DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

So.... first post for a long time !

I've decided to finally undertake some research on my 1958 RHD 356A that has been sitting unrestored in my garage for the last ten years.

This is a long shot but does anyone know of a silver car that was sold from AFN by Croall & Croall, an Edinburgh dealer, in February 1958. It was owned in the sixties by a member of the British Motorsport Marshalls Club and at some point, in the late sixties and early seventies was painted blue (with a distinctive silver arrow remaining on the bonnet) and taken to the US, eventually ending up in Michigan. Original registration... unknown !

Any clues (including how to get hold of the original Croall & Croall sales records) very much appreciated. No need to suggest Mike Smith as he's already been a legend !

Best regards,

Garfield

Sorry I cannot help, but I wish you luck in your hunt for the cars history.
Sounds like an interesting story is afoot.

Karl

Have you tried the 356 registry? If you know the vin you can search in there (used to be able to)

Sent from my M2004J19C using Tapatalk

Yes, thank you. I'm active on the 356 Registry. The VIN wasn't on the registry database until I added it.

Garfield

What you need Sir, is an extract from the AFN Archive.
A Small Fee will usually provide all the numbers (including original registration) as well as original owners details and major changes such as Engine or Gearbox.
I’m not sure who does this now, it was Mike Smith who did mine years ago, but presumably you’ve already asked him?

Yes, thank you. Mike kindly provided that. Unfortunately, the AFN archive tends to list the chassis number and engine number but not the original registration plate.

AFN, as the official importer, would sell the cars to dealers around the country and those dealers would then apply to register the cars. Often the dealers would not inform AFN of the registration number and, even if they did, AFN were lapse about recording the reg numbers on their records. DVLA, of course, recorded the registration number, colour, engine size etc. but not the chassis number nor engine number.

I know the car was first sold by AFN to the well-known Scottish car dealer and coach builder, Croall & Croall in Edinburgh in February 1958. It was one of three 1958 356A's sold at the same time (including the well known car that appears in the Sean Connery pictures). Anyone got any ideas as to how to obtain their records ? The company that owned Croall & Croall was wound up in the nineties.

Best,

Garfield

Garfield,
See if you can find out who the Directors were, at wind up, track them down and see if any of them retained any records

What about the local registration Office
In the period that we are talking about, I believe that the records were kept in a different manner at each record office around the country
There is just a chance that they may still have some old records and they may track what Reg No`s. they provided to Croall & Croall
If they did have a list of the No`s. it would be a simple exercise to locate yours, as you know, we have all the others for that period and Murphy has declared yours to be the only one missing.
Yes! it`s a real long shot, but ??

Good luck - Mike