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This article featured in the club newsletter in
March 2010

From Across the Pond!
by
Eugene Abbondello

My interest in Charleville & the Charleville Motor Club:

Though I live in the USA, I have several connections with the Charleville area:  My deceased mother, Mary Bridget Walsh was born in Dromina.  Though all my aunts and uncles are deceased, I still have cousins living in the Charleville and Kanturk area. I have visited several times in the past whilst a one-year post-grad. student at UCD.  I'm hoping to bring over to Ireland one of my classic cars (probably the '35 Singer LeMans) most likely in 2010 or 2011 in order to tour and attend some classic car events in Ireland and the UK. Perhaps at that time I could also meet local club members and perhaps attend a local meeting or event while visiting relatives in the area.  Meanwhile, I hope to visit your website freguently.

History of my sports car collection:

I came upon Singers in a rather haphazard fashion.  I was attending University College Cardiff in 1969-70 as a visiting undergraduate from the USA and saw a Singer Roadster for sale in the Student Union parking lot. I'd always had an interest in British sports cars, but this marque was new to me and I liked the car immediately. while I could come up with the asking price of 100 pounds (barely!) for the car, I couldn't also afford to ship it back home to the US--or at least the car could get home but I wouldn't! Thus I pursued the car no further, but determined that someday I would find another. Years went by, and graduate school, jobs, family, and so on conspired to keep me from finding and purchasing a Singer, but I did eventually find my current 1949 Singer Roadster through a want ad I placed in Hemmings old car magazine (no internet in those days). A reply came from a seller in Upstate New York, a deal was struck, and I was now the owner of my first Singer.  It took me about 10 years to restore the Singer as a driver (not a show car) as work was slow at first, parts being a problem, but work advanced considerable with the advent of the Internet and the possibility of being able to connect with the Singer clubs in the US and UK.  I have restored the chassis myself, but left the engine and transmission to a good friend of mine to rebuild, and had a professional shop restore the interior seats and carpet.  I've always wanted to try coach enamelling, and so painted the body myself (looks ok from 10 feet away!)
    Two years ago through a Canadian friend of mine I got word of a pre-war Singer LeMans Sports 4-seater that might be for sale in British Columbia. My friend, an expert on pre-war Singers, looked at the car for me and pronounced it in good condition, just suffering from lack of use.  A price was agreed and I found myself the owner of my first pre-war sports car.  My LeMans is very much a work in progress, and I'm currently working on the brakes, suspension, and electrics.  It is by far my favorite car and a joy to own--but getting used to that non-synchronized gearbox is a steep learning curve!
    Keeping up with the haphazardness of my collecting, I purchased the 1953 Sunbeam Talbot Alpine project car completely by chance.  About 4 years ago, I accompanied 2 friends of mine on an expedition to look at an Alpine for sale that one of my friends was interested in purchasing as a parts car for his own restoration project. The car turned out to be in much better overall shape than first imagined, and my friend didn't want to buy it and break it up for spares, so, acting a bit impulsively and egged on by my two friends, I acquired my 3rd car.  This S-T Alpine is very much a project car, requiring a complete restoration, which will start sometime after my retirement.

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