Hello all V8 owners. Ex-pat Brit living in Germany. Answers to the name "Ed". Pretty much always been a Rover man at heart. I had a P4 95 which I bought from a scrapyard for 70 quid 25 years ago whilst in college and also a P6B. Had 100 cars since then (incl. an SD1 Vitesse) and currently have a Ford F150 5.4 liter pickup in front of the door and a Jaguar XJR V8 on permentant loan from my brother. I build hotrods and parts for hotrods, mainly '32s, so I have my own workshop. See www.edsrodshop.de

Last week while browsing ebay, I found 505 for sale, a blue MG SE Tourer which many of you probably saw. It only had a day to run and remembering my brother had expressed interest in them a few years ago, I mentioned it to him and he bid on it - the only bidder as it turned out. However my brother lives in Manhatten, New York and upon further investigation found out that importing it to America and getting it registered wouldn't cost $10,000 as most cars do but many times that due to the fact that none were ever imported and that the manufacturer is no longer available to provide data. (The world speed record car wasn't registered for street use I guess).

Anyway to cut a long story short he gave it to me - so here I am, quite excited but totally unexpectedly the new owner of 505. Actually I need another V8 like I need a hole in the head! 3 on the drive now. I'm on the look out for a pair of LHD Xenon MK2 lights of course. I'm not really sure what to do with 505. I'll drive it for a while of couse, probably put it on a summer only registration plate to save on running costs. The rest of the time it'll go into storage. Wouldn't want to use it in the winter anyway due to the salt on the roads.

My brother is flying over from New York next weekend to collect 505 from Southampton and drive it down to Baveria to our place. Most of the motorways round here a fairly empty and unlimited so it is possible to go V-max every day round here if you feel brave (and rich) enough.

Anyway, I'm interested to see whether it has more power than the XJR. Well it doesn't actually, 260 against the XJRs 370HP but that doesn't mean anything. The MG is a manual and maybe a little bit lighter.

So that's the funny story of how 505 ends up in Germany.