8 replies to this topic

[nicanary]

Competition Cars Ltd were based at The Old Maltings, Nayland, nr. Colchester, and sold sporting cars during the 1950s which were frequently advertised in Motor Sport.

 

Does anyone know the name of the company's owner?  I have a hunch that he was a driver/team owner in club or national racing.

[Vitesse2]

Can't help on the ownership, but according to the London Gazette the company was struck off the register and dissolved in 1959 under section 353(3) of the Companies Act 1948. They're in the phone book from 1949 to 1955, so presumably ceased trading in about 1956.

[nicanary]

Thanks. (You have a large collection of old phone books? )

[Vitesse2]

Thanks. (You have a large collection of old phone books? )

No, but Ancestry does! The BT archive has a scan of every PO and BT phone book up to 1985. By thinking laterally you can use Ancestry's person search to research companies - I looked for someone whose surname was Competition, first name Cars and living in Colchester.

[Richard Jenkins]

One of the advertisements asks for correspondence to be directed to R. Wingfield. Of course, they may not be the owner, but it's a possible line of enquiry to go down?

[nicanary]

One of the advertisements asks for correspondence to be directed to R. Wingfield. Of course, they may not be the owner, but it's a possible line of enquiry to go down?

Many thanks.

[nicanary]

Just to temporarily resurrect this thread, Competition Cars were selling a small sports car, alloy on a tubular chassis, in one of their '50s ads, powered by a rear-mounted 500cc BSA engine, and the ad suggested it might be suitable for competition work. It was called the Meteor. Does anyone remember this car?

[Rogerkb11]

I happened upon this post a few days ago and realised that my brother worked for Competition Cars until 1951 and found the whole experience very entertaining. The owners were Reginald Wingfield (ex Fleet Air Arm) and Garnett Thompson (ex RAF) and they actually built two Meteors, one with a Wade supercharged Ford sv engine and the 500cc version. The Ford model was pretty potent and was sold but the 500 was overbodied and was still languishing in the back of their garage when my brother left to join the RAF in 1951 (where he encountered an officer called Dickie Stoop). So the Meteor did not race, nor did either of the partners although I think that Wingfield raced hydroplanes.

Several cars with a motor sporting connection passed through their hands, including an ex George Eyston Chrysler, an ex Pat Moss Marendaz Special and an Imhoff Allard trials car in addition to the usual Rileys and MGs. These were all "beautified" and sold on. They also built some other specials including one based upon a Healey Elliott chassis with 2.4 Riley engine which was built for Rob Walker. My brother is sure that a picture of this car appeared in 'Classic Car' magazine at some time during the 1970s.

Going back to the 500cc Meteor, he remembers that they based it on an Invacar (Invalid car) chassis from Bert Greeves in Essex and adapted, so it probably was rather flexible.

They did enjoy a 'works outing' to Silverstone, going in a convoy of a Cord saloon, a Cord d/h coupe and an MG saloon, which struggled to keep up with the American cars. Unfortunately, one of the Cords had no reverse so had to be pushed backwards when necessary!

Their panel beating was done by two brothers who were quite accomplished and who also sang operatic duets as they worked, which kept everyone entertained.

Unfortunately, the owners were rather over ambitious in several of their projects and, with the lack of finance at that time, they had to call it a day, like many others during the 1950s.

I know that this has little to do with Motor Racing but thought that it would provide some interest and entertainment during these difficult times. 

 

[RogerFrench]

Certainly interesting, thank you!
The Marendaz was probably ex-Aileen, not Pat Moss.