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As i have stated in a previous thread. I am currently trying to research the history of the London Roadster. Well today i made progress .The LR was built at 25910 Michigan ave.Inkster Michigan .there seems to be a rather large building there that might have been the plant where they were built. I contacted the Inkster historical society an talked to lissy a very nice women who said i should call the National Automotive History Collection Skillman Branch Detroit Michigan puplic library. Tried to call no answer found there email on there website.I told them about tdreplica.com an there were LR owners who would love to get info on there cars.One thing i told them that British Coach Works bought LR at some point I beleve i read this some place If some one knows better let me know If there is anything some one wants to add i will put it my communication with them my fingers are crossed along with my toes
Nice investigative work Greg. Always good to add knowledge of these cars to our membership.
Allen Caron
VW based 53MGTD - "MoneyPenny"
"If one thing matters, everything matters" - from the book The ShackGreg,I may be wrong ,but this is the first time I have heard of any connection between London Roadster and British Coach Works. I own both a LR and a BCW and there are significant differences between the two cars.London Roadsters used Daytona MiGi bodies on either VW pans or their own custom chassis. BCW built their own bodies to fit both the VW pan or the Chevette based version which sat on a chassis designed to use the Chevette engine and suspension. It is my understanding that BCW went out of business after the death of the older gentleman who started the business. There is additional info here on the forum but I could not find it using the search button.
Larry, last I checked, British Coach Works was still a live corporation in PA but not operating since about 1986. The successor company appears to be Smoothline. It is (or was, a couple years back) still operated by the Fussenegger family, who were the original founders of BCW.
And, yeah. Seems unlikely they would have bought LR given their status as a manufacturer. But you never know.
Here’s a pretty interesting newspaper story about the BCW situation circa 1984.
By my recollection, Charles Fussenegger was the patriarch and founder. He’d retired from Combustion Engineering by the time BCW started around 1979. His boy Gary was the face. An auto parts manufacturer called Perfect Plastics at some point took a majority interest in the business. Not sure if that was also the Fusseneggers.
Smoothline is run by John Fussenegger who I think might be Charles’s other son & Gary’s brother. I reached out to John a few years ago via email but never heard anything from him.
The only place I have ever heard British Coach Works Limited in Dearborn MI associated with the London Roadster is on EBAY. It was a 1982 LR and the guy was only repeating what he was told. He also thought that the LR was sold by the CADILLAC MOTOR DIVISION. He was selling a 1982 and his model was only built for 2 year’s. His information is way off . In all my research I found that LR’s were built for 8 year’s 1980 – 1988. They only built 1 model with additional option’s.
For Greg:
the LONDON ROADSTER trademark by STEVENSON, PATRICIA A. in INKSTER, , 48141. The correspondent listed for LONDON ROADSTER is IRVING M. WEINER & ROLAND W. NORRIS of 3000 TOWN CENTER, SUITE 2700, SOUTHFIELD, MICHIGAN 48075This is great stuff Greg!
I wrote a history of Classic Roadsters Ltd. I need to dig that out and re-share it. It might even be buried somewhere in this forum….Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)
THxz to all onthis info .excellent info on the London roadster..
I appreciate everyone effort here..To day i wrote a e mail to the Dearborn Michigan library Requisting information on the LR
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