Description Wonderfully original Riley in need of recommissioning following many years in storage; sporting Plus Ultra chassis and floor-change gears; few owners, the current for 26 years; a proper time capsule at a very modest guide price One of two Riley Monaco Special Series saloons in today’s auction (the other is Lot 84), this fabulous ‘oily rag’ survivor is one of those precious finds that has somehow escaped the ravages of time and decay that so often send old cars to an early grave.

The buff logbook shows that it was first registered in Middlesex in April 1932 and the original owner was a Mr AJ Clarke of Twickenham.

The plaque on the dash suggests that he had bought it from Boon & Porter Ltd, London’s premier Riley dealership in the 1920s and ‘30s, with a prestigious showroom on Castelnau Road in leafy Richmond-upon-Thames.

An old V5 shows that by 1978 it was owned by a Mr F Dewey of Shaftesbury, ownership transferring to a Mrs N Gladstone of Preston in 1992 from whom our ve...