Deluxe Bold as Brass GT1323

Chassis No.16103

Engine No.4402-2207 (later 4400/6128M)

Bold as Brass was originally purchased on the 6th of August 1974 by D.R and H.M Middlemiss of no.2 RD, Ashburton. I think they were a farming couple. The car was obviously housed and well cared for by them until 1993 when it was sold to a car sales yard in Ashburton (odometer reading 124,600 kilometres). The sales yard extracted the engine and transmission for use in a jet boat and then offered the carcass for sale on their lot.

On the 11th of March 1993, we (Don and Helen Prouting) purchased the carcass to provide parts for our main transport, a well-worn Country Cream P76. A year later Country Cream met with an accident and while it was undergoing extensive repairs and panel beating we purchased a Corinthian Blue executive (HR6671) to serve in the meantime. Within a few months it also met with disaster, was paid out by the insurance company as a write off and was gifted back to us as they did not want to meet all the retrieval costs from an isolated back country road. A mechanic friend who had served time as a specialist trouble shooter with BMC on P76s in the ‘70s transferred its motor and transmission into the Bold as Brass carcass and we now had a good back up car, barring accidents! Things come in threes! Alas, Corinthian Blue now lies buried 2,500 feet above sea level at the head of the Rangitata Gorge.

Our twin daughters used Bold as Brass during their boarding school years in Timaru. A two hour drive from home with all their bedding, suitcases and bikes, and a tank full of fuel to last until they got back home at the end of term as a form of long range parental control. Our mechanic friend was also a Timaru taxi driver and could report back on any untold antics of this rather distinctive V8 about town.

Many years later one of our twins, Julie, used it as her wedding car and our third daughter made a short movie of its central part in the wedding. We might be able to post an edited clip!! Julie became so attracted to the car that she and her husband became the proud owners on the 23rd of July 2014. They are also recent members of the P76 Club Southern Group. More recently, in April of this year the Bold as Brass was used by Julie’s younger sister as one of her wedding cars, along with our most recent addition, Peel Me a Grape.