WSM - News 2019

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23/08/2019 WSM At South Mimms . .

Rectified an omission and met up with the latest WSM owner Scott Murdoch. He kindly motored northwards from his London office to hitch up at what transpired to be the busiest motorway service area in the entire world at that late afternoon moment.

We established his interest in WSM's began with the 1997 Classic & Sportscar article by Jon Pressnell, and was again prompted by the 'Missing Moniker' update by Gordon Bruce in 2012. Contact via email ensured his interest was logged should any WSM become available, hence acquiring Geoff Hill's rapid WSM S2 405 in 2018. At present domiciled in Scotland, the car follows in a distinguished line of wheels owned by Scott.

18/06/2019 Brazilian Beauty In Isle of Man . .

Pictured by Neil Gilmore at the TT Grandstand, a rare beast from the VW garage. In amongst a touring group of classic VW's, the SP has to be one of the best looking VW designs alongside the Karmann Ghia. With only 11,000 built in Brazil between 1972-76 and prone to rust, they're a rare sight on UK shores let alone the IoM. Chronically underpowered, the rear-engined SP looks far outweighed the performance . .

04/04/2019 Woburn 1960's . .

Thanks to the response from Gordon England to the post below in January - 'I was looking for something else altogether and came across your website which is really interesting and informative. In the news section you showed a photo from Colin Scrivener who I guess is a son (grandson ?) of Ken. My father, Clifford England worked with Ken running the SODC meetings at Woburn and elsewhere for the second half of the 60’s and was a director of SODC for some time through to the mid to late 70’s. I think the person on the right of the photo with his back to the camera is Ken Ayres. He was a staunch supporter of SODC and in later years a serious sprint competitor in a variety of single seaters. Next to him and mostly obscured is “Doc” Pinkerton, who happened to be my family doctor for many years until I finally moved out of home. Doc was the commentator at Woburn and had a huge variety of interesting cars through the years. His son Robin was involved in some way with WSM but I can’t for the life of me remember what ? My involvement in those days as a teenager was running the start line at Woburn – something that would not be allowed these days, which is a great shame.   Hope this helps shed a bit of light on the photo . . '

30/03/2019 Equipe At Spa . .

News that Silverstone scrapped MGLive in order to carry out track re-surfacing was a bombshell that pulled the rug from under Equipe's blue ribbon event, but Equipe picked up the shrapnel and organised two races at Spa on 29th/30th June. The Spa Summer Classic is a high profile event, and 30 minutes practice with two 40 minute pit-stop races provides a great opportunity to indulge in one of the world's greatest circuits. WSM's 401, 210 and MGB were last there in 2012 with mixed success, and whichever cars are re-visiting will be treading in WSM's 1960's footsteps - the Esso tiger hitched a ride on the WSM transporter in 1964 and to this day travels with the cars.

07/03/2019 New Home For WSM 403 S2 . .

The award-winning Sanction 2 WSM built for Bill Emerson is now with Michael Glore of Mississippi and joins an eclectic mix of two and four wheeled machinery including Alfa Romeo, Fiat 850, Innocenti, Honda and Bimota. Michael used to race a Lotus 1V and has a very British flavour to his collection - TR6, MGB, Mini Moke, Lotus Elan, Elise and Esprit amongst others. Currently in pride of place alongside a McLaren MP4-12C, 403 remains the only known WSM in the USA after four cars were exported from England in the 1960's.

05/12/2018 WSM 405 goes to WSM . .

The instigator of the fastest WSM to date, Geoff Hill has parted with WSM 405. The K series-engined car ordered in 2011 and the first of the Spridgets equipped with anything but the ubiquitous A series, is now in the hands of William Scott Murdoch.

05/08/2018 Jim McManus . .

The 'M' in WSM passed away on Sunday peacefully with family. Jim joined Douglas in 1963 when they opened the Healey Centre in Swiss Cottage, and the expansion of the Leighton Buzzard-based business heralded a busy time for the duo. Within a couple of years they outgrew the London site and relocated all WSM construction back to Bedfordshire. A popular figure at Rockingham in 2001 and subsequent WSM re-unions and gatherings with wife Peggy, he will be missed. The funeral takes place at 2.30pm on Friday 17th August at St Nicholas Church, Cranleigh, Surrey.

27/01/2018 Cairns Calling . .

The power of the internet ! A previous owner of WSM 205 got in touch from Australia, having left Kent in the early 1970's for Cairns. He recently unearthed pictures of 205 which prompted a trawl on the net for the car he owned between 1967-69. Stephen Porter competed in hill climbs and sprints, and had a Twin Cam MGA at the same time. He lived in Goudhurst, which happens to be a mile or two from the school AW-S attended at the same time . .

05/01/2018 Woburn Winner . .

Courtesy of Colin Scrivener, a picture from circa 1965 at Woburn Park. DW-S receives a pot from the WD & HO Wills representative who was presenting awards at the Inter-Club Hill climb that the SODC organised. Neither of us can ID anyone else from the picture, taken by a Leighton Buzzard Observer broadsheet photographer . .

01/01/2018 WSM 202 & Happy New Year . .

Happy New Year all. WSM 202 has gone to a new home in Switzerland with Peter Kappeler. The car joins the 1947 Fiat 1100s MM which Peter drove with Renato Sutter on the California Mille in 2017 . .