Sceptre Motor Car Company of Santa Barbara, California, introduced the Sceptre at the Los Angeles Expo in May of 1978 and received the top designer award. The Sceptre was the joint design venture of Thomas W. McBurnie and Ray Kenney (designer of the Clenet). Tom was responsible for design of the interior and Ray was the creator of the classic lines of the exterior.

The unique design of the Sceptre was influenced by the cars of the 1930, namely the Delage, Bugattis, '35 BMW, Alfa Romeo, 500 XK Mercedes, as well as the 50's Jaguar and the closest car of this style is the Talbot-Lago.

The body of the Sceptre is made of fiberglass applied to a tubular steel frame. Only the doors are made of steel (MG Midget). The donor chassis was a Lincoln Mercury and the engine is a powerful 400 V8 engine connected to a three-speed transmission. The Sceptre would go 0-60 in 7.2. The weight of the entire car was slightly over 3,000 pounds. The Sceptre was known for its high reliability factor. It is said that no other car has been built like the Sceptre with the exception of the Ferrari.

Many articles were written on the Sceptre at its introduction including: an article by Dennis Adler which appeared in the March 1979 edition of Car Collector, the 1980 edition of Elite Cars, an article by Ted West in the February 1979 edition of Motor Trend, and an article by Jack Kroll in the February 26, 1979 edition of Newsweek, just to name a few.

The initial price tag was in the mid-$30's but quickly rose to the $50's. The original plan was to produce only 500 cars, each being individually numbers. After only 15 cars, however, the company was forced to dissolve and the molds to the Sceptre were sold to Sky Clausen of Gatsby Coachworks in San Jose, California. Sky changed the name to Griffin, of which we believe that he may have made approximately 50 to 60.

Of the original fifteen cars, we have now located six. Car #1 was originally owned by Elaine and Robert Young and was purchased at $60,000. Mrs. Young later sold the car but would really love to have one again. It was recently reported that this car was for sale at an auction, but no confirmation or details are available at this time.

Car #3 is currently owned by Richard Hughes of Belmont, California.

Car #4 was once owned by Ted Peterson, "The Marlboro Man", and was featured in several movies and television shows. It was later given to Larry Kruljac of Independence, Oregon, as a gift for his friendship. In 2002 Larry sold his car to William Kasoff, owner of a Gatsby Griffin.

Car #7 was recently purchased by Robert Golda in Austria. He purchased it from a gentleman in Hungary, who purchased it from a gentleman in Kuwait, who bought it from someone in the United States. Robert is restoring his Sceptre and would like to sell it.

Car #15 is owned by Bob Londagin of Pleasanton, California and has been completely restored.

Cars #9 and #12 were being stored by Tom McBurnie at Thunder Ranch in California and were both for sale. They did, however, need major restoration and loving care. They were both recently purchased by Zoran Kovach. Zoran has restored both cars and plans to resell one of them.

If you would like facts on the Sceptre you can contact Tom McBurnie at Thunder Ranch or Allen and Ann Smith at JPR Cars, Ltd. in Topping, Virginia.