I was mightily impressed, when the car dealer opened a garage door and removed the white linen cover from GZU7 one cold morning in January 1970. With three friends from our local Oldtimer Club we were on a "hunting trip" for old cars, especially for a Rolls-Royce. I first spotted her in an ad in the January '70 issue of Motor Sports and turned down a Derby-Bentley drop head coupé with a rebuilt engine (but in need of paint) from another dealer in favour of GZU7.

January is not the most suitable time to get two old cars from England to Switzerland on the road, as you could imagine - on old tyres with worn summer tread at that! Against all odds (getting lost in a blizzard in Brussels, sheet ice, fog, frozen brakes, an engine starting to limp…) we managed, in a 36 hour non-stop marathon, to get both cars home to Berne.

New frame: Not much of the old ash frame could be reused. Isn't it almost a pity to cover up such beautiful craftsmanship with new panels?

At home I soon detected, that my youth, enthusiasm and inexperience had carried me too far: I had bought a "lemon". A burnt valve and a run big end bearing were found and hastily repaired for a wedding I had promised to do for a friend along with some other most urgent repairs. The rear wings were almost lost and when trying to refix them to the rest of the car, the screws went into "thin air". More rust and rot was found when fingerthick oil sludge, grime and road dirt collected from the surplus oil of the centralised chassis oiling system over almost 40 years was scraped from engine (inside and out…), gearbox and chassis. So after the wedding of my friend and a few more outings during the period that the current registration covered, it was decided that GZU7 was not in a condition honouring the name she bears. She was put in a garage to await proper restoration.

Muirhead russian blue leather was the best match available at the time of doing the new interior. Note the chromed door facing strips	All the decorative stitching was carefully copied for the new interior.

Early in 1969 I had just finished my studies as a civil engineer at the ETH Zurich, so it could be said that my first self-earned money went into this 20/25hp. Then an even more dilapidated 1930 Alfa 1750 GT came and went again, a Citroen C4 (found modified to a pick-up truck plus the body as a henhouse) came and went, a Ferrari 330GT came and went, plus a Ford Model A. The marriage and children, a new house built and then a 200 years old farm house rebuilt…. you know the sort of story. GZU7 still was awaiting restoration, moved every couple of years from a garage to an other, to a cellar, seeing the light of day every half a dozen years or so when urged for a wedding and then some more years of sleep.

Born in 1944, I began to realise slowly that I should act soon if ever I wanted to enjoy this car. So I joined the Club in 1999 and in 2000 my wife and I planned our holidays in England, where we visited several R-R-specialists in search of a restoration establishment I could trust the car to. I even considered for a moment trading GZU7 in for a Springfield Phantom, but, finding out that I must be at least half a foot taller than chauffeurs of the late twenties, I skipped that car and decided to get moving with what I had and knew. After all, with the passing of 30 years she had become part of our family, even when in storage for most of the time, and I still liked the well proportioned, classic lines of her light Sports Saloon body.

Header: That's how the ash frame looked like after the body panels and the roof cladding were removed	Visor: The same detail after restoration

Oh yes, that's an amusing story about her coachbuilder, that I do not want you to miss: The body is by Mulliners, so I assumed by H.J. until I learned about Arthur - Mulliner as well. The next time I visited GZU7 in her hibernation, I took a torch with me to inspect the bodymaker's plate under the front door to see which one of the two Mulliners was responsible for her coachwork. Imagine my puzzlement when I found it was neither of the two, but Mulliners Ltd of Bordesley Green Road, Birmingham! But now I feel somewhat less ashamed for my ignorance when the restoration company recently ran a full page ad in the Advertiser, highlighting GZU7, and got the bodymaker wrong as well, and even our most honourable past Chairman was not readily aware of this 3rd Mulliner company when he presented the Rippon Trophy for the best 4 door saloon to her at the recent Euro Rally at Salzburg….

During our holiday trip to England I was also able to take in a technical seminar for the small hp cars at the Hunt House, where I learned a great deal about my car (I highly recommend these seminars to every owner of any R-R/B). One of the teachers there was the owner of a well known specialist company that was already amongst my favourites for the job. A few weeks later this expert came to Switzerland for the Greasy Fingers Day, where I met him again together with GZU7. On my urging he rather reluctantly proposed a very sketchy estimate for the work needed, that I first had to digest before, in late November 2000, I entrusted my car to his company.

	Engine rustout: After de-scaling the water passages of the engine block a rust hole the size of a thumbnail into the valve tappet chamber developed. Only the silt in the water passages had prevented a leak....

