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Williams & Pritchard Limited was a small coachbuilding business operating from First Avenue, Edmonton, London N18 which made lightweight sports and racing car bodies as well as runs of cars for small manufacturers fabricated using aluminium or composite construction or moulded fibre-glass.
The business was founded in the late 1940s by Charlie Williams (1915-1969) from Corsica Coachworks and Len Pritchard (1919-2008) whose coachbuilding careers had been diverted by the war to building Spitfire aircraft. They began in Edmonton then worked from Hornsey with an extra workshop in Hammersmith before returning permanently to Edmonton.
The clients of Williams & Pritchard included: Colin Chapman, Lotus, AC (Aceca coupé), Lola, Cooper, Lister-Jaguar, Elva, John Surtees, Costin, Gordon-Keeble, BRM, John Sprinzel, Speedwell. The last coach building client of William's and Pritchard was designer David Gittens McLaren based Ikenga GT prototypes, constructed between 1967 and completed following Charlie Williams death in June 1969. Another project was carried out for the 1970s when the rare OWEN SEDANCA GT, another original sports car that appeared briefly for sale with Jaguar Straightsix 4235cc running gear from a Jaguar XJ6 car with an aluminium bodyshell of which 80 cars were to be made but only a reputed ten were actually made at their W & S LIMITED Edmonton North London workshops.
In the early days of Lotus, Williams & Pritchard employed about two dozen men and put through production runs that took about three weeks to build a car. Williams & Pritchard was to build every Lotus prototype up to and including the Elan. The close relationship with Lotus ended in 1962 after Lotus set up their own body shop.
Moulds for glass fibre bodies were made from bodies first made and finished in aluminium, but the first Lister-Jaguar was made by shaping a chicken wire armature on the actual chassis.
When the original 1961 Gordon-Keeble project was revived in 1964, a new prototype incorporating improvements over the Bertone version was made in alloy in order to build a mould. Production was planned to be at Eastleigh near Southampton. Williams & Pritchard set up their own facility at Eastleigh employing around 20 extra people there, and another at Edmonton. The partners alternated between the sites. Eventually Keeble's revived project fell apart and it became an expensive experience for Williams and Pritchard.
The most acclaimed British entry in the 1969 Italian International Auto Show in Turino, Italy was the Ikenga MK III GT by Charlie Williams of Williams and Pritchard and David Gittens ( http://dwij.org/dwij/auto.htm ).
After the sudden death of Charlie Williams in 1969, the fibre-glass section was closed and the business deliberately shrunk to about half a dozen employees building metal prototypes and occasionally restoring famous postwar racing cars. Williams & Pritchard closed in 1986. The rights to the company name have been the subject of various claims in recent years. In 2010, the name 'Williams & Pritchard Ltd' and the design of the ID plate fixed in period to cars bearing W&P coachwork was registered as a UK Trade Mark. [1]
Williams & Pritchard provided detachable glass fibre hardtops for all contemporary sports cars and replacement front-ends (bonnet and mudguards sections), particularly for Austin-Healey Sprites. They were first launched at the 1961 Racing Car Show.[ citation needed ]
Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built (Prototype) or related to road-going models. Broadly speaking, sports car racing is one of the main types of circuit auto racing, alongside open-wheel single-seater racing, touring car racing and stock car racing. Sports car races are often endurance races that are run over relatively large distances, and there is usually a larger emphasis placed on the reliability and efficiency of the car than in some of the other types of auto racing. The FIA World Endurance Championship is an example of a sports car racing series.
AC Cars, originally incorporated as Auto Carriers Ltd., is a British specialist automobile manufacturer and one of the oldest independent car makers founded in Britain. As a result of bad financial conditions over the years, the company was renamed or liquidated many times until its present form.
Lotus Cars Limited is a British automotive company headquartered in Norfolk, England. It manufactures sports cars and racing cars noted for their light weight and fine handling characteristics.
The Lotus Esprit is a British sports car that was built by Lotus Cars at their Hethel factory in England between 1976 and 2004. It was among the first of designer Giorgetto Giugiaro's polygonal "folded paper" designs.
Zagato is an independent coachbuilding company and total design centre located northwest of Milan in Terrazzano, a small village near Rho, Lombardy, Italy. The company's premises occupy an area of 23,000 square metres - 11,000 of which are covered.
Ginetta Cars Limited is a British specialist builder of racing and sports cars based in Garforth, Leeds, West Yorkshire.
Gordon-Keeble was a British car marque, made first in Slough, then Eastleigh, and finally in Southampton, between 1964 and 1967. The marque's badge was unusual in featuring a tortoise — a pet tortoise walked into the frame of an inaugural photo-shoot, taken in the grounds of the makers. Because of the irony the animal was chosen as the emblem.
Swallow Sidecar Company, Swallow Sidecar and Coachbuilding Company, and Swallow Coachbuilding Company were trading names used by Walmsley & Lyons, partners and joint owners of a British manufacturer of motorcycle sidecars and automobile bodies in Blackpool, Lancashire, before incorporating a company in 1930 to own their business, which they named Swallow Coachbuilding Company Limited.
