1952 Tojeiro MG Barchetta Sports Racer Barchetta Sports Racer

Cliff Davies commissioned John Tojeiro to build a car in the early 1950s. It was powered by a two-liter, Bristol six-cylinder engine and given a sports racing Barchetta body by Panelcraft to mimic a Ferrari 166MM Barchetta. It was given registration 'LOY 500.' The Bristol engine was developed from the BMW 328 and produced nearly 130 horsepower.

A second car, 'LOY 501', was later built by Tojeiro and given an MG powerplant. As many as two more cars followed, and one of those is believed to be the MG-powered LOW 77 - the other car was Vin Davison's LER 371, which had a Lea-Francis engine.

While Tojeiro was working for Ernie Bailey at Buckland Bodyworks, Bailey made the suggestion that A.C. may be interested in Tojeiro's design. Bailey, at the time, was supplying bodies for A.C. Tojeiro showed Cliff Davies' Bristol-powered LOY 500 and displayed it to the A.C. works at Thames Ditton. A.C. was seeking a car they could display at the 1953 Earls Court motor show. Tojeiro convinced Davison to lend LER 371 for the show. A.C. fitted Davison's car with one of its own engines, painted it blue, re-licensed it as TPL 792, and introduced it as the A.C. Ace roadster.

Reg Bicknell was the first owner of LOW 77. He soon sold it to Ormsby Izzard-Davies. Izzard-Davies' driver Alan Moore raced it in 1954 with some success. A year later, though, the competition had become stiffer, so Izzard-Davies sold LOW 77 at the end of the 1954 season.

Over the next three decades, the car changed hands eight times, mostly around Easter England. John Stock purchased it next and kept it for a decade. The next owner was C. Tufnell, followed by Adrian Biggs, Michael Young, Robert Bowman, and Paul Delderfield. Richard Robert kept it for nearly a decade before selling it to Chris Mann, who sold it to C.L. Sieffert in Longmont, Colorado. The car was driven in the Colorado Grand and the Copperstate 1000 and driven by Augie Pabst in the Steamboat Springs vintage races.

The 1467cc overhead valve MG XPAG engine breathes through two SU carburetors and has four-wheel hydraulic drum brakes. Currently, the odometer reads just 10,427 miles.

In 2011, the car was offered for sale at the RM Auction in Scottsdale, Arizona. It was estimated to sell for $200,000 - $250,000 and offered without reserve. As bidding came to a close, the car had been sold for $143,000, including the buyer's premium.

By Daniel Vaughan | Feb 2011