Keeping it in the family

I REALLY ENJOYED your Gone But Not Forgotten page in Octane 237 on Billy Cotton’s racing career and life as a bandleader and TV show host. Billy was my grandad’s brother, so he was my great uncle

In the 1960s at Christmastime my grandad used to take me up to Piccadilly, where Billy lived I wanted to ask him about the racing cars, because I had inherited a love of all things to do with motor racing, but they just wanted to catch up on life!

Watching Jack Sears in a Mk2 Jag on BBC TV’s Grandstand in the late 1950s is what started my passion for motorsport. This

LETTER OF THE MONTH WINS A MOUNTNEY STEERING WHEEL UP TO THE VALUE OF £300

The writer of Octane’sLetter of the Month can select from a range of Mountney Classic steering wheels obsession with racing and cars led to my first job with John Sprinzel Racing in Lancaster Mews Sadly, it did not work out so I then pursued my other love, which was drawing and painting, and became a signwriter for a company in Wembley We hand-painted all the billboards for the Wembley Empire Pool, which is now Wembley Arena

Like most enthusiasts, I had to get through marriage, mortgages, children and so on before I could afford to enjoy my passion for classic cars. I also had an unhealthy love of Alfa Romeos and for 15 years built and ran a replica 105 GTA Coupé, with an

Ian Ellis motor [above left]. Then I had a 1984 3.0-litre GTV6 [above], and now a 1976 Alfa Giulia saloon with Twin Spark engine – great fun and one of the best-looking cars from that era More modern Alfas have included a 146, 159Ti and 147 Collezione, and I currently run a 2018 Giulietta [top right]. It would seem that Billy’s genes have been passed on to some of us in the Cotton fold! Of course, one of his sons became Sir Bill Cotton, the head of BBC TV –and my own daughter has had a successful career in radio and TV since the late 1990s

Michael Cotton, Hampshire

Mountney Classic is part of the Mountney Group, which is based in Banbury and has been established nearly 50 years It encompasses a host of brands and covers, not just modern and classic steering wheels and bosses, but also a wealth of other high-quality interior and exterior accessories, such as gearknobs, mirrors, horn pushes, fuel fillers and much more To find out more, visit www mountneyclassic co uk or call +44 (0)1295 270770

Thanks for the memories

Thank you, Jay Leno, for your column on climbing Mount Washington in a Stanley Steamer in Octane 235. I took my favourite lady there for our honeymoon 55 years ago and, since Jay’s column is what I always read first when a new Octane arrives, this one really hit me hard – because my lady recently passed away

On the day we took delivery of a Mustang convertible in 2016, I and my favourite lady took off down the coast. We took in seafood at Annapolis, cars at Amelia Island, friends at Palm Beach, more seafood at Pensacola and Galveston, then stormed the Alamo and Route 66, before driving on to Palm Springs

After that we visited more car shows, yachties in San Diego who showed us how to back a schooner into a slip under sail, listened to coffee-house jazz at Fort Bragg, had a long rest on the Oregon beaches, and ate great steaks in Ogallala (cattle railhead of the West) before driving back home to Canada.

That lady helped me fill every bucket on my list. Now I have another: the Mustang will go up Mount Washington this summer, with my favourite lady’s hat on the co-pilot’s seat. Thanks, Jay.

Don Fitzsimons, Ontario, Canada

Good-luck charm

Back in 1965, on a first date with a nice young lady, I took her to a movie starring Audrey Hepburn in which Audrey drove a small Autobianchi convertible. I promised my date that one day I would give her a car like that.

Since a scale model of the Autobianchi was not available, I thought that a model of the 1500 Spyder would do – like the ‘classic model’ featured in your Models page in issue 234. Today, 57 years later, my wife still carries this model [above] in her purse.

She became a stewardess and the model has therefore travelled all over the world and brought good luck! While it is now very patinated, we hope that after 50 years of marriage it will still be bringing us good luck for many more years to come.

Hans Krijtenberg, The

Netherlands

Glutton for punishment?

Since you featured my 1952 VW Transporter restoration back in Octane 179, believed to be the oldest surviving RHD ‘barndoor’ VW [pictured above, as found in a Swedish forest], I thought you might be interested to hear of my new panel van project.

