Albany Convertible

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The Albany Carriage Company was formed in 1971 by brothers Bryan and David Shepherd to produce replica veteran-style cars using modern mechanicals.

The first cars used Morris 1000 components in a simple ladder chassis, the brothers moving to Triumph power after just a few cars had been completed. The Spitfire 1300 engine was replaced with the 1,493cc engine from the newly introduced Spitfire 1500 in 1974, the firm remaining in business until 1997. By then, some 110 cars had left the Christchurch factory, an average of just over four cars per year!

The two brothers certainly had a sense of humour, the accompanying brochure informing the reader that: "The Albany Motor Carriage is one of the most adventurous and ingenious departures from conventional motorcar design ever to compel the attention of gentlemen disposed towards horseless vehicular propulsion over the Queen’s Highway". Much was made of its reliability and simplicity of use, pointing out that it delivered the look of a car from the dawn of motoring without all the faff of non-existent brakes, acetylene lights and an asthmatic single-cylinder engine – which of course is very much its raison d’etre.

This 1974 model has the larger of the two Triumph engines and would have cost its original owner a hefty £2,487 plus an extra £90 for the hood and the windscreen. It has had five owners from new and has covered just under 11,000 miles since it left the factory. There are four old MOTs on file, the earliest of which dates back to 1984 when it had covered 7,526 miles. Its current ticket expires in February 2016.

Wearing the personalised registration number 8828 PJ, this professionally produced Albany looks like a great deal of fun and is on offer for a mere fraction of the cost of a geniune, if temperamental, slow and troublesome Veteran. Definitely a car 'For Discerning Gentlefolk’ as the brochure so eloquently puts it!