I was unclear as to who designed and first marketed the Sebring bonnet we all know and love so asked John for some guidance. I had suggested that Costin was involved in its design and that Williams & Pritchard made it while Speedwell marketed it. This is John’s detailed and informative reply:
“Martin. No sir, neither Speedwell nor Costin nor Healeys had anything to do with the Sebring Bonnet which I designed after Donald showed me the photo of the Mark Two Sprite prototype. In particular I wanted to keep the grille which we had not done on the Speedwell front. I took the drawings to W & P with whom I had worked on the Speedwell GT which was Frank Costin’s design. They obviously changed it a bit to suit their production methods The alloy prototype was introduced while I was working at Healeys, on the November 1960 RAC Rally. The actual production versions and the full Sebring bodywork were produced after I bought the Speed Equipment division and moved to Lancaster Mews. I think Cyril Simson’s S221 was the first and was raced at Sebring in 1961. Because the Speedwell didn’t have much room for the right hand during quick correction movements, I got W & P to make the screen part a bit wider. We made the outline with me sitting in the car while they bent rods around me for the final shape, and we resisted the “fast-back” trend as Frank had always felt the cut back top was smoother and quicker. W & P didn’t start to sell their own version of the Sebring fronts until we liquidated the first company and were reborn as JS Racing Ltd. I still shudder at the thought that we had nowhere to store the replaced metal bonnets, and had to pay our dustmen a fiver each to take them away!”
