MORE RARE DOCUMENTATION

I previously mentioned that there was some spectacular documentation that came with the 1956 100 Le Mans that Kent Lambert and I recently bought together, and I’ve posted some of it here already.  However, this one may be the rarest of the rare:

This is a shipping tag that specified the purchaser’s name and address in Tacoma, Washington, USA, and also listed the shipping company within the UK and the ship, the “Pacific Unity,” that would transport it to Seattle.

This Healey 100, series BN2, was purchased as a used car in 1962 at the Donald Healey Motor Company’s London showroom, and Manchester, from where embarkment was arranged for shipment to Seattle, is hardly the nearest port to London.

Did the car make a stop at the Donald Healey Motor Company in Warwick on the way from London to Manchester?  Warwick is about half way between London and Manchester, and also very interesting is the notation on the sales receipt for the car where it states, “Price of £400 includes payment for Le Mans Kit.”  Was the kit installed at Warwick on the way to Manchester?  Why else to ship it from London to Manchester?

In any case, the car rode the “Pacific Unity” on that voyage in 1962.  The Pacific Unity was built in 1948 and broken for scrap in Shanghai in 1970.

This tag remained with the car for the voyage and was among the paperwork we received with the car.  I’d never seen one of these shipping tags before, and it also lists the British registration (license plate) for the car: RYW 188.  We also still have both of those registration plates, and with appropriate patina.

Now this is documentation.