“I’ve been meaning to send you the attached photos since Geoff Williamson’s son posted a while ago. They show the finish of the Coupe du Salon at Montlhéry in October 1959 and Geoff’s excellent win in the GT1.0 class. Though he has painted the registration of his own car on the bonnet, it is actually the dark green Alexander works car 777 EBH, which Geoff drove the 700 miles to and from the event on the public road. Oddly, of course, both 777 EBH and RWV 661 were ‘steel coupés’ – not ‘alloy coupés’ like the Sprinzel Sebrings – one can only surmise that they felt the body needed the extra strength. In the ‘floral presentation’ photo, the Lotus driver is probably fellow Brit Bob Hicks, who has won the GT1.3 class in his Coventry Climax-engined Eleven. I presume the flagman is a distinguished figure in French motorsport which I trust one of your readers from the Land of the Gauls will readily identify. Although the Alexander coupés were ‘professionally designed’ by Tim Fry (who was responsible for the Hillman Imp), he has been too ambitious on the tumblehome of the glasshouse: meaning the side windows are angled inwards too much. In the pic of Geoff in his own car at Prescott, he is evidently not fitting very comfortably – and though he was clearly in the ‘charmingly chunky’ category, he wasn’t particularly tall. This may be one reason why there were no more ‘Alexander coupés’ …”.
