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"We've done 10 total rebuilds on Invicta S-types, and partial restoration on 11 more," says Derek Green. Think about it. That's about a third of the surviving stock of these bespoke sportsters, out of the 75 (or 78, depending on who you listen to) made. Down at Cedar Classic Cars, which began as a 1986 sideline to the antiques business started in 1963 by the newly-ex Fleet Air Arm pilot Green, you'll find four Invictas, and another in storage. Two have just been rebuilt, and two more are in process - one of which is having only its mechanicals done: "The owner asked us to keep the body original, which is splendid," says Green. "People are owning cars as a hobby again, and that's what we all want. Some customers are spending a lot of money with us, having the cars restored properly to keep."
The fifth Invicta is Simon Bull's, which with special tuning now gives rather more than twice the normal Meadows output of 103bhp. Yet on the road it's still fantastically tractable, a clue to the extensive reworking that's gone into the inlet porting: "We don't use any special bits," avers Green.
"Apart from modifying the head to six inlet ports and the reprofiled cam, we got that power by spending hours on the dyno. I'm lucky to have had
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someone like Simon to work with me on that." Spares for the massively engineered 4 ½-litre Meadows engine common to the Invicta S-type and Lagonda LG45 are "not much of a problem. We can now get most parts, and some we have remanufactured ourselves. A new crank costs £3,200. We have special duplex timing chains made up because the originals stretch - and lighter aluminium/steel flywheels to compensate for the slight extra weight of the crank. You can even buy a new crankcase - but we don't do anything you couldn't have done in the '30's."
Green motoring life is steeped in classics; he'd had vintage cars in the '50's, and raced an E-type through the '70's: "Then I got a 2 litre Lagonda and won all the concours. I sold my M45 to buy the Invicta, and people said 'can you do mine too?' So I started working on cars from home. When I thought the neighbours might complain, I moved to these barns."
Cedar Classic Cars employs six fitters at its rural workshop, and a book-keeper-cum-secretary: "I find it easier to take on trained engineers from the aerospace industry and adapt them to cars, rather than trying to instill higher standards into car mechanics.
All of them can fabricate the parts they need in the machine shop. And I have one older chap
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who does the general servicing jobs - he did his apprenticeship with Jaguar, then worked for HR Owen and Maranello Concessionaires.
" These staffing levels bring Green just about back up to the position he was in before the recession when he employed seven mechanics - "Three of them just to work on Victor Gauntlett's cars when he kept them here. Even through the whole recession I managed to keep two fitters on."
More recently, you'll find more than just Invictas at Cedar - these bespoke component cars share space with two Lancia Lambdas, and AC 428 convertible, E-type coupe (text note: e one coupe should have a french accute accent on it!), 1903 Martini and even a Stag and a Herald. As word gets about, more diverse classics find their way to The Meadows.
Like most restoration firms, Cedar will tailor the work to client demands; and to simplify accounting, it uses the fitters' own timesheets as the basis for monthly invoicing: "That way everybody can see what's been done, and why. We encourage customers to visit; one even does some work here on his own car. And there's another, whose car is under full chassis restoration, who has put a £5,000 a month limit on the work we do. That's all fine by us."
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THE SPECIAL BRANCH
