise on her face.”

Before Carl bought the car last year, it featured in the 2016 Dad’s Army film starring Catherine Zeta-Jones.

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