The Purchase of My TVR
Arrival in Hong Kong. Pretty city! Great mix of old and new. I found the rickshaw tucked away next to a Rolls Royce dealer.
Hong Kong and Tokyo are the only cities where I have seen people commuting to work in Lamborghini Diablo’s, duking it out with regular traffic. And Diablos and Aston Martins and Testarossas parked in a line on a busy curb. Sorry about the shimmer effect, my scanner insists on putting it on!
This is a bridge to Macau from some nearby island, but I went there from Hong Kong by this superfast hydrofoil. Nice Portugese architecture—the place was all cleaned up because it was due to be handed over to the Chinese within the week. Weird casino atmosphere. Felt very different from the casinos in Vegas.
But enough of the touristy stuff! It’s nice to travel, but I was on a mission! I contacted the Hong Kong TVR dealer, and arranged to meet him the following day, at the Admiralty railway station. Sure enough, when I emerged at street level, I spotted a slinky squatting, hulking Cerbera…tucked in between two huge delivery trucks. A quick handshake and introductions, and it was finally time for the three-day test-drive! To be honest, I was so excited, I didn’t really check too many things out. My main concern was that the car would not move one day in America, and I would be stranded. Going through John Hunter’s excellent website (www.cerbera.co.uk), I printed out all the problems other owners had written about (a sizeable stack!), and classified them into cosmetic, worrying, and show-stoppers. Well, there were only a few show-stoppers, and I am sure there have been that many for each make of car. I could live with that! I also figured that if the car did stop dead one day, I would have a hell of a story!
Looking
back, it’s easy to see how I missed all the oil leaks and other little things,
I was just grinning from ear to ear—the car was maintained by a singularly
untrained staff in dimly lit quarters…but it still ran well. What really sold
me was the sexy backfiring, the acceleration, the handling, and of course,
the approving stares of the crowds.
Test driving in Hong Kong…was like driving in England, except the street signs are all in Chinese. This Ferrari Challenge car was available, too. Tempting, but I chose to stick with the Cerbera.
Three days of zooming around Hong Kong later, (and being wined and dined by the dealer—nothing like oriental hospitality), I decided to check out the dealer in New Zealand and Japan as well. They were pointless trips and a waste of 10 days as far as looking at other TVRs was concerned, but my best friend from high school lives in Wellington, New Zealand, and it was a great opportunity to see him in his “natural surroundings”…(Philip, thanks for a great time)! It also gave the Hong Kong dealer (Mr. Mercedes Wong of CRIC Motorcars, which stands for Concours Renaissance of Immaculate Cars) a chance to detail the Cerbera and convince me to buy the car. Although I had read up on international bills of sale and letters of credit, I was so excited that I just handed my credit card over for the deposit. Our agreement was just based on a handshake and a promise to wire funds when I got home, and a promise on his part to ship the car in return. No LC. No contract. It was time to take the 15 hour flight home and begin the agonizing wait.