This 1971 registered Lenham owned by Roger Hewitt has a highly modified Sebring GT front and is based on a 1968 donor midget that had been rolled. Roger used it initially as a road car, then competed it in the late seventies in club sprints and competitions before retiring it. He is now going to bring his baby home and bring it back to its former glory.
In Roger's own words:
"The car looks the same now but very sadly neglected. It's getting tatty now & hasn't been out of the garage for over 10 years. I really must attend to it as soon as I've got time ... Thanks for the light covers info! I broke one when I drove the car to Majorca (working holiday) not long after I'd built it in 1971 & had to take the other side off to match. The bonnet looks so much nicer with them ... About the car - following the woking holiday, I ran it on the roads here for several years in standard form before modifying it for sprints & a few races starting 1976 ... the front skirt I made by first making it in wood & thin aluminium then taking a mould off that to use as a plug for remaking another skirt in fibreglass. I modified the bonnet to hinge above the skirt (MGB front side lights) & there's a different rad to match the front air scoop. For the fibreglass wide wheel arch mods I used Mk 1 escort rally front arches - wheels are 8 inch compomotives. Brakes are Riley back, Ventora discs front, plus the usual suspension mods etc.
After I packed up sprints/races in 1980, I put the car on the road for a short time but the A series 1480 race engine was too intractible for traffic so I had to look round for another that looked like fitting without too much hassle, finally deciding on the Fiat 1600 twin-cam & 5 speed box. That's the one in the picture ...
Had a shock when I took a look at the
Lenham. As you can see from the photos it's in dire need of some loving care! Covered in dust and bird muck (swallows have been getting in through a broken garage window) and the interior roof lining is completely unstuck and hanging down. The tax disk year on the windscreen expired 1992, I didn't think I'd left it that long without doing anything ... and the white stripe is absent on the bodywork! I recall now that I did some more f/glass work etc. to prepare it for the road, respraying it afterwards, but obviously didn't get round to adding the wide all round pin stripe again. At that time, while it was on the road I recall taking the car to a rolling road bhp test and the Fiat engine was showing 100 at the wheels. The circular rear lights are from a Fiat 850 coupe. The interior dash is from an Alfasud with a Fiat 132 steering column/binnacle & levers. I had special seats made in matching trim but took them out of the car for safe storage. That's pretty much all the history to date really. I shall be bringing the car back home to it put in the newly built garage at our place so I can work on it any spare moments I get to hopefully restore it to its former glory! Ah ... those were the days!"
As the bonnet was fitted in 1971, it is an original W&P manufactured Sebring GT front, but of course has been very heavily bespoked by Roger to his car. This was bought from Williams &Pritchard as a standard Sebring GT bonnet at that time with the colour mineral blue impregnated within the gel coat.
