13 replies to this topic

[BRG]

Living in an, if not THE, epicentre of motor racing – the NE Surrey and SW London area (think Brooklands, Cooper, Connaught, Tyrrell, Brabham, McLaren etc etc), my most local motor racing connection is HWM in Walton on Thames. This company is now an Audi and Aston Martin dealer, but has latterly (since they dropped or moved their VW franchise) has displayed a HWM single-seater in the showroom.

It is described on a sign in the cockpit as a ‘1951 GP Car’. The only HWM raced in WC events in 1951 seems to have been by George Abecassis in the Swiss GP. But of course there were many other non WC events that year – Goodwood, Bordeaux, San Remo,Albi, Zaandvoort- where Moss, Macklin, Chiron & Heath drove HWMs. So does anyone know the history of this car in Walton? It is painted an odd very pale green colour (harrumph, wot no BRG then?) and looks in very good condition. Is it raced at all these days?

[David McKinney]

As any fule kno, BRG is not a fixed colour
HWMs raced in a lighter shade than, say, Cooper or Jaguar
The only 1951 car in this colour, AFAIK, is Michael Harting's, a regular at Goodwood Revival meetings for several years

[Gary C]

go to this page at my website for some pics and a little info on the dealership : http://www.users.glo...1/hwm/index.htm

[David McKinney]

Interesting they should head the page "Hersham & Walton Motors"
In spite of what has been written with monotonous regularity in recent years, I don't believe there ever was a company of that name. The firm was HW Motors.
Can anyone prove me wrong?

[Gary C]

by 'they', do you mean, 'me'???? ?

[rudi]

Mike Lawrence in Grand Prix Cars 1945-65, page 164.

[David McKinney]

Originally posted by Gary C
by 'they', do you mean, 'me'???? ?

No, the HWM website

[David McKinney]

Originally posted by rudi
Mike Lawrence in Grand Prix Cars 1945-65, page 164.

That was written long after the event
Nothing I've seen from the period in question calls the company anything by HW Motors

[BRG]

In the history section of HWM’s own website they say that it was Hersham & Walton Motors and presumably they know.

The 1953 F2 car pictured in Gary’s website looks very like the ‘1951 GP car’ in their showroom, but perhaps single seater HWMs all looked a bit alike? Has anyone got a picture of the Mike Harting car that David McKinney mentions? Would he let HWM display it?

[ensign14]

According to Companies House, company number 00336727 was incorporated in 1938 and changed its name on 5 September 1986 from "H. W. Motors, Limited" (with comma) to "H.W.M. Limited". However I do not know how far back the records go for name changes; but the presence of a comma suggests the name goes way back as it seems to me to be a very pre-war touch.

[D-Type]

I read somewhere that it was originally "Half Way motors" for the obvious reason the garage was originally located halfway between two places, not necessarily Hersham and Walton but possibly one of them. Then they moved premises and "Hersham & Walton" fitted the name better.

Nice to see that the present owners are recognising their heritage. I hope they are giving the car's present custodian an appropriate quantity of sponsorship.

[RS2000]

"Halfway" is the shops etc halfway between Walton and Hersham (I used to live there). Halfway Garage was the place run by former HWM works manager Fred Hobbs after he left HWM. I'll check in his book "A Life with HWM" what he called it when he first joined.

[David McKinney]

This advertisement from 1952 shows how the company was known at the time it was building racing cars

[RS2000]

My father (who was not local to the area but passed HWM many times) always refered to it (and the race car name) as standing for "Hersham and Walton Motors". Fred Hobbs book refers to it only as "HW Motors". Hobbs already worked at the garage on the current site when Heath and Abecassis bought it. He records dealing with Heath because Abecassis was still running "their existing garage on the other side of the town". When Hobbs left to run his own business he refers to leasing Halfway Service Station and it being "on the site of the original HWM premises". (There were three garages at Halfway, on three of the four corners of the bridge where the main railway line crosses the road. One, Walchry Motors [Walton/Chrysler] was a main Chrysler, later Talbot then Peugot dealer during my time in the area. The other two were much smaller).