6194 MM ~ Speedwell GT
(sometimes raced as RAM 36)
This Speedwell Sprite with Williams & Pritchard 'Sebring' bonnet was once owned by Allen Harris and it turns out it was the car raced as RAM 36 by Barry Wood. Where is it now?
Back in 2010, Gary Lazarus of the Sprite & Midget Club discovered some pictures of a Speedwell GT on the web, with registration 6194 MM. He contacted Allen Harris the former owner of the car and emailed a number of Sebring 'experts' in an attempt to identify it. Jonathan Whitehouse-Bird and Tom Coulthard put their heads together and concluded that the car is the one formerly raced by Barry Wood as RAM 36. Jonathan sent me a black and white photo of RAM 36 in action, driven by Barry Wood possibly in 1962. Underneath the registration can be read Gaston Sprite, signifying that it was the sister car to RAM 35 which was owned and raced by Paddy Gaston. Barry Wood later went on to race the Shapecraft Lotus Elan (of Surbiton Motors, Jonathan thinks) ~ rather more successfully.
Allen says: "This car was good fun, very basic inside, with a special one-piece aluminium roof and windscreen frame. There were lots of holes in the body panels for lightness, and the seats were just crudely shaped aluminium tubs with a block of foam to sit on. It was immensely noisy, and almost impossible to drive in traffic. It would oil up plugs every couple of miles, so I kept a stock in the car, and after each journey visited the local garage to have them sandblasted clean!"
Whereabouts of this car, if it still exists, are unknown.
6194 MM when...
.. owned by Allen Harris
6194 MM racing at Cadwell Park in September 1964 (before Allen owned it)
This photo shows Barry Wood racing the car as RAM 36 (courtesy of Jonathan Whitehouse-Bird)