A Belgian enthusiast recently posted a brief ad online and, recognising a particularly early VW, I managed to secure a deal through the use of Google Translate alongside some very rusty schoolboy French. Three excruciatingly excitable weeks later, I travelled to Belgium to collect it. He’d subsequently received better offers but, as he put it, ‘I had promised you. ’ What a gentleman!

The panel van itself was built at the start of September 1950, just six months into production, and it’s currently the eighth oldest surviving example, and the second oldest that’s not owned by Volkswagen or in a museum.

It’s a real wreck but, importantly for a model that was being altered and updated weekly during this first period of production, much more of it was waiting for me than the photos suggested [below] and actually only the engine and front panel were missing The rest of the body, the dash and running gear is mostly present and repairable

The project is now in the workshop of good friend Mark Spicer, who runs Type 29 Ltd in Gloucestershire and specialises in the restoration of early German air-cooled machinery After the kicking that the pandemic has given car shows and enthusiasts alike, I’m so excited with my new find and feel like a 17-year-old with my first Beetle all over again Funny what old cars do to us, eh?

Ben Laughton, Dorset

of my favourites overall (I have not yet been to Goodwood, which is on my ‘to do’ list).

By arriving on Saturday, however, Mark missed an interesting part of it. Each year, on the Thursday before the event, the Belgian classic car federation (BEHVA) offers club members, for the equivalent of a few pounds, the chance of doing a three-lap tour in their own cars As this is held behind a pace car and at a moderate speed, it can sometimes be a little frustrating but, of course, there’s always the chance it will be wet…

It’s maybe not that exciting to watch but it’s very popular with participants

Marc Collard, Luxembourg supply of hot soup and coffee –it was winter!

Back at Kingswood, the twin-cam came out, a BDA was installed, and I moulded the panels from the hacked-about Europa pattern car, adding pop-up headlights, rear flying buttresses and a new interior The Telegraph Magazine invited us to put the finished GS Europa, in Lamborghini metallic light green, on its stand at the Earls Court Motor Show, and Colin Chapman asked if it could go on the Lotus stand if the prototype Esprit wasn’t completed in time in Italy

Frantic work saw a new interior, using a tweed for the seat centres and door panels from one of William’s contacts, while I made a new dash from black Perspex with cut-outs for the instruments and switches and then a clear Perspex panel over the top.

A wedgier Europa

Regarding your feature in Octane 234 on designer William Towns, William was a friend of a friend of mine back in the early ’60s, when I was working with a former coachbuilder in a mews just off Holland Park Road I asked William to help with some ideas for an Austin-Healey Sprite we had in, and he came up with what must have been his first independent styling exercise.

On press day ‘ACBC’ came over from the Lotus stand to look at the car, which I am glad to say he approved of, and shortly afterwards he re-appeared with Hazel to show her the new interior. I think we ended up building about 30 cars [pictured below is an example offered by H&H Auctions in 2016].

Chapman offered me a job at Lotus but I decided to set up on my own in Norwich, making various Lotus and TVR panels, and, later, prototypes and tooling for TVR and Volkswagen and eventually many more manufacturers.

Spa break extra

I have just read Mark Dixon’s piece in Octane Cars, issue 236, entitled ‘A relaxing Spa break’, which did indeed seem nice and relaxing. The Elans perform so well on that track!

As I was born in Spa and still live within ‘classic’ driving distance of it, I am used to attending the Six Hours weekend [above right]. It is my favourite event at Spa and probably one

For financial reasons, that car never quite got finished but William and I kept in touch and, when I set up Rawlson with Barrie Sheppard to build our Rawlson race cars and GRP panels for Dealer Team Vauxhall, I had the idea that we should do a special-bodied Lotus Europa. I left Barrie to go and see if I could get hold of a Europa from the Lotus Centre in Kingswood, Bristol, which William could style, and then I trundled up to Moreton-in-Marsh in the Europa to see William at his house.

William oversaw the styling, and his pattern-maker and I set to work in the Towns’ barn while his wife Lizzie provided an ample

Mike Rawlings, Stirling, Scotland

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