My Personal Holy Grail of Shite

[rocco1504]

Why, Oh Why am I always so skint ?

 

I say that because i've seen this

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1968-FORD-CORTINA-1600GT-2DR-MK2_W0QQitemZ200436312719QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAutomobiles_UK?hash=item2eaaef6a8f

 

Now to a lot of you, it's probably just another Scabby, Overpriced MK2 'Tina, but to me it could be the start of the Quest for my own personal Holy Grail of Shite, I.E. a recreation of the Willment MK2 GT Sprint that my dad owned when I was but a Sprog, the car that hailed the onset of probably the most vivid memories of my life.

 

See, dad worked in advertising in the 60's, for Wiggins Teape, and one of his accounts was Willments, a small chain of garages owned and run by John Willment who had been running cars in Saloon Cars since the mid 50's, and one of dad's Perks was to be given a MK2 Sprint that was basically race tuned but road legal, and dad, being dad, "Tested" it to the max.

Anyway to try to cut a long story short, me and my brother were taken all over England to watch the motor racing of the early 70's, all the circuits, and behind the scenes paddock and pits places that only the privileged normally got to see.

The days were usually rounded off by by a party in a huge marquee, where all the Driver's and the press were "Wined and Dined" to put it mildly by the sponsors, we were on first name terms with most of the big names of the day, Gerry Marshall, Frank Gardener, Brian Muir, and for anyone who's seen this,

 

 

Will see why it was the best of times for a young kid.

 

Apologies to give you my life story, but I havn't worked for a couple of years, because my lungs are fairly knackered, and I care for my Autistic son, so money's always tight these days, but every time one of these comes up I stick it on my watch list and hope for a miracle, but one day it will happen.

 

P.S. If anyone knows of, or if, any of the Willment Cortina's are still surviving, would they kindly let me know, as I can't find anything, not even from Willment's themselves, Thank You

[warren t claim]

Great story! Fingers crossed!

[Rusty Pelican]

Great story , Are Wiggins Teape still going , I worked for a paper merchants for years and dealt with the stuff constantly , If that is the same company of course

[FredTransit]

Have you tried www.buysellcortina.co.uk? Somebody on there might be able to help.

[Spiny Norman]

Sadly if you check the link again, it looks like it was a scam. Hope you find a good one some day.

[rocco1504]

Sadly if you check the link again, it looks like it was a scam. Hope you find a good one some day.

Blimey, hows that happened ?, and sorry for sounding like a complete Dork, but why would anyone want to do that on someone else's account ?, I just don't see the financial gain.Rusty Pelican...... I don't know wether Wiggins are still going, but I know my father was heavily involved in the "Discovery" of Carbonless copying paper, you might remember the stuff that you didn't have to use bits of carbon paper, really old hat these days, but in the 60's it was a major development, plus they also Sponsored the Wiggins Teape Paperchase Saloon car series in '72. But back to the subject, the youtube link above, at Crystal Palace, I was actually at that race, and the Mustang in the film ended up nose first in the lake in front of the Concert bowl, in the next heat.As for the Willment cars, i've spoken to someone at the company, who now build luxury boats, but it almost seems that the racing days are completely forgotten.If anyone's interested in some pictures of the race cars back then, this website has some great stuff.http://www.mikehaywardcollection.co.uk/Just go to the gallery

[Rusty Pelican]

Rocco , I remember the carbonless well , 2 , 3 and 4 part in various colours , sold shit loads " back in the day " , hope your quest brings rewards .

[fotorabia]

My uncle used to work for Wiggins Teape..hes well into his cars..kept his ex-company 2.8S Capri..now retired with a new Porsche..i could ask him what he knows..ill cut n paste your enquiry and forward it to him..

[rocco1504]

Rusty Pelican..........Yeah that's the stuff, I remember dad coming home like he'd just won the lottery when they cracked it, and it did sell well.fotorabia.......... That would be great he might have even known the "Old Man", he worked in the Croydon offices, and my dad had a Company MK1 Capri yellow with a vinyl roof, it was shortly after that, that he got the Cortina.Keep me up dated anything would be greatly appreciated, and thanks guys, I had wondered if anyone would be interested.

[Gompo]

Nice story.. I'd never even heard of Willment Cars. Seemed they had quite a few decent drivers!

 

http://www.willmentcars.com/willment_drivers.html

 

Siffert/Redman

Rodriguez/Kinnuen

Derek Bell

Mike Hailwood

H Ganley

V Schuppan

J Watson

L Bianchi

J Ickx

J Oliver

B Muir

P hawkins

D Hobbs

Graham Hill

Jack Sears

Bob Olthoff

[fotorabia]

reply from my uncle:Hi Rab, Carbonless paper was originally known as NCR paper, invented by National Cash Register, and then called no-carbon-required (who would want to be an acronym creator?). WT acquired the patents sometime in the early 60's and spent a lot of R&D developing and marketing the product mainly in Europe. The motor racing bit was mostly the brainchild of the chap who was then the Sales and Marketing Director, and apart from sponsoring the championship also ran a Camaro and then a Capri ( "The Papermakers Pacemaker", with Brian Muir the main driver). The post-race parties were indeed legendary, big marquee, lots of food and drink and a small organisational blip! At each race meeting guests were given a badge to get entry to the hospitality, and their tickets for seats in the grandstand. The problem was that the badges for the marquee were the same for every race meeting, so people cottoned on and kept the badges for later meetings, even if they were not official guests at that event. What finally brought matters to a bit of a head was the British GP meeting at Brands Hatch. The WT car screamed into view at the end of the first lap in the lead, and promptly blew up, coasting to a halt near the start/finish line, more or less in front of the assembled guests! This was followed later by an enormous scrummage in the hospitality marquee where it seemed like half of the crowd had entry badges......... questions were asked and eventually that was the last season of motor racing. WT had branded the product "Idem" and had a small foray into rallying where they sponsored us in our Escort. Wiggins Teape was acquired in around 1991 by Arjomari, a French company, and now is part of Sequana Capital, also French. The carbonless papers division has been bought out by its management, and the old WT Paper merchants business is now part of Antalis, also owned by Sequana. I think the name ArjoWiggins still is used for some papermaking activities, but as for Wiggins Teape (who were the two gentlemen who founded the company in 1761) I cannot be sure. I have a feeling the pension scheme is still called Wiggins Teape, which I hope will still provide me with some benefits in the years to come! Maybe there is a small demand for a new site called Papershite? Best, George