Famous Morgans in and around the Pacific NorthWest

Some mysteries solved and some still unsolved.

The car now resides in Oslo Norway. It made a special trip to Lemans in 2001. For the full story on this Morgan click here

GB Sterne's 57 Plus 4 - 4 place, #3605 engine #TS 13490. GB's first racer and a common sight at the Westwood Racetrack from 1957-1960. It won almost every race it entered.

GB's first 4 seater was wrecked (totalled) in an accident on the old West Saanich Road Bob Sterne still has the dash from this car

The tale is, this Morgan was sold at an fundraising auction in Los Angeles in or around 1972. It shows up again at Isis Motors for resale, in 2000 when the above pictures were taken. Some documents were still with the vehicle showing its original owner Mick Jagger.

Originally sold to Dr Grant Hill. It was raced by him in Calgary and later at Westwood.

The car is now owned by PACMOG club member Tony Koelink. It has had a complete groundup restoration. The photo above was taken on the lot, when Tony purchased it in 1985.

1969 Plus 8 #R7081 (engine 41400045A and gearbox 4607), owned for many years by Jim Belardi. It was brought into the U.S.A. through Canada by Scott McMillian. It was also from Sterne (19 June 1969) and Scott, I believe, carried up plates. He told the SMOG nazis that it had a Rover engine and they looked that up on the lists and said that Rovers were approved.
#7081 was (is) yellow with black wings, #7081 was reputedly the first Plus 8 in the U.S.A. and was the subject of the R&T Road Test in Dec.1969. Scott sold the car to Jim Belardi about 1972 and Jim has had it ever since.
A few years later, Jim was visited by a sympathetic Customs Inspector (he owned an Austin Healy). After looking at the car he said that he would get back to Jim. He called a few days later and said that he had good news and bad news. The bad news was that the car was illegal as hell. The good news was that he did not have to do anything about it.

From Scott McMillian - My kid-brother, Richard, and I flew up to Vancouver from LA on a Wednesday, collected the car on Friday and, in a bit of a marathon drive, pulled into my parents driveway on Saturday. Yup. That's about 1300 miles in a tad over 18 hours driving, including stops for food, petrol, and a pee. The average speed was about 72 miles per hour.
There has been a lot of speculation about how the car was legally imported to the USA. No mystery, really. I arrived at the US customs station in Blaine at about 3:30 in the afternoon. The customs inspectors came out, looked at the car, checked the chassis number against the sales documents, then pulled out a six-inch thick book of automobile import regulations. The law had just changed, and cars maufactured before 1 Jan 1968 were legal, those manufactured after that date... well, hmmm. However, the Congress of the United States (in its infinate wisdom) had passed a law right after WWII that said an American citizen, returning from a journey abroad, could import any motor vehicle, without regard to any federal regulation, provided the duty was paid at the port of entry. As the law had not been rescinded, and I was returning from a "journey abroad", customs let the vehicle pass. I paid my (I think) 5% duty, they stamped my papers, and I drove out of the inspection station a little after 4:00. The car was now legally in the 'States (although California would be a little trickier), I was 21 years old, had a full tank of gas, and was headed home.
Registering the car in California was a huge head-ache, because they couldn't decide if state sales tax was due. This would some-how affect the road tax, so for nearly a year the State Board of Equalization and the Department of Motor Vehicles held up the registration. This meant that the car was only registered for 30 days at a time. After seven or eight months I got a tip from the guy I was dealing with at the DMV. He told me to go to the AAA, hand in the 30 day permit, pay whatever thay said was owed, and never, ever, come back to his office. So that's what I did. In twenty minutes the Auto Club had it all sorted, and Morgan +8 chassis number7081 was registered 917 BFD. I actually sold the car to Jim Belardi in 1972/73, on the condition that if he ever were to sell it, I'd have first refusal. Jim Still has the car, and if he ever wants to sell, I'll buy it back.

Scott MacMillan

Do you own a Morgan in the, or from the, Pacific Northwest that may qualify for this page. Email me please.

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