These Gipsys were sold by the Home office in 1997. 
(Courtesy James Dunsdon)

About these home office Gipsys, the Gipsy register had known for some time about these vehicles, the home office had bought several hundred gipsys, fire engines, land rovers and other similar vehicles in the sixties, in case of a national disaster such as nuclear holocaust. They kept these vehicles amid much secrecy in blast proof bunkers (in the early years at least), they were kept ready for instant use, so were just checked over occasionally, just waiting for the doors to swing open and to swarm out to deal with the fall out of a nuclear blast. But, of course, they were never needed. By the early nineties it seemed that the Gipsys had been forgotten, still in their sealed environment storage, they were slowly gathering dust. The Austin Gipsy register however kept up the pressure for them to be released, and eventually someone within the vast corridors made the decision for the Gipsys to go. There were 97 in the auction yard, and what a day it was! seeing the pictures and thinking about it again I am reminded of the atmosphere-surrounded by 30 year old vehicles, silent, every direction, all in new condition and all at one time expected to be used in time of nuclear world war. It certainly was a weird feeling. As it was such a unique sale, nobody knew how much the vehicles would make. Estimates ranged from #10,000 each to a few hundred pounds for a batch (sounded good to me!) in the end however they went for about #3,500 each, not much when you think about it. Didn’t get one though, they were just a couple of hundred pounds over what we had intended, we have bitterly regretted it ever since, the last ever chance to buy a new Gipsy. so… thats the story of the sale of the century! James Dunsdon