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Classic Cars of London, a division of
Anden Holdings ltd. was a Canadian based company located in London,
Ontario. Classic Cars of London (CCL) built the Auburn 886
Speedster. CCL was owned by two Ontario Businessmen, Dennis
Plowright and Andy Spriet. Like most of us, Dennis Plowright had
fallen in love with the flowing lines of the Gordon Buehrig designed
1935 Auburn Speedster. Plowright could not justify the hefty price
tag of an original Speedster.
At that time they were selling in excess $100,000. He decided to purchase two kits from the
United States and have them built. His plan was to build two cars, keeping one and selling
the other. The first car was displayed at major Toronto and
Montreal auto shows where it received so much attention and interest
that Plowright and his friend Andy Spriet decided to start manufacturing their own
vehicles from the 1930's. The first car to be produced was a replica of the 1935
Auburn Speedster and later follow up with a boattail Duesenberg.
Classic Cars of London (CCL) was started. A 12,000 sq. ft plant facility
was leased to start building the new Auburn 886 Speedster. The
Duesenberg never went into production.
The plan was to build 250 completed Auburn Speedsters over a 10 year
period. Don Brooks was hired on as the CCL-general manager. The cars
were built around a new General Motors chassis drive train. The cars used
Fiberglass bodies and 305 Chevrolet engines. Later cars would offer
a choice of a Ford drive train. All cars carried a full new car
warranty. It was estimated that more than a 1000 man hours were
required to build each car with most of that time spent on quality alignments
and adjustments. Building a "Masterpiece of Automotive Excellence"
was CCL's goal. The cars sold for $39,000 - $40,000.
Anticipating that most of the 886 Auburns would be sold to U.S.
customers, Classic Cars
of Lauderdale was started in Florida. At that time there seemed to
be a growing interest
in hand built specialty / replicars throughout the United States. It
was not long into CCL's production that this interest would start to
slow. That and the fact that there were problems with U.S. Customs
bringing cars into the United States due to the National Highway
Traffic Safety Act. The problems being that California emission
standards were the minimum acceptable standards. This would have
added another $3000. to the price of each Auburn. While still
awaiting N.H.T.S.A. approval, 15 cars had already been built and
were awaiting shipment to the United States. CCL needed to sell cars
so the 15 cars were promptly licensed in Canada and then sold as
used cars in and out of Canada.
Shortly after that they built another 12-15 cars before ceasing
production. An estimated 30 of the projected 250 cars were built.
The first 2 cars were completed using
Elegant
Motors cars form Indianapolis, Indiana. The next 5-6 cars
used components from
Southeastern Replicars
from Largo, Florida. The remaining cars were produced with CCL's
own molds taken from a body purchased in California. Andy Spriet
kept one 866 Speedster and CCL mothballed the equipment, body forms
and miscellaneous remaining parts. They have no plans to resume
manufacturing Auburns.
Classic Cars of London (Division of Anden Holdings ltd.)
980 Adelaide St., South London, Ontario N6E 1R3 Canada
Classic Cars of Lauderdale (Division of Anden Holdings ltd.)
Royal Trust Plaza, Suite 204, 2810 East Oakland Park Blvd.
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33306
note: these addresses are more than 20 years old / last updated: 12-2007
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