Lenham GTO Gallery

A selection of photos of Lenham GTO cars (more please) Link to Lenham Main Page

Dave Matthews tells me that Lenhams withdrew the GTO from sale after barely a dozen kits due to difficulties preventing water entering the boot area. A mould was re-created at Dave's request in the early 90's with modifications including round wheel arches. The mould is today with CCK Historic.

[For slideshow, click on any photo - move cursor to top right of photo and click 'next', or left to go 'back']

Alaric Coombs' Lenham GTO

Built in the mid nineties by a gentleman called Adrian Clay, Alaric came across it being sold on carandclassic by its subsequent owner.

He was looking for a Midget to do a little motorsport with. It appealed because it is a bit different, and slightly lighter than a standard Midget and already had a rollbar, Type 9 gearbox and LSD fitted. Since purchase he has had the engine rebuilt to 1380 cc by Oselli, running a fast road/race cam, Weber 40DCOE and tubular manifold. He has also installed a competition clutch and adjustable suspension (Frontline front and Spax rear). (4.11/2023)


AN AUSSIE GTO with round wheel arches. [From Colin Dodds, Dec 2014] - This car was "built about three years ago using a 1971 MG Midget as a donor car and genuine Lenham rear body panel and boot lid imported to Australia in late 1960's by Ray English. Ray sold the panels to Peter Meyer, who established Sprite Parts at Peakhurst, one of Sydney's Southern suburbs. They were never used and became part of the Sprite Parts stock when Peter retired and sold the business. The panels were still with the remaining stock that I (Colin Dodds) purchased around 1990. When we came to fit the panels to the Midget shell, we discovered they were a poor fit around the rear inner mudguards. Since we had to repair them anyway after 35 years in storage, we took the opportunity to give the car round wheel arches. We made fibreglass RWA moulds from two genuine steel RWA outer mudguards and modified the square arch inner guards to suit. The Lenham has covered only about 2000 miles since being fully rebuilt, and is currently for sale". [Since making this entry the car has been acquired by David Laing. It now has 14" x 4 1/2" chrome wire wheels.] N.B The car is fitted with a Williams & Pritchard Sebring Type 2 bonnet commonly used on Lenhams in Australia - the true Lenham bonnet never reached those shores.


Shaun Rainford's newly built Lenham GTO, ROU 4G ~ 2011

Photos courtesy of John Baggott			Spotted at the Silverstone Classic 2013
PEA 254F ~ rebuilt as a championship winning car in 2021/3

David (Scothorn) bought this rare beast to go with his Lenham Le Mans. Apparently it was dry-stored for some 25 years, and is fitted with an MGA 1622cc engine and B-series gearbox, which necessitated reconstruction of the transmission tunnel. It is also fitted with an A.J.Thorpe bonnet (of which we have now seen 4 or 5), and has genuine Minilite wheels. It is believed to be one of the original 16 GTOs built in 1966. In October 2011 a message from Dave Orrell revealed: "I know this car very well. It was built in 1971/72 by my close friend Stan Havard (sorry to disappoint). We took it to Le Mans in 1972. I think it is a 1968 car. It started life as a Frogeye, and was fitted with a Stage 1 head from a tuning firm called Taurus Eng. It later gained a Sebring bonnet from Williams & Pritchard and a set of wire wheels. A repaint in metallic blue came next, and she looked a picture. After another W&P bonnet (accident damage), Stan took her to the South of France where he managed to write her off. She was brought back to Wigan by the RAC, Stan having joined at Dover on the way. He then purchased a used Mk 2 shell via a friend of ours from Donald Healey Motor Co which was white (could have been a Mk3, wind up windows). She was rebuilt on the later shell and run for a few years as a 1098 with 2 inch mains. Now we come to the big conversion. A Lenham GTO rear with opening boot lid went on, and I think another W&P bonnet (he was getting trade discount by then).Then came the "B" series engine, mated to an MG Magnette box, ~ something to do with the clutch actuator arm side or top exit? This was, I think the reason for the complete refabrication of the tunnel, and strengthening of the floor, (seen in the pic) I don't remember much about the handling or braking, but I don't recall any particular snags. However the box was a slow change, and she did eat front shocks. (The LeMans trip saw off one set). She went well, nice and torquey. The Frogeye was a different car with one of the old four number/two letter reg's .The '68 shell came with a logbook I think. Before the engine swap Stan took his wife and small son to Dubrovnik in her, does'nt bear thinking about. Eventually she was p/xed for a Scimitar GTE for obvious reasons. The conversion would be better and much easier now, but was quite daring then and done on a strict budget. Sadly Stan left us in 1990, but with a host of wonderful memories. If i think of anything else I will get back to you. Dave".

Escort rear lights don't really suit it	Original Minilite wheels	A.J.Thorpe bonnet with Mangoletsi badge!	The MGA engine bay
Stephen Casson was the new owner: "I bought the car off David (Scothorn) in November 2021, - he had had it in storage since he bought it in 2011. The car had an original Lenham GTO rear end (one of 4 originals according to Sean Rainford), but an AG Thorpe front which was in very poor condition and 2 Magnesium Minilite wheels (alas in too poor a condition to use). The car was much modified to accept a MGA engine and MGB gearbox with alterations to the chassis, and bulkhead as well as the removal of much of the transmission tunnel. The chassis was, in the main, good with only minor rusting to the nearside. To run in HealeySport, the car had to be restored to original and (parts of) the chassis were replaced along with the transmission tunnel. A new Lenham front was purchased from Sean who has all the original Lenham moulds. A full race 1330 series A engine along with a Dog Box was fitted. The suspension remains standard in the main, just uprated within the regs. A full welded in cage was fitted by GC Fabrication of Ipswich (highly recommended). Brakes are uprated as allowed by the regs. I carried out most of the work myself including spraying the car! It took 18 months from start to finish and I tried to do something everyday! Took 5kg of underseal off the bottom of the car filling a Sainsbury’s carrier bag! Haha. The car has had a few teething problems this season, mainly due to the rear suspension set-up. With much help from Peter May Engineering, the car is now running well and with a lot of help from the weather and the racing gods, managed to retain the Class Championship in the HealeySport Sprint and Hill Climb Championship".



OYM 760A ~ Walter Heale's new acquisition March 2016

Walter Heale is the new owner of OYM 760A - first registered on the 17/07/61, according to the V5 - an Austin Healey Sprite with a Lenham (GTO) tail and Frogeye front. Walter is hoping the readership of this website might be able to provide some information on it. It was reputedly raced at some point in its history and he would love to find out more before mechanical restoration commences. He was told there had been many old track passes on the roll bar but sadly these were removed when the previous owner started working on the car. There is a Monterey Classics badge from the 80's on the dash so perhaps it was in the US at some point!? He says: " I attach some pictures that may help or at least provide you and your readership some amusement!". ANYONE KNOW ANYTHING OF ITS BACKGROUND ? PLEASE CONTACT ME VIA FEEDBACK The registration number is, oddly, from 1963 and the bodyshell would appear to be later than that, having wind-up style doors! Only a very few of the GTO bodies were produced, so that is quite rare.