I bought the car just a year ago, sight unseen, after several weeks of negotiation by phone and email - broke my own cardinal rule, but it has worked out quite well. Recruited a young neighbor to drive to Los Angeles with me in my Buick, inspected and drove the car, and drove home next day in caravan - 640 miles at 70mph, 13.4 mpg (US), one quart of oil.

The car was a special order through the Peter Satori agency in Pasadena as a Christmas gift to the original owner's wife, and was first registered in Los Angeles on 24 December, 1958. It remained in LA until I bought it last year. I have a fairly complete service history which bears out the actual mileage shown on the odometer - now 86,878. About 2,700 of that on my watch. Following are the salient facts as I know them:

Ordered Sept. 1958
Off test mid-November
Shipped to the Port of Long Beach, California, arriving mid-December
Registered 24 December, 1958
First owner died 1992.

The build sheet shows that the original color was steel blue with silver coach lines, and that the reverse button on the shift lever was to be omitted. The car was repainted in the late eighties - unfortunately an inferior job. The mileage at the time of the owner's death was 79,000. His family covered the car and parked it in a carport, where it mouldered for ten years, slowly cooking the paint. Peter Pochna (RROC), from whom I purchased the car, bought it from the family in 2002 and spent about $12,000 making it roadworthy again. He then purchased a Cloud III for restoration and sold this one to me.

As the weather improves, I will be taking the car to George Colgett for a thorough going over, as a few issues remain to be sorted. George is a tech advisor to RROC and has a very fine RR/B service in Hayward (San Francisco area). A few issues that need attention include a leak in the Bijur system, and fine-tuning the timing and carburettors as the engine is a (very) little rough at idle. A respray will have to wait, but the paint is sound and she's a stunning ten-footer!

The leather and carpets are in excellent shape, though I redyed the leather with the Leatherique system as there was some rub-off of color around the door handles, seat edges, etc. Apart from the respray and the fitting of an alternator at some point, the car is completely original, unmolested and absolutely rust-free.

I built a console for the front compartment with cup holders, waste cubby and a housing for the fire extinguisher. It matches the fascia quite well, though a little darker. It's also instantly removable.

I should mention the 'silvery' looking items in the engine bay photos. The brake fluid reservoirs, oil filler etc. were pretty tatty, so I cleaned and masked them, and sprayed a matte galvanising paint on them. It's very close to cad plating in appearance, can be easily removed, and prevents further oxidation.

I tend to be a bit relaxed as to originality, as long as it looks about right and can be corrected later.

There are reputedly four or five other RR/Bs in the county, but I've never seen any of them. Three I know of are owned by a RROC chap in Eureka - all modern cars. I drive my car three or four times a week whenever I have a trip of l5 miles or more to make, and the rubbernecking is really amusing. To put this in perspective, Humboldt County is about half the size of Wales, with a population of 130,000. Most of our roads are first rate, traffic very light, and magnificent scenery to wander about in. A traffic jam would consist of perhaps five cars lined up at a stop light.

Sorry to ramble, but at my age one does! My son and daughter-in-law are organising a 75th birthday open house for me in May, so I shall be giving lots of rides I expect. One of the many joys of retirement is being able to spend lots of hours with toothbrush and cotton swabs in and under the car - she's considerably tidier than my house!

The Union Flag is flying in front of my house on 24 May, Empire Day (in days of yore), Queen Victoria's birthday, and the 65th anniversary of the Hood disaster. It's what we call in baseball parlance, a "three bagger".