I have had a few emails from the seller of the XP5 suit carrier; His friend has an F1 torque wrench for sale and is due to get sold at the next Bonhams Car Auction, asking price starting at £500.00. In these emails I have been getting some pretty decent info....

The seller was the Head Gardener for David's Surrey home, and built and maintained the garden for 7 years. He has confirmed that the pic below is of David's garage at his Surrey home proving that he did own #017 as well as LM3, although he had no idea as to how David had possession of the XP5 luggage set. (This solidifies what Erik and I thought when we PM'd each other over this question a few weeks ago ;))
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/hurstg01/f1lm13.jpg
He received the LM3 car cover, XP5 luggage set and Torque Wrench for helping David over the years and for not ripping him off [honesty does pay :)]...The seller sold the LM3 cover back to the new owner once David had sold the car, and even took the XP5 luggage set back to Mclaren to reunite it with XP5 but apparently they weren't that interested.
I have added some pics of the Torque Wrench - did you know the wrench came with batteries and beeps and lights up when the desired torque is reached?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/hurstg01/mclarenf1torquewrench.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/hurstg01/P1011686.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/hurstg01/toolchest.jpg

So now, which F1 did Chris Dawes have before his untimely demise?.........

Hello,

bravo Greg, a very interesting post ! Can you ask him if
1) it is possible someone saw the LM in Paris on 1998 ?
2) how long he does the Gumball on 1999 ?

thanks
Phil

Nice work Mr Hurst. :)

Any chance you could ask how Dawes ended up being the driver of #017 on that terrible day? Did Morrison no longer own it at the time?

Thanks for the torque wrench photos too. :thumbsup:

>8^)
ER

Nice work Mr Hurst. :)
Any chance you could ask how Dawes ended up being the driver of #017 on that terrible day? Did Morrison no longer own it at the time?
I'll do that next time he emails me; He worked for David for 7 years so I'll see if in that time he knew about the crash of it that was before his time
Thanks for the torque wrench photos too. :thumbsup:
>8^)
ER
No probs; I hadn't seen a close up of the wrench on it's own before, so I thought it best to let everyone else see it!

Hello,

bravo Greg, a very interesting post ! Can you ask him if
1) it is possible someone saw the LM in Paris on 1998 ?
2) how long he does the Gumball on 1999 ?
thanks
Phil
I'll see if he knows about your 1st question.

As for the 2nd, I found these 2 segments off websites that confirms David did do more than just the UK leg of the Gumball -

"His success in the City has allowed Morrison to indulge his passion for fast cars. As well as an extensive collection of Ferraris, he also owns a £750,000 McLaren F1 LM road car, which he raced across Europe three years ago in the Gumball 3000. Inspired by the classic Burt Reynolds road movie Cannonball Run, fellow contestants included Jodie Kidd, Damien Hirst and Lord Montague of Beaulieu."

and

"'So what's the fastest that David's driven his LM?'. 'I think this can be verified by the Belgian Police!' he laughs 'I [David's co-driver for the Rally] did 175mph on the Gumball Rally. We got stopped in three different countries - France twice and Belgium...."

The car was apparently sold before March 1999, potentially making Chris Dawes the owner on that fateful day. He also is in possession of the number plate off the front of LM3 - 1 SEN - as well as the MAt the car sat on whilst not being driven - I believe it may be the mat often seen in Roger_ph's pictures from Schaeffers but I am waiting confirmation on that

Hi,

thank you very much Greg :) It was quite hard to say how long he does 1999 Gumball with so few pics or vids :( It's a pity we have not more footage of the F1. Gumball organisation had promised more vids of precedent editions but never did it :(
Do you think he did the entire Gumball ? 3000 miles ! Maybe, can you ask him how many miles it had when it was sold.

Thanks again.

Phil

LM3 was registering 3226 miles on the odometer prior to coming to the USA.

>8^)
ER

Yes :)

Thanks Erik. So, he surely doesn't make the entire Gumball, maybe the half.

Phil

So now, which F1 did Chris Dawes have before his untimely demise?.........

None. He never took delivery of his F1 ;)


I've said this before i believe. I don't know if the person who told me wants the info out on the McLaren he was meant to have but all i can say is that it was silver, very low miles and was sold through a very high end dealer in the UK. I'll give another hint that some oldies here may get and thats that i've been to this dealer on more than one occasion.

Is it possible he owned 017 and was intending to trade it in for the silver one? 2 fairly high-up people at McLaren are convinced he did own the car he crashed in...

he owned a black F1?.........

He didn't crash in a black one. It was 017. Thats the whole point of this thread.

IIRC, 017 was on loan to him until he took delivery of his car

sorry, edited my post to remove the color reference...

Its possible, but not what i've heard...

Hmm,

when you say "loan" it was a short period ? Few days or few weeks ?
It's difficult to imagine McLaren loan a used version to a customer who will buy a new one. Say me if I am wrong.

Phil

So he had #017 on loan until the silver one was delivered; the hunt is on for what the silver one could have been - oh no, another silver unsolved mystery!!... that's all we need.? (Unless Chris you can get your friend to allow you to say otherwise)

High end dealer - Taylor & Crawley?

Nope. I'll just say it. It was 068




Belated Merry Christmas to everyone :)

who has 068 now?

Richard Powers in Costa Rica

#068 was going to be my guess, but I didn't want to press you. It fit the description of a silver car with very low miles sold through Duncan Hamilton which I know you've been through a couple of times.

>8^)
ER