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Williams & Pritchard were famous racing bodywork designers and builders of the 50s, 60s and 70s. Both Len Pritchard and Charlie Williams served apprenticeships in specialist coachworks pre-WW2, making hand-made bodywork for top end cars like Rolls Royces, and during the war graduated to work on Supermarine Spitfire bodies during the war, which is where their skills with alumium were learnt. Starting out in partnership together post war at premises in Enfield, North London, 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). They continued in the early 50s doing bulk coachwork including for the AC 2 litre saloon, and 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, and the first ever Ferrari, chassis 01C, briefly wore a W&P body in the early nineteen fifties.
In 1954 they formed a limited company, by which time they had moved to shared premises with the fledgling Lotus motor company in Hornsey. Working closely with Colin Chapman, they were intimately involved in the design and manufacture of bodywork for Lotus from the VI right through to the Elite and several F2 and F1 bodies. They bodied the "knobbly" Lister-Jaguars, and did work for Cooper and Lola, as well as motorcycle cowlings for John Surtees. The late fifties saw a move to their final premises in First Avenue, Edmonton (North London). They bodied the prototype Elva Courier, worked with Frank Costin on around sixteen projects, built the Gordon Keeble prototype and project managed its initial production, were involved in the Lister Le Mans Sunbeam Tiger, and produced the prototype for the gorgeous WRE-Maserati. Having bodied the BRM-Scirocco Formula 1 cars in 1963, they even built mock Formula 1 bodies to be used in George Lucas' 60s film "Grand Prix". They also worked extensively with Chris Lawrence of LawrenceTune fame on many of his projects. They were also renowned for their expertise on repairing D-type Jaguar bodies, which ultimately led to them doing substantial work for Wingfield and Lynx in the 70's on their respective replicas. This is by no means a remotely complete list of the high profile projects in which they were involved, which is truly astounding (and for the researcher, apparently endless!)
In Midget and Sprite circles they are most famous for bodying the Sprinzel Sebring Sprites, based on the Mk I Sprite, for making the Speedwell Monza bonnets, and for the Speedwell land speed record Sprite. 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 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. Full records for the entire Sebring GT production run survive in the Pritchard family archive.
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’ untimely death in 1969, the company decided to scale back operations and in 1971 Fibresports body kit manufacturers purchased the full Sebring GT range of tooling and moulds from Williams & Pritchard. Fibresports continued to manufacture limited runs into the late 70s. Some original moulds survived until as recently as 2008, when they were sadly destroyed in a fire at Fibresports' factory. W&P with Len Pritchard at the helm continued with high profile bespoke aluminium bodywork for various prototypes, specials and repairs to valuable historic cars on a gradually decreasing scale until the late eighties. Len continued to be active in historic Lotus and racing circles until his death in 2008.
Len Pritchard’s own white Sprite SMT 105F, bought from Sprinzel's garage, 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 the family in the early OO's. I wonder if either car still survives?
left: Charlie and Len have a laugh on the promo photoshoot for the Sebring GT range in 1967, images © 1967 the Pritchard family archive – all rights reserved
below: Len Pritchard promoting the Sebring GT range in CCC Magazine August 1969 - all rights reserved |
