Frozen Assets

Dr Jason Love, a West Country physician, is regarded as one of the world’s experts on the vintage 1930s American Cord automobile. With its long, coffin-nosed bonnet with two stainless steel exhaust pipes protruding on either side, its steeply raked split windscreen, front wheel drive, retractable headlights and integral construction, it is not so much a car as a personal statement. Even so, when the Midland Widows Insurance Company is asked to insure a Cord Roadster discovered in Pakistan for £10 million, it asks Dr Love to fly out and check why the car is worth so much. What appears to be a routine trip becomes a nightmare.