I note from the the latest edition of The Automobile magazine - “1934 MG PA/PB Le Mans. Only survivor from the 1935 Le Mans team.” sold at RM Sotheby’s Monterey auction in the USA for $246400 (£203307).
That makes the asking price for the more desirable J4 seem to be a fair valuation?
Good luck with the lottery Paul, will you race it.
"Automobile" magazine are wrong to say that the Le Mans PA just sold at Monterey is the only survivor of the original team of three cars. Do you know which car is the one sold, George ? One was rebuilt in recent years to original spec and I thought was now living in France. The other survivor is "Leonidis", the ex Miles Collier car which was rebodied before the war following a brief encounter with a New York taxi-cab. This car was a major player in the early years of American road racing and for many years it has been living in the Collier Museum in the U.S. If that is the Monterey car, the very considerable history of the car would justify the price it fetched.
Correct Peter. This is the second of the Le Mans cars to have survived. It was sold by Abingdon in October 1935 to H Witley Burt of the Cresta Motor Company in Worthing who used it extensively in trials and speed events in the U.K. By 1948 it had been sold to Richard Christmas who continued to compete with it and by 1954 it was owned by Basil Bowman who drove it at Brighton and Gosport Speed Trials. By 1965 it had changed hands to Dermot Reynolds and I saw the car at around that time at an MMM meeting at Old Warden Aerodrome. Dermot sold the car abroad (very much frowned upon at the time) and it passed to George Shelley in the U.S. who owned it and cared for it very well for many years. By 2012 it was put up for auction by Sotheby's in the U.K. and ownership passed to Christian Faber who ran it at the Le Mans Classic in July 2012. Now it seems to have gone back to the States where I am sure it will continue to be cherished by its new owner. It is still incorrect to describe it as the only remaining one of the three Le Mans cars however. The only remaining car with its original style of body (and racing number) but as with the proverbial hammer, it has probably had six new handles and four new heads by now.
Just an addition to Colin's post re the ex Le Mans PA1711
A few years ago I had the good fortune to carry out an inspection of this car on behalf of the Register and was subsequently able to provide our Registrar with full details and photographs such that this information can now be available to current and future owners and historians.
At the time the care bore the registration number JB 6158.