Buying unseen and undriven

Before I took the plunge I read a few posts on PH about how to buy a Chimaera. Apparently it's a dark art. I took on board this advice and I ignored it all. Heart tends to rule head when I buy cars and though I usually know what to look out for, I always end up thinking 'that's easily fixed' or 'I really trust this guy so the car must be straight'. Poor on my part.

However, in this case, I think I did OK. The car was advertised on Ebay and PH. Both ads had been up a while and I couldn't understand why. The car seemed immaculate (as it should do following a full rebuild from chassis upwards). Initial enquiries revealed more than 150 photos documenting said rebuild and loads of answers from the owner to some probing questions about who rebuilt the car and to what spec over what period of time.

The next steps should then have been:

1. Go see the car
2. Drive the car
3. Walk away
4. Go and see loads of other cars
5. Drive loads of other cars
6. Decide you actually want a Chimaera
7. Decide whether or not you want this  Chimaera
8. Get it independently tested
9. Decide you still want it
8. Neogtiate on the asking price
10. Obtain the car

In fact what I did was:

1. Send my mechanic to look over it
2. Wait for him to say it's good
3. Offer the asking price
4. Go and pick it up unseen and undriven

Not quite as planned.

There seems to be an unspoken rule about buying these cars that suggests no one should ever buy the first one they see and that they should never, ever be bought untested and unseen by their potential owner. It's about experiencing lots of cars and then buying into the concept of TVR ownership, then selecting a car.

I don't agree with this. Romantic as the notion is of swanning around the UK on the hunt for the perfect car is - this isn't reality for most of us. With a baby at home and another on the way, and work breathing down my neck for more....well....work, I was going to get to see three cars in three months at best. So picking a car from the ads and getting it inspected was actually the right thing to do for someone leading a normal life. And I may have been asking the wrong questions above but this was largely because I had done my research already and was able to whittle down the 100-odd ads into a list of 2-3 cars that fited the bill. Had they had chassis work done? Had they got history? Did they have that special something to set them apart from other chims? Was I after a 4.0 or a 4.5? What about a 4.0HC? Had the clutch been done? How long ago had the battery been replaced? Did it have the alloy pack?

Armed with the right information I had been able to pick the car I would undoubtedly have chosen after three months of searching, from my living room in 20 minutes. It turned out to be a belter. The mechanic's report showed no obvious flaws and when a man you trust says 'If I had nine grand I'd have bought it myself and sold it to you for fifteen' it's a green light.

So the process was unorthodox but it lead me to find myself in Nottingham on a cold Jan morning, with a rucksack who's contents included a couple of sandwiches, an ipod and nine grand in fifties. Once the exchange had taken place I saw the car in the flesh for the first time, started it up, and drove off. Now, here is the important bit - I challenge anyone to get in one of these cars, hear them, and drive them more than 250 yards without wanting to sell a kidney to own it. The whole notion of 'is it a car for you' is wasted on anyone that loves petrol. If you enjoying motoring you will want a TVR. And if you want one that doesn't need require buckets of maintenance, you will want a Chimaera. And if you have approx £10k to spend you are going to be hard pressed to find another option that comes close to the experience. So the idea that you need to spend months planning your purchase and checking it's all going to work for you is a nice to have. It's not a requirement.

Yes, speak to people. Yes, read the forums, but no, don't spend your life finding 'the one' and realise that if you know your budget is £10k and you want the most driving thrills you can have for that money you WILL be buying a TVR. So recognise you don't have the freedom to float about the UK on a car hunt, use the tools available to you and don't be scared to take a punt once someone you trust has given it the thumbs up. Buying a beautiful, powerful, noisy, exotic sports car unseen and untested is one of the most adrenaline pumping experiences you can have. And isn't that why people buy these cars in the first place?