George Whitehead W.R.A.

[MikeJAllen]

I'm researching the Oulton Park Gold Cup meetings and came across George Whitehead of W.R.A. engineering and Ford Anglia fame. This is 1963 and he is entered in the sports car race in what I think is his own car, The W.R.A. Mk III Ford. Unfortunately the results sheets show he got as far as Knicker Brook before "accident" is recorded. He is entered under The Cheshire Racing Team which also begs the question why, when apparently W.R.A. Engineering is very much a southern based team...Harrow? Can anyone help out here? I can't find any photos (my dad might have one but unless I know what I'm looking for I wouldn't know it if I saw it!!) The Racing Sports Car site only has the MkII and MkIII identified and Beric Ewin, Max Ward and Norman Barlow as drivers. Was there a MkI?

[MikeJAllen]

I have just seen some cine film of the event and seen the car being towed back into the paddock. There looks to be nothing left of the front so perhaps that was the end of that and George went back to concentrating on providing engines etc for others.

[Mike Harte]

Not that this will help you much with your quest for more information on the WRA Mark III Ford, but George Whitehead used to have his workshop in either Marsh Lane or it's continuation in Honeypot Lane in Stanmore, Middx. He may well have had ties with Cheshire at some point in his life, but I believe that he used to live, may still do, in the same road as my late sister in Stanmore.

He was a good engineer, and I used to purchase specially engineered parts for my Anglia from him from time to time some 45 years ago!

It might well be that Gerry Taylor, a fellow Tenther on the forum, may be able to provide more information as I believe that he may well have had a closer working relationship with George. Maybe you should consider sending Gerry a PM.

[MikeJAllen]

Thanks Mike, already in contact with Gerry. It begs the question "What is or was the Cheshire Racing Team?" I wonder if it was real or just a way of adhering to the regulations, like being a member of specific clubs..or even getting start money! :-)

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by MikeJAllen

Thanks Mike, already in contact with Gerry. It begs the question "What is or was the Cheshire Racing Team?" I wonder if it was real or just a way of adhering to the regulations, like being a member of specific clubs..or even getting start money! :-)

Cheshire Racing Team may have meant about as much as the name that we first used as an entrant, which was North West Racing. I just chose that name because most of my chums worked or lived around the North West of London. The name wasn't registered, or even listed anywhere official. And then after about a year, I changed it to Double R Racing to acknowledge my two main spanners, Ron and a name I can't remember now, but possibly Ralph. Having an entrant was the trendy thing to do back then, but didn't really mean much.

One driver had a number of different entrants which were supposedly his sponsors. The reality was that the backing came from a different source, but it was good PR to use a "front" to give some anonymousy, if that's a word.

[MikeJAllen]

Thanks Mike. Makes sense. Life was so much simpler then! North West Racing has also had me thinking and I was way off looking for a Lancs or Chesh connection!!

[morninggents]

I seem to recall that Natalie Goodwin was involved with the Cheshire Racing Team.

[MikeJAllen]

Now that I can follow up. Thanks

[Steve Kane]

Hello , not too sure if you are inetrested or not but I used to work for George many years ago but he had retired from car racing when I started at WRA Engineering in the early seventies through to the mid eighties. The business was at 486 Honeypoy Lane Stanmore in Harrow, at the time he was with his first wife living in Brookshill just north of Wealdstone.
He took up yachting late seventies, brought a 38 foot GRP racing/cruising hull and built the thing in his front garden, his wife and kids did not take to it so he bought a fully fledged 40 foot racing boat but an acrimonious divorce brought that to an end a few years later.
After the divorce he remarried and moved home to Gordon Avenue Stanmore
He later took to racing again around 1982, borrowed a car from a chap, who might of had the name "Mr. Cheshire" but not entirely sure too long ago now. It was a professionally built chassis and he raced in the Monoposto Club series in that for a couple of seasons before buliding a car from the ground up, their records show he won in 1984 but I think he won a couple of years later too. Tried to find some pictures online but failed, on one of the years the car won it was shown at the Racing Car show at Hammersmith, it was black, ground effect car with side pods entirely home built, I personally made many of the bespoke (Ford based) engine parts, including crankshafts from solid EN40B nitriding steel, con rods from blank forgings, gear driven camshaft conversions and numerous other unique engine and chassis parts, not to mention the suspension and aero parts he used to regularly knock off whilst racing.
He appoached me one day with a request to come up with a plan to make the car faster, any ideas considered, whilst enjoying a few beers over the wekend I had a few eurika moments and suggested a couple of things that he took on board and used to great effect. Firstly reduce weight, on the understanding that if you stalled the car on the start or went of into the bushes then the race was not worth running as it was only a few laps long, so, (we already used a tiny sintered bronze clutch about the size of a tea plate), machine off all the flywheel bigger than the clutch ( improves thottle response too) throw away the starter motor, wiring, huge battery, alternator, cables and switches etc and tow the car to start it on race day with a small battery to run the essential electrics. The second plan was far more cunning, the ground effect worked best when the skirts are close to the tarmac but regs dictated a certain minimum height on the grid checked by a man with a golf club like tool to run under the skirt on the grid so how to get round that?
Many diesel engines use a "progressively wound" valve spring where the coils are more cloesly wound on one end making it stiffer as it compresses, taking this idea we had some springs made the same so they are initially soft then get stiffer as they get shorter, along with some clever shock absorber work that I had nothing to do with and don't know how they achieved it, the upshot being if you approached the grid slow enough the ground effect was lost and the car lifted on its suspension and easily passed the on-grid check, as soon as the car got up to speed the ground effect sucked it down on the "soft" part of the spring and the skirts touched the tarmac, an ideal situation. The skirts were strips of PTFE with adjustment slots and way above the minimum height on the grid, by the end of the race they were worn away to almost nothing, he took several sets with him to every meeting needed a new set for every race to this day I am sure his competitors wondered how on earth we achieved it, in case you are wondereing the springs were covered with a shield made of old aluminium beer cans and out of sight
I did not get on with his new wife too well and left his employment after about 14 years, WRA ceased trading two years later, George started another business, Crankshafts UK, supplying reconditioned commercial vehicle crankshafts mainly for export, it was based just outside Alton Buckinghamshire , near the RAF base. Bumped into him many years later just before he closed that business and retired to live in Spain I believe. I have tried to find out if he is still with us but he must be well into later life now if you have any news please let me know, would also like a photo of the car if you know anyone who might have one.
Sorry for the protracted ramblimgs of a now fairly old man myself, too many beers on a Good Friday off work for a couple of days!!!
Regards,
Steve.

