London sports car centre

[simplesy]

Hi JJC - I remember your father well (John Cunningham) and Roy (Drinkwater) and I were the bain of his life... At first he really hated the computer but soon got to love it - I remember his unique approach to stock control (I think it was gear box mounting bracket 4sp 0106A0002E or something like that) where, although they only sold 2 a month and had 2 in stock, thought they ought to order 6 so that they didn't need to order any the following month and they could use that money for something else.....


Colin Sibthorp

[Jeremyrudge]

It is indeed Friends Reunited.

Colin I hope you are keeping well.


Jeremy

[simplesy]

I remember the entrance to Ballards lane, the pub just around the corner (what was its name?) and the workshops on the right, paint shop later on the left.... also the lovely hump on the way in/out - I lost count of the number of Eclats and Elites that lost their exhaust either arriving or leaving after a service!

Peter and Alan were the finest people you could hope to meet - both working hard to ensure the success of EGO - despite the arguments between Roy and myself on a weekly basis - it must have been very difficult for them! I kept in touch with Peter and Tanis after leaving and exchanged Xmas cards until his passing - a big loss.

Colin Sibthorp

[Jeremyrudge]

The pub was I think the honey pot ( now houses )

The yard is pretty much unchanged !

[AusMGBGT]

Came upon your site when I feed in London Sports Car Centre to see what would happen - I have (in Australia) a
MGBGT sold 07/08/1974 by LSCC according to the Passport Service booklet. The original rego is shown as WUU900N or WVV900N (it is a bit hard to decipher if U or V) and last serviced by Mann Egerton Radlett on 13/07/76 afterwhich it was proably shipped to Australia
I saw that the son of one of the founders is active on your site and would like to clarify the rego number if possible
The car is running well and still in very good condition and has just passed it yearly rego check
Colour is now BRG (from Aconite Purple) 15 inch Minilite wheels
I live in a retirement village and it is interesting to see what vintage cars are hidden away in their garages - a couple more MGBs and the chap around the corner has a Lotus 7 (well it has a Lotus badge on the front)

[Jeremyrudge]

Sorry I hold no info on registrations or company files. I hope someone else can clarify for you.

[JJC]

Apologies, it's been sometime since I have been on this site but love returning to this thread every so often.

Jeremy - So sorry to hear of Peter's passing, he was such a gentleman may he RIP.

Exlscc - Like the story about the frilly knickers in the glovebox, would be so funny to have a chat with Dad about that now. The workshop fellas were all jokers, I learned what "mooning" was in Ballards Yard as these hairy arsed mechanics thought it funny to drop their kecks to make me squirm

Colin - I remember Dad trying to learn the new computer system, as you say he hated it to start with, trying to learn all the product codes (026E0082 - Lotus Keyring I think, weird the things we remember). It needed a series of floppy disks to boot it up, remember the humming of the brown cabinet sized server and the green screens.

Best wishes to you and yours as Christmas approaches - John

[SL63]

I haven?t been back to this since my original post in 2010 (Page 1). It?s now December 2019 !

Fantastic stories and was a gem of a place for an 18 year old to work.

One of my memories was driving the Bond Bug - I think it was called - a three-wheeler sporty sort of thing that was lethal really. I believe it was made by Reliant.

Alan Foster had two and they both had the same registration number. I think it was an ?AF? private plate. The police got wind of this and weren?t too chuffed when they saw both being driven around Edgware.

As I said in my original post the driver I worked with was called Peter and was a real London lad. He was a great driver and shall we say enjoyed his social life. Cannot for the life of me recall his surname.

We got into all sorts of scrapes during my time there one of which was when we were asked to turn up in Teddington Lock with two Elans and model for Green Shield Stamps. I?m not making this up !! I think we actually got into the Green Shield catalogue.

