Another mystery car
Discussion
dandarez said:
Whenever I see that abbreviation I think of Wood & Pickett.
Anyway, might help might not, if someone has access to this feature: written by author Mike Lawrence, entitled The Coachbuilders Williams & Pritchard, was in March 1989 Classic and Sportscar magazine, pages 82-88 and includes an interview with Len Pritchard.
My masses of motoring mags are not in any order (at all!) and I can't locate it at the moment, but will try when I have a week spare! LOL.
Personally, I don't think there is any connection with Williams & Pritchard with the mystery car.
Now I've said that...
I've got that magazine and just read the article. No leads I saw. Talk of how he made a whole bunch of one offs and prototypes, that's it.Anyway, might help might not, if someone has access to this feature: written by author Mike Lawrence, entitled The Coachbuilders Williams & Pritchard, was in March 1989 Classic and Sportscar magazine, pages 82-88 and includes an interview with Len Pritchard.
My masses of motoring mags are not in any order (at all!) and I can't locate it at the moment, but will try when I have a week spare! LOL.
Personally, I don't think there is any connection with Williams & Pritchard with the mystery car.
Now I've said that...
uk66fastback said:
It's a great shame that the website giving the history of W&P is permanently down. Did anyone ever try and make contact with the guy who ran it?
Works fine on web archive:https://web.archive.org/web/20101226225310/http://...
There are earlier and later versions of the site on there but that seems to be the most complete.
Dr G said:
uk66fastback said:
It's a great shame that the website giving the history of W&P is permanently down. Did anyone ever try and make contact with the guy who ran it?
Works fine on web archive:https://web.archive.org/web/20101226225310/http://...
There are earlier and later versions of the site on there but that seems to be the most complete.
Lots of speculations on my part:
Could the body be from a John Offord of Crowthorne (close to Reading)?
Why do I think that? Well John offord is said to have made the aluminium bodies for the two Buckler BB100 cars in the period 1958 to 1960.
The last BB100 looked like this:
And there is something about the nose and the wings and how they interact with each other on that car that reminds me of the Arnott Le Mans coupe that I have mentioned ad nauseum.
It could of course just be a coincidence. But one thing that others have commented on is that is weird how Arnott went from just building weirdly shaped open fiberglass bodies to be able to produce a quite professional looking aluminium coupe body (a craft others had needed years of study to be able to do), so it does seems plausible that they commissioned someone else to construct the body even if this part of the history is not known today.
I am personally still convinced that the mystery car is in some way related to the Arnott coupe as I've seen so many more specials of various kinds since I started writing in this thread, yet I have not seen a single car that share the unique features of the roof and the door mechanism that I have mentioned in the past. So I think that whoever made and/or designed the body for the Arnott coupe likely did so on the mystery car too.
I also think it is unlike that a person like John Offord, with the capabilities to produce two aluminium from scratch, just sat idle before Derek Buckler of Buckler cars contacted him. I assume that John Offord likely ran a company offering aluminium bodyworks for prototype and special use and probably have bodied a dozen of different cars, as you need some momentum to keep a company running.
But the only information I've found concerning John Offord is on the page dedicated to the Buckler cars. Everything else is just speculation.
Could the body be from a John Offord of Crowthorne (close to Reading)?
Why do I think that? Well John offord is said to have made the aluminium bodies for the two Buckler BB100 cars in the period 1958 to 1960.
The last BB100 looked like this:
And there is something about the nose and the wings and how they interact with each other on that car that reminds me of the Arnott Le Mans coupe that I have mentioned ad nauseum.
It could of course just be a coincidence. But one thing that others have commented on is that is weird how Arnott went from just building weirdly shaped open fiberglass bodies to be able to produce a quite professional looking aluminium coupe body (a craft others had needed years of study to be able to do), so it does seems plausible that they commissioned someone else to construct the body even if this part of the history is not known today.
I am personally still convinced that the mystery car is in some way related to the Arnott coupe as I've seen so many more specials of various kinds since I started writing in this thread, yet I have not seen a single car that share the unique features of the roof and the door mechanism that I have mentioned in the past. So I think that whoever made and/or designed the body for the Arnott coupe likely did so on the mystery car too.