The Unipower GT is a British specialist sports car that debuted at the January 1966 Racing Car Show. It uses the powertrain from the BMC Mini mounted amidships. Production lasted until the end of 1969.
Ferris de Joux (1935–2009) was a designer, engineer and constructor of sports cars. He was born on 24 August 1935. de Joux was said to have been one of New Zealand's most talented automotive designers. He appeared regularly in motoring magazines such as Motorman and Sports Car World from the 1970s.
Ronart Cars is a British sports car manufacturer and constructor of unique and bespoke sports racing cars. The company was founded in 1984 by Rona and Arthur Wolstenholme, based in Peterborough. The company design and manufacture sports and racing cars for both road legal and track day use with unique designs from open wheel racing cars to modern day sports cars.
The Austin-Healey Sebring Sprite is a small sports car that was produced by the Donald Healey Motor Company at its Cape Works in Warwick, the Healey's Speed Equipment Division in Grosvenor Street, London and subsequently by John Sprinzel Ltd from their well-known premises in Lancaster Mews. A modified version of the production Austin-Healey Sprite, it was recognized by the governing body of motorsport, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, as a separate model in its own right, featuring Girling disc brakes as well as specified engine and chassis improvements. After its homologation (motorsport) on 17 September 1960, FIA regulations permitted the use of 'special bodies' and a small number of Sebring Sprites were subsequently fitted with coupé bodywork in aluminium alloy and glassfibre, the most strikingly attractive examples being those devised by well-known race and rally driver John Sprinzel, who had won the 1959 RAC British Rally Championship. Sprinzel commissioned the coachbuilders Williams & Pritchard, renowned for their racing and prototype work, to produce the bodies. These are usually said to have numbered six, but eight are known to have been made. Further Sprites received similar alloy bodywork from Alec Goldie and Fred Faulkner of the firm Robert Peel Sheet Metal Works. The name 'Sebring Sprite' would become a generic term for any Sprite with disc brakes, and later for any Sprite with coupé or fastback bodywork.
Heron Cars were racing cars, sports and kit cars built in New Zealand between 1962 and 1999 by Ross Baker. They also included a one-off electric car.
The Lotus 15 is a front-engine sports racing car designed by Colin Chapman of Lotus, built from 1958 until 1960.
Corsica Coachworks was a small coachbuilding business founded in 1920 just after World War I. They were builders of true bespoke car bodies employing no in-house designer. They realised clients' designs for them. Almost every Corsica body is unique.
David Brown Automotive is a British manufacturer of limited edition automobiles in Silverstone, England, belonging to British businessman David Brown. The company began in Coventry in 2013 and moved to a new 18,000 sq ft dedicated build facility and headquarters at Silverstone Park in April 2017.
The Lola Mk6 GT was a racing car with a production run of only three units, built between 1962 and 1963 by British car manufacturer Lola Cars. With its 289 cubic inch Ford V8 engine, the Mk6 GT was the first mid-mounted, high displacement V8-powered Grand Touring car, a chassis arrangement that had been used, up until that time, only on formula cars and smaller, more affordable GTs.
New Zealand had a long history of small garages and vehicle enthusiasts modifying and creating sports and sports racing cars. Out of these interests grew the New Zealand kit and replica car industry with the introduction of fibre-glass car bodies in the 1950s.
Abbey Panels Ltd., originally The Abbey Panel & Sheet Metal Co. Ltd., was a Warwickshire-based coachbuilding company founded on Abbey Road, Nuneaton in 1941, initially assembling Supermarine Spitfires for the ongoing war effort. The original partners were Edward Loades, Les Bean, Bill Woodhall and Ernie Wilkinson. As the business grew they expanded to Old Church Road, Coventry before having their main manufacturing plant on the well known Bayton Road Industrial Estate in Exhall. In 1967, Ted Loades listed the business on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and it became known as Loades PLC, with Abbey Panels its main brand, alongside Albany Zinc (castings), Loades Dynamics (machining) and Loades Design . The company specialised in producing handmade prototype car bodies and did so for many notable car companies including: Bristol Cars, Lea Francis, Jaguar Cars, Rover, MG, Healey, Rolls-Royce, Buick, Lincoln, Volvo and BMW amongst others. They fashioned the bodywork of cars such as the Le Mans winning Ford GT40, numerous Jaguars, the original Mark I Land Rover Station Wagon, Jim Clark's Lotus 38 and Stirling Moss's 1957 Pescara Grand Prix winning Vanwall. They also produced many specialist parts for the aerospace industry, particularly for Rolls-Royce plc, such as the Rolls-Royce Pegasus engine duct of the Harrier Jump Jet.
The Ikenga GT is a series of three prototype GT automobile designs that were built in the United Kingdom between 1967 and 1969. The MkI, MkII and MkIII were the three styling iterations.
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