Scimitars?

I’m not surprised.

It was not E Types for which he was known as much as D Types. Raced under the name of Willie Eckerslyke and ran Longbacon Engineering.

Ah, young Willie! I tried to research all the races he took part in but failed miserably. You might not know that his name was chosen much as was that of Pierre Levegh, who died in the horrible crash at Le Mans in 1955.I researched that for years and concluded that Hawthorn had no part in the crash and that no blame could be felt to be attributable to him. I have a photo of Levegh's body lying on the track as the race went on. Not something to be put on the internet though. His real name was Bouillon. Willie's D-type was sold a year or so back I seem to recall. Willie's car XKD 509, was sold in 2014 for £2.2 million.

nb If you wanted to research his career in greater detail I could ask Eckerslyke Jnr if he has any records, and whether he'd be happy to correspond?

You're welcome to send me a DM with credentials and contact details for him (I'm a long time lurker here and have known and enjoyed your posts for years!).

Internet snip:
"His collection was retained by the family and preserved for many years by his friend and mechanic P**l K***y at a non-descript warehouse in Lancashire. Given the wide variety of cars in the collection, which included everything from vintage French racers through to a Ford GT40, cars would from time to time be loaned to motor museums across the UK. In total, the collection had seven D Type variants in it but it was XKD-509 that had become "Willie's" favourite, so much so that when the collection was sadly broken up and sold on in the late 1980’s "Willie's" son retained ownership of his dads preferred car."

I had my first SE5A back in 1986, it was blue, manual with Overdrive and utterly shagged I bought it from a dealer for quite a bit I seem to recall. I rebuilt the front suspension as the steering was so heavy the steering wheel was breaking! Obviously, something was amiss, it was and I had to hammer the trunnions around with the hubs in a vice, lots of heat and burning (ancient grease). I resprayed it in the domestic garage and won a prize at a classic car show for 'Best paintwork' which amazed me.

But, it took me two attempts to get the paintwork correct and I was so disappointed in my first attempt (and I was afraid I might leave it as it was) that I dragged a flat blade screwdriver right down the side of it so I couldn't leave it alone!

That was a lovely car and went really well, handled a treat and had lots of money thrown at it: stainless tank/exhausts etc. Sold it easily but lost money (naturally) and they were on about 'prices being on the up' even back then! I got less than £2000 for it...

Had various SE6's since and while they are nice, nothing like as sporty as the earlier cars and just as badly made! Mind you, I got one really cheaply as the rear window was broken and the chap couldn't get an SE6 rear screen anywhere. I felt a little bit guilty for not telling him they are the same as the SE5... That was an auto and brown with the thick cream stripe along the side, polished Wolfrace wheels and cream interior. Nice car, cheap as chips.

If prices are finally climbing, then it's about time as they were woefully undervalued for decades!