I also think it is unlike that a person like John Offord, with the capabilities to produce two aluminium from scratch, just sat idle before Derek Buckler of Buckler cars contacted him. I assume that John Offord likely ran a company offering aluminium bodyworks for prototype and special use and probably have bodied a dozen of different cars, as you need some momentum to keep a company running.
But the only information I've found concerning John Offord is on the page dedicated to the Buckler cars. Everything else is just speculation.
Edited by galro on Wednesday 23 November 19:28
galro said:
I personally are still convinced that the mystery car is in some way related to the Arnott coupe as I've seen so many more specials of various kinds since I started writing in this thread, yet I have not seen a single car that share the unique features of the roof and the door mechanism that I have mentioned in the past. So I think that whoever made and/or designed the body for the Arnott coupe likely did so on the mystery car too.
That no one knows who made the arnott coupe body either just adds to the mystery
I've found some more information about John Offord. He apparently ran a small company from the same premises as Buckler cars and he made the bodies for a few more of their cars. He had a short-lived partnership with a Mr Dawes, which is when this picture was taken.
I spoke through Facebook with a person that had visited John back in 2000. He had borrowed pictures of the Buckler cars bodied by Offord (which is where the picture above is from) as that was his primarily interest, but he sad that John also had pictures of other things from him. Although the majority of this was apparently just fairings and petrol tanks for motorcycles, he said that he would see if he could get in touch with his son to get hold of the pictures.
It probably is not the builder of the body on the mystery car (or/and the Arnott), but I think it is rather exciting to find more information about a forgotten coachbuilder regardless.
I spoke through Facebook with a person that had visited John back in 2000. He had borrowed pictures of the Buckler cars bodied by Offord (which is where the picture above is from) as that was his primarily interest, but he sad that John also had pictures of other things from him. Although the majority of this was apparently just fairings and petrol tanks for motorcycles, he said that he would see if he could get in touch with his son to get hold of the pictures.
It probably is not the builder of the body on the mystery car (or/and the Arnott), but I think it is rather exciting to find more information about a forgotten coachbuilder regardless.
threespires said:
It's a bit like a Falcon at the front. It seems to have gull wing doors.
Those front overriders are doing my head in!I am now convinced they are Triumph as there is such a variety of them on front and rear of a number of Triumph cars, varying in height, curvature, cut-outs etc.
A new year and new possibilities.
Let me propose yet another possible constructor of this car: How about Maurice Gomm? He made a body on a Jowett Jupiter around the same time that have very similar fins with the same upwards tip towards the rear. He was also responsible for the aluminum bodies on a number of '50s race cars (for AC, Tojeiro, Lola among others) so he seems like a reasonable candidate for being behind the body on the much talked about Arnott too.
Let me propose yet another possible constructor of this car: How about Maurice Gomm? He made a body on a Jowett Jupiter around the same time that have very similar fins with the same upwards tip towards the rear. He was also responsible for the aluminum bodies on a number of '50s race cars (for AC, Tojeiro, Lola among others) so he seems like a reasonable candidate for being behind the body on the much talked about Arnott too.
uk66fastback said:
Good work galro. What would that be on the old pic of that car in the middle of the roof at the front? Not a roof-mounted aerial surely? That rear 3/4 is a decent match ...
It is, but I suspect it is a later addition. 
Jowett Jupiter by Faded Image, on FlickrThis thread has been annoying me again lately.
This little fella is almost certainly unrelated but you can see commonalities in some design ideas. Reverse rake lights, door, wheels...
https://www.allcarindex.com/blog/STORIES-Klmn-Szab...
This little fella is almost certainly unrelated but you can see commonalities in some design ideas. Reverse rake lights, door, wheels...
https://www.allcarindex.com/blog/STORIES-Klmn-Szab...
Dr G said:
This thread has been annoying me again lately.
This little fella is almost certainly unrelated but you can see commonalities in some design ideas. Reverse rake lights, door, wheels...
https://www.allcarindex.com/blog/STORIES-Klmn-Szab...
That's an interesting machine............This little fella is almost certainly unrelated but you can see commonalities in some design ideas. Reverse rake lights, door, wheels...
https://www.allcarindex.com/blog/STORIES-Klmn-Szab...
Nothing to do with the original Mystery Car but following on from the special bodied Jowett Jupiter shown above here is another one-off on a Jupiter chassis.
Jowett Jupiter - 1953 Monte Carlo Rally.
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