However we got a bit carried away on the way back and were not exactly hanging about. I remember the road being quite fast, and of course little traffic in comparison to today. At some point we both overtook a Daimler V8 (saloon I think) while exceeding the speed limit, shall I say, It was of course Peter Rudge who let fly at us when we got back but amazingly didn't fire us. Sorry Jeremy - your father was a gent.

I can remember the showroom quite well I think. Alan was in the left-hand office upstairs and I seem to remember 'Bill', was it, who was maybe the sales manager had the right-hand office and he directed myself and Peter daily to our tasks. He always seemed a very nervous soul to me but maybe it's my old age not getting things right any more.

I could never have afforded an Elan back in those days, having just left school, but I set my sights on a mini-cooper 'S' as my dream car. I eventually managed to buy a MkII Cooper 'S' for ?210 from a friend in Bushey Heath a few years later.

While at Uni I worked part-time at Arden Engineering who developed the 8-port mini head. They had a Dolomite Sprint in Group 'N' and I made a valiant attempt at being a mechanic.

If anyone can recall Peter's surname I'd be grateful to know it and maybe he's still around although he'd be in his 70's now I guess.

Andrew

[JimE]

I had experience of both the LSCC and Hendon Way Motors in the 70s.

I bought my first Lotus from the LSCC, a 9000 mile Lagoon Blue 4 speed S130 (DMA 241N) in 1977. I think it was Alan Foster who sold it to me. The car still exists and according to DVLA is now painted black. I didn't keep the car for long and moved on to a Fixed Head Sprint. During the late 70s, HWMs were concentrating on Europas and I agree with Leslie the cars looked a sorry neglected state in the backyard. They did, however, have a 5000 mile white Europa Special in their showroom and I gave them my Sprint to sell (on a sale on return basis) as a deposit on the Europa which was up for ?6800. Top dollar for a top original car. Unfortunately, they couldn't get rid of my Sprint quickly enough and another buyer came in so I missed out on the Europa. The sad thing, apart from missing out on the Europa was they didn't look after my Sprint properly during the time they had it. On one occasion when I visited, the bonnet was badly chipped where it had been removed! Says it all really. XUF 677K doesn't exist anymore according to DVLA. Jim

[elanfan1]

Came upon your site when I feed in London Sports Car Centre to see what would happen - I have (in Australia) a
MGBGT sold 07/08/1974 by LSCC according to the Passport Service booklet. The original rego is shown as WUU900N or WVV900N (it is a bit hard to decipher if U or V) and last serviced by Mann Egerton Radlett on 13/07/76 afterwhich it was proably shipped to Australia
I saw that the son of one of the founders is active on your site and would like to clarify the rego number if possible
The car is running well and still in very good condition and has just passed it yearly rego check
Colour is now BRG (from Aconite Purple) 15 inch Minilite wheels
I live in a retirement village and it is interesting to see what vintage cars are hidden away in their garages - a couple more MGBs and the chap around the corner has a Lotus 7 (well it has a Lotus badge on the front)

The last 2 letters of your registration number is a regional identifier and shows where the car was first registered.

So WVV would have been first registered in Northampton whilst WUU was a central London number. Pretty sure then your reg was WUU 900N

HTH

[fridge]

I now have a few repro London Sports Car Centre screen stickers...
Carl

Hello are any of the stickers still available?

Regards.

[Jm374x]

Hi
So I’m trying to track down the sale or whereabouts of ~1968 Lotus 51R Chassis #51A-FF-66.
Previously owned by Roger William’s founder of Wilhire, apparently it was last sold from William’s collection to the North London Lotus specialist StraighSix whose premises were taken over by the London Lotus Centre mentioned in this thread.
As many here remember this dealership my thinking was if anyone was likely to have seen this car back then (circa 1980)then this sounds the right place to look.
My understanding is there were only 2 road legal 51Rs and the other (flower power one) was sold by Bonham and shipped to the US. https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/17254/lot/360/
Any memory’s or knowledge of what happened to FF-66 would be gratefully received.
Ray Mumford did the artwork and his website has several excellent images around London @ http://www.raymumfords.com

Best
John