Discussion
A friend of mine sent me this account of his early days building a Special , which we thought might be of interest on here, and im as intrigued as he is, to know if it's likely that his car had a little TVR DNA.. ?
"Way back sometime in 1955 and when i was 17 , i decided i would have to build my own sports car if i wanted one - a Ford Special perhaps.
I couldn`t afford a Lotus 7 or "Rochdale" or "Ashley" kit cars.
After looking in various magazines and pricing "bits", i stumbled across an advert in "The Lancashire Daily Post" for an abandoned car project in Blackpool, due to the owner emigrating.
I think the seller was a Mr Patterson or Patten? and he had amassed this load of Ford Pop bits along with a brand new Ford chassis, etc, so i went along to see him.
He told me that if i was interested, he could organise the supply of a second hand fibreglass body, that had been used on some other project, and that it would be "cheap" but would need work to fit the Ford chassis.
I bought the project and brought it home to Preston, where i began assembling it, incorporating various Morris bits, seeing that i was an apprentice mechanic at Loxhams Morriservices (Prestons` Morris, Wolseley, Riley & MG Dealership).
We are not as skilled as we think we are aged 17 or 18, but i somehow got it built and was on the road two years later.
The photo`s show :-
A couple of the newly completed "Special" on the banks of the river Ribble at Preston.
The car during build.
One of me sat in the car, in the driveway of our house.
Note the reconstructed "nose" on the RGS shell , with the wider air intake prior to fitting a new type of "crossflow" rad` - to help with the usual overheating problems !!
Sometime later a chap told me that the fibreglass body i was using was an RGS Atlanta shell supplied by a chap called Dick Shattock, based somewhere in the Midlands.
Also, that there was a bloke in Blackpool who had a car with exactly the same bodyshell, and that he was using it to clothe some experimental multi-tubular chassis that he was building ??
Apparently these chassis were being designed to accept all Austin A40 bits !!
I often wonder if this Blackpool chap could have been Trevor Wilkinson before he started TVR .
I never thought about it at the time, but it is more than likely that the body shell i bought all those years ago was one that Trevor had "hacked" around for some of his projects.
Thinking about it now, it`s unlikely that anybody else in the Blackpool / Fylde region , would have a "used" RGS fiberglass body for sale him.
Fiberglass was still in its` infancy in 1955 and was only being used for lampshades and machine guards, etc, as i found out when i needed resin & mat !"
"Way back sometime in 1955 and when i was 17 , i decided i would have to build my own sports car if i wanted one - a Ford Special perhaps.
I couldn`t afford a Lotus 7 or "Rochdale" or "Ashley" kit cars.
After looking in various magazines and pricing "bits", i stumbled across an advert in "The Lancashire Daily Post" for an abandoned car project in Blackpool, due to the owner emigrating.
I think the seller was a Mr Patterson or Patten? and he had amassed this load of Ford Pop bits along with a brand new Ford chassis, etc, so i went along to see him.
He told me that if i was interested, he could organise the supply of a second hand fibreglass body, that had been used on some other project, and that it would be "cheap" but would need work to fit the Ford chassis.
I bought the project and brought it home to Preston, where i began assembling it, incorporating various Morris bits, seeing that i was an apprentice mechanic at Loxhams Morriservices (Prestons` Morris, Wolseley, Riley & MG Dealership).
We are not as skilled as we think we are aged 17 or 18, but i somehow got it built and was on the road two years later.
The photo`s show :-
A couple of the newly completed "Special" on the banks of the river Ribble at Preston.
The car during build.
One of me sat in the car, in the driveway of our house.
Note the reconstructed "nose" on the RGS shell , with the wider air intake prior to fitting a new type of "crossflow" rad` - to help with the usual overheating problems !!
Sometime later a chap told me that the fibreglass body i was using was an RGS Atlanta shell supplied by a chap called Dick Shattock, based somewhere in the Midlands.
Also, that there was a bloke in Blackpool who had a car with exactly the same bodyshell, and that he was using it to clothe some experimental multi-tubular chassis that he was building ??
Apparently these chassis were being designed to accept all Austin A40 bits !!
I often wonder if this Blackpool chap could have been Trevor Wilkinson before he started TVR .
I never thought about it at the time, but it is more than likely that the body shell i bought all those years ago was one that Trevor had "hacked" around for some of his projects.
Thinking about it now, it`s unlikely that anybody else in the Blackpool / Fylde region , would have a "used" RGS fiberglass body for sale him.
Fiberglass was still in its` infancy in 1955 and was only being used for lampshades and machine guards, etc, as i found out when i needed resin & mat !"
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