Every half year or so I made a one-day-return-trip to see progress and discuss details of the work. I was prepared that, on dismantling, further defects would be found that I had not yet known about, but the extent of these was a shock on my first visit. About 2/3 of the structural ash framing of the body had to be replaced and as a consequence all the aluminium panels rearwards of the scuttle as well. The majority of the points that needed to be oiled by the centralised chassis oiling system had obviously had their last drop of oil long before I bought her, with very costly consequences during the rebuild.

In accordance with the cost estimate I had put aside a small fortune in stock market papers for this project, but its value rapidly dwindled, as you all know. After about one year the amount estimated for the whole project was already used up. I had to literally clamour for a revised estimate to finish the restoration project, now that the car was in pieces and the amount of work required obvious, so that I could find ways to re-finance the project. Imagine the shock when this estimate was finally worked out and showed a doubling of the initial anticipated costs. At that stage I considered in earnest to halt the whole project and give up the car altogether as a stop-loss strategy. The final bill even exceeded this 2nd estimate by another 50%, producing real headaches for me… A new cylinder head to replace the cracked original and a cylinder block (rust hole the size of a thumb nail after de-scaling) were some of the contributing factors.

GZU7 Body Plate, the "other" Mulliners, not to be mixed with either H.J. or Arthur

Great attention was given to replicate the fine details, to be as close to the original as possible, but some concessions were inevitable, as the car is intended to be used for touring and not only for show. An oil filter kit was fitted as well as an overdrive, head and taillamps had to meet Swiss MoT regulations, the speedometer dial had to show km/h and not only mph. The dark blue colour for the body had to be specially formulated, as a whole shoe box full of blue colour samples produced none close enough to the original. Rows of holes were found underneath the rubber covering of the runningboard, indicating that originally there were aluminium channels with rubber strips fitted. The roof covering was also found to be of an incorrect material. On dismantling, there were found underneath remnants of the old leatherette with long/short graining. The closest match to the original leatherette first had to be located in the USA and a full roll thereof imported.

The idea originally was to have the car finished to be judged at '02 Towchester, but it was soon clear, that this date would be missed. Then I set the 70th birthday of GZU7 (either 09.09.1932 off test or 26.10.1932 warranty issued) as an appropriate collecting date, but had to accept that she was just ready for a first road test in October 02 - still far from being finished. So GZU7 spent another winter at the restoration company. On May 27th 2003 I could finally collect my "new" car and drive it home at a maximum of 50 mph, running in the engine on the way.

Trunk suitcases: Original trunk with remaining two fitted suitcases, top one is missing	Jonas offering plate: This is the original registration number of GZU7, picture taken on 27 May 2003, when collecting GZU7 from restoration

Well, so far this has been the story of GZU7 during the last thirty three and a half years of my ownership, but, as you will realise, she has a history going back further. When bought in 1970 I was lucky to get with her the continuation registration book, showing the previous owners back until 1957, when she was registered to a Mr. John Greenwood of West Timperley, Cheshire. From the archives at the Hunt House I got copies of the chassis card et al showing a Mr. A.C. Demetriadi of Manchester as her first owner. A call through the discussion board on the internet page of our Club for further information on her past got me into contact with Mr. William Morrison, a professional motor historian. He did quite some research on GZU7 and found out very interesting details on some of the persons connected with her past, but so far he too has been unable to close the gap between the first owner and 1957. We not even know how long she stayed with her 1st owner. If any readers should know more about her past, I would be most grateful for any and all information (please contact Mr. Morrison, Manor Farm House, Main Street, Turweston, Brackley NN13 5JU on my behalf). By the way, Mr. Morrison is an expert on Mulliners Ltd of Birmingham, so I will urge him to write an article about this "forgotten" coachbuilder for a future Bulletin.

One last thing: While waiting for GZU7 to come home, I built with my own hands a car port to make room in my garage for her. One Saturday, applying some finishing touches to this car port, when date after date for collection had gone by, I had very strong emotional feelings reminding me of the birth of our first son, when my wife had the cradle and all the baby items ready and he refused to arrive until a full 17 days after the calculated date of birth. He is now 28 years old and, as a graduated mechanical engineer, he will hopefully be the next custodian for GZU7 after me.

	GZU7 near Bruxelles on Jan. 4th 1970, after getting lost in a blizzard. The "other" old car is a Talbot 14/45 hp, one of the first designs