5 WW
The two black and white photos shown here were supplied by a Sebring enthusiast now living in the South of France, who developed his passion for the cars after seeing PMO on the stand at the '61 Racing Car Show. He recently contacted Paul Woolmer through his PMO 200 website.
Apparently, the car shown - 5 WW - was being used in the Leeds area of northern England in the early 1960s. It undoubtedly has a Williams & Pritchard Ltd. coupé top, but the rear panelling appears to remain in steel (wing beading still present).
Jonathan Whitehouse-Bird has spoken to Tom Coulthard about the car and suggested to him that this might be the Sprite which John Sprinzel and Graham Robson drove on the Cats' Eyes Rally in early 1962 and described as the 'new PMO 200' (see press cutting, right).
The 'PMO' in question is thought to have had an all steel (ex-Alexander) body on disc wheels, the red glassfibre bonnet off the '62 Monte PMO and a new bare alloy W&P coupe top. The text describes it as being an "unfinished Sebring conversion" (possibly words from John's own lips?).
It is assumed that the car was 'finished' post-event, to Sebring spec' - with Girling brakes/wire wheels, re-paint, re-registration, etc.
Is 5 WW the end result? and what happened to it later?
[Subsequent discussions suggest the "Cats Eyes Rally" car was that of John Sprinzel's storekeeper Eric Davis,who later applied his registration E700 to it, so the above connection with 5WW may well be inaccurate.]
"At the Castle Howard
hill-climb venue"
News clipping about PMO on the Cats Eyes Rally - could it be the same car?