T hey took separate roads 50 years ago. Martyn Jarman and the 1934 classic car he was given for his 21st birthday were forced apart when he had to raise money for his wedding. But Mr Jarman, now 72, and the rare open-top British Salmson he sold in 1961, have been reunited.
The colour has changed and the car cost 500 times the £20 his father paid for it in 1958, but a delighted Mr Jarman said of the car: ‘She’s fantastic. I can’t believe I’ve got her back.’ Mr Jarman said he fell in love with the 1466cc hand-made machine after seeing it in a car park near his childhood home in Godalming, Surrey.‘It had been abandoned there for about a year,’
he said. ‘I mentioned it to my dad who told me not to worry about old cars. But he then went and tracked down the owner and gave it to me. I was lost for words.’Mr Jarman, of Dunkeswell, Devon, owned the car for just three years. He recalled: ‘I loved driving it but I needed the £25. Sadly my marriage didn’t last but I never forgot the car - I was always fond of her.’He discovered it was back on sale in the British Salmson Owners’ Club newsletter and paid £10,500 for it.
It has just 29,314 miles on the clock. 'It's a very exclusive car. There were only about 300 made altogether back in the 1930s and there are only two with the same unusual coachwork as mine,' said her proud owner.British Salmson was established in 1930 in Raynes Park, London, to make engines for light aircraft. From 1934 to 1939 they also made a range of cars. With the outbreak of World War II they turned to general engineering.
