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Pete,
Paul Hawkins was once a friend of mine and a relly great bloke who I first met when he operated out of the same garage complex in Fortis Green as the people I was working for as a mechanic, Roger Nathan Racing. Paul was a great guy and it was a terrible day that will always be in my memory when I came into work on the Monday to be told he had been killed.
Although only a young guy of 19 I did a lot of business with Paul and some of the others in the complex (DAvid Piper was there) buying old racing tyres and even Borrani GT40 wheels and resellng them in Autosport (well I couldn't have ran a Healy 3000 on the money Mr. Nathan paid).
Anyhow I digress and this is the interesting part of my little tale which you may or may not believe but I assure you is as I recollect it. Paul had the Lola sitting at the back of the garage with no engine in it and absolutely covered in **** as they were more involved by then with the GT40's. So for weeks (months?) I kept badgering him to sell me the Lola without an engine as a roller. He kept saying to me 'What do you want it for yer crazy Limey' and I told him (and I meant it) I wanted to put a mild engine in it and run it on the road, to which he thought I was a total headcase but said if I wanted it I could have it for £750. Now remember this was the sixties and although a ridicoulously low price even then was still a tidy sum of money. I tried to negotitate at £650 and I think we agreed at £700 and I set about trying to raise the money.
Then sadly Paul meet his untimely death at Oulton Park before we had finalised the transacton and that was the end of that. Strange to think that dirty old car at the bottom of the garage that I so very nearly owned for the princely sum of 700 quid would hve been worth several million pounds today.
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