THE race is on to save a rare car that ended up in a Calne motor museum following a fatal accident in Buckinghamshire a decade ago.

The Alvis Speed 20 sports saloon is a favourite at the Atwell Wilson Motor Museum between Calne and Blackland and has impressed enthusiasts for ten years.

But now the widow of its former owner wants to sell the car and hopes the museum will be able to raise the funds to buy it.

Hasel Atwell, who runs the museum with husband Richard, said the car was given on loan to the museum after its owner was killed in a freak accident while mending the brakes of another car.

He was working underneath the car when it toppled off the supporting jacks and crushed him. After his death, his widow, Denise Sissons, from High Wycombe, asked the museum to look after the Alvis Speed 20.

"She wanted us to take the car because her two boys weren't old enough to know if they would want to keep it," said Mrs Atwell.

Now that her sons are older, Mrs Sissons says that the money for the car should be theirs.

"Mrs Sissons very much wants us to keep the car, but we will have to pay £18,500 and the money will go to her boys," said Mrs Atwell.

The trustees of the museum, which opened in 1979, have already raised £10,000 and have until early next year to raise the rest.

Now they are calling on the people of Calne to give them a helping hand by buying raffle tickets and giving themselves the chance of winning £1,000 in the process.

"Mrs Sissons has really brought the price down because of all the work we've done to get it up and running so beautifully," said Mrs Atwell.

"It's the only sports saloon of that type in the collection here and we are very lucky to have it."

Only 375 vehicles of the same model were manufactured and not all of them have survived.

Mrs Atwell said: "It has been here some ten years now and we would be very sad to lose it. All the car clubs around here have been very interested and whenever people come to the museum they fall in love with the Alvis."

Tickets for the fundraising raffle cost £1 each with a first prize of £1,000.

The second prize is a flight in a light aircraft and the third is a meal for two, with the winners being chauffeured to the restaurant in the Alvis itself.

The draw will take place at the town hall on April 7.

To buy a ticket, contact Mr or Mrs Atwell on (01249) 813119.