Williams & Pritchard

Williams & Pritchard were famous racing bodywork designers and builders of the 50s and 60s. Starting out together post war, in 1948 they rebodied a 1935 BMW Frazer Nash 315 with an all aluminium race body (shown above - this car is still regularly sprinted at Prescott and has been restored to as close to original spec as possible). They continued in the early 50s making their trade mark one-off lightweight sports and racing cars bodies, including for John Tojeiro who was responsible for the design of the AC Aceca. Later, working closely with Colin Chapman, they were intimately involved in the design and manufacture of bodywork for Lotus from the Six through to the Eleven. They bodied the Lister-Jaguars of the 50’s, bodied the Elva Courier, worked with Costin on various projects, built the Gordon Keeble prototype and did work for Surtees and Lola. They even built Formula One bodies to be used in the 60s film "Grand Prix". In Midget and Sprite circles they are most famous for bodying the Sprinzel Sebring Sprites, rebodied from Mk I Sprites, and for making the early aluminium Speedwell bonnets. The Sprinzel Sebrings were largely aluminium bodied, but most were given fibreglass fronts, with which W&P had started to experiment in the early 1960's. Many of these cars achieved legendary racing success. In 1967, to diversify from their bespoke racing bodywork business and compete with other popular bodywork modifiers such as Ashley and Lenham, whilst continuing to manufacture the Sprinzel style Sebring "Mk I" (and from at least 1969, the Monza) fronts in fibreglass, W&P launched the all new Len Pritchard designed "Sebring GT" range of fibreglass hardtops and replacement front ends for a range of cars, including the E-Type Jaguar, MGB, Triumph Spitfire, and the "Spridget" (a generic term for the Austin Healey Sprite and MG Midget). These were either fitted as aftermarket modifications by customers or their garages, or by W&P themselves at their Edmonton works, who would also bespoke the bodywork if required.

When researching his definitive work on the original Sebring Sprites, “Spritely Years”, (which he co-wrote with John Sprinzel), Tom Coulthard of the Sebring Sprite Register discussed this later bodywork style with Len Pritchard. It had been made in response to the popularity at the time of customising body kit from W&P’s competitors. Len had intimated that the front was loosely based on the E-type Jag, but with a squared (rather than oval shaped) air intake, to avoid allegations of copying from Jaguar. By late 1968, the front came with the optional extras of headlight fairings and front bumpers, which were almost miniatures of those on the E-type. It is probably no coincidence that the spridget version of the bodywork was frequently advertised alongside their E-Type hardtop! Following Charlie Williams’ death, in 1973 Fibresports body kit manufacturers purchased the full Sebring GT range of tooling and moulds from Williams & Pritchard and continued to manufacture limited runs into the late 70s. Some original moulds still survive, although they are not in regular use at present, and sadly the MGB and E-Type hardtop moulds have been broken up.

Len Pritchard’s own white Sprite SMT 105F featured in their advertising material and we believe was the prototype model for the spridget range. Len’s former next-door neighbour also remembers Len’s wife driving around in his prototype Spitfire Sebring GT, which was only sold by Len in the early OO's. I wonder if either car still survives?