Why do some sellers encourage buyers to destroy a good car?

[Tony Griffiths]

A friend built a JZR 3-wheeler some years ago and fitted it with a standard Honda CX engine - having been advised by the company owner that they went a lot better with one of those than the much larger Moto Guzzi unit. And, boy, did it go with a quite staggering performance, pretty respectable road-holding and dirt cheap on parts. When the said friend went to Stockport to collect all the second-hand Ford escort hubs and brakes and odds and ends, the guy rummaged in the back, came back with them and said, "That'll be £12". Which was rather less then expected, to say the least. He never did get round to fitting a 100 bhp 650cc Turbocharged CX unit - thank goodness. Those Honda CX units were lovely engines. I had a new CX650 Eurosport in 1982 and road it down to the South of France in one go. In contrast to my previous Norton, this would hold 100 mph+ for as long as you liked and yet, after that, would tick over like the proverbial sewing machine with not an oil leak to be seen. Try that on the Norton and it would have been going home in a van after a hundred miles, less the myriad of parts that had vibrated off beforehand - to say nothing of the rider needing several new fillings and being infertile for a good ten days....

The friend wasn't called Andrew was he?

No...but he lives not far away and has an A7...