Maximum Mini: Luna Bug discovered... vanishes again

Friday, 15 March 2013

Luna Bug discovered... vanishes again

As promised, here an update on the Luna Bug after yesterday's story about it. To find out more I chased Self Fit limited to no avail. So now it seemed that only luck could lead to more information about the car. And lucky I was. Or actually not me, but Paul Wylde - who has been very helpful before - was. He wrote to me a while ago: "Don't take this as gospel but I had a email a bit back about a guy who stated the Luna Bug never went to the fibreglass stage, claiming the one and only Luna Bug was fabricated out of steel because Barry Stimson threatened them with court actions." However, it lead to nothing.

But then, all of a sudden, Paul was offered a car for sale that definitely looked to be a Luna Bug. The one and only Luna Bug? Perhaps not, as this one was said to wear a different registration number then the car from the advertisement (not 'PBK 705H' but 'PBK 714H'). According to the DVLA database that number belonged to a 'Lunabug' indeed, but is on sorn since 1977. The car also clearly had a fibreglass body, rather then one in steel. The seller told Paul he'd had it for at least 30 years and had lost the number plates as it been moved around a lot in the years. Unfortunately, Paul couldn't pick it up quickly, and when he tried to get in touch later none of his messages were replied to. This all happened some months ago now. Paul doesn't have an idea where the car is now. Could it still be languishing around?