Redfive has arrived at it's new home

[Rick-sta]

Redfive has arrived home safely, been washed and is now tucked away under a cover to keep her protected. Still can't believe I now own this stunning ZT, still remember the first time myself and Deanna saw it was at the National Meet at the Haynes Motor Museum in Somerset, which was many years ago now back when it was owned by Ian (Ian-G on here). We'd since known about the car and regularly see it at local meets after Bob (flyingbanana) bought it for the first time from Ian.

I'd been looking for a diesel to replace my v6 190 SE tourer as a daily for a while, it's a lovely car and I absolutely love the v6 engine but it just uses way too much fuel for me. Just by luck I saw that Bob had posted on facebook that someone was mean't to view redfive after seeing it at a show and let him down by not getting back to him. Now I'd actually been looking for a diesel tourer but had really been struggling to find a good one for sale, but after seeing that Bob was looking to sell redfive it stayed on my mind for a couple days before I decided to give Bob a ring and enquire about it. After having a good chat about Redfive and all the work Bob has had done on it, I knew this one would be too good to miss, so I agreed to purchase it but asked if he'd be willing to keep hold of it for me for a couple months until I'd be able to make the trip down to purchase it, to which Bob very kindly agreed to do so.

HOWEVER, the big challenge now as I said to Bob on the phone was... I have to pitch this to Deanna (the fiance!). All my plans could have fallen apart here! I thought about how i would sell this to Deanna for a good hour or so before she came to work, coming up with my arguments for buying redfive + my backup arguments (we're saving for our wedding next year so I'm on a cars spending ban lol). I tell you what it was the easiest sales pitch ever, she came home from work, told her I'd spoken to Bob about redfive and that I'd like to buy it and she immediately without hesitation said "yes that's fine, buy it". I almost fell out of my chair! This is only as she has always liked redfive, if it was any other car she would have said NO!

So after 2 months, we took a long trip down to Cornwall via train into London and then coach from Victoria down to Saltash (total of nearly 10 hours) with Deanna on Saturday to collect her. Bob kindly offered to collect us from the drop off point and timed it perfectly, as we (heard him first) saw him drive past in his v8, and pulled up at the bus stop just before we did. Drove us back to his new home and we saw redfive shining away outside, the first time we'd seen it in over a year. Bob done a fantastic job cleaning it to prep it for the Mount edgecombe show we were both attending the following day. In fact I think Bob washed redgive about 3 times in the week running up to collecting her.

Bob very kindly offered for us to stay the night which we really appreciated. Had a lovely meal out with Bob, Allen and Val too.

Was lovely to take Redfive to a show right away, received quite a bit of attention at Mount Edgecombe, even had 2 people ask if she was for sale.

We then headed off to Exeter for our overnight stay at a hotel on the way home which was close to the Donkey Sanctuary in Sidmouth which we planned to visit the next day on the way home, as a little treat for Deanna as she loves animals, especially Goats and Donkeys. Had a lovely half day there in lovely weather, and just as we got back in redfive and was driving out of the carpark we saw a chap looking at the car and giving us the thumbs up. I pulled up and wound the window down and the couple commented on how much they loved the car and had just been having a look round it whilst it was parked.

We then had a smooth and comfortable journey back home to Essex, Deanna even asked to drive Redfive for some of the journey, should have seen the big grin on her face

Yesterday morning I have Redfive a wash, dried it off and is now tucked away under a car cover (very kind provided by Bob with the car, really appreciate it, thank you). It'll be tucked away for now until I finish sorting the tourer and put it up for sale.

A big thank you again to Bob for keeping hold of redfive for me, having us stay over for the night and everything else you've done for us to collect redfive