Pessimists are rarely disappointed! I regret I have had several distractions recently preventing me from keeping up this long tale and I am about to take a series of holidays to keep my wife onside! I may manage a post in early April otherwise it will be late May. Apologies.
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Keep it coming, enjoying your postsā¦
Fascinating to hear about all the fettling required to keep the car running.
Fantastic story! You drove past me in ARD1C in the right lane of the Shripney Road outside Bognor, heading towards Barnham today at about 5pm. I was about to pull in behind you to get a better look but two other cars came along so I couldnāt! Googled the number plate and found this thread. Lovely car - looked so original!
Just now coming back to this, looking forward to more!
Iāve been looking for a new car recently and keep putting registrations into the DVLA MOT history website. I wondered if any of my old cars were still listed - my 1967 Cortina, off road since 1985 was there of course - but no others. I typed in ARD 1C and found your Elan with itās 1965 first reg date. Why did I search for it? Born in 1954 I was at Sutton Grammar school 1965-72. One day I saw ARD 1C and always remembered it, ARD being my initials. A few years later, having started my own electronics business I was more convinced I needed that plate, as ā1Cā could be āIntegrated Circuitā - great personal plate. Tonight I Googled and found this page so had to post my bit of history with ARD 1C from, probably 1967-8? Do you remember any reason for being in Sutton? Another coincidence was your saying Anne worked at ERA in Leatherhead, and in 1977 I worked for Beecham Pharmaceuticals in what is now Randalls Way (buildings long gone). So good to see that original log book.
My apologies for being for being off line for most of a year. After my holidays I came home to a diagnosis of prostate cancer and that was obviously more important than researching this tale. To be frank, I was not getting on with the new form of this forum and when it dropped the use of Windows 7 I had to fire up a PC using W11 that I had already bought but not mastered (and still havenāt) and lost enthusiasm. The forum managers have threatened to cancel my membership so I am posting again.
The better news is that I had radiotherapy in September and feel fine
01/02/2026 This is what seems to have been accepted before I lost control because I couldnāt work out how to post this. Hereās another attempt before I complete the text.
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Welcome back & youāll soon master the new format.
I hope your good health continues, keep up the fight!
Thanks Phil, it looks like I lost most of my return post as Iām guessing how to actually post the text ( of which I wrote a lot more than I can see above ). I think I pressed the Reply icon on the left.
Alan, your post wasnāt visible to me when I wrote the above or I would have replied to it. Iāve always thought the number plate would match someoneās name though would hate to split it from the car. In 1967-8 I was an Electronics post grad in North Wales driving the Elva and bought ARD1C in May 1969 while living and working in Teddington, near the lock where the Pythons staged their famous āFish Danceā. Anne and I married in 1971 and bought a house in Leatherhead from one of her ERA colleagues before following my new firm down to Bognor Regis in 1975. We have lived in nearby Barnham ever since, housing the Elan in our attached garage while newer vehicles rust outdoors.
I think that clarifies our likely-hood of previous encounters! Actually, there are so many Suttons in my map book that I may have passed you by on many trips down to Brighton in 1969-70 or up to Suffolk or N Wales at any time up to 1980.
When I have to sell the car I will certainly publish the fact on this forum so keep your eyes open, Alan, it might be sooner than I had been expecting.
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