Bangers & Cash 1977 Saudi Corvette JNH 820T

Pinhead

Regular user
Just came across this thread while looking back at the bangers and cash episode and promptly signed up to post on here
I owned JNH 820T for a few years
I bought the car if I remember correctly when I was 21 so that would be 1998 and I think it was around October time
It was fir sale from a dealer in hemel hampstead and I lived in Bradford at the time I drove down with a friend had a look over the car and bought it
On the drive back it was a nightmare overheating all the time it took ages to get home stopping at every services to top up with water
After I got it home I started looking for the cause of the overheating and drew a blank I changed many parts just incase and nothing helped I eventually learned that if I drove quite slowly it was fine but as soon as you were at motorway speeds the needle started to rise back off a bit down to say 50 and it dropped
This had me puzzled for a long time
Any way I was picking up some service parts from Rodley motors and happened to mention about my problem to Richard I also told him the ignition timing would never be the same when as when it was last set
He told me to check the timing chain and cam shaft
So after work that night I set to and stripped it down I was in the garage until 3 in the morning and had work at 8
As Richard suspected the cam shaft was worn really badly with some lobes hardly lifting the valves and the timing chain and gears were the plastic coated type for quieter running and all the plastic had come off in lumps leaving the chain very sloppy
In my lunch the next day I went back to Rodley and Richard sorted me out with all the bits I needed and that evening again after work I put it all back together
I was really eager to try it but I had to resist as the neighbours would be less than happy at the small hours of the morning especially as I had to break the cam in so would have to keep it running for a while to perform the procedure
So later on after work I fired it up and instantly knew it was a different beast it sounded so much better
On the first test drive I couldn't belive it it was so fast compared to what it was before and the overheating was a thing of the past
I used the car daily for a few years and went to a couple of car shows with it I did quite a lot of mechanical work on the car as a lot of things had obviously been let slip with the previous owner I also re painted it myself I had the stripes colour matched and the white paint i think was a Ford white the original colour underneath was competition orange that i revealed
for a diy paint job it was actually really good i got a run in the air vent behind the front wheel and at the back while leaning over to spray the inside of the suger scoop fin a bead of sweat driped down into wet paint and caused a blister but the paint was hugely improved and I was very proud of what I had acheaved
before long I started to long for another corvette
So I bought myself a red 89 c4 with red leather it wasn't without its issues but it drove so much better than the old 77 and the 77 started to never come out of the garage
So after a while I decided to sell it and it went off to Adrian dromey it had all the files and everything with it when it went
And until bangers and cash I never saw it around at all it had buckskin colour interior at that time that I noticed had been re done in black
 

Pinhead

Regular user
Great piece of history and information about the car. Thank you for posting.
No problem at all its one of 2 cars that I wish I had never sold the other was a 99 lightning pickup
It would be interesting to know what happened to my 89 I went to the nationals with that car probably around 2000 2001 time
I cannot remember the reg and have no old photos of that car but I am fairly sure it made the club magazine the picture was me driving out of the handling course with my mate in the passenger seat with his head out of the roof
 

Nassau65

CCCUK Member
I remember both John and Sandra, and visited them a few times at their house in potters bar. John was quite surprised when I knew exactly what his car was. This was 1987/8 ish from memory. One of my clients was Saudi airlines, and I saw pictures of the cars in Saudi in the Managing Directors office, Along with pictures of his Ferrari 250 GTO. He gave me the history of the cars. I got a few documents ( copies) which I gave to John. Most people back then just thought it was a Vette with funny stripes on it, and as it was his daily driver, it was no show car. Nice to see it all put back to original apart from the side pipes. Can’t see it being 24k tho IMO.
 

FIVE RED

CCCUK Member
That's a great post & even more info on this quite special C3. When I bought the car from Adrian Dromey he said he'd never sold a Corvette with as much history. The car looked a bit tired & the green stripes were the only things left of the Saudia Williams connection, however it was my first Corvette & became my pride & joy for over 4 years.
Re the buckskin interior being changed to black, well that was me. New carpets, dash pad, console, seat belts etc etc, as well as restoring the seats in black, the interior was transformed.
I had no info re the previous engine works, the car ran well but I gave the engine bay a total make over with every polished bit that was available. I replaced the original intake manifold with a lovely Holley job during the top end overhaul that I documented in Vette News - ' Top End Overhaul For The Non Expert'.
I replaced the knackered exhaust with an X pipe & cherry bombs, it certainly sounded good. I also replaced the license plates with a nice pair from States Plates with the words St. Louis Missouri above & below JNH 820T. When I bought the car the words Bye Bye GTI were on the plates, I wasn't impressed so covered the 'offending' words with black tape until the new plates arrived.
The car was indeed orange when it came from the factory, it also had sports mirrors which were unbelievably changed to basic chrome types by a 'specialist' after I sold the car.
On the subject of me selling the car to partially fund my purchase of a C5, this didn't go well. Sadly in the hands of others the car was described as 'only fit for parts'. Hardly believing we were discussing the same car I had no choice but to accept a pitiful sum for it, the car was many miles away so what could I do? I couldn't buy a decent TV with what I got for it.
On a positive note to end this post, I've had the C5 for 13 years now - it's fantastic. Bought from the very honest original owner in Scotland.
 
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