[Mike Harte]

Welcome, Steve, to TenTenths and thanks for the PM.

Just to add, George raced his Anglia during the later part of the 60s, and we did battle from time to time. In fact, somebody just recently posted a YouTube of us at Brands, although if you didn't know the cars intimately you would be pushed to recognise them.

He was, from memory, a pretty good engineer and engine builder, and he used to supply us less capable fellows with specialised engine parts that he fabricated and kept on the shelf.

I wonder how Mike Allen got on with his enquiries? If you are still monitoring this, please let us know.

[MikeJAllen]

Mike
Not really got any further. I did find a piece of film with a VERY short clip of the Mk111 being brought back to the paddock at Oulton, it looked a write off. Other than that no. There are so many that are disappearing into the ether that any time I come across one I try and keep their name going somehow.

[Andy Turnock]

[/IMG]

[MikeJAllen]

Andy, what did you mean /IMG??

[Andy Turnock]

Apologies to all. Computing skills have diminished in the year since using this forum.
Forgotten how to post pictures. Must go on a course to learn how.

[Andy Turnock]

That's more like it, this is an article torn out of a magazine going to the tip. I have always liked the one off cars and this was one that interested me.



http://http://http://

[Steve Kane]

Thanks Andy,
Much appreciated, and the photos bring it all flooding back.
So much of the car and engine were made "in house" heaven only knows how many hours I spent making parts for George, but to give you an idea a solid steel crank would take about 80 to 100 hours sometimes more depending on the spec, i.e. a 3 main bearing MAE type (44.45 mm stroke as I recall) was a bit easier to machine from a billet than a 5 main bearing. It got very stressful towards the end one slip and it's in the scrap bin, toughest task was drilling the oil holes, spend ages checking and double checking the set up before drilling a 5mm dia. oil hole about 6 -7 inches through the crank and praying it exited in the correct place.
George often turned up with un-machined casting and forgings he found on his travels and a sketch uttering the words, "see if you make this for me Steve".
He was very fortunate in having the machine shop, nothing fancy just good solid machine tools and we always tried to get the biggest we could, turned out some amazing stuff over the years. He had a few specialized machine tools like a crank grinder that we could set up to "blue print" cranks, extremely accurate stoke settings and A1 geometry, a dynamic balancing machine for crank assemblies and propshafts, modified by my good self to balance his racing wheels and tyres etc. A few other bits and pieces modified and adapted for whatever we needed them for.
Reading through the article it is clear that his cost were minimal compared to others trying to compete with him simply because so much was achieved in-house with the only costs being my wages, tooling consumables and materials. His time, Clive his mechanic and Kevin's time came for free.
Thanks again for taking the time to copy the article and post it, like I say all the memories came flooding back and some great photos too.
I don't suppose you happen to know if George is still with us or not, he retired at least fifteen years ago I think he was born around 1938 ish but not sure, I have tried searching all the social media sites etc. but no joy.
Regards,
Steve.

[Gerry Taylor]

Thanks for a really interesting post. I have been asked the same question re George, is he still alive? I have tried to find out myself, just by simply asking mates from the era; but nothing. Anyway, thanks again for a nice article on my old adversary. Gerry Taylor.

[Jom]

Steve Kane! - remember Alo Lawler and Eddie Jordan trying to put an FF1600 engine into the boot of a big Merc?
e
I do - and do you remember the antsy student working for George too?

Cheers Jo

[alitownie]

Unsure if this thread is still active as it has been many years but my dad is the one who currently has his Ford Anglia that he's been restoring over the last 30+ years. I have attached some images below

[MikeJAllen]

Immaculate. Yes the car is well known and in super condition. Thanks for the post
Mike