The woman arrived on time as scheduled. She was there to view a car with the hope that she might buy it.
The current owner went into the garage and started the engine. He started to drive out when the brakes failed.
“You can’t have it now,” he told the prospective buyer.
“I don’t want it now,” she told him.
The owner pushed the car back in and gave the woman a lift back to her home in London.
It turns out that this was a very lovely twist of fate for had the brakes not failed, Roy Potts would not still be in possession of the car that has now become part of the family.
The car is a 1959 NSU Prinz 2 which Roy’s father bought new. He had originally set out to buy a Mini but after being told there was a two-year waiting list, he took the advice of his son and had a look at the NSU.
Seven years later Roy inherited the car after his father bought another NSU, this time a 1200 TT. After running it for a few years in his teens, he decided he needed something better and it was this decision that led him to advertise the car and how a nurse from London almost ended up with it.
“It was fate otherwise I would have sold it,” Roy, who lives near Inverurie, said.
“It’s got very fond memories. I’m not really into rebuilding old cars or anything but this one has really got sentimental value.”
After joining the oil industry in 1971 as a trainee driller with Shell, Roy has taken the car to Holland and now Aberdeenshire, after he was posted there.
It stood unused for 30 years before Roy decided in 2010 to start doing something with it.
“I was always afraid to pull it apart and not getting it back together again because I haven’t done anything like that before,” he said.
“I just whipped the battery out of another car and put it in there and about an hour later fiddling with it, I couldn’t believe it but it started. The engine I have not rebuilt, it is the same engine from 30-odd years ago and it runs fine.”
Since then it has been through a thorough restoration and was completed in March 2013. The marque is a rare sight to find on the roads, which explains why when Roy – who also owns a 1972 NSU 1200 TT – sees another one, he needs to find out more.
“I remember once working in Australia driving up to the north-west shelf there, and all of a sudden we saw this trail of dust going across the road. When we got closer I noticed it was one of these cars and I couldn’t believe it so we had to turn off, get onto this dust track and chase this thing. If I see one, I have to stop and look at it. I’m very attracted to them.
“I’m overwhelmed by them, it was my first car, learning to drive, the shape of it, it looks cute.
“It’s hard to explain what you like about it. It’s not because it is fast or corners well or anything like that. It’s just a lovely little car and it’s part of the family.”
Also taken with the car is Roy’s two daughters – Suzanne and Trudie – who are both named after the car.
“The car is called Trudy,” he said.
“My mother named it Trudy, don’t ask me why. When it arrived home she said that looks like a little Trudy and that stuck.
“My first daughter is called Suzanne Trudy. My second daughter, she’s named Trudie Heather. Both my daughters are named after the car. It sounds a bit fanatical.
“Both my daughters want the car because they know it means so much to me. Suzanne is more into the motoring.
“She’s actually just moved house down in Dunstable and the sole reason for moving was to get a house with a detached double garage to put both the cars in. She’s determined.”
As for the future of the car, Roy hopes it will stay in the Potts family for many more generations to come. But if the line does run out, he hopes it will go to a good home, such as the Grampian Transport Museum in Alford.
In the meantime the car is going nowhere.
“It sounds stupid but it’s a part of the family,” he added.
“People have offered me money for it but I always say this is over my dead body; it will never be sold while I am alive – and I think my daughters will say the same.”
First car: Ford Anglia 107 E van
Dream car: NSU 1200 TT
