Dee Teal, Author at Here's Lucie

You may have noticed from the previous post that Lucie was purchased while I was in Auckland, New Zealand. This isn’t such a strange thing; of the 30,912 Riley Elfs ever built 1,975 of them were sent to NZ as complete knock down kits. Right up until the 1980s it was a common occurrence to see Kiwi roads peppered with what we’d now call classics. By that I mean cars with chrome bumpers, so it’s not wholly surprising that I was a bit laissez faire about my old Elf, Olive. I mean, old cars then were a dime a dozen.

Riley Elf Mark 3 Front View

In any case, even now, 30 years later it’s not uncommon to find Elfs still for sale in NZ. When I went looking for Lucie there was at least one other for sale but Lucie was the one in my price range and look at her, what’s not to love??!

I noticed her when I had started checking out trade me before I was due to leave Melbourne for a visit with the family. I reached out to the vendor and like any good salesman he proceeded to regale me with tales of multiple enquiries and this car being hot property.

I told him I’d check in again when I got to Auckland. Of course, as is usually the case things got busy and I finally got around to checking in with him again towards the end of the trip, a full month after my first enquiry. Happily she was still available but it took so long for us to connect in person, around navigating my work and his fishing trips I actually started to get a bit nervy…

In any case, we finally managed to set a time, I arranged to meet him at the garage where Lucie was being stored and I prevailed upon him to shuffle her out of

Riley Elf - with other classics

The above photos are from the Trade Me listing of her sale; (I looked right past that Mini and now I wish I’d looked at that more closely too!!) and below are a few of the photos I took of her on that first visit.

Once we’d got her out of the tetris board that was the floor of the garage I started her up and took her for a spin around the block. It was pretty nerve wracking… unsure of how much grunt she had, pretty happy with the price, but wondering if I was being an absolute idiot indulging this fantasy I took the car back to the seller, told him I’d let him know that evening and drove my rental up the road to my sister’s place to get some perspective.

H must have thought I was a bit mad, I sat at the table and basically brain dumped the pros and cons, she nodded and listened, and then thought ‘stuff it’ and went to the ATM, grabbed out $500 for the deposit and went home to sleep on it…

Of course, the rest is history isn’t it. I dropped the cash deposit off the next day, promised to wire the remainder to the vendor on the Monday and went home with a hand written receipt, and a fair stomach full of nerves that this guy was yanking my chain and about to sell the car to the ‘other very interested buyer’ who’d offered cash on the spot.

I had a flight back to Oz that day so I was then reliant on a bunch of factors, and the good will of my family to get the car stored ready for me to put the whole export/import process in place (a whole ‘nother story). Thankfully there was a specialist car storage place just up the road from the garage, and my sister and brother in law just up the road from both. Knowing that pickup/delivery wasn’t going to cause too much in the way of inconvenience for everyone I went back to Oz, sent the remainder of the finance across the Tasman and Lucie joined the family.

Many thanks to H & M for picking her up and dropping her off at the storage place. And for having such a sense of humour about it all…

‘Mark’ I

I was slow to ‘get’ driving (back in the days when you had a full license the minute you sat your test at age 16). I had learned to drive in an E30 Corolla but failed to my test twice. As a consequence l gave up for a bit until I could improve my skill and confidence.

In the end, at age 18 I ended up owning a car before I even had that license. I remember buying her, Mum and I together at the sales yard, parting I think with $1500 and in return receiving papers for ‘Olive’ a 1965 Mk II ‘Riley Elf.’ It was in her I finally passed the driving test, the police officer disparaging the car as soon as he climbed in, commenting along the lines of ‘Wind her up, get her going…’ as if it was a rubber band responsible for her power. The ensuing giggle enough to relax me into a (finally) successful test.

We had adventures Olive and I. Late night phone calls to dad after a rear ender in the rain outside the service station in Victoria Rd necessitated embarrassed collection from town; the now infamous blowout on the Northern Motorway headed downhill on the way to meeting friends at Rainbows End, my 11 year old brother and I trying to get her tyre changed and us moving again lest we miss out on any of the fun. Taking judder bars (speed humps) too fast and getting airborne, or taking corners too tight on the way to the airport and driving over traffic islands. I like to think, now that I am a more experienced driver, these kinds of incidents are a thing of the past.

Olive and I parted company July of 1988 when I sold her to a friend for $1950.00 and was rather proud to have made money on her. I was young, headed off overseas, a car an encumbrance and cash an important thing when going off into the great beyond. It was a mistake; damn I loved that car and ever since her subsequent owner sold her on to a collector in Japan I have been disappointed I couldn’t buy her back.

I’ve had a dream to own one again ever since.

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‘Mark’ II

‘I’m sorry, I hope you don’t mind but I need to go chat to that guy for a sec’ I said to my friend over coffee one early morning while I was on vacation on the Gold Coast.’ The object of my attention an ‘Elf’ being parked across the road, the first I’d seen in the flesh since I’d sold mine.

I introduced myself to M, her owner and he laughed, every time he takes her out he gets stopped for a chat. He delivered his Mrs to her hair appointment and joined us at the cafe. We spent delightful half hour reminiscing about his early days also spent in NZ, the Elfs (Elves?) and minis he’s owned and the modifications he’s made to ‘Elf’ pictured below.

We stayed in touch. I introduced him to trademe.co.nz and before I could turn around he’d bought two of them, one in good running order that his grandson now owns, the other in pieces that he has since restored and which he then listed for sale himself.

I’ve visited him on the Gold Coast a couple of times and on last visit we took ‘Elf’ (with me driving) off for a jaunt around town, turning heads and (for me) getting inspired to take the idea of getting my own seriously…

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‘Mark’ III

Trade Me is apparently a treasure trove of ‘Elves.’ In the almost 2 years since I met M I’ve been watching them come and go for sale, and the timing has never quite been right for me to indulge this desire to own one again. However, this time as I was preparing to visit family across the ditch I happened to check out the trademe listings for Rileys and noticed that alongside the listing for M’s ‘Snow White’ was a wee blue specimen which completely caught my eye.

I emailed the vendor to find out what sort of interest there had been in her. He replied lots, which was a bit far fetched as her price had been coming down consistently in the time I was watching… so I kept his details to follow up when I was actually in NZ as well.

The end result is of course that after going to sit in her, turn her engine over and, (after some convincing to move the barricade of other classic vehicles in her way) taking her for a drive, the offer was made, accepted and once the finance transferred from Australia to NZ (gosh they can move money fast when they want to, it took less than 24hrs) she has become my very own.

Oh my, I could scarcely believe it… I owned another Elf and the number one slot on my bucket list was vacant.

She was placed in storage in Auckland until such a time as I could get her transported over to Melbourne. I had some travel planned between then and when collecting her was going to be feasible, and so she was tucked away safely in a storage unit until I could bring her home.

She needs a name. I want to call her Elfaba (after Elphaba the witch in Wicked) but honestly her colour lends itself more to ‘Smurfette’ which I can’t bring myself to commit to yet. So, I’ll save the formal christening until she’s here and we’ve had time to get acquainted…

Until then, I shall flick through the photos below and count my blessings the opportunity to undo a big regret didn’t pass me by.